Well the Comito was a very happy ship, it was like one big
family, there was always parties in the crew, you know. I used to
go ashore and get the Jamaican rum and that the parties until 2 in
the morning, 3 o'clock. Fantastic. I used
to love it.
Question:
It was a happy ship was it?
Yes it was happy. But it was flat bottomed and it used
to roll if another ship passed. It used to go (gesture)
like that and one trip we were leaving Jamaica, we called at
Bermuda, and we had just left Bermuda and we hit the tail end of a
hurricane. Oh, I thought the ship was going to turn
over. All the way was...them houses over there, three
times higher than their roofs, the waves was coming up like
that. And I thought the ship...it was going right
over. And you had to put the lifelines up in the galley
to hang onto, and lifelines in the restaurant to hang onto when you
was serving. And one passenger, I'll never forget this,
he ordered a kipper and toast and tea. And I thought,
oh my, I shall be seasick. And I went swinging like
Tarzan on the rope and milk churns was flying about like that, it
was only a small galley and the banana boat like that, and I’ve got
this kipper toast and tea and I put it down on the dumb waiter and
turned round give him the kipper, I turned around to pick up
the...I heard an almighty crash because the chairs on there, they
were screwed down with the ropes underneath the thing, that had
snapped and it was flung right down the restaurant
(laughing). But that morning at 4 o'clock, 5 o'clock,
we all had to get out of our bunks. I used to put a
life jacket under my mattress to have it curled up otherwise I'd
fall out of the bunk with the ship going like that. Ooh
it was dreadful. And we had to go into the restaurant,
the saloon, and all the cupboards had opened and all the sugar,
tea, marmalade and jams had smashed and I was sliding with a bucket
from one side of the restaurant to the other mopping it all
up. Oh it was absolut...the railings was all twisted,
it was absolutely horrendous.
Question:
Did you suffer from seasickness?
Yeah. (laughing)
Question:
And you still had to work?
Yes. Mmm. Especially when they wanted egg
and bacon and things like that, I thought Oh my God.
(Laughs)Question:
People still ate in the conditions though?
They say if you're sea sick, if you calm your stomach, what is it
now, Port and Brandy, that calms your stomach they say, but oh
no. Or dry toast, or anything dry because when you've
got nothing in your stomach when you're sick it's like the bile
coming up green. Oh.
