Page 77 - Michael Frost-Voyages to Maturity-23531.indd

We were scheduled to bunker in Aden, it apparently being cheaper even than
was Iran, but along with a number of places around the colonial world, it was
beginning to dispute the suzerainty of overlords. Unrest was beginning to infect
many such vassal states, among which could be counted East Africa and the
remnants of European empires such as Aden, Djibouti, Cyprus, Ghana, Malaya,
the Rhodesias, Mozambique, and of course, Vietnam. Many hitherto safe ports of
call were becoming too ‘hot’ for ships to visit.

However, for reasons that were not made known to those on board, we were
directed not to go to the Gulf, but to proceed across the Indian Ocean towards
Singapore, there to be given instructions respecting our next ports. And these
were, to me, bizarre; we were to proceed to Borneo, but this, though the island
is the world’s third largest, was not known for the production of oil. However,
in retrospect, it might have been portentous, for in Brunei, a tiny enclave on
the island, there had been discovered some worthwhile oil deposits, which later
proved substantial and were at the time being developed by Shell, who were, of
course, our charterers. We were then to proceed from there to Liverpool, a port
which I had never visited, but might present a good opportunity to transfer to a
more interesting ship or route.

It was not to be. Two days later our orders were countermanded, the first time
that this had happened in my limited experience, and we were instructed to go
to Singapore itself, from where we to traverse the equator again and go to Plaju,
then back to Singapore, and then perhaps on to Abadan; such are the travails of
the tanker trade!

In Singapore we loaded a complex cargo, the most refined being kerosene, a
product now needed in Penang, whence we proceeded. Penang having no berth
of sufficient size, we were diverted to Butterworth, Perak, a port of which I had
never heard, and, it transpired, of which I never need to have heard. ‘Join P&O
and see the world’ was all very well, but what I was seeing constituted the armpits
of civilisation; seamen’s clubs had beer and outdated newspapers, but access to
those luxuries was not why I had decided on this life. Furthermore, we still were
unsure as to our destination, though it was obviously going to be the Gulf, though
I now knew that this was a destination that brought only work and sweat.

On February 16th Ceylon hove into sight, from where we turned north-west
towards Kiltan. But February 19th was a momentous day indeed; Captain Cowan
allowed me to keep my first watch on my own (though I suspect that he also kept
it from his cabin immediately beneath me). The vessel also passed Kiltan, but
this time so far from it that it failed to even smudge the horizon. However, no
discussion arose from that fact.

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