Page 191 - Michael Frost-Voyages to Maturity-23531.indd

Canberra in Sydney

7 Canberra and Cathay

was gratified to receive a telephone call from Head Office, shortly
Iafter reporting that I now had my Ticket, that I was to be appointed
to Canberra as 3rd mate. On May 22nd I reported to the mate in Southampton
and made myself at home in a rather nice cabin overlooking the passenger deck
immediately forward of the bridge. I made the acquaintance of the deck officers,
as assorted a bunch as one could expect to collect.

Captain Riddelsdell was a strange man in appearance and manner. He looked
bearish, was short and stooped, and because of an injury received during the War,
spoke with a gruff cloudiness; he was called ‘Woof-Woof’ by the officers, which
was actually a very good description of his vocal manner. He appeared severe,
but was not an unpleasant man, somewhat belying his far-from-handsome
appearance. He was not particularly approachable, but that may have been
because his was not an easy job, representing as he did the cream of P&O’s fleet.
The fleet Commodore was on another ship.

The Staff-Captain was Mr Lefevre. Since last sailing with him, I was told that
he had taken some sick leave because he had had hurled at him a pot of boiling
water, this by his wife because of a shipboard liaison that he had enjoyed and of
which she thoroughly disapproved (an occurrence that should have happened to
many senior officers far more than often than it apparently did). Whether this
rumour was true or not was never made clear to me, but judging by his mood
during the voyage, it rang true enough.

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