Travel

[j.sabourn]

#20... Brian, reckon the Carnival was as good as the Rio one, although never saw the one in Rio. 3 days shuffling around the streets drinking Old Oak rum usually was a feat in itself. We had a Trinidadian crew who I am sure used to pay the stevedores to go slow or as they would say take it light. One of our stewardesses was Guyanese and her sister was Miss Guyana that year, she was as good looking as her sister. We used to take out general cargo including sometimes Carriage Horses on deck in special built stalls, for Bermuda. Six Reefer boxes on Deck as permanent fixtures for chilled and frozen foodstuffs and were also the official mail ship for most of the WI islands. The 2nd.Mate was responsible for the bags of mail and was a sackable offence to overcarry a bag, makes you wonder about todays postal system. The 2nd. Engineer and myself were the only 2 British subjects on board and had two rooms booked in advance in the Turf Hotel in Port of Spain overlooking the Racecourse, our excuse being no air conditioning on ship. The place used to be jumping. Like yourself the back load was Bauxite for Port Alfred, and then back to Montreal and start all over again. When you hear of all the trouble and strife you hear about nowadays about some of these places, makes one wonder, as they were indeed Islands in the Sun in my memories. We were paid monthly in US dollars so money was always available unlike a British ship where you were at the whim of the master. Rates of exchange were also good in the BWI. Regards JS