Page 197 - Michael Frost-Voyages to Maturity-23531.indd

In 1967, his talents had become undeniable, and being an all-rounder and
qualified to play for England (as a good bowler, and a good, if not better, batsman,
he could easily fill a necessary role in any first-class team) he was an obvious
team member. England was to tour South Africa in 1968, and there was much
consternation in England when the team was announced; it was immediately
noted that it omitted D’Oliviera. The selectors declared that this was because
of his variable form, and not politics, but when one of those selected withdrew
and D’Oliviera simply could then not be excluded (the South Africans even
offered him a handsome bribe to be ‘unavailable’), South Africa’s Prime Minister,
John Vorster, declared that if he were included, the English team would not be
permitted to play in South Africa. Only whites (and D’Oliviera was a handsome
fellow who was not visibly of mixed race) were allowed to play whites; it was
reported that at this announcement the South African Parliament rose to cheer.

Because it was such an ‘outdoor’ and sports-mad country, it is probably not
going too far to say that this exclusion from the world’s sporting communities
– not just cricket – was a body-blow to apartheid. It still had resilience, but its
death-knell had sounded.

This developing scenario had not, of course, played itself out when Canberra
was there, and it was unquestionably a port that passengers were very glad to
visit; the originally scheduled ports included the desperate Port Said, Aden (or
Djibouti) and Colombo.

We now set sail for Fremantle. But this was a unique voyage for me (and
most of the officers), for it was the first time that I had experienced the need to
employ a great circle route. By way of explanation, look at a globe. The shortest
route from Cape Town to Fremantle was not along a parallel of latitude, but by
way of a southerly curved line towards Antarctica. But that route contained some
unpleasantly foggy waters and occasional icebergs. Thus, there was a ’limiting
latitude’, below which one did not sail; all navigators learned of this issue, but
until 1967 few had gone through the calculation.

It would not be true to say that the trip across the bottom of the world was
full of interest. And we were also somewhat cursed by a westerly wind, which
meant occasional smoke and crud on the decks. But the tedium had its good
points inasmuch as everybody perforce became much better acquainted, for after
a day or so it became too cold on deck for comfortable recreation. It was also the
first time that I had seen an albatross, one of which glided with us on our port
side for a couple of days, and for an hour or two alighted on the extremity of the
bridge, at which time his magnificence was obvious. This great creature just stood
there, presumably awaiting an improvement in the ship’s warm updraft before he
took off to assume his customary position just off the bridge wing; I do not recall
seeing him have to flap his wings.

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