Twentytwo13 shares excerpts from Stories of the Seas, a collection of true accounts written by former officers and engineers of MISC (formerly the Malaysian International Shipping Corporation). This week, Sivabalan Ponniah recounts an amusing tale of pigeons from the Royal Albert Docks.
I joined the M. V. Bunga Melor on Feb 17, 1972, as a junior electrician and signed off on Aug 14, 1974.
The Bunga Melor was a general cargo ship that plied the Far East and European routes, carrying manufactured goods and bulk cargo such as timber and rubber bales, mainly from Malaysia, Hong Kong and Thailand.
Our last loading port in the Far East was Port Klang, before we rounded the Cape of Good Hope and headed north to the United Kingdom and Europe after a sea passage of 24-26 days.
The Suez Canal was closed after the Six-Day Arab-Israeli War in 1967 and remained closed until 1975.
In 1972, our ships routinely sailed up the Thames to berth in what was then the ‘Royal Albert Docks’.
Back then, the dock area was surrounded by large warehouses storing goods. Those buildings were also home to a large flock of pigeons. Whenever a ship berthed at a wharf adjacent to the warehouses, the pigeons would come down to the wharf to feed on morsels thrown from the ships.
Our chief cook was fascinated by the sheer number of birds, but could never catch them. Who would blame him for wanting fresh meat after 26 days at sea?
He finally came up with an idea. He had heard of a Chinese dish called ‘drunken prawns’ and took a cup of kacang dhal hijau (mung beans) and soaked them in whisky and water for a couple of days.
He then fed the whisky-infused mung beans to the pigeons. To his joy, he bagged a couple of birds.
Most of the junior officers on board in those days were young Malaysians, and those who came off the night shift were often hungry.
Though we were not allowed to, we would quietly open the pantry and prepare some Maggi mee goreng (fried instant noodles). In preparing the fried noodles, we would get some onions, cabbage and chilli from the fridge.
Once, when we opened the fridge, there, in all their glory, were two roasted pigeons.
Footnote: The Royal Albert Dock and adjacent docks closed to commercial shipping in December 1981. The area was redeveloped into the London City Airport, the University of East London Docklands Campus and other commercial buildings.
This is an excerpt from Stories of the Seas, a collection of short stories by former MISC (formerly the Malaysian International Shipping Corporation) officers and engineers. It can be bought here.
