an acquaintance of carols ( lady ss captain ) told her that cruise liners were now altering course just on the off chance of seeing the green diamonds at play , so it became an unwritten rule that anyone spotting a liner should give it a couple of minutes quality time , and so i decided to buzz this lucky one at fifty feet , although instead of indicating fifty feet i noticed that the altimeter read almost five hundred feet as i flashed by down its port side , which was very naughty of it .