Page 231 - Michael Frost-Voyages to Maturity-23531.indd

Somebody is prowling.” I was fully and absolutely awake as this attractive and very
well-designed girl climbed in beside me, wearing only a rather flimsy nightgown!
For what seemed like hours, I tossed and turned, uncertain about the obvious;
she, meanwhile, apparently (I think) fell asleep. I was eventually awoken by Judith
entering the room with tea for Stevie and me; she seemed not in the least fazed
by the presence of Susan in lieu of Stevie. I felt like a bit of a loser, I should add; I
never found out what Susan felt.

But Judith had her own moments, one that was not entirely uncharacteristic of
her occurring during one of our post-gluehwein dinners. Stevie had a sometimes-
acerbic sense of humour, and one of his less appropriate bon mots fell on her
sense of propriety quite heavily; she pondered for a second … and threw a full
glass of tomato juice in his face. We all sat in stunned silence; Stevie eventually
laughed, and all was forgiven.

After Austria, we all went our own ways, the Shepherds and Susan back to
Vancouver on the Polish Stefan Batory, Susan L to London, and Stevie, as far as I
knew, back to P&O, though I did not hear from him for five decades.

The following week I received a call from P&O, through the marine
superintendent’s office. The question posed was whether I would take the job of
assistant nautical inspector, based in London’s Leadenhall Street. It took no time
to accept unreservedly, even though one supposes that normally one knows what
sort of job one is accepting. I considered only that if there were one place where
there was an abundance of opportunity, both for things that I could do and for
determining what suitable avenues lay ahead in other arenas, the City of London
would be the finest of choices. But no more going to sea!

The P&O-Orient Line Ships in which I served had varying tales of sale or
destruction;

a. Khyber apparently has two versions. Either it was scrapped
in 1962, or it was sold to ship breakers in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in
1970 (under a different name).

b. Mantua – sold for scrap to the Pakistan Gulf Trading Agency in
1976.

c. Malwa – sold to Taiwan interests for scrap in 1975.

d. Arcadia – sold for scrap to Taiwanese interests in 1979.

e. Himalaya – sold for scrap to Taiwan interests in 1974.

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