Saturday March 25, 2023
Saturday and a day to sleep in a bit after the restless night (due to coffee and tea, nothing to do with the 2 1/2 bottles of wine for Roger and 1/2 bottle for Anne!!!) They were conducting an all staff training exercise, simulating a fire in the engine room. At 10AM all other actions stop and all the crew are required to present themselves for the event and thus get trained.
The first lecture by the military historian Stuart Usher was on the German cruiser – Emden and it’s sinking by the Australian warship Sydney in the Cocos Keeling Islands in 1914. This group of islands in the Indian Ocean were never of concern to anyone, but at some point in the late 1800’s an underwater communications cable was laid to connect Australia with UK and other such countries. At these islands there was a relay station and it was felt that either this cable or an antenna would help in communications between UK and the rest of South Asia. The Emden operating alone had wrecked 20+ allied ships and was going strong. The radio transmission from the island indicated that there was an undesirable ship coming to the island and SOS. The Australian ships were helping a convoy of 10,000+ ANZAC troops to the African Front, when one of the Australian ships broke off from the convoy and went up to the islands. By the time the Aussie ship arrived, the Germans had sent all their best men to destroy the communications. They cut the cable and downed the tower, after which they headed back to the Emden. Unbeknownst to them the ship realized that the Australian Sydney was closing in on them and a battle ensued which eventually resulted in the destruction of the Emden and capture of Captain Karl Von Mueller. He and the remaining men were incarcerated and ultimately repatriated after the war to Germany where he was promoted, but never went back to sea as he had contracted malaria and eventually died on 11 March 1923. The shore party, realizing that they were now on their own remembered that they had seen an old ship on the island owned by the Island owner. They commandeered the schooner Ayesha which had fallen into disuse and lying rotting in the harbor. The leader felt it was seaworthy enough for their purposes and after provisioning set sail with 8 weeks of food and 1 month of water. In November 1914, they scuttled the schooner in Sumatra got onto another ship to Africa and then by train until all the crew got back in May 1915 in Constantinople.
The second lecture was by Dave Mallinder on the story of Sammy Davis Jr. Who did a terrific job starting with his early performances at 5 where he was touring with his father and Will Masters. He learned to sing and dance and became extremely proficient in both. He eventually was in a song group performing with another young singer – Frank Sinatra. They became good and lifelong friends and together with Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop and Dean Martin formed “The Rat Pack”. As a group of good friends, they performed and made movies together and had fun together. Sammy starred in a number of movies, Oceans Eleven, Sergeants 3, Stop the world I want to get off, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Candy man) and a number of others. A car crash returning from a show in Las Vegas caused the loss of one eye. He had various wives, but divorced all but the last one. His talent was exceptional, dying at 65 on 16 May 1990 from throat cancer. His “theme song” was Mister BoJangels.
The final lecture was by the professional tennis player and Wimbledon Referee – Andrew Jarrett who gave a very interesting talk on what it is like to be a Tennis Professional. One hears of the stars and top players who get millions and fly around in private jets with an entourage of a dozen people, but what about the rest of the players. In a typical tournament there are 128 players, of which 64 are eliminated in the first round, leaving only 63 matches left in the tournament. What is the life of these excellent players? In the olden days they eked out an existence, often having to cover expenses and loosing money. For example at Wimbledon the Total Prize money for the entire tournament in the 1960’s was some £40,000 now £40 millIon and £40,000 is now awarded to those that leave in the first round!! A very realistic and interesting approach to the realities of life on the Tennis Circuit.
The evening show was the very talented New Zealand singer (6 ft 7 inches tall) – Russell Harrison who worked with the audience and sang a number of songs, not generally known by the audience, but an excellent performance. We put our clocks back one hour tonight.
Roger & Anne Travels 