Goodbye Blighty!

It is exactly 60 years ago... 22 January 1959..... that our family left England's shores for the shores of Darkest Africa! To Africa and adventure, and all I wanted to complete my happiness was a..horse!

My dad was a Detective with the Metropolitan Police in London, his speciality being Fingerprints. At that time, the 'colonies' were recruiting for the Rhodesian forces, and a few of the officers were in the UK looking for men with experience... and my dad was more than ready to head off into the unknown. I am not sure that my mum felt the same spirit of adventure though, but she went along with the whole idea. However, I remember my dad being disappointed that there was no place for him at the time, until a chap called Harry East (I shall never forget his name), pulled out as his wife refused to leave England, so my dad was recruited in his place!

Then came the round of vaccinations, yellow fever injections, visits to doctors and dentists to ready our bodies for the future! We walked around at school with a red ribbon tied round our jersey sleeves to warn people not to bump our small-pox vaccination, and I was terrified that my arm would in fact fall off!
The house was packed up, dad bought trunks and cases from 'Down the Cut' and some of our furniture went off to granny and Aunty Julia who lived in a tiny flat, in  one of the many Guinness Buildings, in Chelsea. I remember that we had some sad goodbyes with dad's parents, and grandad regaled us with some 'interesting' facts as he had been in South Africa with the Boer War! Mum was extremely sad to leave and I think she envied Harry East's wife for a long time.

The final goodbyes, the house was rented out and we were ready!

I remember we caught a taxi on the morning of Thursday the 22 January as we had so much luggage with us, we would have struggled on the tube from Ealing Broadway to Waterloo! I think our trunks had gone before us but I am not positive! I do remember it rained, I think it snowed a bit too, but finally we reached the Southampton docks, the Boat Train pulled right onto the dock itself... I think... and we climbed out.

And there was the beautiful lilac hull of the 'Edinburgh Castle'. Built and launched in 1947, we were the same age!

The Mailship Edinburgh Castle.

I remember that there was a huge shed with sections under alphabetical order, so we shuffled into the 'B' queue and our luggage, tickets and (I think our passports) etc were checked. Then we boarded to find our cabin! We had lunch on board and then almost dead on time we moved away from the dock and headed down the water to the open sea. And mum was seasick from the moment the boat first moved!

The first few days were choppy I must admit and mum stayed in bed drinking port and lemon, on the doctors orders, to 'settle the stomach'. At mealtimes the sides of the tables were lifted so that the plates and cutlery didn't slide onto the floor. Without thinking, Diana and I insisted on describing all the food to mum..... and wondered why she kept turning green! We explored our end of the ship, but as we were not First Class passengers, we were not allowed to 'stray' into the forbidden First Class areas! There were ropes I think to remind us that we were Tourist Class only, so where the carpets began was the end of our explorations!

Tourist Class cabins (pic thanks to Bjorn Larsson)

The officers wore their navy blue 'winter' uniforms and at 'tea time' every morning we had beef tea to drink! It was cold, so there was no swimming or sunbathing and the lounges were full of people playing cards or reading. The 'determined to be outside' folks were wrapped up like parcels, huddling on sheltered spots on deck while the ship rolled and splashed. I loved every minute and made friends with a deckhand called Nick who looked a bit like Punch from Punch and Judy! He showed me how to tie knots!

 (Pic thanks to Bjorn Larsson)

One lunchtime, being calm and sunny, the portholes were open and while we were eating, a freak wave hit the side of the boat, came in through the porthole and landed on dad! It's funny how those memories remain! (But ask me what I did last week....) As we sailed further south, the weather warmed up and out came the pool! Basically it was a huge canvas bag suspended over one of the holds and filled each morning with fresh sea water! In the afternoons the water was let out to almost half so that the children could swim. The water rolled from side to side with the movement of the ship, so it got quite rough in there at times, but it was great fun. And out came the deck games, quoits and a shuffle type game and of course the table tennis! Goodness knows how many 'ping-pong' balls went over the side.
Then came the Crossing the Line Ceremony as we crossed the Equator! I took part and was painted with shaving soap, and a string of sausages was 'removed' from my head before I was tipped into the pool to clean off! I had a certificate but goodness knows where that is now!

The Mailships also left Cape Town on Thursdays, heading for Southampton, so of course they would cross in the middle! That was exciting and everyone rushed to the side to wave energetically and watch the ship until she was out of sight.

The officers changed uniform to their crisp whites and the beef tea was gone, replaced with ice cream! We spent so long in the pool that we never bathed, or so it seemed. Baths were hot sea water with a bucket of fresh water to wash the salt off. I remember the Stewards coming in to the bathrooms with mops and buckets, calling 'Coming in ladies' to warn us all! Mum was by now well over her seasickness and also enjoying the food. Remember, this was only a few years after the rationing had ceased after the War, so the food was a treat for us all.

The Tourist Class dining room

I remember one morning at breakfast dad saying, 'We are going in the wrong direction, we have turned round' and me wondering how on earth he knew that when all we could see was sea! Apparently someone had fallen overboard and the ship turned round to head back. I don't think he was ever found though but that is all a bit hazy.

Another highlight was the Captain's Cocktail party! Everyone was invited and so mum and dad went along and shook hands with him. I think we stayed in the cabin, or there may have been some entertainment for the children, but I can't remember the finer details. 

We had several Lifeboat drills where we had to grab our life jackets and go to our 'Muster Station' and it was all very civilised with no pushing or grumbling, and then everyone wandered off to carry on doing what they were doing. We had church service in the lounge on Sunday, led by the Captain and every day the Ships Log was put on the notice board so we could follow her progress and see how many nautical miles were covered each day.

It was wonderful and the morning we arrived at Cape Town, we were all on deck watching Table Mountain get closer and closer and the Pilot boat arriving and the tugs busy pushing and shoving. Our sea journey was over... but we had a 3 day train journey ahead of us before we arrived at our destination.

But that's another story......