I was on the Clan MacGillivray at Port Elizabeth in South Africa, home-bound in September 1977 when cargo in No.4 Hold caught fire.

Here's the newspaper cutting.

As I recall, it was a Friday evening and we were all gathering in the officers smoke room/bar looking forward to a steak (Under the catering regime of PCO George Chadwick, we got steak only on Friday!!)

The alarms went off just before we were about to take our seats in the saloon.... The first thought on everyone's minds was... Shit, it had to happen on the night we were getting steak.

Life became suddenly very frantic as we all pitched in to cover vents and double up covers on the hatches.

I never did get the steak that night.