With a great deal of interest in the centenary of the Titanic tragedy this month, here is my father’s small slice of adventure. He did not, of course, sail on the Titanic but he did sail on a ship built in 1911 by Harland and Wolff, in the same yard and the same year as the Royal Mail Ship Titanic. Just turned 23, my father, George Head, sailed from Liverpool in 1925 on the ss Demerara, a refrigerated meat carrier and passenger ship owned by the Royal Mail steam packet company. During the Great War, when the Demerara had been armed with a 4.7-inch gun, she was chased by the notorious German surface raider, SMS Moewe. On the 17^th February, 1916,  200 miles west southwest of the Madeira Islands she managed to escape the raider’s clutches. Fifteen months later, she survived being torpedoed by a German submarine off La Rochelle, France. (As a point of interest, an earlier Royal Mail Packet ship also named Demerara, sailing out of Liverpool sank en route to Gibraltar with the loss of all hands on Christmas Day 1887.)

 The Demerara sailed for South America on the 21^st March 1925 and George’s brother Reg, a terminally sick man suffering the effects of gas from the Great War, came to see him off at Liverpool Docks. On the quayside, Reg gave his brother a bible in which he had inscribed- “To George. Wishing him every success. With love, Reg. March 21^st 1925.” The two men shook hands in an emotional farewell each knowing that they would never see the other again.  George went aboard the ship to begin a new life in a faraway land and Reg returned to Cardiff where he died exactly a month later. George was heading to Brazil to work in a gold mine in the interior. The mine at Morro Vehlo was, and still is, one of the largest gold mines in the world. George stayed for a year during which time he met up with local families, rode horses and won prizes in rifle shooting compeititions. He only returned, once again aboard the Demerara, when news of the sudden death of his mother reached him. The ss Demerara was finally sent to the breakers yard in 1933. I’m pleased to say that the bible that Reg so lovingly gave  to George, now sits on my bookshelf.