Methuselah
Player Valuation: £35m
Apart from the Birkenhead ferry, I had never 'been to sea'. I returned from Singapore to the UK by troopship, HMS Dunera. The Dunera was the smallest of the troopships at only 13,000 tons. Half the size of the others. The Suez Canal was closed due to the Suez crises so we had to go round the Cape. This was early 1957. Our first stop was Colombo in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and we had a days shore leave. I remember getting back to the ship, late afternoon. It was 90 degrees farenheit outside but where we queued for our evening meal was down in the bowels of the ship. We stood in the queue dripping with sweat. One of the cooks came out with a thermometer which showed the temperature at 128 degrees farenheit! We sailed down through the Indian Ocean where we saw lots of whales and sharks and our next port of call was Mauritius where we had another shore leave. While we were crossing the Indian Ocean I had my 21st birthday. Some mates arranged for a record to be played on the ships tannoy. Next day, another 21st birthday record was played for a John Chick who I sat next to in school in Liverpool. His birthday was the day after mine. It took me some time to find him (1,300 troops on board) but did eventually. Never seen him since, sadly. Our next stop was Cape Town and another shore leave. The people of Cape Town were very hospitable and we had a great day. The final stop was in Daka which was then French West Africa. Now Senagal. Arrangements had been made for a Dunera football team to play the French Foreign Legion who had a fort in Daka. I was chosen to play in the team and was also appointed captain. On the day, we found out that the game had been cancelled. Never found out why, most disappointed. Hit a mega storm in the Bay of Biscay, weren't allowed on deck. It was like spending several hours in a turbo lift. Arrived in Southampton 42 days after leaving Singapore, never had any inclination to go on a cruise again!
