The First Voyage

The maiden voyage My first voyage on a ship was on an old tanker who took us to Novorossiysk in Russia to load oil for Iceland (Reykjavik.) It was an arduous voyage in the Black Sea, we got stuck on the ice for days which was better than the darksome Novorossiysk where we could only go to restricted places. Reykjavik too was a dreary little place but we could walk about as we wanted and the people were nice only it had no restaurants to speak of and the cafes sold ghastly beer. Then the ship was bound for Curacao, a Dutch island full of bars and whores, it was on that voyage I wrote my first poem “The Ship plough on” it was met with amusement of the type I disliked and did attempt to write anything for the next 30 years but read hundred of books.