She had the silhouette of a sea goddess, if the construction of ships could be placed in such a category. She was, as a matter of fact, one of the Pacific & Orient Shipping Company’s ‘Queens of the Oceans’, for it had several ships similar to her. Yes, she was beautiful, and what is more, yes, I am sure she was aware of her beauty, just as I am aware of the beauty of the marble statue, the Venus de Milo, and of the late Hollywood film actresses Marilyn Monroe and Ava Gardner. The SS Himalaya wasn’t a big ship by the standards of her day. She had a gross displacement of some 28,000 tons or thereabouts. But unfortunately for me, she was the ship that never loved me. I do suppose she had a good reason to dislike me, and I’m sure she really did bear me a grudge. She had fine, elegant lines, with her buff-cream funnel and white-painted hull. As a queen, she expected to be paid homage, not to be disfigured, which was the crime I committed against her. This happened when she came into Tilbury Docks to discharge her cargo before going into dry dock to have her keel scrubbed and repainted, her boiler tubes replaced, her cabins, ballroom and dining saloons revamped, revarnished and recarpeted, and maintenance work carried out on her engines.
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