One Rule for “Them”…
Calls to ports in the West Indies and South America were always popular with the crew; they were sources of cheap rum - the essential ingredient for a good party! The West Indies was the place to get native rum that could blow your socks off. In the South American ports you could buy very cheap Bacardi.
Indeed, so cheap was it, that by comparison the price of Coca-Cola was astronomical! However, there was a downside to this. The Officers were also aware of this availability, so for us motley crew there was a rigorously enforced ban on us openly bringing such essential liquid back on board. Warnings of dire consequences were posted on every crew notice board.
That's not to say that we observed it! One place for us to replenish our supplies was Acapulco. But how to smuggle it into the launches back to the ship? Well, the sellers were also aware of the embargo and our need for a good subterfuge; so they also provided us with a neat little solution.
The secret was to hide the booty inside stuffed toy animals, usually rabbits, large enough to accommodate 2 quart bottles without them rattling. The deckhands charged with the enforcement were using the very same subterfuge themselves, so there would be just a knowing glance at inspection time. With a bit of organisation, the “toys” could do 3 or more round trips.
…And a Different Rule for “Us”!
For the Engineer Officers, the story was wholly different, as Robin Chalmers explains…
As has been mentioned, there were several ports where one could go ashore and purchase very cheap Bacardi. Without a doubt our favourite was Rio.
The late Vic Coles and I ran the engineers wardroom, with Vic the bar stockman and I the treasurer. Vic, another engineer and I went into town to seek out the warehouse we knew held the nectar we needed to sustain us through our travels.
First we were informed they wouldn't accept American dollars or UK Sterling so I went off to a large bank nearby to convert the wardroom money into the local currency. I was very nervous walking back to the warehouse with my pockets and shirt bulging with money. (the currency now is the Real but back then it was the Cruzeiro. I had over 350,000!)
Anyway, we made the transaction and hailed three taxis to transport us back to the ship with our cases. We'd paid about 60 US cents per quart (superb value) and ended up with a total thirty cases of Bacardi, ten cases in each of the three taxis.
So, with one engineer and ten cases in each taxi, off we went. When we arrived back at the ship we unloaded the cases onto one of the specially lowered ship's launches and lifted our valuable cargo up to the Sun Deck, ready to stow it in the engineers wardroom. Job complete.
At the same time two Mates, (some call them ship's officers) went to the same warehouse and went through the same procedure but only purchased eight cases. (Each case contained six bottles) This is where one stark difference came about.
The Mates put all their Bacardi into one taxi, then got into another to head back to the docks. Imagine their surprise and fury when they arrived at the Caronia but the taxi containing the Bacardi didn't!
It was so sad, we just had to toast them as we sailed out of Rio that evening with our new supply. We even invited two of them into our wardroom for a nice drink. (But only that one time)
If you can contribute any information, do please get in touch…
with slide show
