Page 156 - Michael Frost-Voyages to Maturity-23531.indd

which I little thought until I was in ‘civvies’ and found myself rebuffed). On this
occasion my charm, exercised so effectively on Oriana, was completely wasted,
Stephanie obviously being gay … or equipped with ill-tuned antennae.

An MGA is not the easiest of cars to drive, certainly in comparison with the
Tank, but it certainly made one feel good. I sped down to Warsash (‘sped’ is not
really a good word, because although it looked streamlined and sexy, it was by
no measure a fast vehicle, and every now and again a gear problem arose that
necessitated a change on engine revolutions alone). There I registered and found
my room, a neat little cabin ideal for studying and located within an easy walk to
the pub in the village.

I settled down to studies, which I attended as religiously as possible (a practice
not followed by every student; I had never been a night-owl) besides which I was glad
to be familiar with a number of the tutors, warts and all. I even enjoyed being in class.

The status of the students was one of ‘unemployed’ so we could obtain
unemployment income (actually a reasonable emolument) from the Employment
Office in Fareham, a pleasant country town that fortunately boasted a good garage,
with whose mechanics I soon established far too friendly a relationship. I also
found that the bunch of students with whom I had coincidentally landed were
quite well-known to me (hardly surprising in retrospect – we were beginning and
ending our apprenticeships almost simultaneously) and that, in the eyes of the
instructors we had, it seemed, suddenly morphed into ‘officers and gentlemen’. I
did, however, discover that one could take the exams over and over again until
one passed, no obloquy arising because of past failures. I forthwith registered
with the Ministry of Transport office in Southampton to sit the exam beginning
on February 1st, the earliest available date.

We also had some interesting stuff to absorb. In 1965 one could validly say
that there operated a form of anarchy on the high seas. International Collision
Regulations had been in force in some form for centuries (and still featured
sailing vessels’ differing abilities and lighting), but in restricted waters (the
English Channel, Malacca Straits, South China Sea, Straits of Hormuz etc.) the
size, speed and sheer numbers of ships had rendered them obsolescent. IMO
(at that time ‘IMCO’, the International Maritime Consultative Organization) was
endeavouring to create control mechanisms in the danger spots by instituting
‘traffic lanes’ (Traffic Separation Schemes (TSSs)) and mandatory short-wave
communications with ‘traffic managers’ ashore. Naturally, resistance to change
or rationalisation was huge; linguistic, ‘not necessary’ and plain dogmatic
arguments were more common than agreement that something had to be done.
A group of academics, ship-owners and geographers came down to Warsash and
we students were able to sit in on a major discussion about how all of this was to
be planned, disseminated, and given practical implementation. It was obviously

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