Page 175 - Michael Frost-Voyages to Maturity-23531.indd

made me want to meet him, not her. But our hosts, seemingly quite oblivious
to this soliloquy, made up for this piffle, and the evening on the whole passed
successfully. On leaving, she gave me a card with her address and phone number
on it; I threw it away before we got home.

A few days later I was appointed to Salsette, a cargo ship similar in most
respects to Comorin. Where it was not similar was in its use; it had been chartered
to British India (B.I.), a P&O subsidiary, to maintain the East Africa run, one, again,
unfamiliar to P&O personnel. (The P&O Group, as distinct from P&O-Orient
Line, was one of the world’s biggest, and B.I. was itself a company with, at times,
over 150 ships, almost all cargo vessels. Its routes were world-wide, except for the
Americas; by itself, a major force in shipping. All that Salsette had to do to change
its appearance was to paint two broad white stripes around the black funnel.)

Salsette in dry dock

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