lady of the night in lisbon and an act of kindness
There are many moments in our lives that we can look back on and say 'that moment in some way defined my future, defined who I am and what I am today'. Maybe it is fate and our destiny is predetermined or maybe it is just luck, but whichever is true, I will always be grateful to a Lady of the Night in Lisbon.
It is 1976, I am 20 years old, I am in Lisbon, I am on my own, I have no money, it is past midnight and I am in a lot of trouble. I had arrived in Lisbon on a ship earlier that day. This was not truly a merchant ship as it was an oil tanker used to refuel Royal Navy warships at sea and therefore we worked under strict military rules. I was one of three Radio Officers on the vessel and it was the second ship that I had served on so I should have known better than to get myself into the position I now found myself in.
The vessel berthed some way out of Lisbon and on the other side of the river Tagus to to the extreme right of the bridge in the photograph above. Due to the fuel bunkering station being isolated, a bus was arranged to take those lucky people not on watch into the city for the evening. I was one of those lucky people! I had been in Lisbon before and along with my crew mates knew exactly where to go. There was a red light area full of noisy bars, music and of course ladies that was like a magnet for seamen of all nationalities and in particular the Texas Bar. There was one downside to the evening in that the bus would collect us from the square at 2300 as the vessel would sail at 0100. The dire warning was, if you miss the bus it will not wait and if you miss the ship it certainly will not wait. Missing the ship is classed as desertion and would result in instant dismissal.
I do remember visiting a number of establishments and drinking heavily with my friends and eventually going into the Texas bar, but after that I have little memory until I came out of my alcoholic stupor sitting on the steps leading down the the river Tagus. It is amazing how quickly you sober up when you realise that you have missed the last bus over an hour ago, the ship will be preparing to sail, you have no money and of course no means to call for help. I sat with my head in my hands, trying think of a way to get some money in the vain hope that the ship would still be there when I arrived. In hindsight I should probably have gone back to the bars and found some sympathetic seamen from another ship to help me out but in reality it would take too long and the ship would have sailed.
I must have looked a sad dejected figure but this did not stop a young prostitute from sitting down next to me and offering her services. My promising career is over, I am stranded in a strange country without any money, I will have to throw myself on the mercy of the British Embassy, my parents will be so disappointed and this young woman wants me to pay for sex. I have been brought up to always show respect so I turned to her, with tears in my eyes and said sorry I am sure that you are very nice but I am in terrible trouble and I have no money. She did not go away and she had very little English apart from her menu of bedroom services so it took some time to explain my situation and ask her to please leave me alone.
She did not go away but instead opened her purse and showed me that she had nothing other than a few coins. "Taxi no" she said. We sat in silence for a while and then she grabbed my arm, pulled me to my feet and dragged me down towards the ferries that cross the river full of workers at night. With her last coins she bought two tickets pushed me onto the ferry and sat with her arms wrapped around me gently repeating something in Portuguese that I could not understand. It was quite a long way across the river and the ferry was slow so it was now well past sailing time for the ship and I felt the tears of despair welling up. This girl who was probably about my age or maybe a little younger tightened her arms around me, said something softly, gave me a huge hug and put her head on my shoulder.
We finally reached the other side and she hurried me up to a small run down building with a few old busses parked outside and she went in. When she came out she took me to one of the busses, sat me in a seat by the door, gave me a huge kiss and without turning back, disappeared into the night. Eventually a few more passengers got on the bus and gave me very strange looks, then the driver arrived and having said something to me that I did not understand, the bus set off. We drove for some considerable time and the road got darker and darker until there were no more houses and eventually we stopped at a cross roads in a heavily wooded area. I did not want to get off the bus because I had no idea where I was and the nearest lights had been about ten minutes back down the road. The driver was insistent and having pointed to the road leading into deeper woods, the bus drove away, leaving me totally on my own in the middle of nowhere.
With no other option available I started walking by what little light there was from the moon, entered an area of dark forest and just kept going in the hope of seeing the lights of a house or some place I could sleep for the night. There was no sign of habitation but after a while I could see the glow of lights shining through the trees and I walked faster to at least get out of the forest and into a lit area. I was almost running by the time I turned the corner, came into a clearing and saw an oil jetty and the bright lights were coming from a ship, it was my ship, RFA Orangeleaf. Sailing had been delayed until first light and the old bosun on the gangway had put himself at risk by not reporting me as missing. I climbed the gangway and he hissed "get to your cabin quickly you stupid boy and never do that again".
She was a lady of the night, she was a prostitue but she was a beautiful human being, an angel. I will always wonder what happened to the pretty girl who gave her time and last few coins to help a young man keep his life on track. Would I have had such a great life without that act of kindness? I sincerely doubt it!
Probably more important than saving my career, this girl taught me to never judge a person by their appearance or judge them for mistakes they had made. Not all people are as lucky as I have been. Whether it was fate or not, I still wonder what happened to that girl and I hope Karma has been good to her.
It is 1976, I am 20 years old, I am in Lisbon, I am on my own, I have no money, it is past midnight and I am in a lot of trouble. I had arrived in Lisbon on a ship earlier that day. This was not truly a merchant ship as it was an oil tanker used to refuel Royal Navy warships at sea and therefore we worked under strict military rules. I was one of three Radio Officers on the vessel and it was the second ship that I had served on so I should have known better than to get myself into the position I now found myself in.
The vessel berthed some way out of Lisbon and on the other side of the river Tagus to to the extreme right of the bridge in the photograph above. Due to the fuel bunkering station being isolated, a bus was arranged to take those lucky people not on watch into the city for the evening. I was one of those lucky people! I had been in Lisbon before and along with my crew mates knew exactly where to go. There was a red light area full of noisy bars, music and of course ladies that was like a magnet for seamen of all nationalities and in particular the Texas Bar. There was one downside to the evening in that the bus would collect us from the square at 2300 as the vessel would sail at 0100. The dire warning was, if you miss the bus it will not wait and if you miss the ship it certainly will not wait. Missing the ship is classed as desertion and would result in instant dismissal.
I do remember visiting a number of establishments and drinking heavily with my friends and eventually going into the Texas bar, but after that I have little memory until I came out of my alcoholic stupor sitting on the steps leading down the the river Tagus. It is amazing how quickly you sober up when you realise that you have missed the last bus over an hour ago, the ship will be preparing to sail, you have no money and of course no means to call for help. I sat with my head in my hands, trying think of a way to get some money in the vain hope that the ship would still be there when I arrived. In hindsight I should probably have gone back to the bars and found some sympathetic seamen from another ship to help me out but in reality it would take too long and the ship would have sailed.
I must have looked a sad dejected figure but this did not stop a young prostitute from sitting down next to me and offering her services. My promising career is over, I am stranded in a strange country without any money, I will have to throw myself on the mercy of the British Embassy, my parents will be so disappointed and this young woman wants me to pay for sex. I have been brought up to always show respect so I turned to her, with tears in my eyes and said sorry I am sure that you are very nice but I am in terrible trouble and I have no money. She did not go away and she had very little English apart from her menu of bedroom services so it took some time to explain my situation and ask her to please leave me alone.
She did not go away but instead opened her purse and showed me that she had nothing other than a few coins. "Taxi no" she said. We sat in silence for a while and then she grabbed my arm, pulled me to my feet and dragged me down towards the ferries that cross the river full of workers at night. With her last coins she bought two tickets pushed me onto the ferry and sat with her arms wrapped around me gently repeating something in Portuguese that I could not understand. It was quite a long way across the river and the ferry was slow so it was now well past sailing time for the ship and I felt the tears of despair welling up. This girl who was probably about my age or maybe a little younger tightened her arms around me, said something softly, gave me a huge hug and put her head on my shoulder.
We finally reached the other side and she hurried me up to a small run down building with a few old busses parked outside and she went in. When she came out she took me to one of the busses, sat me in a seat by the door, gave me a huge kiss and without turning back, disappeared into the night. Eventually a few more passengers got on the bus and gave me very strange looks, then the driver arrived and having said something to me that I did not understand, the bus set off. We drove for some considerable time and the road got darker and darker until there were no more houses and eventually we stopped at a cross roads in a heavily wooded area. I did not want to get off the bus because I had no idea where I was and the nearest lights had been about ten minutes back down the road. The driver was insistent and having pointed to the road leading into deeper woods, the bus drove away, leaving me totally on my own in the middle of nowhere.
With no other option available I started walking by what little light there was from the moon, entered an area of dark forest and just kept going in the hope of seeing the lights of a house or some place I could sleep for the night. There was no sign of habitation but after a while I could see the glow of lights shining through the trees and I walked faster to at least get out of the forest and into a lit area. I was almost running by the time I turned the corner, came into a clearing and saw an oil jetty and the bright lights were coming from a ship, it was my ship, RFA Orangeleaf. Sailing had been delayed until first light and the old bosun on the gangway had put himself at risk by not reporting me as missing. I climbed the gangway and he hissed "get to your cabin quickly you stupid boy and never do that again".
She was a lady of the night, she was a prostitue but she was a beautiful human being, an angel. I will always wonder what happened to the pretty girl who gave her time and last few coins to help a young man keep his life on track. Would I have had such a great life without that act of kindness? I sincerely doubt it!
Probably more important than saving my career, this girl taught me to never judge a person by their appearance or judge them for mistakes they had made. Not all people are as lucky as I have been. Whether it was fate or not, I still wonder what happened to that girl and I hope Karma has been good to her.