1966 – My several job applications paid off a dividend. I received a letter from Harley Mullion to come for an interview. It was then not customary for the Personnel Department to telephone and summon you for an interview, but rather the appointment was scheduled by the Company and advised to me by way of a letter.
On the appointed day I tried to look my best, hair well groomed with the popular traditional Yardley green hair pomade that held, helped shape and added shine to my hair, Elvis style. I also wore a suit for the first time, light metallic grey, a colour that many car makers around the world use today for their cars. In Mauritius I never worn a suit, not even when I attended formal function such as wedding or funeral, a new long sleeve white shirt and a new pair of English wool pants were the norm.
Yardley English Lavender, an icon of a hair pomade in our youthful time
When I arrived in Hong Kong one of the things which my brother-in-law did was to order a pair of business suit for me, knowing full well that I would need them when the time came for a job interview. Good foresight, I could not be more grateful and thankful. He had summoned his personal tailor to our home and one evening he arrived, took my measurements, showed us a range of sample materials and colours and the price to choose from. I clueless and unfamiliar with local fashion and taste my brother-in-law and the eldest nephew made the decision for me. One week later the tailor came back with the skeleton suits, I put them on and with a tailor chalk he marked dots on the materials around my arm pits, shoulders, back and chest to ensure a proper fit. Another week passed and he was back with the finished suits, fitted perfectly.
The tailor working on the first fitting of a new suit
I took a bus from home at Waterloo Road, Kowloon, bus No. 7 it was. That morning I did not have to fight to get on the bus as it was past peak time. Other times it would have been the survival of the fittest, Hong Kong commuters were not in the habit of lining up and they were always in a hurry. As soon as the bus was spotted from afar the waiting passengers prepared to pounce as if they were on their mark for a 100 metre race. Barely the bus had stopped than the crowd was swarming in front of the door, blocking every inch of free space, the alighting passengers fighting their way out. The ride was straight forward, only half an hour off peak, down Waterloo Road, left turn on Nathan Road and right turn on Salisbury Road to the “Star Ferry” in Tsim Sha Tsui. From here a short ferry ride to Hong Kong Island, Central District, the business centre of Hong Kong
Bus No. 7 took me from Waterloo Road to Star Ferry
The “Star Ferry” is famous all over the world, rated “Top 10 Most Exciting Ferry Rides” by the Society of American Travel Writers in 2009. The iconic look of the ferry always painted “white and green” has never changed for over a century. Before the advent of the Cross Harbour Tunnel which opened in 1972, the only way to cross to Hong Kong Island from Kowloon was by way of ferry services or “sampan”, a small relatively flat bottom wooden boat operated by the local fishermen. There were then also large ferries which carried vehicles across. Most of the ferry lines were discontinued but the Star Ferry still runs as it has been doing for over 100 years. When the service was first introduced, the ships were moored by having a sailor on the vessel toss a rope to another on the pier, who would then catch it with a long billhook. This is still done today a century later. Once off the ferry, it was an easy 10 minutes walk to the office of Harley Mullion.
A sailor on the ferry throws a rope to another on the pier who catches it with a billhook, a procedure unchanged for over a century
The iconic look of the ferry, always painted white and green, unchanged for over a century
Harley Mullion was a branch office of Harley Mullion, London, England, a ship brokerage firm with a good reputation. The branch office, incorporated in Hong Kong in 1957, was not huge, there were only two or three Expatriate Staff and a handful of local staff. I recently made some research and learned that the Hong Kong Company was dissolved in 1990, the London Headquarter however seemed to be still in operation.
I could not remember the interview process but since I got the job I believed that I should have impressed the interviewer. It was a clerical entry level job, not much skill or credentials were necessary apart from a good knowledge of spoken and written English, something which we as Mauritians were better equipped than the local English educated counterparts.
Hong Kong Central District shoreline in the 1960’s
Central District, the business hub of Hong Kong today, a far cry from the 1960’s scene
My monthly salary was Hong Kong dollars 200 which was probably equivalent to what I was earning earlier at the Ministry of Finance in Mauritius. A happy man I was.
The job was fairly straight forward and after a couple of days I became proficient in the routine which involved receiving and despatching telex messages to various parties namely the Harley Mullion Headquarter, the sellers and buyers of vessels, ship owners, charterers and shipping related organizations. My responsibility also entailed keeping tracks of all correspondences pertaining to a particular ship including its location on the high seas, until it was sold and the file closed.
Each Expat had his own portfolio of customers, those with ships to sell and those looking to buy ships, as well as those who were looking to charter a vessel. Our brokers had access to a wide list of ships from all over the world which were on the market either for sale or for charter.
This could very well be a ship which Harley Mullion would be brokering in the 1960’s
Unlike buying a car where the buyer takes possession of the vehicle as soon as he pays the seller, ship brokerage is transacted differently. Most of the ships for sale are not anchored at the dock where you can go and take possession of them, but rather they are running somewhere on the high seas with cargo to be delivered to destinations thousands of miles from home. So, more often than not, ownership of a vessel changes hand when the ship is in the middle of a voyage far from shore, a new flag designating the new residency of the vessel also replaces the old flag on high seas.