This is the story of a young man and his two friends who sailed to England in 1967 to see the world. Aerogrammes. letters, diaries and postcards help to tell the adventures of “Will” and his friends in this A to Z.
“Twist and Shout” The Beatles ‧ 1963
Well, shake it up, baby, now (shake it up baby)
Twist and shout (twist and shout)
Come on, come on, come, come on, baby, now (come on baby)
Come on and work it on out (work it on out)
Friday, 6th January, 1967 Timor Sea
Distance from Sydney: 971 miles
Sea Temperature: 63 degrees
Average speed per hour: 15.98 knots
Address Noon Friday: Lat 39 34’ s Long 170 07’E
Seas: SSW force 3 wind
Dear Mum, Dad, Jack and Gail,
By the time you receive this we will have visited New Zealand and be heading back across the Tasman for Brisbane, even though we don’t call there. All is well. I have not even felt like being seasick and have missed only one meal. We slept in after a long, late night at the Tasman Sea Party. The porthole was closed so no one knew it was morning until 10 am.
Meals are good and the Italians are very entertaining. We have learnt quite a few words so far including lots of Italian swear words. We call our waiter “Buono Formagio” which means “good cheese”.
The weather has been changeable – rough seas, cloudy, sunny, cold, warm, you name it. I spent one day in the pool with the gang – about 20 of us have formed a club, “The Green Seals”. We hook our toes over the railing on the edge of the pool, clap our hands and bark like seals. Membership is exclusive to Cabin 245 but we have nominated 16 other honorary members.
We have just come back from the engine room with Bruce Tobler. Phil and I conned the guy into an inspection, strictly off limits. The ship is an old troop carrier, 27 years old with two big diesels but only one propeller. She’s a bit slow but quite comfortable. She really rolled yesterday in a Force 4 Southerly but it’s down to Force 3 today and now swinging to Westerly.
I intend to go ashore at Wellington in the morning for a tour. We pass Cape Farewell at 10 miles to starboard at 8.00 pm and enter Cook Strait at midnight. The plan is to dock in Wellington at 4.00 am. We should be just finishing our Farewell Party by then. There must be half the ship disembarking there. We can’t count the number of Australians going to New Zealand and New Zealanders returning home.
There are plenty of social activities arranged. I play deck quoits, table-tennis and paddle slide, clay shooting from the stern plus poker in the lounge. I saw Elvis Presley in “Fun in Acapulco” the other night. Dances are to the “Turin Quartet” and Bingo is on right now.
Things are cheap on board. Cigarettes are 20c a packet (no good to me), beer 15c a can, Scotch and gin 15c a nip, electric radios, shavers etc are also cheap but we will get them cheaper in Singapore. I have met a Malaysian student from Perth Uni named Tahja who is going to take us to his cousin’s wholesale place. So, duty free wholesale cameras should be cheap.
Our cabin mate is Garry – a dress designer but a real great China plate. His nickname is Gus.
We have not seen land for four days and the only other lifeforms have been a school of porpoises, flying fish and two or three albatrosses which always follow the ship. So, it will be good to see land, even in the distance, for a change. It’s getting near dinner time so must finish and have a fairy bower (shower). It will be a while before I get another chance to write but might send you a card from Singapore.
Thursday Island, Cape York Peninsula, Friday and Saturday 14th January, 1967
Hello, ten days at sea and life on board ship is just one great big, beautiful ball. Since the last letter we have had some improvement as the trip from England officially ended in Wellington, NZ and the new trip to Southampton began. Meals are excellent and the social life is really good. The day’s activities are placed up on a board and you can follow whatever you like. We have seen some good movies in colour and dances have been on every night.
Wellington was OK except it was Sunday and all the shops were shut so it was very quiet. We nearly got sea-sick walking down the street which seemed to roll under our feet – a horrible feeling. The government buildings are the largest wooden buildings in the Southern Hemisphere. We had milkshakes and walked up Mount Victoria. Also rode in the cable car. It is a city of hills around a magnificent harbour but bloody cold for the middle of summer. Cars are varied types, many old and rusty and very expensive by Australian standards. For example a 1962 VW is £700 Australian.
We reached the coast of Australia at Moreton Bay after seeing our first island with five trees and a lighthouse about 20 miles out. I felt mildly homesick. Since then, we have seen thousands of islands and the Barrier Reef is just beautiful. We passed Brampton and Hayman Islands in close and saw the “New Endeavour” under full sail about 100 yards away. Saw also one of the “Roylan Cruise Boats” and now realise why you rave about this place.
The pilot, Captain Carter, came on board at Gladstone, and just as well by the look of things as there are coral islands in abundance and a fair bit of shipping about. The pilot leaves Saturday afternoon 2 pm at Thursday Island where you get the last Australian stamp for some time. We passed Cairns at 3 am this morning (Fri) and lights were visible. Inside the reef it is as calm as Sydney Harbour and we have forgotten what a rocking ship is like.
I have missed only one meal (dinner) as the whole cabin got dysentery (me last) for 24 hours but am eating well now. I couldn’t get sea-sick even in a hurricane and the weather was quite rough in the Tasman with a strong southerly blowing. Weather is hot and humid but comfy below decks in the air-conditioned cabins.
We had a pirate night last night and our mob stole the show.
We are all sporting good suntans and the pool is good fun. Air temperature is 90°F and the water temperature is 86°F. We have a deck chair ($2.50) where we spend a fair bit of time. There are lots of birds on board and a lot of schoolies. I have danced with about 20 or 30 different girls in the last ten days. Cheap grog is not hard to take and there have been some funny photos taken late at night.
Days fly by and there doesn’t seem much time for anything, Writing letters is rare and our cabin motto has become, “Tomorrow we wash” (our clothes, that is). I’m down to a pair of shorts and a shirt so I’d better do something about it today.
Rehearsals started this arvo for a Roman night in which I’m a senator and have to shout, “We want women”.
Equator, Thursday 19th January, 1967, 1 ½ days to Singapore
Hi, you must be lucky because this is my third letter in 3 weeks but the paper and envelope is free and the stamp costs 17c Australian.
Well, life on board since my last note from Thursday has been as good as ever. The view was never better as we rounded Cape York Peninsula in sight of islands and coral reefs, and many were on deck to see the pilot leave. It must have been tricky navigation as the radar worked all night and numerous lighthouses were visible. We passed the Gulf of Carpentaria and into the Timor and Arafura Sea, close to an island with a smoking volcano. Then with continuing hot weather we sailed into the Java Sea where we struck heavy rain and now the pool water is 84°F. The weather fined this morning and sun came out at last.
Everyone should have a sea-trip! I have been really enjoying it. Our revue, “How Rome was Built” went on at 10.30 pm last Saturday. It was a tremendous success and the crowd went wild. The ship shouted us two beers for the effort.
This afternoon was the crossing of the line ceremony at which we remained comfortably out of target range as ten poor souls were splattered with spaghetti, chocolate sauce, eggs, soup, tomato sauce, cream and meringue cakes for initiation in front of King Neptune and his mermaids. Quite a crowd came to watch and it was funny as long as you weren’t in the firing line. Tonight will be the Equatorial Ball.
As yet the only cabin parties have been in other people’s cabins like the one the other night where the ship’s butcher came too and we ended up eating salami and bread rolls with our Victoria Bitter about 3 am. One of our occupations is thinking up a reason for a celebration. Some of the best so far have been Muslim Christmas (where we sang Jingle Bells and all) while Taj bought the grog. We have our Farewell to Taj night soon. We had George Washington’s birthday. Bobby Burns birthday is the 25th and Australia Day on the 26th January and I’m sure we’ll find numerous others.
Tonight is a secret menu for Crossing the Equator celebration so I’d better get cleaned up and put on some clobber. The shower room and toilets we are convinced are our own private ones as there never seems to be anyone else around.
Later: As for the spread one fellow who had travelled on all the P&O ships said he’d never seen anything as good. The Equatorial ball was a great show. When the ball finished amid streamers and balloons we had another party on the afterdeck. I received my certificate for the Kingdom of King Neptune and was baptised “Octopus”.
The Curry Apple Orchard 