Christmas on the High Seas

FORTY FIVE YEARS AGO, in December 1962 our family returned to Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) after a year in England. We traveled on the Pretoria Castle, a 28,705 ton oceanliner owned by the Union Castle Line whose fleet sailed weekly between Southampton and South Africa. Our family occupied a cabin on the 'C' deck (for 'cheapest'!) just above the water line, or so it seemed. We left Southamption on a Thursday evening headed for Cape Town from where we would travel north by train for four days to our final destination in Northern Rhodesia.

MADEIRA
On Sunday we stopped at the Portuguese island of Madeira but remained on board and viewed the port of Funchal from a distance. We did enjoy the sight of nimble young lads climbing on board and diving from the deck rails into the water after coins tossed in by the passengers. Hitting salt water from such a height must have hurt their heads but somehow they managed to cushion the blow.

We then sailed south for five days without a view of land. We occupied our time with deck games, various organized activities, and special initiation ceremonies with King Neptune as we crossed the equator. Having crossed it before in the 1953-54 voyages we escaped the initiation process...I think.

ASCENSION ISLAND
The following Friday saw us arrive off of Ascension Island but passengers had to remain on board due to security on the island which contained a major telecommuications and satellite tracking station. I remember watching schools of piranha fighting over bits of food thrown over the side. Several men who let a fishing line down the side of the ship managed to snag a large fish (they called it a tiger fish) but the weight of it broke the line as they were hauling it up the side.

ST. HELENA

Our next stop was two days south at St. Helena island, famous for being the site of Napoleon's final exile and resting place. This was a special voyage because Union Castle only routed their ships via Ascension and St. Helena four times a year. The ship anchored off shore and small boats from the mainland ferried passengers ashore to shop and see the sights. Being a Sunday Dad restricted what we could do i.e. we could not spend any money. So Mum, Esther, and I decided to climb another of St. Helena's famous attractions named Jacob's Ladder. Comprising 699 steps and 900 feet in length the stone stairway takes you from the town at sea level up to a fort on the adjacent highland. Somehow we managed to make it to the top and then walked down along the less steep roadway that had probably been constructed at a later date.

CHRISTMAS

Christmas day fell on Tuesday. Throughout the journey Dad and Mum had hosted a daily Bible Study in our cabin for any who wanted to join. As I recall there were about 20 each day including fellow Northern Rhodesian missionaries and a lady with the Dorothea Mission in South Africa. No doubt the Bible Study was held that day as any other. However two events help me to remember that specific day. Somehow Mum and Dad had managed to smuggle a suitcase or two of wrapped gifts on board giving us a wonderful surprise for the day although I do not remember the details of the specific gifts. Later the staff of the ship had all the children congregate in a foyer area near an elevator (lift). The elevator door was decorated to look like a fireplace and, you guessed it, Father Christmas (Santa Claus) emerged from the elevator as if he had just dropped down the chimney. With a "Ho! Ho! Ho!' he swung his big bag of toys off his shoulders and proceeded to hand out gifts to all the children - twelve and under. I was thirteen, considered now grown up, so I stifled my diappointment and realized that I was not a child anymore. Gifts would not come so readily in the years ahead.

CAPE TOWN
Early morning two or three days later we docked at Cape Town Harbor and that afternoon boarded a train for the long trip north to Ndola in land-locked Northern Rhodesia.

rpk