RMS Windsor Castle - a confession

[Nigel Smith]

I feel it's time to come clean after almost 50 odd years, hopefully it's safe to do so ?

This concerns a night ashore in Cape Town involving visits to such places as the Navigators, Spurs and a few other drinking establishments.

We had walked (with difficulty) back to the ship, and somehow ended up on the Well Deck with a few cans. Anyone that served on the Windsor may be aware that there was also the crew swimming pool on the Well Deck, the type with wooden sides and a canvas liner about 6 feet deep.

During the consumption of the cans, some of the empties was tossed into the the swimming pool. This led to a lot of shouting as many of the shore gang would get their heads down in the (empty) pool at night. But eventually the shouting subsided and all went quiet and we finished the cans.

It was noticed as we were about to head down below that the fire hydrants were charged, one of the hydrants was connected to the pool

So my apologies to the significant number of sleeping beauties within the pool that night, that 'may' have been disturbed by a surge of dampness

[happy daze john in oz]

And if I m ay ask when was this?

I was on the Windsor for some time from voyage two, and we behaved ourselves not getting drunk in the pig.
That was an impossibility due to the amount of H2o added to it by the barman.


But having been thrown out of good establishments such as the Navigators, Grand Hotel and Delmomicos I can sympathize with those poor souls in the pool.

[Nigel Smith]

And if I m ay ask when was this?

This would have been late 60's, early 70's. I no longer have my Discharge book and the memory is not great, as far as I recall I only did the 2 trips on the Windsor prior to joining Esso (whom eventually paid for my 2nd Mates).

[robpage]

I think all of those ships created fantastic memories for everybody who took part in what was a wonderful liner service

[happy daze john in oz]

There were times when on reflection things occurred which were comical, to a point.


As assistant pantry on the Pretoria it was all go during meal service, we had to carry all the cooked foods from main galley to the Tourist gallop server.
Non stop and you had to move.

The bakery was where we often had to bring deserts up from and on this occasion Mick, the other assistant and I were busy doing just that.


Cooky, the head baker as we called him , was coming out of the cool room with a large slab of puff pastry he had just completed.
Mick in such a rush bumped into him and the pastry hit the deck.
Coming up close behind Mick I did not stop in time and placed my size 12 foot right in the middle of the pastry slab leaving quite an impression on the pasty but not on Cooky.


Screaming that we had ruined it I told him,
'No Cooky what you have now is Shoe (choux) pastry.'
Mick unfortunately then caught the caught the hit to the side of the head meant for me.

But all was well, next day in Tourist, Chicken and Ham Vol Au Vents.