The Indian Ocean - Michael Pearson [184]
But these expectations were often crushed. Joseph Woodhouse wrote that 'of course, on entering the Canal, & for a short distance through it, great interest was manifested by the passengers. This, however, soon passed away as on further progress it was found that nothing but a vast monotonous stretch of sandy desert was to be seen on either side.'140 On another occasion Emma Tompsitt wrote that 'This morning we passed a succession of rocks called the Twelve Apostles; they are not very large, and there is nothing extraordinary about them. The stewardess says there is a tale attached to them, but she does not know it, and as I do not, there is an end of them.'141 Dr Mackenzie wrote,
We now entered the Suez Canal, which I am not at all anxious to see again. Dreary desert as far as the eye can see on either side and canal itself muddy and abominably offensive to the sense of smell. Visions of Enteric fever amongst the souls under my care would keep rising in my mind & made me impatient with our slow progress. The heat was very oppressive [it was April].... Several Arabs were seen striding (with tremendous strides) along the banks of sand – many of them on some pilgrimage – poor fools.142
The Suez Canal and Red Sea were both hot and boring. Forster noted perceptively that one really has seen it all before, though his comment would hardly apply to most passengers. The canal
was in a way disappointing, for the East has been so painted that nothing was new. It was like sailing through the Royal Academy – a man standing by a sitting camel, followed by a picture of a camel standing by a seated man; picturesque Arabs in encampment, ditto in a felucca. Scene of Pharoah's mishap. Mount Sinai & god on the top in a cloud.143
Heat was the other problem. A doctor's wife in 1883 wrote when they got to the Red Sea that 'It is getting too hot to do anything, if you sit still you feel suffocating, if you move, perspiration wells from you. It is much too fatiguing to make lemon squash but the ice is not quite exhausted yet, so we exist on ice water.' They long for a breeze, 'But here when the breeze came it was hotter than ever and was like a breath of hot air out of an oven sweeping across one's face.' 'People are fainting all over the ship, just dropping down onto the deck all around us.' Then a passenger died, mostly as a result of heat, and also a young baby for whom 'human care & sympathy were alike of no avail, the Great Reaper with his sickle keen had gathered yet another flower into his mighty sheaves.' Similarly in 1901, 'It is red hot here, we none of us have scarcely any clothes on, perspiration rolls off us in streams. I expect we shall lose over 3 stone before our journey ends. We cannot sleep downstairs so brought 2 beds up on deck for the children. Sam and I slept in our deck chairs, ladies on one side of the ship and gentlemen on the other.' A fat old man died, 'they say he drank a lot . . . they found over 30 stout bottles under his bunk.'144 The prac tical Isabel Burton got her fellow passengers organised to try and cope with the heat.
Every night we slept on deck, in rows, whilst in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea; for the cabins were like heated ovens, and we darted down only to dress as quickly as we could. At six a.m. we went, in our dressing-gowns, to the saloon, and took coffee; and then we read, talked and slept on deck in the day; my husband and I a little apart when seriously employed with literature. In the evening we sang glees and duets. We abolished toilette, and dressed in loose white or coloured cotton, or linen, dressing-gowns.145
Even blue water sailing, around the Cape or in the Indian Ocean, could be boring. Many journals merely record meals. William Lawrence noted for 11 June 1884, 'we had pickles served out to us and salt pork and pea soup and pottatoes for dinner and this afternoon was just the same as any other day. Nothing but water all round you. Marmalade for tea.' Or 18 June 'We had harricot