Trinity College School - Record Yearbook (Port Hope, Ontario Canada)

Page 24 text:

12 TRINITY COLLEGE SCHOOL RECORD T0 EUROPE AND BACK IN A CATTLE BOAT The Diary of David Stevenson Last year we had the privilege of presenting a diary of ayT.C.S. boy's life over sixty years ago. Now we are glad to give our readers the diary of ,a trip to Europe and back on a cattle-boat. kept by a recent old boy of this School. D. Stevenson. E. Cutler, and R. Newman were three boys at Trinity College School last year. Eager for something to relieve the monotony of their exist- ence they got up this scheme of getting to England cheaply and reasonably quickly with a spirit of adventure behind the idea. They bought a car in Port Hope for S10 and motored to Montreal with- out serious mishaps. There they signed articles and became mem- bers of the crew of the S. S. Salacia. The diary opens on Tues- day July 13th., the date on which they sailed from Montreal. We take our first extract from the entry for Tuesday, July 18th. The intervening time was mainly taken up in Quebec, where our three friends were joined by a fourth, one Rhodes-and spent their time mostly in the cinema. On Board Tuesday, July 18th. Rise and Shine is the expression used by our foreman in trying to get us up in the morning. Rise and

Page 23 text:

TRINITY COLLEGE SCHOOL RECORD 11 Mr. Buckland, our new music master, is a graduate of Trinity College, where he took his B.A. in '31, and spent a year in France, studying music at the Ecole Normale in Paris. Last year he was at the College of Education. Besides being music master, Mr. Buck- land is also our art master. He studied art while at the University, and at the College of Education. THE ANDES For two days steaming, -south we stole, Then reached a coast, a famous Main The Inca land, Pizarro's goalza The treasure chest of Ancient Spain. v Here fogty miles of barren shore Was all, 'twixt sea and lofty cone, For there the Andes upward soar, In one great sweeping wall of stone. In peace and solitude they lie 'Bove city lights and village lamps, And watch the steamers, passing by, The liners, warships, ocean tramps. Ten thousand thousand years they've lain And watched the changes wrought below, The sights they've seen, the thoughts would drain, For what then passed, man ne'er may know. The Incas, Spaniards, Buccaneers, Have fought and struggled at their base, Wild hopes and loves, despairs and fears Have lightly passed beneath their face. For years they've watched the Fates unsping It's our turn now, the rest is past. All this they've seen and taken in The future still ahead is cast. At eighteen knots we sped away And left the mountains vast and tall. A .symbol to mankind they stay: Let man take heed, he is but small -W.B.R.

Page 25 text:

TRINITY COLLEGE SCHOOL RECORD 125 Shine, he says, Come on boys, Rise and Shine. Everybody rises but nobody shines for at least another hour or so! Both Eben and I swear savagely at each other throughout these early morning hours, but no harm is done. Just before lunch we passed Belle Isle, our last sight of land on this side of the Atlantic. By evening we were well out in the Atlantic, and I began to feel very very slightly squeamish. Wednesday, July 19th. Today started off badly for me. I awoke to that hateful call Rise and Shine, and to the conscious- ness of a sickly interior. At breakfast QI almost had to leavel one of the fellows gave me a tablespoonful of brandy which helped things considerably. At the moment of writing we are all in the cabin. Ross Newman has cut his thumb and had some difficulty in stopping the blood. Eben Cutler is in high spirits for he has just had a shave. Rhodes is in his bunk reading,-he's the laziest bum I've ever seen. He's even lazier than me. Thursday, July 20th. Today was marked only by a long series of anecdotes. The most interesting were those about the war by Blimey, Ca little cockney who came aboard drunkl. Blimey is an excellent talker and knows how to tell a story. He inserts his oaths in exactly the right places a.nd gains peculiar emphasis by them. The food maintains its high standard, particularly in the case of the meat. There being no refrigeration on board the standard of this particular foodstuff is very high indeed. I have wisely turned vegetarian. 4 Saturday, July 22nd, We have been at sea for five days now a.nd the accumulated diet of a week in a cattle boat weighs heavily on me. I shall have a bath tomorrow by means of a pail, and enjoy the sensation of cleanliness for an hour or two. This morning after workldetermined to try my hand at photo- graphy. Spying the captain mooning about on the lower deck I approached him boldly and addressed him-not q.uite so boldly. Would it be possible for me to take a photograph from the bridge, Sir? Aye, answered the old Scot,- It would be possible. Yes, but can I take one, Sir? I persisted. You could, he answered without committing himself. Rather daunted I tried again. Yes Sir, but I want to take a picture nowg will you give me your permission to go up onto the bridge? ' I'll see the third mate about it, said the captain. However he did see the third mate about it, and in the end I got two quite good pictures from the bridge.