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Gin, equally unpalatable to me, but which I understood to have been based upon
the need to have something to consume that would make more palatable the
daily dose of quinine. (Of Bourbon, Vodka and Rye I believe that P&O had never
heard, in much the same way that the American Cocktail, an invention designed
during Prohibition to make drinkable the moonshine made in domestic stills,
had barely entered the English lexicon). But the days provided ample time for me
to become well-acquainted with Bellini’s ‘Norma’, whose nearly three hours soon
became my favourite opera.

Cargo ship officers, however, had opportunities to see a great deal of the world.
Most general cargo was slow both to load and discharge, the docking facilities
were close to a town or city to which both stevedores and onward transportation
had ready access, and, of course, many of them contained their own licit or illicit
pleasures. It is also to be observed that the majority of the world’s great cities,
with some obvious exceptions, are coastal, and even many of those that are far
from water have a major nearby port, such as Rome, Cairo, Tokyo, and Beijing,
to name but an obvious few. Therefore, the crew facilities on tankers were usually
much more comfortable than those characteristic of most cargo ships (though
Khyber of necessity was well below even those standards, as I had yet to discover).
After a few years at sea on a cargo ship, one could reasonably expect to have a
good number of worldwide acquaintances; a tanker officer would probably know
few other than port officials.

Despite the pour-outs and active wardroom it should not be thought that the
life led by sailors was one sporadic drinking session; the consequences of over-
indulging were too severe. On a run from, say, the Gulf to South Africa, there were
few ships to see, the Suez Canal being the normal route from the West to East; the
immensity of the Ocean was a more common impression than how much seagoing
traffic there was. This voyage occupied seventeen days, and the fact that little was
seen of the shoreline rendered the occasional film, the wardroom activities, the
high quality of the food and the need to study a life much more pleasant, at least
for a while, than that enjoyed on a cargo vessel. Added to the ambience was the
air-conditioning and the sheer comfort of the large cabins. With the passing of
time, however, these lures have predictably declined in importance, for today it
is difficult to persuade both men and women of the pleasures of a seagoing life,
particularly on a ship that spends day after day at sea, and then briefly visits some
very dull ports. A case in point was Southampton, a port of obvious attractions,
but with an oil port that was situated miles up the Solent, rendering a trip to
the city a major outing. As unloading a cargo was a quick and sometimes dirty
business, the time was just not available to enjoy its fleshpots. But at least there
was somewhere to go; I could not see any joy to be had anywhere near Abadan,
Bahrein or Plaju.

The voyage down the east coast of Africa was, however, by no means

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