Trip Around The World
Chapter One Looking For A Ship	Chapter Two Ship Ahoy	Chapter Three First Foreign Soil	Chapter Four Ashore In Sydney
Chapter Five Peace At Sea	Chapter Six Typhoons Etc	Chapter Seven Far East	Chapter Eight Fire In The Hold
Chapter Nine Good Old USA		Back to Roger Kroth's Page

 

July 30, 1949	In Oeban after leaving Palembang. Some of these places will look familiar.  They did to us too, but we were in and out of there quite a bit.Â
August 5, 1949	In Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) for a couple of days then headed for Singapore. Sri Lnkan was Ceylon when we were there. It was an interesting country.  In the port where we docked we saw a number of sunken ships.  We swam in the area for a while.  It was a picturesque country or at least the place we were.  While we were there they were having a parade for King Dudagombo (sp) who ever he was, and people were waving branches and walking through the streets toward the a Buddha Temple. There were flower petals through the temple.  We had to take off our shoes to go in, so we did
August, 1949	In Singapore for a two week dry dock. Usually when we had a lengthy docking we got to go ashore some and look around.  Singapore is an interesting city too.  We went to the Raffles Hotel and sat under one of those lazy fans and drank a Singapore sling.  It felt rather decadent. One evening we went to a play.  It was different than the plays we performed in high school. But we enjoyed seeing it. They wore masks. We didn't have an interpreter but then we seldom did.  Usually when we were in port like that we did a lot of painting over the side.  At least it was break in the routine.. When the ship repairs were done and we were off again.  We headed for Japan
Sep 9, 1949Â	Off the coast of Okinawa headed for Japan. (Rog, was this where we got hit by the typhoon?) Dave posed the question and the answer is yes. A number of years later I had one of my doctoral students look it up in the one of New York Papers in the library for that those dates. Over thirty ships were sunk and considerable damage was done to Japan.  Of course, it wasn’t as bad as the bombing in WWII. Our first awareness of the typhoon, came when we were sitting at the mess table and the cups and salt shakers flew off the table.. If anyone asks me if I’ve seen a flying sauce, I have.  Dave had the steering duty and headed for the wheel.. and he never came back for a couple of days.. There is a walkway between the after cabins and the mid ships.  I have a picture I will put in.. It was eereie to listen to the bow of the ship go down in a swell and the rear end comes out of the water and the props whirring.   Dave and I had a chest of drawers in our cabin that kept falling over. I got it back a couple of times and left it. Ships like ours actually broke in two.  I don’t know if we were too dumb or were thrilled by the action but I don’t remember being scared.  We were fortunate to have good seamen, the Captain and the mates who knew how to navigate the ship. Head in to the wind and all of that!!!! Finally the storm abated and the seas settled down. We had to clean up the messes on deck and make sure everything was secured and headed for Japan. .
Sep 14, 1949Â	In Showa, Japan.  We had number of days in Japan.  When we first pulled up to the dock, those sailors who had leave headed off.  I remember having duty and later on the started straggling back and lined up at the Stewards cabin, he served as a medic and he dispensed plenty of PenicillinÂ
Sep 21, 1949	Still in Japan. It was awful to see the destruction that the Atomic Bomb and caused in this area.  People had scared bodies and buildings were leveled.  No wonder they sued for peace. Japanese men hug around the ship with things to sell. One guy had pair of binoculars and I coveted them.  He said he would sell them to me for three cartons of cigarettes (Whish was common barter in the ports.)  He said we couldn't do it on the ship and pointed out a place by a huge storage building.   He told me to bring the cigarettes and he would meet at the corner of the building. I was to reach around the corner and he would take the cigarettes and then he would hand me the binoculars You are way ahead of me. I gave him the Cigs and waited for the binocs, but he was long gone.   I should have learned something from WWII but I hadn’t. At least I didn't get a STD.
Oct 5, 1949	Eastbound off the coast of Fremantle, Australia.  We got our business done and headed for Australia. I'm putting a number of maps on these pages so that the reader can have an idea of where we were. I also think it will be good for our children and grandchildren to learn some geography and some place names. I wish we would have some maps when we were tooling around.Â
Oct 10, 1949Â	In Melbourne, Aust. (Roger's birthday today - mine tomorrow!)  As you can see it is about time for our birthdays. I put a picture of our new finery.  We had to buy clothes from time to time and it was time to have some warmer clothes.  Melbourne was a clean community. We didn't do much there. I think I had the duty again.
Oct 29, 1949Â	At sea enroute to Singapore.  Singapore was kind of a romantic place, and we hit there a number of times.  It is close to Oeban as you can see on the maps.
Dec 2, 1949	After Singapore we went to the Fiji Islands, then to Palembang; Oeban; Singapore; Karachi; Bombay and Abadan, Iran.  I loved to pull into the port on the Fiji Islands.  The water was so clear that we could see the rocks on the bottom.  We were on the opposite Island from Suva.  I seem to remember Mark Twain describing Lake Tahoe that way.  Once when I was trying to be hypnotized I thought of the tranquility of the scene.  I have often said that when I die I want to be cremated and have my ashes scattered there. 'sides it would give my family a trip to one of my favorite places. When we were in the harbor and actually went on shore we were attracted to the coconuts in the palm tree.  We tried to knock some down with sticks and a guy in shorts came by and asked what we were doing.  It turned out that he had been in the RAF during the WWII and had bought some land on the Island.  He raised cattle and sold milk to Suva, He shinnied up the tree and knocked down some coconuts for us and showed us how to get the milk out for a drink. He said that his kids went to school in New Zeeland.  He suggested that we take a little train up to the gold mines which we did.. and we saw bare breasted women working in the fields.. . My recollection of the Fiji Islands is that we were there earlier but Dave made careful notes from the letters that he sent home. Over the years , before we were there and long after, the quest for oil has caused trouble.. wars have and are fought over this liquid gold. We went up to Karachi, Pakistan and got challenged to a "football " game.  It took us a little while to figure out that they meant soccer as we knew it.  We were going to play a Swedish team on the next ship. Of course, Dave and I remembered playing soccer at recess but these guys took it serious.. they came out with real cleat shoes and cute little shorts and the battle was on.  Someplace in the Melee I fell around the soccer ball and everyone kept kicking, me and the ball.  As a result , I found out years later that I ended up with a bone chip in my knee. I limped around quite a bit on board the ship but as I remember I didn't get out of any work. Bombay was an interesting place.  You could see the split in the castes.  It went from opulance to poverty.. we find that children were maimed so they would have better luck begging.  As a result you could hear children  saying "Sahib Sahib" and wanting alms. It was hard to ignore but if one didn't, you would be a magnet for many kids. We went to a movie in Bombay.  when you got seated, there was a little tray in from of you and you got tea and crumpets.  No sleazzy Popcorn machines there.  I remember a horse drawn carriage of a guy trying to make a living giving rides.  the horse was so skinny you could see the ribs.  It fell  and the man started whipping it to get it up. lots of poverty!!! Back on board, we had a bunch of fakirs and others wanting handouts.  One of the fakirs had a snake ( I guess a Cobra) which would come out of the basket  and they looked at each other. another fakir looked at my hand and saw a seed wart  so he offered to take it off with his magic.  he put some what looked like tobacco juice over it and the sucked on a tube and I'llbe damned if the thing didn't come off and it has never returned to this day.. of course it has only been a little over fifty years. We got some news in the papers that used English.. It seemed that there were often wars.  Religion is associated with war. from the medival times to the present time. On up to Abadan in Iran.  we were warned to be careful going ashore there.  "White people were very vulnerable" and so we were told to at least have at least one other person with us. We did!!