Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 341
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[Page 341]
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retiring fellow, but Tilden was a good mixer and a very friendly type. During one cold and stormy afternoon, when almost all the passengers preferred to remain indoors, a group of us younger folk gathered around the piano to sing popular songs. Tilden joined us, and though he was without doubt the World's greatest tennis player, I think that also he would have qualified for the World's worst singer. When singing the current popular hit, "Saturday night in Washington Square", I'll never forget the way he threw back his head and howled nasally and all out of tune; it seemed like a deliberate burlesque, but he was serious.
In the dining saloon the meals were very different from customary Australian eating, both as regards the actual foodstuffs and the manner of cooking and serving them: the way in which Americans cut up all the food on their plate before starting to eat it with the fork only, really fascinated me.
In fine weather there were of course the usual deck games, but lying about the decks sunbathing in near nudity was still in the future. Steady drinking at the Bar and in the smoke-room, and heavy gambling at Poker or on the next day's run by the ship, were the two main pastimes at night. One very big "Calcutta" sweep on the run was worth nearly two hundred and fifty pounds to the winner. Hardly anyone bothered to dress up for dinner, and there was no regular dancing; only a couple of fancy-dress balls. For one of these I dressed as an Arab sheik, and won a Parker fountain pen for the best fancy dress improvised from everyday articles. I wore my bath-gown over pyjama trousers, a coloured hand-towel bound to my head with a coloured girdle, and a fearsome black beard and moustache.
Our first port of call was Pago Pago a very small settlement in American Samoa. Tilden and Johnson gave us an exhibition tennis match on the one and only court there; a concrete one. After which several of us went for a refreshing swim in the deliciously temperate clear water in the extinct volcanic crater which formed the small harbour.
The ship spent a whole day at Honolulu, and on berthing was invaded by a host of buxom Hawaiian belles throwing brightly