Ships' postcards make one yearn for the days of innocence and leisurely travel.(News)

ALMOST in passing a month or two back, I mentioned City of Lincoln, the Ellerman cargo liner that grounded at Quoin Point in 1946. She was refloated later by the joint efforts of the steam tug TS McEwen and a salvage team headed by Derek van Delden who was killed during the operation.

Camps Bay resident Ian Dickie remembers that ship. From the General Botha, Dickie went to sea with Ellermans soon after World War 2. Transferred from Cape Town to Tilbury aboard City of Swansea, and ferried across the Atlantic by City of Lille, he joined the 1920-vintage City of Glasgow, "a real ship" as some old timers might mutter.

Carrying tin plate from New York, the old steamer plodded her way to bunker at Curacao, transited the Panama Canal, and headed for New Zealand - at 10 knots.

During their leisurely passage …