a break, preparing herself for her work when she would eventually arrive in Rangoon after the month’s journey. The only exception was the ship’s doctor who was a soused young Irishman on his first trip with the Bibby Line, who one day confided to me,
“ Begorrah, she’s the sexiest thing that I have ever come across in all my years at sea. She came to see me about some minor problem and would keep running her hand up inside my thighs. God it was like purgatory, having to be tame and be bound by ship’s articles and the medical profession. God though I am waiting for Rangoon when we dock and then I am a free agent again, but until then I‘ll chew wood!” With that he would knock back another gin and tonic and sigh deeply! It was a marvellous feeling for me to be once again aboard ship cruising through pleasant seas, feeling the throb of the engines, the gentle sway of the horizon, the walks on deck in the moonlight, and watching the silver phosphoresence of the bow waves at night. It was now eight years since I had undertaken a major voyage, and with the pleasant sea conditions and company it was all pure nostalgia.
About 8 days after leaving Liverpool we were approaching Egypt after a calm trip through the Mediterranean. No I must confess that I did not really hear the old lady ask the steward when off the Mersey:
“Where is toilet on this ship?”
“Port side Madam”,.
“My God steward I can’t wait until we get to Port Said, surely there must be somewhere on this vessel, that I can go to!”
On the evening of the 21st September we finally arrived at Port Said were able to disembark and visit the local shops for a few hours, where I wanted to buy a new camera for use in Ceylon. Whilst we were moored, lots of small skiffs and bumboats would come along side with the Egyptians in their long flowing robes displaying carpets leather goods etc.
“ Come Mr MacGregor, look at this cheap bargain , how much will you give me for this. I give you best price?”
Europeans were always referred to as Mr MacGregor and there would be endless haggling for carpets, pouffs, and leather travelling bags. That evening though a large uncouth Londoner returning to Madras asked to see all the carpets and as they were displayed and all laid out in the boat below, he eyed the full display, and then he just emptied his pint of beer over the head of the boat vendor and over his carpets. I was really sickened, and in that instant realised how much the Egyptians hated the arrogance and rudeness of some members of our nation. He flashed out a knife and shouted;
“I will kill you Mr MacGregor. You wait I will come with my friends and I kill you”
At 2 am in the morning we got the all clear to enter the canal and journeyed down to the Bitter lake where we moored adjacent to the Orient Line “Orion” a huge floating palace of a liner when compared to us. All along the shores of the canal and particularly at Ismailia ,British troops were very much in evidence, holding what was deemed to be the vital jugular vein of the British Empire with its trade routes East to India, the Far East and Australasia. Troops were here in brown tents, in their jeeps and bren gun carriers, whizzing along the straight desert roads lined with date palms and rose pink oleanders. They were manning gun emplacements all along giving a silent witness to all, that this was an important post, critical to the Empire, and we the British were here in full control. The weather through the Mediterrean and through the Suez canal had been pleasant and cool, but now suddenly after Suez we were through into the Red Sea where the heat and humidity were unbearable. To make matters worse there was a steady 15 knot wind blowing southwards, which exactly countered the breeze from the forward motion of the ship so that the vessel seemed to be moving without a trace of fresh air to cool us down. A couple of days later on the 25th, we were in Port Sudan, where we spent two days unloading cargo. There was a lot to discharge, and very sensibly none of the local dockers came to work until sundown. Then under floodlights the “fuzzywuzzys” all with their vast mat of thick woolly hair would descend on the vessel and work the derricks non stop in the most efficient way until morning, during the cool of the night and away from the blistering boiling sun. In the daytime I went ashore and in the searing heat first in a glass bottom boat to see the exquisitely beautiful fish and the coral reefs that were like gardens of colour below us all for the price of 2 shillings. After that I wandered around the bazaar and at last was able to purchase duty free, a nice Agfa Karat 35mm camera for £45 which should be able to take all the photos in my new life to be in Ceylon. In each port as we stopped I rejoiced to have a letter from my Jill, and in turn I would write to recount the stories and scenes of my travels. She was still busy trying to convince Ma that she wanted to come out and marry me, and at each port there was a new saga for me to keep up to date with. We left Port Sudan in the evening at 5pm, and I had a splitting headache probably from the excessive sun and the heat. Even at night at sea it was now well over 90F and with the high humidity it was impossible to sleep. I covered myself with the iced water from the thermos and tried to sleep on deck, but even that was unbearable with the following tail wind until eventually two days later we were out of the Red Sea and into the Indian Ocean. During the morning , whilst in the Gulf of Aden I would position myself at the very head of the ship and watch the bow as it sliced through the deep blue calm sea. It was a revelation to watch it coming up to huge shoals of jelly fish, bump and turn over dozing great Manta rays showing their white undersides as a ton of fish capsized with the force of the prow. There were lying near the surface great pink red snappers some almost three ft long, and other fish by the thousand in an area of sea, full of plankton due to an upwelling from the deep ocean bed. All would be curled over and pushed to one side by the bow as it sliced through the calm waters and they were caught unawares by the great vessel coming suddenly upon them. This exhibition continued again the day after leaving Aden when before breakfast we witnessed a school of porpoises or dolphins of between 100 - 200 strong, the greatest number that I had ever seen, swimming and jumping into the air about 10 - 15 ft high in a playful mood. Sometimes they would spin and cascade and splash back upside down like a lot of puppies at play. It was a real privilege to see such a vast natural spectacle. Obviously there must have been a terrific quantity of fish available to keep such a great school well fed and thriving in this manner. The cool of the Indian Ocean was a great relief to all after the unbearable heat of the Red Sea. Tempers improved all around, and Cooke and Rogers were once again on speaking terms after their petty arguments. For the last three days of the trip we entered monsoon showers which again kept the conditions comfortable although dull, until at dawn on the 3rd of October we finally entered and anchored into the middle of Colombo harbour where a few hours later Father met me and we settled in at the Galle Face Hotel. That evening we went to dinner with Mr McLeod the head of George Steuarts, whose agency I was entering to work in, and I was introduced to many of their partners. We also went and met my old friend Mr Fonseka in his rambling comfortable Sinhalese house, with orchids growing in every available spot in the garden. I felt I was back in the country that I had been brought up in as a child, but now I was viewing it from a different angle with English eyes and upbringing , but also with an intense sympathy and a love of the local culture. The following day we started our journey up country through the first 100 miles of palm and rubber trees, pea green paddy fields in the steamy lowcountry, and then we climbed into the cold wet misty ordered high elevation tea estates to arrive in cold Nuwara Eliya, and then descend once more to my new home to be at Hugoland.