The 'Amersfoort'

It would have been easiest to have flown to Jamaica but we chose to cross the Atlantic by sea. We caught the ferry from Harwich to the Hook of Holland and took the train to Amsterdam, only to find that our ship was delayed, so we were put up in an hotel for three days while we explored the city.

The Amersfoort was one of the Dutch line KNSM's boats, a modern mixed-cargo ship which carried containers but also loose cargo in the old fashion way, so she carried boxes and boxes of Carlsberg as well as cars.

The ship also carried up to twelve passengers who ate with the officers and had the run of the ship - Lizzie and Gill can be seen in this picture walking for'ard along the port side. We had a large cabin, the owner's cabin, the food was excellent, the officers friendly, and we were very comfortable.

In the evenings Lizzie ate her supper before us and was tucked up in bed in the cabin. I remember reading her books, my favourite being a book which told the story of Waltzing Matilda, which we sang together. Lizzie still has the book.

The ship had been built for an Italian company and had a computer-controlled engine room, which meant that the Dutch engineers could leave it to run itself overnight. They didn't - the Dutch crew was far too cautious.

The picture shows Gill and Lizzie in one of our favourite places, right up in the bow of the ship on a typical Atlantic day.

We sailed from Amsterdam to Bilbao and then across to St Maarten in the Dutch Antilles. The next port of call was St Thomas in the American Virgin Islands where we discovered that we were illegal immigrants: KNSM had forgotten to advise us that we needed visas. The agent sorted the problem and we were able to go ashore, as we did in all the ports.

From there we sailed to San Juan in Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, and then Haiti. In this picture Elizabeth is watching the coast of Hispaniola pass by. Our stop in Port au Prince, Haiti, was an education. The captain found out that we had only gone ashore briefly. Why? he asked. Because the place was terribly poor and bound to be crime-ridden, we replied. On the contrary, he said. If you drop a dollar bill here, someone will pick it up and return it to you. Now Kingston.... None of my crew goes ashore in Kingston.