Officer diary July 12th

This will be great. We are closing in on Guangzhou. We will arrive a bit too early, giving us time to make ourselves beautiful and prepare for the mental flying start of coming ashore and meeting people under stress. We will ride at anchor for a few days off some islands with the gunports open and the hause-plugs out. That is our world.

When sailing we follow the watch routines. Then all depends on the weather. If it is as fine as it is here, you work, eat, have some spare-time and sleep. If the weather is as bad as it can be, then you work harder, eat and sleep more, at the expense of your spare-time. At anchor it is the anchorage routines. Then more things are happening at daytime. It is easier to organize the maintenance work and there is time to sail the ship ´s boats and take a bath. At anchor you can ventilate the ship in a way you cannot when under sail, for safety reasons. Gunports and other ports and hatchets are open and there is a cool breeze going through the ship. Cool air otherwise is in short supply on board. At anchor we can also have sun tents above the deck and live our lifes in the shadow, as classy as anyone. Then there are the portcalls. When at quay everything seems to be counted in visitor statistics. We are to have as many visitors on board as possible and if possible all the time. The public must come aboard, our sponsors have dinners on board and there is a hustle and bustle all the time. Then the crew at work has a lot to do and those off duty are mostly only a hindrance and had better stay ashore.

So we are almost ready with the sailing stage and on our way to a short anchorage stage, followed by a long harbour stage. The first two are the best, but it will be most interesting to visit Guangzhou. The city is after all a bit of holy ground for everyone who has had anything to do with East Indiamen. More than 130 Swedish East Indiaman crews have been here before us. Now it is our turn. This will be great.

 
Martin Graaf,
2nd boatswain