Posted by Peter on October 01, 1997 at 04:38:14:
Clues:
Port workers and seamen are Japanese, Chinese, Dutch and Malay
Harbourmaster speaks of the Wild cat sailing "across" to China
Harbourmaster's respected ancestors were warned by their nannies to watch out for Bony.
Wild Cat was proceeding to Swatow, then Hong Kong, then Singapore, and had been in America and Papeetee so travelling something like anticlockwise around the pacific.
Port is very busy, a lot of ship maintenance and contruction going on.
The Harbourmaster might not be English but is very anglicised [he calls people chaps, but he respects his ancestors(!) and was thin and brown, not fat and pink like me when I have been in the Far east for a few months]
I think this is Japan, any other ideas?