The cargo well decks and hatches were permanently awash with green water sliding over them, and even the main promenade deck skimmed barely a couple of feet over the sea on the lee or starboard side of the vessel. One morning when I was in the music room just below the bridge, a wave hit the port side of the ship, smashing both the protective angle of wooden weather shielding, and also the main door. Tables, chairs, a piano were all flung in a solid body of water to the other side of the vessel in absolute chaos. Curiously after the first day of feeling sick, I never suffered any more seasickness in spite of being aboard ships continually for the next three months. Never again during the rest of my life have I ever experienced a storm quite as severe as that one which seemed never ending. Mother took the storm stoically. She was more concerned with a body belt that she was making with little pockets to keep all her jewelry and trinkets, in case of being torpedoed and having to swim for it Most of the rest of the time she retired to her cabin and read..
Eventually a week later we entered the calm waters of Fremantle Harbour to spend three days and take aboard our final supplies and some extra passengers. Perth was in those days rather like a small English country town, with small Edwardian brick built banks, such as one might expect to see in a country town such as Dorchester today. Its very isolation from the busy east coast gave it an air akin to a quiet island cut off from the mainland by a sea of sand. Quite different to Melbourne which even in 1942 was a bustling city with over a million people. Finally at midday on Tuesday morning 5th May we set sail from Fremantle travelling at our full speed of 12 knots. For the first day the weather was rough and we had a corvette escort which tossed up and down in the heavy sea sometimes showing its rudder and propeller as it rose on the crest of a wave, but after that we were quite on our own sailing thankfully in fair conditions westwards towards Mauritius. Each morning after we left Fremantle Capt. Stratford made all the passengers and crew undergo full wartime emergency lifeboat drill. We all lined up by our allocated boat stations, each wearing our capok lifejackets, whilst detailed instructions were relayed over the tannoy of exactly what to do in the case of and enemy attack so it all became second nature to us...
Things were suddenly about to change, and on Sunday the 10th May I came up on deck at about 7 am into the bright sunshine, on a lovely calm day and was surprised by groups of people talking earnestly together.
“What is going on, and why is everyone in a huddle?” I enquired.
“ Well we spotted a plane flying very high at 10, 000 ft or so. We are all a bit worried and apprehensive and wonder whether it was from Mauritius, but that is about 1,000 miles away as is Ceylon and Sumatra. So the probability seems that is from an Aircraft Carrier either British or more worryingly Japanese” The men continued talking and shaking their heads together looking glum and very serious.
I rushed round to find Mother in our cabin and told her about the plane, and she too was concerned and wisely told me to get some things together and keep them with me at all times. So even though the weather was very hot and calm, I collected a coat, a sweater, my hat and my kapok lifebelt all of which I kept by me all the time from then onwards even during the church service at 10 o’clock on deck and another repeat lifeboat drill afterwards. At midday Captain Stratford took a bearing and the ship was 27 . 03 South & 90.08 East.
After lunch Mother once again retired to her cabin whilst I joined two gentlemen, Mr G.P.Stewart ICS and a Mr . Walker who both were going to give me my first proper lesson in the tactics of chess, as prior to this I had merely been learning moves. We sat at a card table towards the port side of the music room, at almost the highest deck level and I faced aft as I concentrated intently on my moves with my life jacket and
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