Fate and me and an unsnapped photo

Was Fate laughing at me on Monday when I journeyed through the ghost town of London and on three ghost trains to Tilbury docks, over on the Thames north shore, determined - Corona nightmare or not - to photograph the docks where 70 years ago to the day the family sailed off to the other side of the world.

 I clutched my Kodak box Brownie, very unwilling to agree to parental prompts for it to go into our luggage.
Perhaps it was the early journalist in me, but the determined lad was going to photograph our mighty vessel, the 20,000-ton Orontes, as we left Noble Albion if it was the last thing he did.
‘Darling, it will be dark,’ my mother prompted. I pretended not to hear.
As a little lad, I was very aware of the importance of the departure, as hopefully my school uniform freshly pressed and tie knotted neatly in the approved way showed. 
This week a mighty ship stood where the Orontes was docked, and seventy years ago we passed through the self-same buildings that Cruise and Maritime Columbus’s passengers will be using.
Continues on my blog site here ...
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