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in the East,” (cited by William Manchester in “Visions of Glory”). On Himalaya
the social obligations were far from onerous, for we had on lifeboat drill seen
that the passengers included a veritable cornucopia of delight; the absence of the
other cadets was itself most fortunate, especially as the mate had made us in part
responsible for entertaining lonely passengers.
Therefore, the first evening of dancing was very much an exploratory event.
I decided very quickly upon whom to try out my charms, having spotted a
particularly attractive young lady sitting with a group of older people. My skill,
however, appeared misplaced; upon approaching, I got a very cold shoulder with
barely a nod of rejection. I asked one of the younger officers what this was about (for
nobody else came over for the entire time while I watched what was happening, and
I watched for a considerable time) and was told that that was the McAlpine family,
which even I knew was the name of one of Britain’s biggest building contractors, and
therefore was on the list published for the officers by P&O to alert us of passengers
to whom to pay special attention. (I never found out the truth of their identity, but
it was a group that seemed to mostly enjoy its own company, so I saw no reason to
doubt it. But plainly I was not of the right stuff.)

The evening’s dancing did not, however, end there. I discovered another
young lady to be much more amenable, but after a few minutes found out that she
was twenty-three years old, patently far too old for me. Thereafter a girl actually
approached me (a very disarming experience, nobody of the fair sex ever having
done that before) but after a few minutes found out that she was the sister of the
cadet purser, of whose existence I had until then been totally unaware. She was
an extremely nice girl, but as I had already been advised not to even think of
cavorting with female ship’s staff (most of whom were actually quite young and
comely) I thought that she – Penny – might be too close to a liaison dangereuse.
Despite this rather disappointing evening, I went to bed reasonably satisfied; next
day looked like being a long one.

By daybreak we were in Palma, but on this occasion the operation of the
boats was left to the petty officers, our task being to ensure that all those who
came ashore from the ship were properly attended to as they went on tours or
walked around the port. The stay was a long, hot one, being from six until two the
following morning. But it was not onerous, my main task later in the day being to
operate the crash-boat, always ready for boating accidents or drunken passengers
falling off the tenders. Fortunately, nothing of that sort occurred, in fact I note
that my main event of the day was that Penny had coincidentally come ashore
and that I was even more taken by her obvious charms. But, of course, it could not
be. (On these occasions, a day on a barren pier, without any sun-tan lotion, was
the norm; like many, I suspect, I paid for that omission later in life.)
Because of the very long preceding day we were given the next day off by

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