Right before my very eyes, was a most wonderful sight that stopped me in my tracks. Towering above the rabble and noise of Pier 13 South Harbour in Manila, was the 182m nuclear-powered passenger cargo ship Savannah. Right at the opposite berth to us!

This was November 1967, and as the new 3rd officer of the diminutive and elderly cargo passenger ship Francis Drake, I had already absorbed the magazine articles that had been ablaze with praise for this streamlined yacht-styled ship.