Good-bye Singapore. Leaving Singapore (Empire Docks). In just over five and a half weeks we will be at Southampton. We had to go via Durban and around South Africa as the Suez was closed.

Waiting for notes

Waiting for notes

Waiting for notes

Waiting for notes

A line-crossing ceremony. The ceremony of Crossing the Line is an initiation rite in the Dutch merchant navy, Royal Navy, U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Marine Corps, Russian Navy, and other navies that commemorates a sailor's first crossing of the Equator. The tradition may have originated with ceremonies when passing headlands, and become a "folly" sanctioned as a boost to morale, or have been created as a test for seasoned sailors to ensure their new shipmates were capable of handling long rough times at sea. Sailors who have already crossed the Equator are nicknamed (Trusty/Honorable) Shellbacks, often referred to as Sons of Neptune; those who have not are nicknamed (Slimy) Pollywogs (in 1832 the nickname griffins was noted. Equator-crossing ceremonies, typically featuring King Neptune, are also sometimes carried out for passengers' entertainment on civilian ocean liners and cruise ships. They are also performed in the merchant navy and aboard sail training ships.

AS ABOVE

The ship we came home in. We were delayed in Durban for three days.

THE LADY IN WHITE. Perla Siedle Gibson was a South African soprano and artist who became internationally celebrated during the Second World War as:- THE LADY IN WHITE, when she sang to the troups onboard the troopships passing in and out of Durban harbour. She passed away in 1971, a few days before her 83rd birthday. A statue to Perla was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II in 1995. It stands in a prominent place next to the Emtateni Centre, which is part of the Ocean Terminal Building on the T-Jetty