One of the first jobs I always had after berthing was to go ashore and phone the nurses home, telephone exchange etc and see if we could get the occupants of said places down for a party. This obviously depended on the port you were in as in some countries the prospect was not very desirable. However, in what should be referred to to as 'The Former Empire' in many cases it was a very successful pastime. Two stories specifically come to mind. My most successful sortie ashore was in Singapore when we were carrying Jet A1 for the US Airforce in the Vietnam war and we were waiting to lighten into a smaller tanker. I went to the British Military Hospital (we still had one then) and immediately found a nurse who came from Exeter, as I did, and the rest was a doddle. Two great parties even though we had to bring them out on the agents launch. Secondly, somewhere in Oz, but I can't remember the port, we had a phone on board and I picked it up to get through to the nurses home and spoke to the operator. She said "why?" and I said I wanted to arrange a party. She said I am not putting that call through, we have been waiting for you blokes to arrive and we will be down tonight. I actually had quite a good track record with this task, got better over time I suppose. Happy Days.
