Sai Kung publisher Sherriff Books has produced a remarkable memoir by an old sea dog, Geoff George. He was an officer with China Navigation Co. Ltd., part of the Swire empire. When Geoff first came to Hong Kong and discovered the allure of cheongsam girls, he was told,”You have done the right thing, old chap. You will never regret it. Honkers, the greatest place in the world. Have another San Mig.”
Geoff George in his sailing days
Geoff’s book is titled China Coaster. It is packed with rollicking yarns about the carousing of sailors too long at sea. “. . .I could see that the other Scotsman, our noble captain, had the glassy look in his eyes and the pouting look as he spoke, that were warning signs that he, too, was well into his cups. I was pleased, therefore, to see him disappear into his cabin. He was gone for a long time and I assumed he had gone to sleep. Unfortunately that was not the case, for he came out in his jockeys, blowing on a set of bagpipes. He marched up and down the deck, playing a rather ragged version of Ye Bonny Banks. Most of the female guests blushingly averted their gaze, while many of the men roared their heads off.”
Butterfield and Swire’s headquarters in HK in the 1950s.
There are sexual escapades aplenty in China Coaster. “The officers on the Changsha had to be extremely discreet in their dealings with the fair sex while on board. The company would not tolerate the faintest hint of a scandal . . . There was, of course, the occasional shipboard romance. A combination of sea air, tropical moon and officers’ uniforms seemed to be a heady mixture for many young women experiencing their first ocean cruise. The more seasoned officers realised it wasn’t their overwhelming charm that was bowling the women over, but the uniform. . . . The officers usually played it very cool and let the women make the first move — confident that within a few days one of the passengers would find an excuse for a chat and a walk around the deck. If a relationship did develop there was one golden rule: the officer should never accept a girl’s invitation to visit her cabin; if there was any consorting it should be in the officer’s cabin.”
It was not all sex and laughs. Geoff had more than his share of wild and exciting times: piracy and smuggling in the South China Sea; meetings with stone-age cannibals in Papua New Guinea; encounters with coolies and kings; geisha and yakuza; bargirls and triads.
Geoff in his later years
On the last page of the book, readers learn that Geoff became eminent in diplomacy and intelligence. He attained four university degrees and worked as an intelligence agent for the New Zealand Department of Defence, studied counter-insurgency in Thailand, became a foreign research fellow at Tokyo university, a senior analyst on Japan at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and was Director of the North Asia intelligence section in the Canberra Defence Department.
Geoff George’s China Coaster is a good read, especially if you are interested in marine history.
China Coaster; Memories of trading out of Old Hong Kong, by Geoff George, Sherriff Books IDBN: 978-988-76974-6-6
HK$200 available at Bookazine, Kelly & Walsh/HK Bookstore and the Maritime Museum shop.
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