[BITList] more morals

[realm33 at msn.com]

tks hugh

oh, I see. Fortunately, as I recall, I only sailed one one ship carrying a few middle aged or old colonial types - where they got there women from I don't know - but without exception, they would have put a young lad off sex for life! how the hell those type of stiff upper lip colonial types begat heirs is a mystery.........

never met sandy souter - just heard of him, quite  a lad

you lost me with, "RL Stevenson wrote (Travels With a Donkey in the Cevennes) that "the true babel is dissertation upon morals".  anyone care to join in and explain to me?

(just noticed there are 3 different siz fonts above - this appears to be my pc letting me know who is in charge)

colin t



  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: HUGH MCINTYRE<mailto:chakdara at btinternet.com> 
  To: bitlist at lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com<mailto:bitlist at lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com> 
  Sent: Friday, October 17, 2008 2:31 PM
  Subject: Re: [BITList] morals


  Colin,

  No mystery.  Before going on, RL Stevenson wrote (Travels With a Donkey in the Cevennes) that "the true babel is dissertation upon morals".  Nothing daunted, I go on.

  It comes down to basics, birds and bees, etc.  When I sailed with Sandy Souter, I (and the rest of us) got used to the fact that Sandy could detect a woman over the horizon, and that most of his waking hours, women being present or accessible, would be taken up with the pursuit of same to the exclusion of all else. The first time we met was when we joined Chakdara on the same day.  The first tale Sandy related was of having got away with an engaged lady, met casually, on the way down to London.  Once I went up top to wake him for daywork and found his jalousie door locked and the curtain drawn. I recollected him having had a young lady with him the previous evening, part of a group who had attended a party in the smokeroom, and I gathered she was still there, though the rest were long since gone.  I also recollected a group trying to work out his progress by listening with beer glasses on the bulkhead. I'd had a go at this myself when a glass was vacant, and detected nothing. Around 6.15am I managed to get a response, and a sleepy Sandy poked a head out and craved my patience.  I was patient till about 6.45, when he emerged in his boiler suit, followed by the young lady looking sheepish. "Do us a favour and see her ashore," he said.  So put on my uniform jacket and did so.  We walked in silence to the dock gate, were smiled at lewdly by the copper on duty, and arrived at the bus stop.  As the bus approached she broke the silence.  "I've never done anything like this before."  I couldn't think on a suitable response, and away she went.  Ladies' men are often disliked by other men, but not Sandy - he was always one of the lads, and we were deeply envious of his technique. The various ladies who passed through his hands were anonymous - here for a brief hour then gone forever. His business, not ours.

  My essay on Dilwara was occasioned by quite a different situation.  We had attended a function to celebrate New Year 1959. Where we were is not recorded - somewhere in the Med probably. One or two drinks were taken by one or two people.  I commented, "There are opportunities, were anyone willing to undergo the trials and tribulations that go with them."  I wasn't referring to job opportunities, nor was I thinking about unattached women.  I went on to ask myself, "Why do some women act so strangely aboard ship?" I can answer that now, being older and no wiser, but at the time I was newly engaged, fresh from a couple of months on Chinkoa, where wellnigh everyone phoned a wife or fiancee (their own) every possible night and wrote copious letters home.  Not at all typical, but that's the way it was on Chinkoa. In the aftermath of the New Year party a bunch of us reckoned that, whatever was on offer, we definitely weren't getting any - plus ca change ..... And so it came to pass.

  Hugh.




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