Og's Blog Pt. 04

That afternoon we set off to go through the Suez canal. There were still the wrecks of ships scuttled during the Suez war but otherwise there was nothing much to see except and expanse of sand to both horizons.

We were entertained by a Gully-Gully man an Egyptian conjurer who wasn't very good, more Tommy Cooper than a professional entertainer. But he was very pleased with the tips he got.

At Suez we had to wait several hours for those who had been on the excursion to the Pyramids. All of them were hot, tired, but enthusiastic about their visit.

During the voyage down the Red Sea I fell asleep on the sun deck and had bad sunburn, so bad that I had to spend eight hours in the ship's hospital. I was still hurting when we reached Aden.

Aden

At the time Aden, now part of Yemen, was still a British colony with a substantial military presence. Like at Gibraltar, my mother and I were collected by official car. While she went shopping in the Duty-Free port buying a pair of binoculars for herself and a twelve transistor radio for me - both then very expensive in the UK, I went to the Crater with an Army patrol. The Crater district was then the home of freedom fighters (terrorists in British Army speak) and dangerous. We were in a convoy of open LandRovers with mounted heavy machine guns. We stopped at a Headman's house and had Turkish coffee with him and his family. Although he was 'acceptable' to the British he was also known to be a war leader of a terrorist war band. He was amused to meet me and told me it was very brave of me to enter the Crater. I didn't think so at the time because we were so heavily armed but a similar patrol was ambushed a month later.

Aden to Colombo

As with Naples to Port Said, there was very little to see except sea. We met a Dutch destroyer that came come enough for the crews to exchange Dutch insults, but that was the only thing except sea for the whole way.

Colombo

In Colombo we had arranged to take another of the excursions for First Class passengers. After Pompeii we expected something special and were not disappointed. We could have gone to Mount Lavinia and had lunch in a beach side hotel but that seemed unimpressive so we had chosen a trip to Kandy, the former capital of Sri Lanka (had been Ceylon). As with Pompeii since it was a long excursion the numbers were fairly small, about twenty people. On the road we stopped by a fruit bat colony of about a hundred in a couple of trees and on the roadside fence. They were big ugly beasts with a wing span of about four feet. The stench from their droppings was very unpleasant and we soon moved on.

About half an hour later we stopped where some working elephants were being washed in the river during the midday break. For a few US dollars the mahouts agreed to let anyone who wanted ride and elephant. As the youngest, by several decades, I agreed to have a go. I scrambled down the steep bank to the river and waded out to the elephants. I was recorded on multiple 8mm cameras as the elephant knelt so I could scramble on its back. I sat down on its bare wet neck and hurriedly stood up again as all the mahouts laughed at me. An elephant has short hairs on its neck, like needles. They had penetrated my thin cotton shorts and bare thighs. The mahouts showed me, with gestures, that what I had to do was slide backwards as I sat, flattening the hairs. I rode around for about quarter of an hour, longer than I intended but the other passengers wanted to film the event.

When I dismounted and climbed back to the coach I had to wipe the blood off my skin. That was filmed too.

We arrived in Kandy for lunch at a large Victorian-style hotel that obviously dated back to the British Raj. The service was impeccable but the plates and cutlery was obviously survivals too. The plates were very thick and heavy with the hotel's crest on them. The cutlery, also marked, was made from heavy solid silver.

The menu was the usual international cuisine but there was one local dish, a vegetable curry. Since I was in Sri Lanka I thought I ought to try Sri Lankan food. That was a mistake. The curry was made with the generic curry powder that could be bought in UK shops at the time. It was the sort of curry served in British transport cafes to be eaten with chips. It was appalling and the worst meal I ate on the whole voyage.

After lunch we went to Kandy's Temple of the Tooth which had one of Buddha's teeth as a holy relic. If all of Buddha's teeth revered throughout Asia are genuine he apparently had about 120. But the Kandy one is considered really genuine and the temple is a major pilgrimage site for Buddhists. The shrine of the Tooth is only accessed by Buddhists on special holy days and the pilgrims have to queue for hours for a few seconds of seeing the tooth. But First Class liner passengers who had paid the temple in US dollars? That was different. The Abbot took all of us into the Shrine and an English speaking monk explained the significance of the tooth to Buddhists. We were in the presence of the tooth for about half an hour, more than a Buddhist pilgrim would achieve in a lifetime of pilgrimages. It was an interesting experience, so much so that the group had a quick whip-round and gave the Abbot another two hundred US dollars in exchange for which we were blessed and assured of an eventual swift passage to the Buddhist heaven.

The journey back to the ship was ordinary even if I still had difficulty sitting down.

Colombo to Singapore

As before, the voyage was boring with nothing but sea, enlivened sometimes by flying fish surfing the ship's bow wave. Earlier, in the Mediterranean that had been dolphins who amazed us with their acrobatics.

Singapore

As at Gibraltar and Aden we were treated as VIPs. One of my father's colleagues met us with an official car and a Navy driver. We were whisked past immigration and customs, stopping only long enough for our passports to be stamped, and then we drove to a shopping street where my mother and I went to a tailor's shop.

I ordered three tropical suits and eight shirts, all of whom would he made in my size and delivered to my cabin on the ship by that evening. The suits cost two pounds each and the shirts half a crown - 12.5 pence now - and a total of seven pounds, ridiculously cheap even in 1960. My mother ordered three silk dresses. But I caused a sensation. I was the largest sixteen-year-old that had ever been in the shop. The owner and all the workers came out to see the giant and I had to pose for a group photograph outside the shop with the whole staff, none of whose heads came up to my armpit.

We were then driven to Raffles Hotel for morning tea and cakes. No one can visit Singapore without going to Raffles! Afterwards we went around the Tiger Balm Gardens, one of the sights of Singapore. I wanted some basic food for lunch. After three weeks of fine cuisine (except in Kandy!) I wanted a meal with simple flavours. We went to a British restaurant where I had fried egg, with Heinz baked beans on toast - delicious! I bought a large pot of Marmite because I had been missing it. I didn't know that I would be unable to get Marmite until we returned to the UK. Australia had Vegemite instead.

That evening we were invited to a formal dinner on the Naval Base at the official residence of my father's colleague. He and his wife (his children were at university in the UK) had a ten bedroom mansion in two acres of grounds. Compared with the crowding of most of Singapore that was a real extravagance. They had five live-in staff including two gardeners. Apart from my mother and I there would be a dozen others. All the people based in Singapore's Naval Base had come with their own servants to help with the meal. Fourteen people sat down for the meal with fourteen waiting staff.

The meal seemed like a throwback to the Victorian days of the British Raj. We had a five course meal with the fourteen waiting staff moving around inconspicuously to attend to everything. Across the ceilings and on the walls there were several geckos that were tolerated because they kept the fly population in check. The men were wearing tropical evening jackets, the women in long gowns with their jewellery. It seemed as if we were in an 1890s photo set for a mess dinner in British India. In 1960 we all knew that the way of life was threatened and this sort of dinner would be impossible shortly. When any of the postings in Singapore ended, each couple would return to a suburban house with no servants.

While on a three-year posting in Singapore, everyone knew that this Alice-in-Wonderland existence was ephemeral but they would enjoy it while they still could.

At the end of the evening the official car took us back to the Willem Ruys where my new clothes had been delivered.

Singapore to Melbourne

Most of the Dutch First Class passenger disembarked in Singapore to catch another ship to Indonesia. After Singapore the First Class passenger numbers had shrunk by a third.

Shortly after leaving Singapore we crossed the Equator. There was a voluntary ceremony for all those crossing the Equator for the first time. Unlike everything else organised on board it was for First Class, Tourist Class and Crew. A crewman, dressed as King Neptune, with accompanying mermaids, boarded the Willem Ruys from a lifeboat.

As the only First Class passenger to volunteer I was the first. I was 'shaved' by the mermaids wielding cans of spray foam and large fake wooden razors before being ceremonially ducked in the swimming pool. I was then declared an 'Old Salt' with freedom to roam Neptune's oceans and given a certificate.

About a hundred Tourist Class passengers followed and then about sixty of the crew, mainly those on the University degree course. All those who had undergone the ordeal then met in the First Class bar for champagne. It was the only time any of the Tourist Class passengers had ever been in the First Class areas and most were astonished at the difference.

The next few days were uneventful except that I entered a table tennis completion for First Class passengers. Despite my inexperience I won two matches against woman much smaller than me and at least three decades older. The qualified me for the quarter finals. I was seen as an outsider as the other quarter finalists were experienced table tennis players.

We turned South around Western Australia into the Great Australian Bight and ran into a severe storm, Force 8 or 9. We were running into a heavy sea that was rolling around the world unobstructed by any land.

The ship was pitching violently as I played my quarter final match. Once hit, the table tennis ball would continue its trajectory even if the ship dropped or rose thirty feet while the ball was in the air. With my height and long arms I was able to hit the ball even if it went where my opponent didn't intend. I won that match and the next two to become the very unlikely winner. Without the storm I would have been eliminated easily.

When we went back on deck we could see an unladen oil tanker going West. In the huge seas we sometimes could see right under the hull before the bow and stern were in the air. A radio conversation between the Willem Ruys and the tanker confirmed that our ship was equally affected. A the time, 1960, weather information for the Great Australian Bight and the Southern Ocean were very inadequate - long before weather satellites. The captain made an error and decided to turn Southerly to get away from the storm. We actually went into worse weather as the night fell.

The evening's entertainment was supposed to be a dancing lesson of eightsome reels. But those participating were reeling in the wrong sense, shoved to one side or other of the dance floor as the ship rolled. It was changed to a lesson on the Twist, with most of us hanging on to fixed items of furniture.

At the end of the evening there was an announcement that if we went out on deck, carefully, we could see the Aurora Australis to the South. We could - a very spectacular display as we were nearer to Antarctica than Australia. But the storm was now at Force 11 and a large wave coming over the bows actually smashed some windows of the bridge despite its height above the sea.

We were a few hours late arriving in Melbourne and had to stay longer than scheduled so the bridge windows could be repaired.

In Melbourne, one of my father's Australian colleagues came on board to assist us with Australian immigration. We were granted unlimited permission to stay in Australia for as long as we wanted to. We didn't go ashore or take an excursion because we would be living in Melbourne in a couple of months' time.

Our 'not wanted on voyage' items from the hold and the trunks from the Trunk Room were unloaded and taken by Royal Australian Navy lorry to a naval depot until we returned to Melbourne.

Melbourne to Sydney

Again the sea journey from Melbourne to Sydney was boring as we were out of sight of land until we approached Sydney. Entering Sydney Harbour was spectacular with the Harbour Bridge in the distance. (The Sydney Opera House hadn't yet been built.)

We disembarked at Wooloomoloo ocean terminal and were collected by one of my mother's relations before going to his weekend cottage near Palm Beach, North of Sydney. We crossed the Harbour Bridge about two hours after seeing it for the first time. We had arrived in Australia.

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PS: Notes about the Willem Ruys.

The Willem Ruys was built as a liner. That meant she was a very sturdy ship intended to go from scheduled port to scheduled port arriving on the day, and usually the hour, specified whatever the weather she might encounter en route. The storm in the Great Australian Bight was very strong, the worst the Willem Ruys ever encountered in her whole career.

The 'Round The World' idea was a failure. At most there might be a handful of First Class passengers who did it and no Tourist Class people ever. By 1965, despite trying cruising, for which she was too heavy and too expensive, the Willem Ruys was laid up before being sold to Lauro lines to be refitted as the Achille Lauro.

When I travelled on it the Willem Ruys was seen as a lucky ship with a happy crew mainly of youngsters. As the Achille Lauro she was unlucky, a financial failure and finally caught fire and sank.

The Willem Ruys was facing competition on the UK and Europe run to Australia, from emigrant ships who could take many more passengers in a single class. Those ships were generally older and slower but that didn't matter when many of the passengers were ten pound Poms (English emigrants to Australia) subsidised by the Australian Government. She had been built for taking Dutch people to and from the Dutch East Indies but independent Indonesia did not like or welcome Dutch ships as a reminder of their past. The 'Round the World' cruise was an attempt to find a new role for the Willem Ruys but was a failure.

However my experience as a First Class passenger on the Willem Ruys at her best was unforgettable.