Best thing about lying at anchor was if you missed the last boat back to the ship you had to stay ashore "all night" !!
A lot of us from the Crystal Diamond were arrested in the G. Bucket because it was a 'Tavern' and not a bar. The closing time for a tavern was 9pm. A young Police Cadet made the arrest (8 or 9 of us) with his mates pis****g themselves laughing at him. He had lectured us about closing times and gave us the choice of learning our lesson and going back to our ship or going to jail for the night. The last launch was gone to we elected to spend the night in jail (which he did'nt expect us to do). It was a small concrete cell with a raised part for sleeping on and a bucket to do yer business in. It was definatley NOT a GOLDEN BUCKET. It was still full from the previous residents stay. We appeared in court the next morning with half the population of S.la.M. in court or leaning through the open windows to watch our 'sentence'. The Police Cadet was asked by the judge if we had caused trouble, resisted arrest, were fighting, were disrupting the peace.............the answer to all questions was NO.
The judge proceeded to give him a king sized bollicking and told us we were all free to go. He also apologised on behalf of the Jamaican Government and offered his personal apologies for our hardship. We were 'heroes' in town that night. There is a sequel to this story which I will tell at a later date if anyone is interested. :)
BG
