Page 35 - Michael Frost-Voyages to Maturity-23531.indd

On January 1st, the oldest member of the crew, the chief steward, and the
youngest, myself, brought in the New Year by ringing twelve bells (a tradition,
eight bells being the norm for an eight-hour watch) after which, the R/O, a Scot,
invited us all to a drink. This, be it noted, was my first encounter with Scotch
whisky; I observe that my comment was to the point – “Vile stuff!” I noted.

But all was not well with the ship itself, it being obliged to go at minimum
speed while engine repairs were again carried out. As the speed was much
reduced, arrival in Penang was set for January 14th, a delay that resulted in minor
water rationing. I also learned of the need for a clock-change virtually every day
(an hour or half an hour forward during most nights). Time changes were of little
moment, but not always logical (China, despite being in five geographical time
zones, is across its whole width attuned to being eight hours ahead of GMT. Thus,
noon in Chinese waters may see the sun well past its apogee). Meanwhile, I had
begun to enjoy some of the ship’s activities. On the 6th, we rigged a deck tennis
court (a curious hybrid game of quoits and tennis, but very vigorous) atop one of
the hatches, and in the evening, I played bridge with the R/O and the 1st and 2nd
electricians. At this pastime, I was far from expert, but my brother rather fancied
his bridge skills and I had picked up a few ideas from him. I enjoyed both the
company and the game. I was actually beginning to enjoy things; each day was
spent with watches, practicing signals, painting our cabin and taking morning,
noon and evening sights, and time off-watch was fairly social.

On the 9th, I was overjoyed to see my first view of the fabulous east; away on
the starboard side were the small islands sitting at the north end of Sumatra. To
this day, I believe that I could smell the mangoes, papaya and passion fruit in the
breezes wafting from the shoreline (I had, of course, at that time never seen any
of these fruits; they simply never appeared in UK).

Arrival in Penang occurred before midnight. The port is more properly
called Georgetown, Penang being the name of one of the Malay States
that constituted Malaya, which Britain had begun to formally administer
in 1824. It is less of a classic port than a simple roadstead, there being
insufficient dock space for vessels of any size. But it was surprisingly busy;
we arrived to find the Arcadia (one of the biggest P&O passenger ships),
Chitral (a small P&O passenger/cargo vessel plying the London to Japan
route), Cannanore and Somali (pure P&O cargo vessels trading with the Far
East), and, of course, ourselves, a veritable fleet homecoming. Right away,
however, I noticed the peculiar phosphorescence of the water and, when
anchoring, was able to see that that light arose from a sea of jellyfish. Apart

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