AFTER spending about two months with my parents at Beyrout, I went to Port Said, as arranged, to await the next British India steamer that arrived on her way to India.

After waiting a week I embarked for Bombay and was glad to find six other men on their way to join the British India coasting steamers. As they were all good fellows, we had a very pleasant voyage.

On arrival at Bombay I was appointed to a vessel that visited the Persian Gulf ports, and I remember feeling very responsible on the night we left port, as I was left in charge of the ship, when among the lights of many vessels, for the first time in my life.

The atmospheric conditions in the neighbourhood of Muscat were remarkably clear, for we sighted the high hills behind that port the evening before our arrival, and steamed all night towards them. The sun was high in the heavens when we anchored off Muscat, and though the place looked very picturesque I certainly felt no desire to land, even if I had been at liberty to do so, as the day was excessively hot.

As I spoke Arabic I found the Persian Gulf ports interesting, but was glad to hear that we were not returning there.

It used to be the practice in the B.I. for each officer to have charge of a hold and be responsible for every package of cargo in it, and he had to keep his eyes open if he did not want to be let down by some wily shipper. I will give an instance of the tricks they play on newly-joined officers : I was on a large vessel and the hold I had charge of held about 1,200 tons of cargo. Once, when I had taken on board a large quantity of cargo from a shipper, his man refused my receipt, saying it was a bale of piece-goods short. I had kept a very careful tally and would not alter my figures, but realised that I could not afford to appeal to the chief officer, who might have sided with the shipper, so simply said, " If you will not accept my receipt, I will commence discharging all the cargo out of the hold, and if the bale you are claiming is not among the cargo you will have to pay all costs." That man took my receipt after that, and the bale was never found.



We worked long hours on the B.I. ships in those days.

For instance, I was appointed to a vessel that was due to sail in three days, and in order to get the cargo in in time to catch the early morning tide, we had to work from six in the morning till midnight for the first two days, and all the third night. I went straight from my hatch to the bridge, and found a pair of sun glasses a great comfort.

On another occasion when we were taking in some bale cargo, and I wanted to get the marks on the other side of a sling of bales that were being hoisted in, I jumped across the deck skid, but was not quite quick enough, for the bales struck me and sent me flying. Luckily for me, the derrick swung inward automatically and its off-guy hung in a bight as soon as the derrick had plumbed the hatch. As I flew across the open hatch my arm caught the guy which saved my life, for the hold was empty, and a fall of some thirty feet is something one prefers to miss. I think the men who pulled me on deck were rather astonished to see me note the marks on the bales in my notebook, which I still held in one hand and my pencil in the other.

Mirage plays some extraordinary pranks, and I think the following incident worth recording. One night, while on our way from Rangoon to Penang, the officer on watch sighted a light under the ship's bows and immediately altered course to avoid a collision, but while he continued to see the light, there was no sign of a vessel. After a while it gradually moved towards the horizon, and eventually proved to be the beam of the Penang Lighthouse.

One of the most extraordinary phenomena I know of is the smooth patch on the water off the S.W. coast of India somewhere near Cochin, in which we once anchored during the S.W. monsoon, when there was a heavy surf breaking on the coast above and below us.

The captain of a British sailing ship that lay close to us said that he had traded to this port for many years during the S.W. monsoon, and always the smooth patch had been there, and his ship had anchored in it with perfect safety and comfort. I have never heard of any satisfactory explanation for the smooth water in the patch, as there is nothing in the nature of a breakwater thereabouts.

While in the B.I. steamers I had the luck to visit every port between Basra in the Persian Gulf and Singapore, and while many of my experiences were very enjoyable, I gladly accepted an appointment offered me in the Indian Marine, and left the B.I. steamers at Calcutta, soon after I had completed two years in them.

Unfortunately for me, the offer was made while I was suffering from the effects of an attack of sunstroke through the eyes, which made me feel rather nervous when my eyesight was being tested for colour blindness, but all was well.