Page 161 - Michael Frost-Voyages to Maturity-23531.indd

only substantive message, and I neither enjoyed the language nor the emotional
violence of what was designed to entertain; the purpose, I naively thought, of
the theatre. But I much enjoyed the evening generally and was pleased to find
that Anne had read about the play beforehand and was able happily to discuss it
over fish and chips at Flanagan’s Restaurant (next to the London Coliseum and a
favourite of mine); I rather liked a thinker! (I also liked a girl who appreciated her
food (skate and chips); Mother had advised me to be cautious about picky eaters
and those with untidy handbags. This advice that I tried to follow whenever I
could see inside the latter!

This vacation lasted until March 1st, at which time I joined Oriana in
Southampton as Dock Staff 4th mate. These larger vessels necessarily required
a substantial amount of periodic maintenance, and Southampton could
conveniently accommodate the largest of ships, the dry-docks in that port having
been created in time to handle the two Queens. The ship’s exterior was sand-
blasted and re-painted (changed from Orient line’s corn-colour to P&O’s vibrant
white) the interior paintwork was re-visited, and the engines received some loving
care, none of which required anything from the deck department, so I was quite
footloose and fancy-free. I was able to entertain David and Tina once or twice
to dinner (again, first-class, though with a more limited menu) and even had
Elly over for an enjoyable evening of food and frolic (though she still favoured
industrial-strength underwear). On the anniversary of the demise of The Tank,
or close to that date, I was obliged to drive over to Fareham to discuss brake issues
with my favourite mechanic, who advised me that my MGA might have been
a bit of a mistake. It appears that MG had decided to create a more glamorous
MGA to compete with Triumph, which enterprise had enjoyed considerable
success in the US, the great target of this specifically British type of small sports
car. The MGA itself was quite successful, but the Twin-Cam was too complex
and ambitious for its time (innovation was not British car manufacturers’ strong
point) and although lovely to look at, the model had proved unreliable in too
many respects. It had therefore been manufactured for less than two years, a fact
that the salesman for some reason forgot to tell me.

Two weeks on Oriana in dry-dock were by no means onerous, but nor was
it very stimulating, Elly notwithstanding. It was followed by a week’s Defence
course in London (held partly on board HMS Belfast, a World War II light cruiser
(with real 6” guns!) which was permanently moored close to Tower Bridge and
administered by the Imperial War Museum), a suitable locale for learning yet
more about how we were to handle ships in the event of nuclear war; I recall
neither learning anything new nor of value.

I did, however, learn that my next appointment was to be 4th mate on Oronsay,
a handsome passenger vessel of some 28,000 tons built in 1951 and which was
permanently on the Australia run; by no means an unwelcome assignment. It

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