Les Bristow
I was fortunate enough to go on two School Cruises to the Mediterranean in my last two years at Chandos.
In March 1965 a group of us including my younger brother lan flew from Gatwick into Genoa with Albert Barclay and Bob Allen as our supervising teachers.
I can remember arriving at the port to embark upon our cruise and seeing a whole line of about 30 men standing facing a perimeter wall. "Sir! Sir!! why are those guys standing like that? Are they prisoners? .. Sir?" "Oh it’s alright Sir ... they’re just all having a pee."
By nightfall we were underway. Early the next morning we arrived at Stromboli our first experience of a live volcano. It was dark and forbidding in the overcast dawn sky but magnificent too.
Next stop Syracuse in Sicily where we had to chaperone the girls on the cruise from the advances of the local men. I can still remember how snow covered Mount Etna dominated the skyline. From there we sailed onto the bustling port of Izmir in Turkey. There were virtually no new vehicles as everything was 'repair and mend’. Old war time trucks, old cars, traffic zig-zagging across the port. Horse drawn wagons. And very NOISY!
We were charabanced to the ancient Greek ruins at Ephesus which were amazing. A whole city in ruins but with boulevards that we could walk along amd imagine how alive this place must have once been.
Then it was on to Pireaus in Greece. Where during the sea voyage I think, if my memory is correct, Dave Hobart or Terry Yeatman & myself for the cruise talent show re-enacted the comedy sketch "Pete & Dud" (Peter Cook & Dudley Moore) where two, tired, raincoated old men in a pub fantasize about beautiful famous women like Gina Lollobrigitta (Lollobrigida) turning up unexpectedly in their kichen and attempting to ravish them. "I said No Gina No. I’m enjoying my mid-morning coffee and reading my Financial Times. But she said Dud I want you. No Gina I can’t be yours I retorted. Just be a good girl and hang out the washing & make me some dinner. Well you have to get your priorities right Pete don’t you?"
On-board food was a step up from our school dinners.
Being born with a sense of rhythm meant I loved any chance to disco-dance especially to reggae and ska music so the cruise dance evenings on deck, under fairy lights to a record-player were much appreciated. Don’t remember much about Pireaus but do remember the Corinth Canal and Corfu. We finished up in Venice drinking beer in St Marks Square before flying back to Gatwick.
In February 1966 we sailed from Tilbury Essex upon the good ship Nevasa with two great teachers in Albert Barclay and Bob Allen again as our wingmen. Entering the Bay of Biscay in a Force 10 gale we had a very stormy trip ahead. We were all banned from going on deck which was roped off... kids were being seasick everywhere except for Chandos School for Boys. There was an air of defiance and we would not be defeated. We sang "Hey ho and up she Rises" as the ship crashed through the storm. This was going to be a Cruise to Remember!
By early morning we were passing Gibraltar and entering the calmness of the Mediterranean. We shared our dormitory with a school from Enfield who’s disciplinarian old Head Master was a bully. His boys were frightened of him but we weren't.
So Tunis in Tunisia was our first stop. We were closely shepherded around the Casbah. Lots of interesting stalls 'n’ tiny shops crammed into the city and butchers with the air full of flies buzzing around smelly butchered animal meat & blooded guts hanging from poles. Eeek!!
There were some really pretty girls on board and I hooked up with a lovely lass called Maggie from Kingsbury Grammar School. We dated after we returned home.
On leaving Tunis we sailed over to Valetta in Malta. More sight-seeing of course but now, 55 years later, virtually all of it escapes me.
Arriving back in Greece we were taken up to see the Parthenon in Athens which was amazing. Afterwards along with many other school kids from the Nevasa we were allowed to shop for souvenirs around the busy area of Ammonia Square in central Athens. We looked open-mouthed at the delicious array of fine patisserie in the numerous cake shops & cafes located there. Then suddenly a shop keeper appeared shouting at us. He tried to drag some of our boys into his shop when a passer-by explained to us that we were being accused of stealing from the shop. The police arrived and we were taken into custody along with the passer-by who was now demanding payment from us for his help. The Petty Officer on the ship was summoned by the police and no charges were made. It appears it was a 'set up’. No goods had been stolen.
I mentioned earlier about the Headmaster of the Enfield school, who’s boys shared our dormitory. At lights out he would check on his lads shouting and raging at our school about the level of noise. In particular he picked on one of our boys, man-handling him more than once. This was abuse and went on throughout the cruise and we had enough. So we decided to get him!...... On the final leg of our cruise we rigged up a dish cut from the bottom of a plastic bottle and filled it with talcum powder (don’t ask) balanced on top of a large ventilation pipe above the dormitory door. We then ran a long length of fishing line across the dormitory and waited for him to arrive at lights out. He was on time, wearing his dark blue suit & tie, slick brylcreemed hair and smelling strongly of Old Spice cologne. He started shouting at us awful Chandos boys. The line was pulled. The talcum powder hit it’s target. He was covered head-to-toe in white talcum powder. A roar of laughter, whooping, and clapping filled the whole dormitory. Behind him, both of our teachers stood holding back their laughter for they knew of & disagreed with his mad rages. Next day we were before the ship’s Sergeant at Arms and were told that if it had happened earlier on the trip we would have been sent home. Within 24 hours we docked in Venice our final destination, and flew home.
In July 1966 I left Chandos to study for my A levels at Harrow Technical College.