The Demise of the SS Corfu Island by Frixos Sekkides

Author:Frixos Sekkides
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIO023000, TRV000000, BIO000000
ISBN: 9781908959096
Publisher: Wattle Publishing Ltd
Published: 2012-12-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Four

I thoroughly enjoyed my short stay in Sweden, but after a happy reunion with my friends in Stockholm, it was time to return to London. When I arrived back, there were a number of urgent phone messages waiting for me from the company, urging me to report to Head Office with regard to joining the Liberian registered SS Atticos. The next morning, I was received by Mr. Kyriacos Mouskas who apologized for dragging me away from my holiday.

“We want you to join the SS Atticos. The ship has been chartered to transport 10,000 tons of sugar (in bags) from the Tate & Lyle refineries in the London Docks to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. Your Captain will be Petros Paschalis … yes, the old Captain from SS Corfu Island. He’s been phoning me every day for the past week, trying to locate you in order to join him on the SS Atticos.”

I was glad to see my old Captain again. He looked well and happy, although still a confirmed bachelor. It took about a week to load our cargo. In the evenings we visited the West End pubs he loved so much. He also had a soft spot for the pretty barmaids. He enjoyed his drink, but not to the extent of being drunk. We used to talk about things in general but, surprisingly, we never mentioned the loss of SS Corfu Island. On our way to Jeddah we encountered a bit of rough weather in the Bay of Biscay, but it only lasted for a day. Once we were through the Straits of Gibraltar, it was plain sailing. The passage through the Suez Canal was also smooth and uneventful, and we arrived in the port of Jeddah, the closest port to Mecca, on March 17th, 1964.

Our arrival coincided with a very special event in the calendar of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Festivities of Ramadan. We were lucky enough to be allowed entrance to the harbor so quickly. The unloading of eighty-kilo sacks of sugar began in earnest. They made use of our winch facilities to unload, which was a laborious and time-consuming method. As if that were not enough, the very next day, an armada of passenger ships arrived bringing thousands of pilgrims from all over the Muslim world, all dressed in their immaculate white robes to celebrate Ramadan in Mecca. We had only a day of unloading before we were ordered to anchor outside the harbor. In Jeddah the disembarkation of pilgrims always took precedence over everything else.

Every day we were visited by two young Greek Cypriot brothers, Loucas and Vassos of the Hadjioannou family, who were acting as representative agents looking after the interests of the ship. They were charming young men and very knowledgeable of the customs of Saudi Arabia. The brothers were working for their uncle, the sole agent in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Their uncle had no children, but was very rich.

We were in and out of the harbor for over a month.

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