It would have been early 1983. Dad was just home on leave from somewhere in East Africa. He had been home only a day
or two and he and Mother had gone out somewhere. I was left home alone. Then the phone rings - it's Peter Deveraux(?) the
personnel officer from Cunard and he wants to speak to Dad. I explain that he's out so he asks that I get him to phone as soon as
he comes home.
When they get back I pass this message on and his face turns to thunder. From what I remember, his side of the conversation seemed to be simply a succession of angry nos, then a pause, then "I'll speak to the wife. I'll call you back."
Turned out that most of the relief Engineers had come down with what seemed to be food poisoning shortly after joining
the ship and they were struggling to man the engineroom safely. Poor old Peter had been given the task of trying to persuade
those who had just gotten home to come right back. He'd cadjoled and blackmailed, offered more money, extra leave, another
stripe. Dad was having none of it. So how had peter managed to persuade him? From up his sleeve he had pulled out his trump
card "We'll fly you home again on Concord".
Dad folded and next day he was off back to the airport.
