1-4
DOWN THE EAST COAST OF AFRICA
I found that I was
sharing a cabin with five women, none of whom spoke English. The conditions there resembled what I
have read about for refugees coming to America. Bill's cabin conditions were similar but
worse because his was farther back in the ship right over the propeller shaft
which made a thumping noise all the time.
Fortunately most of our friends and the Strong’s had cabins in first
class and they told us to visit them anytime. The middle of summer as we left Suez was
very hot, particularly below decks, so we spent most of our time on deck. In fact, after the first night, we slept
on the lifeboat covers which were like hammocks.
The chief radio
officer found me there one night, where I could have rolled off into the sea,
and invited Bill and me to stay in his sitting room. When he found out what kind of food was
being served us he treated us to all kinds of goodies that were available to the
officers. After that, Bill and I
almost never went back to our cabins, and the radio shack sitting room became
the center where we and the Dewey kids hung out. I remember one time Bill being offered a
drink of beer and his choking on it.
The same happened to him with a cigar.
After leaving the Red
Sea and moving south down the east coast of Africa, it was discovered that, due
to the crew's unfamiliarity with the ship, almost all the fresh water had been
pumped overboard. The only fresh
water available was given out by the glassful in the dining room. The excuse was
that the ship, having been Indian previously, had everything written, such as
valve names, in a language the Greek engineers couldn't
understand.
The ship's position
was posted on the bulletin board every day and one day, after we crossed the
equator, most of the boys got into bathing suits and got splashed with salt
water, an initiation that was supposed to take place the first time you crossed
the equator. Since only the radio
shack had a radio, news bulletins, mostly about the war, were also posted, and
it was the morning ritual to line up to read them. Of course Bill and I had heard the BBC
already in the radio shack.
As we approached the
Port of Mombasa, a flotilla of British warships passed us and entered the harbor
before us. The flotilla took up all
the harbor dock space and we had to anchor out for a number of days before the
ship could be serviced, including getting fresh water.
A small boat went back
and forth to land everyday so we could get off and see the city and
countryside. I remember one day the
Deweys and Bill and I rented bicycles and rode out to a nice clean beach. There were some cottages nearby, but no
one on the beach. We got quite
hungry and thirsty, so we opened cocoanuts and drank the milk and ate the meat.
I think I ate about half a cocoanut.
No one had warned us about how constipated that would make us for the
next few days. I remember another
day Bill gave up his seat on a bus to an old black woman, and it almost caused a
riot. This was my first real
experience with racial segregation.
Some of the sailors
from the HMS Hermes visited us and it was fun to talk with new people who spoke
English. Most didn't seem to be any
older than Bill or Edward Dewey.
Then suddenly one day the Flotilla left, to search for a German raider it
was rumored, and our ship was moved to a dock. Still it was another week before we also
left. Seeing the English Flotilla
had brought the realities of the war home.
The sailors had told us that they were hunting for a raider that they
thought had sunk the sister ship of the ship we were on - a ship called the Zam
Zam.
Still, the war seemed
far away as we continued on our trip, passing through the straights that
separate Africa from Madagascar. We
were going into the winter of the southern hemisphere with blue skies, partially
filled with big puffy clouds. Our
favorite activity was lying on our backs at night on the canvas covering one of
the cargo hatches, watching the brilliant stars, including some southern stars
we had never seen before. Also, we
liked to stand at the rear deck rail and watch the wake of the ship which gave
off a bright green glow at night.
One night we noticed the direction of the stars change as the ship
changed course, which by the stars must have been to the east instead of how we
had been going other nights which was south. For a number of hours, the ship kept
changing course in different directions.
When we went inside, we found the lights were off. The explanation came out the next
day. Apparently, the ship's
officers had seen a ship on the horizon in front of them and assumed it was the
notorious German raider. They had
information that there were no other friendly ships in the area, and so had
taken evasive action to avoid being sunk.
Our ship was neutral, but so had been the Zam Zam. Since it would have been impossible to
assure a blackout on short notice, the chief engineer had simply turned off the
generators. A blackout was attempted for the next several nights before we
arrived at Capetown, but with so many language barriers, cooperation of the
passengers was difficult, and it was not successful.
As we arrived at
Capetown, there was a sudden weather change and we entered the South African
winter, which is mostly just wet and cold.
There was no trouble getting dock space, but other troubles were waiting
for us there. The Indian deck crew
were being paid $4 a month plus clothes, and their leaders complained to the
ship's owner that the summer clothes issued them at Suez were inadequate. The owner refused to issue warm clothes
and the crew went on strike. This
being illegal in wartime, at least so said the port authorities, the crew were
promptly arrested and jailed. This
effectively stopped the servicing of the ship and we were in for another two
weeks delay as we had had in Mombasa.
Again, we took to
going ashore for recreation and amusement, and for some of our meals. With the crew in jail, not only did we
not get our usual afternoon tea, served English style with cream, sugar, and
cookies, but there wasn't much to our regular meals. It didn't mean that much to Bill and me
because as usual we were being fed by the radio officer. It was a real mess in the kitchen and
dining room, particular in second class, as steerage was called, because the
passengers were trying to fix their own meals, each for himself or
herself.
One afternoon, which I
believe was a Sunday, a group of us young people went to a Congregational Church
young peoples' meeting. It seemed
more like a party than anything religious.
Mostly they were sitting around a piano and singing popular songs. I noticed Bill, on a couch, was quite
startled when a girl next to him put her hand on his knee.
Mostly we just walked
around Capetown and enjoyed the beautiful gardens. I don't think it normally freezes during
their winter because there were a lot of blooming flowers. You could see a mountain nearby from
almost anywhere in the city, and when we asked if we could climb it, people
laughed and said, certainly not in wintertime.
The port authorities
needed the dock space our ship was taking, so they brought the crew back from
jail, less their leaders. They
ordered the ship's owner to provide the men with warm clothes and told the
Captain to get ready to head out into the Southern Atlantic. Since the crew was not considered very
reliable, all English speaking males over 15 were recruited into a vigilante
group to enforce a blackout across the Southern Atlantic, the part of our
journey considered the most dangerous. The American solders were the core of
this group and contributed their weapons to enforce the blackout. Bill took part, but told me he was not
given any training and that the gun he carried was not loaded. Naturally as we
left Capetown, there were some misgivings all around.