Page 186 - Michael Frost-Voyages to Maturity-23531.indd

school teacher, the bucolic but very companionable Rita, whom Father preferred
over all his other relatives. He said that he always regretted missing the boat; you
only live once, and he felt that I, at least, should not in the long run regret having
had such a perky car. He was, needless to say, quite correct.

After this philosophical lunch, he asked me if I would like to go shooting on
the estate. My response, “Why not?” arose in part from my never having fired a
shotgun, and I thought that it would be a good atavistic way to experience a cold
November afternoon, followed, of course, by a suitable imbibition. He therefore
loaned me his over-and-under 12-bore gun, and off we tramped to the fields and
meadows. And there we stood for a few criminally cold minutes until a couple
of pigeons took to the air. The first I missed, though he did not, but the second
I brought down quite easily. However, and it was a big ‘however’, I immediately
thought that this was an uncivilised thing to do; I had brought the bird down,
but not killed it, and Jack had to end its life by bashing its head against a tree. I
thereon lost all enthusiasm for a ‘sport’ of this sort, the bird in no way deserving
death in such a way at the hands of a callow youth in the name of leisure or
passing the time. I have never since found it necessary to fire a gun.

Back in London I re-joined Cannanore but cannot say that I greatly relished
the schedule; East and West Pakistan and India. On November 8th,we departed

London, by which time I had decided that this was not likely to be a happy ship.
Captain Firth, despite the presence of his wife for the trip, was a baleful presence
whom I never saw smile. Indeed, he seemed to take pleasure in berating the
2nd mate (the navigator), a rather weak character, about the manner in which
the charts, the chartroom, the log, and all navigational appurtenances were
maintained (Basil had been the same, but his 2nd mate hadn’t cared a fig for

such behaviour; either a brave man or a fool!). On this vessel, the mate was Mr
Foote (late of Khyber) but he had changed into a taciturn, rather sour figure, one
supposes because, too late, he had realised that the seagoing life was more suited
to the young and footloose, and not to happily married fathers.

I was content with being 3rd mate, though that position included being the
ship’s doctor and the flag officer, both of which could, but may not, be sinecures.
All letters are represented by differently coloured flags and each had a meaning
attached (‘C’ is ‘yes’, ‘O’ is ‘man overboard’, ‘L’ is ‘you should stop, I have something
important to communicate’ etc.) but widespread use of signal flags had largely
died with Nelson, and the idea was now antique. Nevertheless, we still had to
know all twenty-six meanings. And if there were some important event, a ship
might be required to ‘dress overall’, which meant to have flags suspended from all
the longitudinal wires and stays from stem to stern, a fairly frequent requirement
for passenger ships, but rarely needed on freighters (perhaps required for a British
coronation, but they are somewhat infrequent, the 16th century notwithstanding;
there were few other suitable occasions).

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