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we maneuvered back and forth a few times and were safely off, having taken on no
water or sustained any damage except perhaps to the pride of a few individuals.
I told Bob that, if anything, he had acted completely correctly; never can a pilot
be disregarded unless plainly deranged, and his helmsmanship had very nearly
avoided the whole sorry saga.
There were no untoward consequences. Upon later inspection, not even a
dent was found, though there was perhaps a bit of scraped paint. The real issue, I
could foretell, would be Blackwell’s use of this incident to impugn the skills of his
relief … unfair, but I knew that he was that type of man.
On the whole, though, the summer’s fifteen cruises were satisfactory. Plainly,
our view from London that there would be little call for mass cruises from and
to Alaska was entirely misconceived, in large part, I think, because we had not
taken into account the firm ethnocentrism of the great American Lower Middle
Class (and others; I recall a US Senator, when asked of his European travels,
answered something to the effect, “…Never been there; why would I ever want
to go outside the US?”). It was the case, and I believe it remains so, that of the
advanced nations of the world, USA has the lowest proportion of passport holders,
though, surprisingly, actual statistics are hard to come by. Therefore, while there
are lots of fascinating places to travel within the contiguous states, Alaska ranks
high because of a ‘frontier myth’ that it is something outside the norm, and little
nonsenses (like the Robert Service paeons of praise to the frigid north, and the
legend of the bar that serves whiskey with a petrified human toe therein, to give
it taste and cachet) reinforce the conceit of an odd exoticism that envelops the
Pacific North West. In fact, the vast state is of interest to hikers, oil men, hunters
and misanthropes, but of limited interest to others – although, it has to be said, it
even produces its own idiosyncratic politicians.

I was advised upon returning to Victoria at the beginning of September that
employment next summer was unlikely, Holland America deciding that the idea
of major Alaska Cruising was not only viable, but very promising. I was not
much concerned at the time, as the commencement of Law School promised to
be demanding, but in fact I found it more than ‘challenging’. I did not find the
work particularly difficult, as the main requirement was to read vast numbers of
cases and texts. What was difficult was to do well, because most of the students
were accustomed to getting very high marks and coming ‘top of the class’, a
position generally unfamiliar to me. But there were other compensations; three
weeks after starting Law School, Judith was delivered of a son, a big strong boy
whom we thought should be, perhaps somewhat conventionally, named David,
my brother, in UK, having already been sublimely successful in twice leaving his
genetic imprint with two healthy boys. 1972 quickly moved into 1973.

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