Ships and the Sea

[naked lilac]

Aloha Capt. Kong~ Brian..

I laughed at how you wrote about the Big Black Policeman, not understanding your Scouse... , and you lot, foiling their bust for that night.. Instead they ended up busting a bunch of drunken sailors taking a p... Very funny .

[captain kong]

6


Thank you for those comments our Lilac.
Here is another story, hope you like it. Seafaring today is a soft game compared to fifty something years ago.

NICHOLAS K.

I joined the Nicholas K in Liverpool at the end of 1954, she had completed discharging grain from Argentina and had loaded fertilizer in bags for Cochin, India.
She was a Fort BUILT IN 1943 and was now owned by Kiriakides of Athens.
She was manky, the accommodation was rough, four seamen to a cabin next the steering flat. the other two had three seamen in. Across the alleyway were nine Somali firemen. On deck were two mess rooms one for Deck and one for the Firemen.
We sailed outward bound for Suez and then called in at Aden for bunkers. The cabins were stinking hot and mostly we slept on deck on top of the poop. The food was diabolical, after three days at sea we were on our `pound and pint`, our `whack`
6 ounces of fresh offal per man per day per haps.
6 ounces of brackish water per man per day perhaps.
Or so it seemed. We got one small can of `Connie Onnie` condensed milk, every ten days. If you left your tin in the mess room all hands would use it, you had to keep your own stores locked up in your locker. Then we would have to stick a few match sticks in the holes to keep out the cockroaches.
The only fresh meat meat we got were the cockroaches. Did you know, pound for pound there is more protein in a cockie than in a beef steak.
So the Steward said we were well fed.
The ship was full of big rats, yellow coloured ones,, from the previous cargo of grain, These would get everywhere including the accommodation, it was diabolical. The Chippy would put rat traps out on deck every night and they were always full in the morning and he then emptied them over the side into the sea.
The fresh water was rationed, on the side of the house on the poop was a pump and we had to push this back and forth to pump up water from the after peak to a tank on top of the poop housing. There was a pad lock on the pump and the mate had the key, he would unlock it for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. Then no more water until the following day.
When we got to Cochin the Steward had ordered fresh meat to be delivered.
So one day a little Indian fellow came to the gangway with 12 goats, ?Where`s the fresh meat??.... ?This is very fresh meat Sahib?.
So we got them up the gangway and the Chippy built a pen for them on the after deck out of the dunnage. It was just as well they were on the hoof, we had no fridges on this ship. We got them a load of straw to eat while they awaited their fate.
When the Cook wanted meat he took one out, it was struggling and bleating, must have known what was going to happen. Then killed it by beating it over the head with a hammer and then cut its throat and hung it up off an awning spar, draining the blood into a cut down oil drum. The Galley boy would then gut it and skin it. Chop it up and a handful of curry powder and we were eating like champions.
We sailed then light ship to Port Lincoln in the Spencer Gulf in Australia for a cargo of wheat. The ship had a contract for two years to take wheat to Calcutta and then load iron ore in Vizaghapatam, down the coast from Calcutta, for the Steel works in Whyalla, again in the Spencer Gulf. We were going demented over that, two years, we were innocent men, what had we done to deserve a sentence like that.
We arrived in Port Lincoln and anchored on a Friday morning. They would take us along side on Monday.
That afternoon, the Captain told us to lower a boat , he, the Mate and the Chief Engineer were to go to the Agents Office. We rowed them ashore to the pier, they were each carrying a small bag.
Don?t wait for us, the Captain said, we will get a boat from ashore to bring us back.
We took the boat back to the ship and hoisted it back inboard.
A nice peaceful weekend at anchor, no work to do, lovely.
On Monday a tug came out to us with a Pilot. Where was the Captain, Mate and Engineer. The Second Mate was running around like a scalded cat. No sign of them, in the end he decided to take it alongside. When we berthed the Agent came on board and said he had never seen the three of them. They had obviously skinned out and disappeared.
It must have been a bad ship when the Captain, Mate and Chief Engineer jump ship.
We loaded the grain in bags and when we had completed and battened down the Second Mate and Agent had been on to the owners about the loss of these men. The Second Mate had a Masters Certificate, so he went as Master, the Agent found a Mate who had jumped ship in Adelaide and was awaiting deportation so he was brought up to Lincoln by the Immigration man and put on board.
We sailed then for Calcutta, what a stinking hole that was, we were moored to buoys in the Hoogly and discharging into barges. The decks were full of screaming Indian dockers, spitting red beatle juice all over our decks that were covered in spilt grain. All the accommodation was battened down, because they would have been in it, using the bathrooms, and in the cabins. It was stinking hot and a mess.
The worse part of being in Calcutta is up River they push their dead into the river and then the corpses float down and get fouled of the anchor cable or rudder, these would be bloated and stinking, with the `Shytalks` sat on them pecking away.
Then one day we got the good news. Load a cargo of manganese ore in Vizaghapatnam and take it to Birkenhead. Fanbloodytastic.
We were singing all the way home.
We walked down the gangway in Birkenhead, six abreast, whistling, we were so thin.
I paid off, thankful that we didn?t have to do the two years, when I got home Mother could hardly recognise me, I had lost so much weight. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Waterways]

Why is it all in bold?

[captain kong]

WELL IT IS LIKE THIS WATERWAYS,
I GUESS IT IS BECAUSE SOME OF US ARE GETTING A LITTLE SHORTSIGHTED WITH AGE, I CAN READ IT EASIER.
If that is the only comment I guess it hardly seems worth while writing seafaring stories anymore.

[kevin]

WELL IT IS LIKE THIS WATERWAYS,
I GUESS IT IS BECAUSE SOME OF US ARE GETTING A LITTLE SHORTSIGHTED WITH AGE, I CAN READ IT EASIER.
If that is the only comment I guess it hardly seems worth while writing seafaring stories anymore.

Toys back in the pram, Brian. You know we love your yarns.

[Ron B Manderson]

Alehouse.
You may be getting blind and I told you before "only risk one eye."

Do you remember the barges where at one end the crew were cleaning teeth(from a bucket dipped in river) etc and the other end the thunder box was being used. Ah! they were the days.
Also the bodies on the tide where the men floated on their backs and women floated on the belly.
Or the paper send around by harbour board telling you that "even if the cold water in river is tempting please do not swin." you must be joking.
A good run ashore.
I never could work out distance there. The rickshaw boys tell you it's 3 long miles or 4 short miles.
I think everone bought the clay figures in Jock Pawanys. I still got mine
Anyone eles still have them.

I wonder if speaking about thunder box., do the tobacco company know that castella (cigars) means thunderbox or toilet.
The rep I told was not a bit happy with that.
Ron

[captain kong]

Yes that brings back the memories Ron, I can still smell Calcutta 50 years later. They did clean their teeth and gargle in it as stiffs and raw sewage were floating past.
Kidapore rings a bell, was that where we went ashore? I did nt go ashore too often there. and didnt in Vizaghapatnam.
The eyes must be affected by my mispent youth. I didnt care if I did go blind then. a little more careful today

[Tabnab]

Port LIncoln brings back a few memories.My mate the Asst. Cook jumped ship there in 1954. He still lives there, a granddad with his own fishing business he runs with his sons. He was over to see me a few times, I've never managed to get over there but who knows?
Anyhoo, there was the usual famine in Karachi and the U.S. Government bought tons of grain from Australia and we loaded up for Karachi. this grain was to help the starving and as it was unloaded, all in bags by the way, on to trucks and in full view of all it was being sold just outside the dock gates. We made about 6 trips I think along with other tramps and the same thing happened each trip.

[naked lilac]

Hi ya Capt. Kong.. per your accounts of " Nicolas K.." what a terrible experience. Calcutta, and the diseased waters, and on that ship you had to endure such quarters.. unhealthy and it seemed whoever in charge.. Didn't care...????

I felt sorry also, for the poor sheep of those countries.. and how they too had to endure the slaughter ahead of their little souls.. Knowing the crys of amongest them were of death..

My oh my.. your tales are so wide in emotions.. Some lovely, some terrible.. Glad you got off that ship.. without having ecoli eatting your body.. Wow..

Great yarn.. and truely awakening..

[Waterways]

Hi ya Capt. Kong.. per your accounts of " Nicolas K.." what a terrible experience. Calcutta, and the diseased waters, and on that ship you had to endure such quarters.. unhealthy and it seemed whoever in charge.. Didn't care...????

Greeks never did, until EU law outlawed them. They would sail in leaking tubs crewed by half-wits at times. They ignore every maritime law in existence.

About 20 years ago, one Greek crewed cruise liner off South Africa started to take on water. The crew ran to the lifeboats leaving the bemused passengers behind. The ship never sank and they had to go back on board.

Lifeboat drill and maintenance of the derricks is rarely done. It is common to find lifeboat ropes painted up solid, unable to launch the boats. My cousins would not be near anything Greek when it came to shipping.

Many of the ferries between the Greek Islands are death traps.

[captain kong]

7

I am writing about the sinking of the `Pool Fisher` with the loss of 13 dead including one lady. at the moment, it is taking a while because I have to have all the facts of the event, Inquest and Court of Inquiry correct, so I have a lot of documents to get through.
so in the meantime here is another one I had prepared earlier, to be going on with. ...................

SIKORSKY S61N HELICOPTER.

Details?..
2 x 1120KW or 1500 SHP General Electric 1402 Turbo Shafts driving a 5 bladed main and tail shaft rotors.
Cruising speed, 120 knts.
Ceiling 12500 feet
Range 450 nautical miles
Main Rotor 62 feet in diameter
Fuselage length 59feet. Height 17 feet 6 inches.
Main Cabin, 26 to 30 people.
Payload with a sling 1100 lbs.
Weight empty 12,336 lbs.

THE ASSIGNMENT.

In 1976, I was sent to Cape Town, South Africa by my Company, on a three month assignment to re-write and update the Helicopter / Ship Operations Manual, for the safe working practice of transferring stores, crew changes and rescues. An interesting and exciting job.
I was with Court Helicopters based at Green Point, Cape Town.
I had relatives who lived there at Sea Point, walking distance from Green Point. So it was just like home.
I was signed on as Observer and usually sat between the Pilot and
Co-pilot when flying and helped the Winch man with loading and unloading.
In those days the Cape Route was quite busy with shipping as the Suez Canal was closed after the last Israeli / Egyptian war. As the ship came around the Cape we would take out the stores, food, machinery parts and crew changes on all kinds of ships, tankers, cargo, bulkers and so on.
The first few days I made notes on the various operations and took the advice of the Pilots on what manoeuvres the ships had to take for the Helicopter to land safely.

Some Captains were very uncooperative, especially on the FOC ships,

Pilot, ?Captain please alter your course to 270 degrees.?
Captain, ?No I am not altering Course?
Pilot, ?Please alter course to 270 degrees, I want make a safe approach to your vessel, I want the wind to be 45 degrees on your port bow so I can approach on the starboard side from aft?.
Captain, ? I tell you I am not altering course for anyone?.
Pilot, ?Captain, if you do not alter course in 30 seconds I am taking your stores back to Cape Town.?
Captain, ?OK I alter course.?
We would land the sling of stores near the H with the safe working circle around, and when clear land on deck to disembark passengers and any other stores from inside.
The ships had to have the deck crew wearing fire proof protective suits and manning the fire monitors with foam in case of an accident.
I soon had the Manual typed up ready for approval by the Shipping Company, DTI , the Helicopter Company and for the printers.

The rest of the tour was interesting.
Every Friday we went to the Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison, in Tokai, a suburb of Cape Town, one of the toughest prisons in the world. Mandella was imprisoned there before transferring to Robben Island.
We would land in a very secure area and then the guards, armed with automatic weapons would march out a few , maybe a dozen prisoners, feet and arms shackled, they would shuffle to the Helicopter and two at a time would board craft. The guards would shackle their legs and arms to the seat frames, then the next two, until they were all chained up.
With four armed guards on board we would then take off and fly to Robben Island, across Table Bay. a bit like the film, `CON AIR`.
On landing at Robben Island near to the main gate, the guards would unshackle the Cons two at a time from their seats and escort them off the Chopper, They were then taken over by the armed prison guards and escorted two at a time through the gate. Once they had all been taken away we would then load any prisoner who was being transferred back to Pollsmoor, usually if they were due to be released. It was top security at all times. Sometimes we had a sling underneath with stores etc for the Island. One time I was unloading stores with the Winch Man,
the Cons were not allowed in the chopper, we passed them out to them, he told me, ?That one over there is Mandella?, I said ?Who is Mandella,??, I had never heard of him at that time. ?He is a notorious terrorist, a bad *******?. Oh.
Many of the ANC terrorists, or depending on your views, freedom fighters, were incarcerated on there for many years.
In 2001, I went back to Robben Island and sat in Mandella`s cell and had my photo taken. It was a museum and tourist destination then with ex Cons as the tour guides.

Every two weeks on a Saturday we took three light house keepers and their stores to Dassen Island.
Dassen Island is situated about 8 miles west of Yzerfontein, approx 40 miles north of Cape Town. Dassen Island's name is derived from the large amount of dassies ("rock rabbits") that live there. The island is also a big bird sanctuary (it is inhabited by 68,000 African penguins) and a provincial nature reserve managed by Cape Nature.
It is not open to the public and so I am one of the very people not involved with the Island`s nature reserve or Light house and meteorologists, ever to visit there.
It is one of about 34 underwater mountains along the west coast of South Africa, whose pinnacles rise above sea level. Dassen Island is two and a half miles long and just over a mile wide. The highest point is about 30 feet above sea level.
As we approached Dassen, `Stretch` our American Pilot, he was 6 feet 8 inches tall, hence the name. Ex Huey helicopter pilot in the Viet Nam War, said ?Watch this, did you ever see penguins fly??.
The whole Island coast to coast was full of the African Penguins, shoulder to shoulder, we circled the Island and came in low from the opposite side to the Light House, I was sat with Tikki, our Winch Man in the open door with our legs hanging over the outside. As we passed over the Penguins they were flying up into the air from the down draft of the rotors and bouncing all over the others. Looked like thousands of flying Nuns. Funny to watch but I don?t think the Penguins were amused.
We landed near the Light House, there were three cottages there for the Keepers, some times they had their families with them, especially in the school holidays, The three Keepers got out and went to see their mates for the hand over while we unloaded the stores. Tikki and I then went for a walk around the Penguins, fascinating creatures, not afraid of humans, all squawking and shuffling around. They stink horribly of bad fish and crap and with up to 68,000 of them that is one big stink.
Then when the relieved Keepers were ready we took off again and flew back to Cape Town.
Once a month we were required to do the free fall test, for the aviation certificates. Just behind Table Mountain is a large reservoir. We would have to fly to 1500 feet above the lake and then stop engines.
We would then free fall and the Pilot would feather the rotors and use these as a parachute effect. A very strange feeling falling in a silent helicopter, then crash and a huge spray of water every where as we hit the surface. The Sikorsky had a boat hull, and we could float just as a boat would do. Then we would `steam` around the lake using the engines. The exercise over then fly back to Green Point. Quite exciting.

One day we got a Mayday, a Cyprian cargo ship, the `AROSA`, registered in Limassol was in distress up the coast just north of Hondeklip Bay, before we got up there she had grounded on the rocks and had a steep list to starboard, She was a traditional cargo ship, five hatches, and 10,000 tons.
The crew were on the Port side waving to us as we approached, seas and spray was flying over the ship in a strong sou`westerly gale.
Tikki got himself ready and rigged the harness and then went down to pick them up. I was in the door way and as they came up I pulled them inboard, Tikki went up and down 27 times and was really exhausted and collapsed in the doorway as I heaved him in. I got them all sat down in the seats. Lucky we had the size to do it. Then back to Cape Town. The Immigration Authorities, the Padre from the Seamens` Mission where there at Green Point waiting to receive them. They were extremely thankful for being rescued from certain death.
Two days later the gale subsided and we had a quiet day so `Stretch` said lets go look at the wreck and see what we can get. So off we went.
She was in the stages of breaking up. So Tikki and I went down in the harness and he said we wanted a fridge for the Mess room at the Base so with great difficulty against the sloping deck we got one out on deck and hooked it up, then I got a lifebuoy, with the name AROSA LIMASSOL and took that up as well. It was quite dangerous in there, she was grinding on the rocks and at a dangerous list so we got out of there. we didn?t hang around. It was quite scary. So when we got back to Base we had a fridge in the Mess and the lifebuoy was hung on the wall.


One day I heard that my brother was on his way to the Gulf and was coming around the Cape. The wanted some engine parts to be repaired at Globe Engineering in Cape Town. This was quite a common practice, we would head north and rendezvous with a ship about 400 miles north of Cape Town pick up the parts, like a motor that needed rewinding, take them to Globe, they would fix them and we would fly them back out when the ship got past the Cape.
When my brothers ship was due we flew up to the Orange River on the Namibia border, refuel and then we headed out into the South Atlantic.
We saw the ship as a tiny dot through the blue haze then we descended and landed on deck, the parts were waiting for us, we loaded them and then `Stretch` said ?You stay here and we will pick you up in two days when you get off Cape Town?. Good idea. `ar kid was turned in, watch below and so I would have missed him.
The chopper flew off back to the Orange River and then on to the Cape.
I walked down aft with the crowd and then up to the bridge and introduced myself to the Captain. He took me down to his cabin and got a couple of cans of ale out of his fridge, and then he ask me to describe what I was doing down here. I then asked to see my brother, the Captain said ?Tell him he is finished working until Cape Town so you can spend some time together?. and then I left to find him. On the stairs I met the Second Mate and he said come to the Officers bar and tell us all what your doing, so I was having a pint with them telling my yarn when he said come and have lunch in the Officers saloon. I said I am going to see my brother, so he said he can come as well, so I said can he come in there all the time and he said no he is only a rating. I said I wouldn?t embarrass him, I would eat in the Sailors mess room.
I went and put him on shake, he was surprised to see me in the middle of the ocean, `Kinnell, where have you come from.`?.
We went on the ale then and all hands joined in, one big party, it went on all day and all night and into the following day and night.
I was totally bombed out of my skull don?t remember anything.
When the ship was off the Cape the chopper was returning with the stores and repaired motors, the crowd put me on the stores barrow and pushed me up the foredeck to the H. The chopper landed and the crowd lifted me up and put in in the chopper and followed me in, I climbed out and was waving Good Bye to them all, they were all bevied as well. They thought they were going to Cape Town.
The Mate had to sort us out and get the crowd out of the chopper and then get me back into it again.
I don?t remember any thing after that until I woke up in my hotel room next day with a king sized hangover.. The mates from the Helicopter had taken me back and turned me in.


One night I was on duty from 10pm, we loaded the sling and then filled the inside with boxes for the `KATRINA MAERSK` a BIG, 350,000 ton tanker, she was light ship and outward bound for the Persian Gulf.
These ships were always around 15 miles south of the Cape, as per South African Regulations, that was to keep tankers away from the land in case of any mishap.
It was blowing bad that night, around 60 plus knots, it was in the middle of their winter and the gales were atrocious with that big heavy swells and seas that come up from the Antarctic. It was going to be a bumpy flight.
Around 2am we came across the KATRINA MAERSK 15 miles south and came in to land on deck after landing the sling. All the deck lights were on and the men standing by.
Tikki jumped out on deck and I was passing the boxes out to him when a huge green sea crashed over the bow and covered the helicopter, the wave swept Tikki down the deck with the boxes and with some of the sailors, The tanker had a freeboard of over 60 feet so it was some big wave. Then another one came over and then a third one.
`Stretch` shouted ?Let`s zap?, and heaved on the throttles and began to take off ?Get in your seat? he shouted, as we had lift off,. We left Tikki behind on deck.
I strapped myself in and we climbed to about a hundred feet up and the whole aircraft started banging and shaking, bouncing up and down, ?Oh ****? shouted `Stretch` Both pilots were pumping the throttles frantically. I could see the tanker deck lights below us and saw them getting closer, we moved over the side just as we plummeted past the deck level and it went dark as we crashed into the ocean.
I could see the side of the tanker gliding past us and hoping it didn?t hit our rotor blades or we would have flipped over and good bye world.
I looked ahead and could only see water and then I looked vertically upwards and could see the top of a huge Cape roller towering above us.
All this time the two Pilots were pumping the throttles frantically. We went back wards and we slid all the way up this huge wall of water until we hit the crest then we fell forward down the valley of the next one.
I could hear `Stretch` calling ?Mayday? Mayday? on the radio. I was wetting my knickers, this was real fear approaching, my scalp was ice cold, and my hair standing on end. I was gripping on to something with white knuckles. Fortunately the Sikorsky has this boat hull and that kept us afloat as long as we could stay upright, and the only way was to get some revs on the rotors. With continuous pumping of the throttles we got a little rotation, the Tanker had moved away from us now and was trying to give us a lee to keep the worst of the wind and sea off us.
We then got a couple of feet of altitude and then we went up and down with the swells, The only thing we could do was to try and make fo land, we turned and headed for the lights of Cape Town in the far distance, and eventually the Coast Guard cutter came out and stood by us.
`Stretch` told them we would try and make the shore but if we couldnt then we would have to abandon and they could pick us up from the water. We continued on our way at a walking pace and around a couple of feet above the water going up and down It took nearly three hours to get the 15 miles to the shore, the Pilots were exhausted pumping continuously, I relieved them in turn to take the pressure off them.Then we arrived at Green Point and just slid into the concrete ramp and the engines stopped. Just made it. What a relief that was.
What happened was the salt water from the waves had gone into the twin turbines and the water evaporated and left the salt crystals to jam the turbines. We were the luckiest men alive that night.
`Stretch` then had to get the small chopper out of the hanger, a Sea King, and said they had to go and find Tikki on the Katrina Maersk, some where off the Cape. I had to stay behind and get the fresh water hose and give the turbines a good flushing out to clear out the salt while they went for Tikki
A couple of hours later they returned with Tikki who was quite relieved to be back. What a night. The day crew had turned up and relieved us, they started to check over the Helicopter and made it safe to fly again while we all went back to my hotel to have a few whiskies. It felt good to be alive.
Soon my time was up and it was time to go home on leave, I was sad to leave my mates, we had had a few adventures together.




POST SCRIPT?..

Eleven years later, I had taken early retirement from the Company, I got a telephone call asking me to go for an interview by a Pipeline Company. They knew that I had the helicopter experience in South Africa.
They had petroleum pipelines running the length of the country, Milford Haven to Birmingham, to Manchester to Glasgow.
These were 36 inch diameter pipes buried to a depth of about six feet, and under very high pressure. If a construction operator with an excavator hit one of these lines then the devastation would be terrible.
Helicopters were used to fly the line every day to see if there was any digging or construction near the pipeline.
The Manchester to Glasgow line had just come on stream and they wanted air crew to monitor the line, which ran north from Manchester and most of the way alongside the M6 Motorway.
I got the job, I was home getting a little bored, What does action man do in retirement.?
It was the ideal job for me , just what I wanted. I jumped at the opportunity. I was given all the plans and location and other documentation all ready to start next Monday. There would be a Pilot and me as the observer to fly the line daily from the Manchester depot.
A few days before I started to have a strange feeling about the job, voices in my head told me not to do it.
I phoned the Company, and told them I did not want to do it, they were not pleased, as another man would have to be trained and delays incurred, they pleaded with me to change my mind, but I could not.

Six months later the helicopter came down near Preston by the M6 Motorway. Pilot and Observer were both killed.

[kevin]

Greeks never did, until EU law outlawed them. They would sail in leaking tubs crewed by half-wits at times. They ignore every maritime law in existence.

About 20 years ago, one Greek crewed cruise liner off South Africa started to take on water. The crew ran to the lifeboats leaving the bemused passengers behind. The ship never sank and they had to go back on board.

Lifeboat drill and maintenance of the derricks is rarely done. It is common to find lifeboat ropes painted up solid, unable to launch the boats. My cousins would not be near anything Greek when it came to shipping.

Many of the ferries between the Greek Islands are death traps.

A lot of truth in this but there are exceptions. I only sailed on one Greek ship but safety procedures were the equivalent of any British ship I sailed on.

[captain kong]

The tramp, `NICHOLAS K` was owned by Kiriadides of Athens, a Greek ship owner, the Ship was registered in London, under the Red Ensign, as were many Greek owned ships in those days. They were know as `London Greeks`.
but the ships still had to pass their surveys for the Board of Trade and Ministry of Transport.

[captain kong]

The tramp, `NICHOLAS K` was owned by Kiriadides of Athens, a Greek ship owner, the Ship was registered in London, under the Red Ensign, as were many Greek owned ships in those days. They were know as `London Greeks`.
but the ships still had to pass their surveys for the Board of Trade and Ministry of Transport.

[brian daley]

Short sighted and given to memory loss,we'll have to remove your pilots licence Brian,
BrianD