Page 45 - Michael Frost-Voyages to Maturity-23531.indd

was uninspiring, comprising mainly big rubber ingots but supplemented by
specialised timber, some exotic spices and some odd products quite new to
me. We were eventually glad to leave this strange world for the civilisation of
Singapore, though this time only to bunker.

The trip to Singapore was brief. We were in ‘Singapore’ upon our arrival, but at
the Shell Oil terminal at Pulau (‘island’ in Malay) Bukom, the most uninteresting
of destinations. Tankers being its natural denizens, there were no cargo-handling
facilities and the berths were all far more fire-conscious and protected than any
normal port, so there was a long pier to navigate when going ashore. But any oil
terminal had little to see anyway, so I wondered how tanker crews ever saw any
worthwhile ‘port’ at all. But we were in and out within a few hours, so the only
excitement was the receipt of mail. The point is worth making, however, for the
pattern of communications with the rest of the world was sporadic and mail from
home was a crucial lifeline. Our problem was that at the beginning of the trip,
the company gives to the crew members a list of ports and the shipping agencies,
but our schedule had been so disturbed that we were receiving Kaohsiung mail
in Labuan or even in Penang, though by this time the omission of Formosa had
brought us nearly in accord with the original schedule.

The cargo-learning process was continued in Penang, at which port we loaded
3,000 tons of Ilmenite sand. This cargo, of which I had never heard, dropped into a
hold from a considerable height, unlike soot landed with a dull thud and without
any cloud of dust. It seemed to be fairly common material (all ships had a good
reference library for the common and extremely uncommon cargoes that even
specialised ships carry) and had some variegated uses – it is used in the production of
bright white items, pigment for paint and extensively in the production of titanium.
An ideal trouble-free cargo, (unless dampened, when it rapidly developed mildew)
its loading usually meant the simplification of stability issues as it was very heavy
for its volume. As if to emphasise cargo weight, we also took aboard a number of tin
ingots. Although these were religiously placed in the ship’s cargo lock-up, it would
have been an absurdity to try to steal one of these sparkling silver slabs; I tried
lifting one, and although I could do so, though at some risk of herniation, to move
anywhere with it would have created material for Monty Python. All this took two
days to load, after which we steamed over to Belawan, the second city of Sumatra
and only six hours across the Straits of Malacca.

This port had been very important when Indonesia had been under Dutch
control but was at this stage a run-down, though vibrant, city, full of people,
odd products (I had never seen durian, dragon fruit and similar products) and
numerous vendors of the largest prawns that I had ever seen (junior cadet got the
job of buying a load for the officers’ pot, a task that I could happily have carried
out every day). And on board, after loading at a port where we had loaded the
heaviest of cargo, we came to load one of the lightest; tobacco. These leaves were

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