Part 2 of a weekly series of blogs about Rex Wailes’ 1929 trip to the USA and Canada.
Belfast Lough. Photo by Yuri Loginov from Pexels
Sunday evening 28.4.29.
Had a restful night. The boat has a compound vibration that periodically damps down. We anchored in the middle of Belfast Lough at 4 a.m. Nothing happened until about 12.30 p.m. when the tender from Belfast came alongside – the Lough is too shallow for big boats to come right in. It was quite choppy and those on the tender were pretty green – some were sick. We weighed anchor at 2 p.m. not having seen very much of Ireland on account of the haze. I was on deck most of the time, with a Cumberland ex-policeman, widowed and going out to see his various relations in U.S. Also an American called Graham (or Graeme) youngish with his wife. Had a talk with one of the sailors – a proper Socialist hating the Seamans Union and all for the Transport workers Union. All talk I should say.
We passed Ailsa Craig at 4.45 and were soon steaming up to Greenock between wonderful hills and in faint sunshine.
We have a string band! Two violins, ‘cello, double bass and piano. They performed from 4.30 to 5.20 p.m. Their “ensemble” and bowing isn’t very good, and they are not yet in practice I’m afraid. They have only cinema and restaurant arrangements; I asked the leader for a Haydn quartet or a Schubert Trio but no music and no viola. For the rest we have had hymns on the H.M.V. electric reproducer, including Clara Butt at her most powerful! And why won’t the “gramophone steward” (to dub him with an unoffical title) listen to hear when the motor is running down. Then we have had hymns, old community songs (sung solo) and jazz on the piano in the writing room.
Right: Dame Clara Butt (1872-1936), contralto
I got my letters written before and after supper, and watched the passenger and mail tenders unloading for over an hour. Had a bath before supper, salt – they give one a tub of fresh water (hot as well), placed on a platform at the end of the bath. One can’t wash in salt water with soap, and a flesh cloth would be a good thing since one must wash from the tub. A woman with a small 8 year old girl and 12 month baby came aboard at Belfast and have the cabin next to me. The baby is a bit fractious and looks like being a sleep preventer – I’m sorry for the mother.
Plan of Canadian Pacific Liners Montrose/Montcalm/Monclare, showing cabin Rex Wailes slept in on a later trip (1932)
So far we have had no rough weather and I hope we shan’t. The boat is just under weigh, 10.15 p.m. and this can be seen by the change in writing from the bottom of the previous page. I’m stoking up at meals while I can. I hear that we may be able to get a shore pass for an hour or two at Halifax tomorrow week, and that we may not be at Boston before Tuesday 7th at the earliest.