Coconut crusted shrimp in mango chutney
by Published on 3rd July 2016 07:28 PM
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Tue Jun 28th at sea in the North Atlantic: Afterglow: It is the new Carinthia Club that seems to be the top hit amidst the refit changes. And yes, indeed, my favorite: pillowed sofas, soft chairs, a cozy feel & light breakfast and lunch. And soothing classical music in the evening – the ideal retreat!
A steamy past: Dave Townson is a fellow guest & former steamship purser. He loves ships (and planes too!). The original steam whistle from the 1936-built Queen Mary is here aboard the current Queen Mary 2 – great maritime continuity. And so, Dave scribbled this poem about that same whistle:
LINER NOTES
I used to be the Mary's voice
But now with QM2's I'm twinned.
A regal reason to rejoice,
At last I've found my second wind.
I'm just a boomer, heaven knows,
But have a long and steamy past,
And yet, in spite of all the blows,
I find the job is still a blast.
I was a siren once, they say,
But sound the same today as then,
And though I'm keyed to low bass A,
It's good to B at C again.
Less-than-happy report in our mailbox: In last week's Scribblings about the Italian Line & its grand fleet of passenger ships, the final years of such great companies can often be marked with indifference and decline. Our great friend & fellow maritime author Dick der Kerbrech wrote from the Isle of Wight: "Travelled on the Cristoforo Colombo during March 1976 from Trieste to Lisbon via Naples, Genoa, Cannes & Barcelona. She was then on the South American run. I think the ship was about a quarter full. The Italian crew and the stewards were by this time paid good wages across the Italian merchant service. Hence they were no longer reliant on tips. To this end the service was indifferent, the menu not too varied (mainly pasta based). Some staff were, to my mind, a bit taciturn. The cabin was clean but some of the mosaics in the shower were showing signs of deterioration and were breaking up. In the late evening, cold meats from the day were placed on a table on the Promenade Deck in the form of an open buffet. It was this time that cohorts of cockroaches would march along the decks. This is NOT an exaggeration and the crunch of them under foot was quite upsetting. This was the nightly routine although the wooden deck was really clean. For the entire voyage, the Cristoforo Colombo had a 4-5 degree list to starboard (as I recall). I felt I had come upon the Italia Line on the wane, and I think I probably had. Quite a contrast to their service of the '50s and '60s. Sorry to submit a bad report but I had such high expectations."
Gorgeous, warm, early summer weather these days & so I am both delighted, grateful & even humbled to see such large attendance at my talks. Today was quite something – the guests were sitting on the staircases in Illuminations and were 3-4 deep standing in the rear. Otherwise, short meetings & chats & quick stories and anecdotes with lots of friendly listeners – from the likes of the long-ago Bristol City Line, Dart Container Line, Shaw Savill Line, Blue Funnel Line and, more obscurely, London & Overseas Tankers and MAN diesels. A lady said, "My mother, father, my sister & I emigrated from England to New York in 1949. We landed in Hoboken. We sailed on the Bristol City Line, on a freighter carrying only 12 passengers. It was called the Bristol City."
Southern Cajun style: Dinner tonight in the Smokehouse Grill – a menu based on American Southern cuisine with a touch of Mexican thrown in. Items offered included: Maryland Cakes in Fiery Tomato Sauce & Buffalo Chicken Wings in Sweet Chilli Sauce; Coconut Crusted Shrimp in Peach and Mango Chutney & Memphis Style Baby Back Ribs in a Sweet Spiced Rub & Jack Daniels Honey BBQ Sauce; Cookies & Cream Tart with Spiced Peach & Vanilla Cream Sauce and Vanilla Cheesecake with Oreo Crumb, Toasted Marshmallows & Chocolate-Pecan Ice Cream.
Wed Jun 29th at sea off Newfoundland: Southern waters: "My father had business in Argentina. He was in management and had extended travel privileges," remembered a lady from Falmouth in England. "We were sent out to Buenos Aires for two years in the late 1950s. We sailed out on the Andes, in first class and which was very grand. It was all very gracious British service – grand afternoon teas, long and very formal dinners and lots of dressing. There were some wealthy passengers onboard including some very rich Argentines, who traveled with their personal servants. It took about two weeks from Southampton to Buenos Aires. We returned to London on the Uruguay Star, but which was a very different ship. It carried only 50 passengers and, compared to the Andes, was very quiet, less formal. But both ships were very memorable experiences. I hadn't thought of them in years, but your lectures on liners brought back many, many memories."
Maritime memories! A lovely couple remember Liverpool from its days as a great seaport, one crammed with ships including some notable passenger ships. Today, they pass along a sentimentally reflective poem:
THE DOCKS
Gone are the docks
That made young men's dreams
come true
Lost are the skills
That gave them their chance
Grown old now those
Lucky young men and the girls
they once knew
Gone are the ships
That were full of romance
Thu Jun 30th at sea off New England: Link to the old Empire! Martin Shawcross served briefly back in the 1950s with the evocatively named British India Steam Navigation Company Limited, which had dozens of ships, passenger as well as freight, that linked South & East Africa, India & the Middle East as well as Australia & the Far East. "My first British India ship was the freighter Chantala, which was also the Company's training ship," he told me today. "She carried up to 40 cadets plus 44 regular crew and 12 passengers. Altogether there was close to 100 onboard. You'd never have that, say, these days and where huge containerships often have less than two dozen crew members. The Chantala was on BI's UK-Australia service. Later, I went to BI's O Class freighters, which sailed between Bombay and Karachi and then to Malaysia, Hong Kong & Japan. In some areas, in the Fifties, we were still on alert for mines left over from the Second World War. We carried all sorts of cargo -- such as dates and cotton and even scrap metal from India to the Far East, and then returned with items such as sulfur, carbon, sugar and even newspaper."
Fri Jul 1st Ar New York/Brooklyn 7:00am: A great trip in every way, but very, very happy to be home – and my own bed!
Last edited by Doc Vernon; 3rd July 2016 at 07:30 PM.
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