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ferries, the dramatic decline in British shipbuilding would have been the greater.
Seafarers themselves were aware of all this turmoil, though only vaguely.

And most obviously affected by these profound changes were the north-east
coast ship-building communities; Newcastle, South and North Shields and their
hinterland. The Tyne was narrow, but daylight revealed that Khyber was of a size
that was easily accommodated. Thus, on the morning after the berthing in places
unknown, we proceeded up the river to our anticipated dock, which we reached
at about noon. As the main cargo to be unloaded was chrome ore, (a dark, heavy
sand-like substance that required special ‘scooping’ cranes) there was little
enough for me to do. So, I walked ashore and took in the sights. Frankly, they
were of no great moment. In fact, the scene was one of almost as much desolation
as was Woolwich. The city had, of course, been heavily bombed during the war,
and, obviously, there was little enough money to effect much reconstruction, so I
returned to the ship to while away a bit more time.

But not for long. I was called up by the mate and told that the second mate’s
wife was shortly to join the ship for the coastal trip, which was to include
Rotterdam and Antwerp. The significance of this event was that there was no
longer sufficient capacity in the lifeboats for all of those on board. Therefore, I,
the junior person aboard, had to go home.

A few hours later, I was on a train. My first ‘voyage’ was over; arrival in
London on October 1, then a two-day trip up a fog-enclosed North Sea and
finally to a departure back home on November 10. Needless to say, my family
was quite surprised to see me, the anticipated tales of adventure on the high seas
being little other than standing in freezing weather waiting to watch how to drop
the anchor. (However, I did learn that one did not use an anchor to hitch onto
anything, in fact very much the opposite, for it was the weight of the anchor
and cable that kept the ship roughly where it should be. Snagging a submarine
electrical, telegraphic cable or simply another old discarded anchor chain with a
ship’s anchor could result in a long and arduous recovery task.)
I remained at home until November 26, when I re-joined Khyber. Meanwhile,
my companion cadets had arrived. The senior, close to the end of his apprenticeship,
was Plumridge (in the British social structure the Old-School tradition eschewed
the use of first names; their use, particularly in a highly structured society like
a ship, would be most peculiar, not so much gay as effete, and quite abnormal
except for persons of similar ‘rank’. Des, however, was plainly ‘proletarian’).

I introduced myself. I quickly realised that this was someone with whom

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