A voyage to East Africa takes shape.

Once we had moved over to the Export side of RA Dock, I was required with the others to keep a watch in the 'tween deck grille rooms whilst special cargo was being loaded, mainly cases of spirits. These cases would be loaded into the Tween deck hatchway in netted trays and then fed onto lengths of portable rollers which led into the grille room. Here they would be stacked.

No matter how keen eyed I was, the Dockers were able to open a few bottles and break a few more. Some of the older dockers would cup their hands under a dripping case of gin, and rub the spirit into their hair - probably taking a mouthful too. The grille room would reek of spirits.

Meanwhile, huge pieces of agricultural machinery were being loaded in the holds, for use in the peanut scheme in East Africa.

Then, on the 6th September 1947 we went downriver to Tilbury landing stage where we embarked the passengers. The Cadets' main concern was their baggage which went into two grille rooms in No. 4 Tween Deck - either 'Wanted' or 'Not Wanted On Voyage'. Across in Tilbury Dock we could see a marvelous brand new BI ship, with raked stem - the 'Kampala'. Some of us managed to get across to her. She carried two Cadets, the same seniority as us more or less, Killick and Willoughby. Reports came back that these two were living a life of comparative ease and luxury!

Whilst we remained in Blues rig, we three beginners were ok. Miller Rayner had provided us with dungaree trousers and shirts, two uniforms (one navy blue serge, one best one in black doeskin), and two peaked caps (one being an inferior 'working' cap). There were only two problems with caps; they could fall or blow off into the sea or dock, and, for some reason, the cap badge, with its black band, would migrate to one side or the other, as though it wanted to appear over one's eye, and not one's nose.

In those days the only change to our dress when in European waters was that removable white cap covers were worn during summer months. White collars were attached with studs to our shirts and were difficult to keep clean and starched. We soon found that you could buy plastic ones that looked like the real thing, and were easy to clean off, although they would eventually split.

'Mantola' - Blues weather. Photo taken outside the Cadets' cabin. The Sekunni is wearing his tropical outfit, but with layers of clothing underneath. Our Steward or 'Boy' is to the right.

It didn't take us long to notice that the senior cadets sported neat little tabs on their lapels. Arthur didn't allow us to follow suit. We envied them their cap badges, not bright gold like ours, but weathered, dark and salt green. Like their uniform buttons.

I was the only one who had been provided by Miller Rayner with two topis. One was large and white with a pugaree, similar in shape to the ones used by the Royal Marines but without the brass bobble on the top. The other was a khaki 'working topi'. These, along with a black oilskin also provided by Miller Rayner, and which, after a voyage to East Africa and back had become a solid, sticky slab, were eventually 'chucked', still unused.

The greatest embarassment for the three of us came when we reached the Eastern Mediterranean. The temperature reached that critical 70 degrees Fahrenheit and the order came from on high that we were all to blossom out, first thing in the morning, in our whites. Miller Rayner had only provided us with sets of 'Number Tens'. Consternation. Everyone else appeared in white shirts and shorts, and long stockings. Our only hope was to buy white short sleeve shirts and shorts when we got to Aden. And where were we going to get Cadet's epaulettes from? For those who may not have heard of 'Number Tens' the outfit consisted of long white trousers, and a white jacket with high collar which closed with hooks and eyes (Madam Butterfly style). Brass buttons glittered all over the place, on our sleeves and down our fronts.

Before WWII changed everything forever, BI Officers wore No.10's all the time in the tropics, even when on duty loading coal.
Old hands would tell me how they kept two or three dozen sets of No. 10's, to tide them over until they could get them ashore to be dhobied.

In 'Mantola' the Deck Topasses soon let us know that they would dhobi major items for 6d and minor ones for 3d; however, we did most of the minor ones ourselves, in the basin.

Arthur kept the 4-8 watch at sea and was therefore well able to get us going in the morning. Our tea was brought in at 0545, and after that, from a letter I sent home:

Get into dungarees, polish the brass, (there was plenty of brass, including the drawer handles), holystone the deck, dust everything, brush carpet and mat, make bunk, wash oneself, throw dirty water away, change into uniform.

0745 - 0815 - breakfast (there was no fraternising with passengers, and our mealtimes were earlier than passenger times.)

0815 - 0900 - spare time.

0900 - 1000 - gangway books. I was given all the Mates' receipts for the cargo in No.3 hatch and I was required to copy down the details, marks and quantity of each consignment in the appropriate pages for each port.

1000 - 1100 - baggage room. This entailed helping passengers find their 'wanted on voyage' baggage and giving them a hand when necessary. Life became difficult if a piece of baggage had been put into the 'not wanted on voyage' stow. After the first few days the passengers had sorted things out and baggage room duty became easier.

1100 - 1200 - gangway books

1200 - 1230 - Lunch

1230 - 1300 - study with Ch.Off

1300 - 1600 - study

1600 - 1700 - free time

1700 - 1730 - instruction on navigation, or morse, compass, articles etc.

We all had copies of the usual text books. I had Nichol's Concise Guide Vol. 1 for navigation, and Nicholl's Seamanship for practically everything else (Articles, knots, splices lead lines, etc.) Boris Gordon swore by Lecky's 'Wrinkles in Practical Navigation'. We also had Norie's or Burtons Navigation tables for logarithm tables and trigonometrical functions, Pursey's 'Ship Stability' and Isherwood's 'Ship Construction'.