I remember Calcutta as the dirtiest filthiest place on Earth.
This story is the God's honest truth....
I went there as an apprentice on M.V. " Trecarne " with a load of 6,000 tons of petroleum coke from Port Arthur , Texas. It was a very fine black greasy powder used in an old way of smelting aluminium ore. I cannot imagine anything more dirty or filthy.
This cargo was discharged by hand by loads of *******, who scooped the stuff into baskets; then dumped the baskets into a 1 1/2 ton basket, which was hauled out by the ship's gear.
Towards the end of the shift, a huge number of jackdaws swarmed onto the deck rails. When the ******* came out of the hold, they were all coughing great gobs of black flecked phlegm onto the deck.
The obviously adult jackdaws swooped down and gobbled up this phlegm , then fed it to their fledglings sitting on the rails.
When we finished discharging , we left the dock and moored in the river Hooglie for ER repairs to finish and hold cleaning.
About 1/2 a mile up river, a ditch was discharging raw sewage into the River, which spread out in an arc in the current. Between there and the ship, along the bank people were " washing " their clothes !!!
As I was working , I saw a vulture pecking at a dead body, floating down stream on the tide. I drew the attention of a policeman who was gangway watchman to it.He said it was no bother.
When the tide turned the body came floating past again and grounded on the shore; whereupon a large pack of feral dogs descended on it and proceeded to consume it.
The thought of even going ashore in Calcutta, never mind eating or drinking anything there, just turns my stomach !!!
Seafarers rightly say " The Hooglie is the ****'ole of the World, and Calcutta is halfway up it !!!"
I do no know which is the worst, Calcutta or Bombay.
I do know Indians are the dirtiest filthiest people I have come across in my travels ( Perhaps apart from dockworkers in Port Sudan, who plat their hair with cow/camel muck- the origins of dreadlocks !!! )
When I was a young lad in Manchester, there was an Indian Restaurant on Oxford Street. They were prosecuted for having hundreds of tins of cat meat, which they used in their curry.
Then on my last ship we had an Indian crew and Ch. Std. I used to just get a sandwich for my lunch.
One day, I opened the pantry fridge door to see a dish of butter which had grown a fur coat. I promptly dumped it in the gash bucket.
A few minutes later, the Ch. Std. came in , fished the butter out and started to harangue me for wasting food !!! Then this nut case of an Ol' Man cma on the bridge and tries to tell me off !!!
How about that ?
ATB
Laurie.
