FIRST THE CIGGIES – NOW A ‘BOOZE CRUISE’!!
We were only a couple of days out of Liverpool aboard the Empress of Australia bound for Egypt in February 1951 when we sailed into seas so rough that the open decks were put out of bounds. Although the weather had abated a little by the following morning the majority of squaddies sharing my mess deck were ashen-faced seasick wrecks. When the Orderly Sergeant surveyed us during his Morning Rounds he detailed myself and about eight others who had also been spared the horror and indignity of mal de mer to a job of work that soon made us the envy of others on our draft.
On the Promenade Deck there was a cabin passengers bar which was used by officers and service families. For these more fortunate seafarers every night was party night with drinks at duty free prices. And how they took advantage of it! They would drink the bar almost dry and the following morning it had to be replenished from the bonded stores on G Deck. We were the ones detailed to carry the empty bottles down and the full ones back. Although a few tried it, there was no way you could get away with nicking full bottles for the bar stewards checked every crate as we delivered it.
But the empties we carried down were a different matter. Most of the bottles had contained spirits, liqueurs or wine. Often there was a quarter inch or more left in the bottom of them. This we emptied into small screw-top bottles secreted within our tunics. There was plenty of opportunity for this as our journey took us through seven decks. The duty usually involved four trips and lasted little longer than an hour. At the end of it we each possessed around half a pint of a more lethal cocktail than even the best versed barman could have ever dreamed up. And on no two days did it taste the same.
Once our chores were completed we relaxed upon the forward hatch sipping at our bottles and enjoying the luxury of cheap fags. But when we were well into the Med’ I used to save mine until after tiffin when I savoured it under the afternoon sun while marvelling at the sight of the school of porpoises which always accompanied us and the shoals of flying fish.
I still look back on the time upon that troopship as my first ocean-going cruise.
Although I have cruised many times since, sometimes all-inclusive where the
drinks were virtually free, none have ever been savoured with quite the same
relish as those very unique Empress of Australia cocktails of the day.