They used so much bleach and stuff you still couldn't kill the
cockroaches. Although it was a t... quite clean for the size of the
ship it was ... it had to be because it was on the New York run and
the New York Health Authorities were the first ones to hop on board
... and if you failed the Health Authorities there well you
couldn't sail. But I've been on certain ships where the cockroaches
can carry the ship along.
Question: It was just an occupational hazard then ... you just
have to accept it?
Yes. They fell on your head and everything would go on into the
soup. Once it was boiled up you wouldn't know the difference. I
remember a certain ship that was in, the waiter's carrying the big
soup tureen up on his shoulder like that, through the revolving
door, and before he went through the door the cockroaches fell into
the soup, he just went through it and back out again ... back in
again.
