RANDOM AT LARGE

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31989, 16 May 1969, Page 15

RANDOM AT LARGE

STRANDS ACROSS THE SEA

It is difficult not to become involved in the shipside farewells which mark the departure from each port. There they are,' thousands of strangers, on board and at the terminal building, yet you are caught up, unwillingly perhaps, in the free flow of emotion. Leaving Sydney was a colourful business. On the surface, a most cheerful affair; the men selling streamers must have made enough to keep them in comfort for weeks. But there was a wind blowing, and it was sufficient to make mockery of the Australian ability to throw and catch. So before the ship was eased away, there was a vividly-coloured and finely-woven web of paper with few of the strands secure on the ship. There was a band from an Australian naval ship playing

on the quay and, inevitably, ending its selections with “Now is the Hour” and “Waltzing Matilda,” in that order. Cheerful faces, tearful faces, thousands of them, each with a story of its own to tell. They have nothing to do with you, but the anxious searches, the forced gaiety, the very banality of the shouted exchanges, provide a rather sad background to departure. Of course, there had to be an example of typical Australian resource. As the ship moved slowly away, the few streamers held on board broke and were whipped away in the wind. But one young couple had come prepared, with an enormous-rope of nylon stockings which must have taken ages to assemble and seemed to belong to a ship’s departure rather less than to a

James Bond cliff-descend-ing assignment. There were at least 60 nylons knotted together for this last link between land and ship, and they were carefully paid out at the ship end. As the first strain began, the stockings stretched spectacularly, until they were long enough for the back legs of lady kangaroos. If the claims of some stocking manufacturers are to be believed, this nylon rope could almost have been strong enough to hold back the 29,000 tons of the Iberia. It will not be news to announce that It didn’t But it was doing splendidly, until it fell into the water. But it didn't break. A lady bolding it on the quay simply let it go, when the ship was too far out for the faces to be seen clearly any longer. Perhaps she was fearful of causing damage.