Kampala Bill

'Kampala' 1949, fetching bags of sand from Jackson's Beach on the South side of Kilindini harbour.

I served in 'Kampala' for 5 1/2 months, from the 10th May to 31st October 1949. She was a very happy ship, but unfortunately I cannot remember all the Officers' names. I believe the Captain at first was Bob Trimble, and then Polkinghorne.
Hugh Harwood was the Chief Officer. Hugh's wife was living in Durban with their two sons Simon and Warwick, both of whom joined the BI later.
Lars Giertsen was 2/O, a very respected officer who was unfortunate to have an injection or inoculation in his upper arm that went wrong. He later commanded the tug 'Arusha' but I think his arm problem caused his early retirement.
Rex Lomax 3/O, Mr. Roberts was Chief Radio Officer and Donald Gill was 2/R/O
Pierre Sauvage extra 3/O; Pierre was from the Seychelles, and I think his father was Port Captain in Victoria at the time. Pierre left his mark on the Bridge clear view screen when he tried to smooth his fountain pen nib on the rotating glass, leaving the glass with an indelible frosted ring. Later on he worked for Shell in Durban.
two more Cadets, junior to Brian and I were 'Shorty' Kros and Mike Gavin.
Kros joined in Durban, probably in June 1949, as a new entry, having had pre-sea training in 'General Botha'. He left 'Kampala' before me, to join 'Dara' in Bombay.
Most evenings in Bombay there were gatherings of Cadets from the various ships in port. I went across with Brian to one of these, in 'Dumra', I think it was. They decided to have a 'seance' in which we were all to hold hands (to prevent cheating) and the 'medium' got in touch with someone 'out there' after the lights had been turned out. There were rattlings and moans etc. and I was fairly scared, but it was all a big con. They were all in the trick except for me, as Brian told me afterwards.
It was not long after Kros joined in Durban that we tried the trick on him. Afterwards, he said that he was impressed, that his mother was accomplished with an ouija board, and if we liked he would show us how it worked.
He started off by by putting little squares of paper in a circle on the desk top, each with a letter of the alphabet or a number. Two of us put a finger on a coin and soon we were getting odd messages. One number kept coming up and it later turned out to be my discharge book number, which convinced me. This became a popular pastime with officers and cadets alike, communing with this 'Kampala Bill' as he liked to be called. We progressed from bits of paper to the back of an old chart, not only with the letters of the alphabet and numbers on it, but people's names, short phrases etc. People took it in relays to put their finger on the coin, lights were left full on, and the interest was to find an officer who thought it was a load of rubbish, ask him to write down something and put it in his pocket after which we would try and find it out, or attempt to find the name of one of his distant relatives etc.
It all came to an end when one Cadet got hurt. It was in my cabin, and one of the Cadets (Mike Gavin) had said that he didn't believe in it and crossed his name out. My cabin was packed, with people on the bunks, day bed, and standing, and I was sitting in the chair at the desk. Kampala Bill asked for Gavin to be invited into the cabin, and when he came I was asked to get up from my chair, and then Gavin was asked to sit down. He said afterwards that as he was about to sit, he was pulled down onto the seat, straight on to a red hot iron. He was visibly upset, and accused me of wiring the seat up. Gavin and various officers examined the seat afterwards, but it was perfectly ordinary and innocuous. We got on to 'Kampala Bill' and asked what it was about, and the reply came 'that was me'.
That was it as far as I was concerned, and since then I have left well alone. As far as the chart was oncerned, I think various deck and engineer officers borrowed it and had a go, but I had had enough.