Memory Lane

Voyage to Ceylon

In 1937, Isabella Hagger of Melbourn embarked on a sea voyage to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to visit her husband Cyril who was working for the Admiralty, constructing oil storage tanks. Isa (as she preferred to be called) kept a detailed journal of her outgoing journey and of the seven months she spent in Ceylon. This journey was at a time when few ventured out of the country to see the world.

On her return Isa was asked to give a talk about her experiences to the Congregational Church Women’s Group. Below is an abridged version of this interesting story which she wrote 80 years ago. My friends were all very kind and gave me a wonderful send off from Melbourn on Oct. 8th when I left about 8 a.m. to start on my journey to join my ship the Rajputana at George V docks London.

I will never forget the moment when the Rajputana slid out of the docks at 1 p.m. and I had started on my long journey. The lump in my throat seemed too big for me to control, but on looking around I found many people who had quite lost control and were making very distressing scenes and this helped me to compose myself, and give a watery smile and a wave as the car containing my girls drove away. Lunch was served as soon as the ship sailed and on my brother’s good advice I had some soup “because it slips over the lumps so easily”.

Lunch was served as soon as the ship sailed. I spent the afternoon unpacking and walking around the decks all alone, and I must admit feeling rather miserable. We had tea at 4.30, and as soon as that was over the bell rung for boat drill. I had imagined that would be a fearful ordeal and pictured myself scrambling into a given place in one of the small boats, but I was quite wrong and the drill was over in a very few

The SS Rajputana was a P&O steam passenger ship. It was used by a number of famous passengers including Mohandas Gandhi who travelled to England on the Rajputana to attend the talks on the independence of India and T E Lawence (Lawrence of Arabia). minutes. We merely put on our life belts and listened to a few instructions.

At dinner, we were put at our allotted places in the dining saloon and were able to exchange remarks with our table companions, and as soon as dinner was over a red headed scotch lady from Glasgow came up and spoke to me in the lounge, and made plans to meet me on deck next morning and she proved to be a very good friend to me and remained so throughout the voyage.

We arrived at Southampton the next and day and I went ashore for two hours. We sailed from Southampton at 2 p.m., and the voyage started in earnest. Very soon the wind started to blow and the sea became very rough and I felt very, very sick. I had heard that the state of feeling seasick is purely mental, and that if one fights against it, one is alright. Believe me, I fought as hard as I could and tried every suggested cure from Glucose D to green apples, but I had to retire to my little bunk in my cabin.

I felt somewhat better by the time we arrived at Gibraltar and was so thrilled at the sight of the Rock that I quite forgot I had been ill. I did not go ashore, but I shall always be glad to think that I have been privileged to see this ‘Guardian of the Mediterranean’. We sailed again at about 5 p.m. and as we sailed along we could hear the Spanish guns and see the flashes. As night fell a huge ensign was flood lit on the ship’s stern to proclaim to all the world that we were British.

Some nervous souls on board circulated most alarming rumours about mines, and Spanish airplanes etc., but we never were in any danger and we were well protected by British war ships all through the Mediterranean.

At the time of Isa’s voyage, there had been a military uprising in Spain which became known as The Spanish Civil War.

Our next port was Marseilles. A party of five of us went ashore as safety in numbers seems to be the rule. Even with this party we had the unpleasant experience of being followed for 2 hours by an objectionable looking man. So persistent was he that we had to ask a Gendarme to speak to him, while we got a taxi to get away from him.

We did not do any sightseeing as we were all bent on shopping, but we were long enough ashore to realise the truth of the saying that every nationality can be found in Marseilles.

We had some distinguished passengers on board for Malta, among them Lady Georgiana Kidston (The Earl of Howe’s daughter) with her baby. Naturally the women passengers were interested in the arrival of her husband and although we were told that society people make no fuss on these occasions, he arrived in an Admiralty launch with a huge bouquet of red roses and tore up the gangway to meet Lady Georgiana. She is very lovely and was dressed in a navy-blue coat and skirt with beautiful red fox furs, hat shoes and gloves in the same lovely shade.

I went down for dinner and my sympathetic table steward advised me to eat while the boat was still as it was going to be very rough again. That meal on the 17th had to last me a

very long time, as it was at Port Said on the 20th before I could take the next one. One of the joys of real seasickness is that one feels so ill, that night and day are all the same and friends and relations do not matter. I must just add too that it was so rough that I was all covered with black and blue bruises as the lurching ship knocked its poor passengers into any post or pillar or chair in the cabins or lounges.

I enjoyed my visit to Port Said and that walk on terra firma seemed to put me right for the rest of the voyage. There is nothing of any special interest to see at Port Said, but it is the first taste of The East and a traveller going East for the first time is almost bewildered by the scene. The natives are so brightly dressed and the dwellings so different from any of the western ports.

It was very warm and we only stayed ashore about 2 hours. I was interested in all the strange sights, but it is so difficult to get along the streets as the beggars and street vendors worry the people from the ship all the time. The beggars perform all sorts of tricks too. The most popular is called the ‘gilly gilly’ trick. He shows a small egg to the interested spectator, and in a very few minutes 5 or 6 real live chickens appear apparently from space.

We sailed from Port Said and by this time everyone on board was happy and friendly and I wondered how I ever could have felt lonely. We each knew our friends complete life story and I found that instead of being the only woman on board who had to pluck up courage to leave their homes and children, that I was one of many, and one of the very lucky ones, as my visit was really a holiday.

We did not land at Suez, but we were fortunate to go through the Suez Canal by daylight. It is such a narrow canal that it seemed as if our ship would get stuck.

I wish I could describe the wonder of it all. The huge desert stretching on either side, and the camels going quietly along with their burdens, often silhouetted against the sky line, made unforgettable and lovely pictures. Along the canal at intervals were little settlements, where an engineer has his home and at each someone came out to wave to our big ship, as it passed on its way.

A tragedy befell me in the Red Sea. One morning I looked in my denture dish and thinking the water in it was not very fresh I emptied it out of the port-hole and with it my lower teeth. I felt terrible about it, I thought it would spoil my trip but apart from the fact that I could not eat very well I managed to live it down although at the time I was very sorry for myself and very annoyed at my own stupidity.

I had many things told me for my consolation, the most comforting was a friend who wrote to tell me this story. A lady who shared a cabin with another travelling East, felt rather thirsty one night in her bunk. Without switching on the light, she reached out for a tumbler of water and finding it a little warm, she threw it out of the port-hole and took some fresh water and went to sleep. Can you imagine her feelings in the morning to find she had thrown away her cabin companion’s top and bottom teeth and do you wonder that they both had a most unhappy trip?

Our next port of call was Aden and the temperature was over 100 degrees. As the ship sails in one had the impression of huge cardboard mountains cut out and stuck around the little town, enclosing it so gray are they and no sign of vegetation at all.

I had a new and thrilling experience at Aden. A friend, who had been an engineer for 7 years on a cable ship found that his boat was in the bay and he took me aboard. There are 17 officers and a Captain all European and a native crew. The officers gave us a wonderful welcome. They had not had a female on board for months and months and out came all the snaps of their wives, sweethearts and babies. After breakfast which was jolly and lengthy and most unusual they sent my friend and me back to the Rajputana in their lovely motor launch. The men on these ships have a lonely life, often not calling at a port for months on end. Their job is to mend the broken cables radiating to many parts of the world, which means that they are frequently weeks at sea, out of sight of land.

On Oct 26th the whole day was given up to the children of whom there were about 25 on board. In the morning they had sports watched with great interest by all the passengers. Tiny tots of 2 and 3 years caused great amusement, by entering into the various events with jest and vigour.

At 4 p.m. the children had their party. No effort had been spared to make the tables attractive, and once again all the grownups trooped down to see the children have a lovely tea. At 5 p.m. prizes were given away and in addition each child was given a present. Then after Nuts-in-May and a few more jolly games the wee ones went off to bed with a memory, I am sure, which will last a very long time.

I had a chat with the head steward, who told me some very interesting food facts, one which made a great impression on me. Everything is done to ensure fresh supplies of fruit and vegetables are from P&O’s own extensive farms in Australia to which they send out seeds from home, and so the ships can pick up a good supply of home produce for the return journey. All the bread and cakes are made on board, and as there were over 2,000 tomato sandwiches alone cut every afternoon, you can imagine the bakers were kept busy. We picked up fruit at each port, and so we were privileged to enjoy most delicious fruits as we got further east. It was a marvel to me to be able to get crisp lettuce in the middle of the Red Sea. The head steward, too, compiles the menus and I think he must have been a man of great imagination as at each port we had a suitable dish, for example at Marseilles the fish was Marseilles slips (small Dover sole) while at Malta the trifle was a Maltese one.

Another source of great interest on big ships are the ladies fashions. The weather conditions are so hot that that alone is a good excuse for the girls to make frequent changes. For sport, which is indulged in nearly all mornings, the pretty cotton dresses and shorts are most suitable. Some of the girls wear slacks all the time but they cannot be cool and are not very becoming. Lots of people retire for a siesta after lunch and appear for tea in a little more frilly frock than the morning one. It is at dinner that one really sees the fashion parade. Girls who have been in shorts all day emerge in beautiful evening gowns of every colour and description making a really charming scene. You must remember it is so warm that evening dress is the coolest one can wear and it is easy to look ones best under these conditions.

On the 28th about 3 p.m. we arrived at Bombay. The first thing one sees on entering the harbour is a huge memorial of the great war, called The Gateway of India.

Cyril, Sheina, Morag and Isa Hagger in their garden in Orchard Road, Melbourn in the late 1920s

We hired a car and paid a brief visit to the wonderful hanging gardens. Having seen all this beauty we decided to go to the Crawford Market. This is a huge covered-in market place, for fruit, vegetables, brass ware, carpets, curios and almost everything else one can think of. The beggars in this quarter are so persistent and the cripples all along the street in dozens, make one feel so unhappy we did not spend very long in that quarter, but during my brief visit I full realised the awful conditions under which these people must exist, to render them into this filthy and crippled state.

After a visit to the Taj Mahal Hotel to which everyone who goes to Bombay seems to pay a visit, we were quite glad to get back to the ship.

We were due in Colombo harbour on Oct 31st about 6.30 a.m. but long before my stewardess came to call me at 5.30 a.m., I was up and dressed, and as we sailed into Colombo harbour I could hardly realise that I had actually come to the end of my sea voyage, and that I would so soon meet my husband.

As promised he was the first man on the ship and although I had looked forward so much to seeing him walk up the gangway, I was so thrilled that at the very critical moment I had to turn away to compose myself, and so I did not see him until he stepped onto the ship. We stayed about half an hour on the ship saying good-byes and then I landed in lovely Ceylon. In the next edition of the magazine, ‘Days in Ceylon’. Isa spends seven months getting to know the country and the people. An unabridged version of Isa’s ‘Voyage to Ceylon’ can be found with the online edition of this magazine at www.issuu.com/melbourn

Cyril Hagger is part of a long established Melbourn Hagger family. James Hagger a saddler came to Melbourn around 1790. His son Joseph Ellis Hagger inherited the family business from his grandfather in 1824. J. E. Hagger and Son – described as Collar & Harness Maker, Dealer in Oil, Cutlery, Ironmongery, Rope, Hemp – continued trading until 1930. The shop was situated at what is now the Post Office in the High Street. Isa was born in Scotland and met Cyril when he was there on a business trip to Scotland. They married in 1919 and had two daughters, Morag and Sheina. In 1924 the family moved to The Maples, in Orchard Road in Melbourn.