Africa 3

We sailed from Apapa and went into what we called the creeks, they were big enough for ocean going ships to traverse but were full of twists and turns.
There was dense jungle on either bank and you could hear all manner of animals calling. It seemed an odd juxtaposition, there we were ,on a modern liner with all manner of creature comforts and there ,just yards away on either side was the real Africa ,feral and full of lush vegetation exotic animal life. Every now and then we would pass a small village ,just a few huts and a jetty ,these were fisher folk and the children would wave and call out to us.
I had been told about the Mango flies, these creatures were supposed to give you a very nasty sting and deposit their eggs in you when doing so. I had heasrd blood curdling tales of men being driven half mad as the eggs incubated and the larvae ate their way out your body. I can remember painting the rails on the prom deck with Dave Cook when one of these monsters bit him on the shoulder. He yelped and then looked at me as though was doomed,.?What the feck am I gonna do now ?? he wailed ,?Go and see the mate, he might know? I answered pathetically. The first thing he asked Dave was whether he was bitten by a male or a female. You can guess what Daves answer was to that question. As it happens ,nothing gruesome occurred to Dave, well not yet.

Just a bit about the Mate, he was a nice man, in his middle thirties or so, he never sailed with a white deck crew before so he came to the Sulima with a head full of preconceived ideas. He let slip to someone that he had heard that we white crews were all sodomites and was quite chary when in our company. We compounded his beliefs about us being buggers by calling other the names of female characters out of Coronation Street ,the t.v. sit com. His adams apple would joggle up and down as big hairy arsed sailors would call out ?Elsie, slack that rope wouldja ? to be answered by ? O.K. luv?
We kept it up for ages and he was unsure of whether we were a cargo of canned goods or not. He had to do a fire inspection of the entire vessel every now and then,usually on the 4 to 8 watch after dinner. The crowd of us were in the showers having a good scrub when one of the Sos?s ran in ? The mates comin up the alley lads? We jumped out of the showers and formed a circle ,close up and tight as we sang ?Happy days are here again????.? The Mate stepped into the latrines and near fainted. We were screaming with laughter and he realised we had been spoofing him all along.At least I think he did !



Burutu was to be our first call in the creeks and Monsie put me in the punt with a Jos to start painting the ships side. We went at it all morning and then climbed back aboard for our midday meal . I had just fined eating when Monsie came in ,he was yelling at me so loud that I could?nt make out what he was shouting for. ?The punt ,you stupid basterd,the punt, yer?ve gone an lost it?
I was quite puzzled at this outburst and went with him to check. The river was tidal here and the punt was only fast at one end ,so the punt was about 30 foot away from she would have been had it been made fast at both ends. But there she was and Monsie looked so daft that I almost felt sorry for him. I went ashore that night with a couple of the lads, the heat was so intense, it was like being in a pressure cooker ,but we all wore long sleeved shirts because the mosquito?s swarmed about the place. It was a curious township, most;ly tin shacks and warehouses, I never got to see it in daylight so I never got a clear picture of the place. There were a couple of bars and there was a place of dancing. Not a dance hall , more of a compound, there was a corrugated iron wall that surrounded the place ,which was entered via a little wicket gate. We heard it before we saw it and decided to have a look see. There was a wonderful Hi-Life band blowing up a storm and the dancing area was full of couples who were dressed in their Sunday best.
There were no alcoholic drinks for sale ,just lemonades but there was an exuberance there that was so joyous. We were made welcome and were just happy to hear that band playing it?s music,it was like a cross between Ska and Calypso.
The banned stopped playing and a young girl came around selling whole fried pigeons ,which were delicious, and on stage some one had wheeled on a big old valve radio and was tuning it into ,with a mixture of whistle and static, the BBC Overseas programme, . The sound of violin and saxophone heralded Victor Sylvester and his orchestra. There was loud applause as the programme started and couples danced to every tune that was played. I had often heard the programme ,which was on a Sunday night on the light programme at home, but here were it?s most earnest listeners. We had a few more beers in the nearest bar and then made our way back to our bunks.. We would be going to Sapele in the morning.

If I thought Burutu was deepest darkest Africa Sapele made me think again, this really was a river that called for navigational skills, it is the only time I have ever seen the lead line used repeatedly, and it was not a river that you would choose to travel at night on. We had to use the kedge anchor at this place ;there were small bayous off the river and we would moor up bow first with stern stuck out in the river. We dropped our Kedge,which was on the stern so that we could haul ourselves out of the bayou when we were leaving. It was strange to travel through the jungle and then come upon a shoe factory right in the midst of that lush greenery. It was the Bata shoe factory and ,who knows we could have bought them in shoe shops at home. We had now finished unloading our cargo and it was time to start loading.
I was put back to work in the punt, I must have been good at it because he ,Monsie, would?nt give me a workmate. I was on my own. He also thought it would be a good idea to rig up a trestle in the punt so that I could reach higher up the shipside. Two eight foot trestles were put in the punt and a painting stage was put on the second rung from the top. As soon as I climbed down there I had the feeling that it would?nt go well, and besides ,there were reputed to be crocodiles in this river??????I made sure that I moored her as tight as I could , she was?nt going anywhere. I had two colours to apply, red boot topping and black paint for walls. I started with the boot topping first ,I could do that with a hand roller while standing in the punt. When I had done all I could reach to from the punts deck I then took the black roller ,which was on a ten foot bamboo pole , and then ascended the trestle to commence the main body of work. As I started rollering above me I perceived the punt being pushed out from the ships side. I immediately shortened my range and was able to manage it safely without pushing myself away from the side. All would have been well if that tug pulling a raft of mahogany logs had?nt come by while I was still on top of the trestle. I had the roller up above me when I felt the punt move away from the side ,the roller slid down the steel plates and then punt started to tip over ?????.over she went and in I went and all I could think was crocodiles! The stage had come crashing down with me and the horn at one end it some how went down the front of my shirt and trapped me there. I was frantic ,I could?nt free myself and had not brought my knife with me. The surface above me was darkened with the paint that had spilled over with me. .It is amazing what you can do when you are really afraid ,I ripped the shirt front open and shot up to the surface; I was able to grasp the Jacobs ladder and climbed wearily back up on deck. I had come up through the red and black paint that lay on the surface of the water ,it was everywhere ,my chest was bloody from the stages horns. It was a long climb upward and no one had seen me fall. As I climbed over the bulwark one the harchmen turned around to see what was making the noise, it was me spitting and snorting. His eyes were like saucers and he yelled ?Aiiiyieaaa? Soon everyone on deck was looking my way and someone called ? It is Mistah Red and Black?
I could see the funny side of it too ;and that was the end of working in the punt single handed.