BACK TO SEA

I signed off in Singapore on the “Straat Johore” in September 1959 and returned to Australia on the ship as a passenger to start a new life ashore.

My wife and I were married in Sydney in June 1959; a year earlier, after we got engaged, she moved from Perth to Sydney and had found a job in Sydney and a place to live in Bexley.

When I was still on the ship on my visits to Bexley I got to know one of the neighbours pretty well. Mr. Allan, a retired police sergeant, was a good source of information and he and I had long talks about opportunities that existed in Australia.

By then I had made up my mind to come ashore, both my wife and I had decided that we wanted to stay in Australia and I had to start looking for work. Mr. Allan had suggested that I should try the NSW Police Force and find out if I could join their Radio Branch.

I thought about it and although I was not keen to start off doing ordinary police work for a number of years before I could become a specialist in the Radio Branch I accepted his offer to arrange an interview for me with a Superintendent in the NSW Police Force.

I had my interview and I was accepted in principle.

When I arrived in Sydney on the “Straat Johore” in September 1959 I reported to the Superintendent and was told that the next intake would not be until December and that I would be notified.

To fill in time I worked around the house and did all the odd jobs for the landlady and then some more. After two weeks I ran out of work, got frustrated and decided to start looking for a job to fill the gap.

Good fortune had it that a friend of mine heard that Qantas were looking for radio technicians to work on their new Boeing 707’s. He gave me the name of a person in AWA Aviation Division to contact and find out.

I made an appointment to see the man, had an interview with him, sat for an entrance exam on the spot and was accepted. Within a couple of weeks I started a 6 months training course at AWA Aviation at Mascot to obtain the basic Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (Radio) ticket issued by the Department of Civil Aviation.

I got my tickets plus the necessary endorsements and worked for Qantas for nearly four years.

My career in the NSW Police Force never came to fruition and the jokes my friends made about me being on point duty in the middle of Pitt Street in Sydney stopped!

Realising that my Dutch qualifications were of little help if I wanted to get ahead in this country I went back to study at night at the North Sydney Technical College for my Electronics & Communications Certificate. I completed my studies in three years and passed my final exams in 1964.

Not satisfied with the routine type of work and limited chances of promotion I resigned from Qantas and joined Electronics Industries Ltd., the agents for Decca radar and other marine navigation and communication equipment in Australia. It was good to back working on the ships again and I enjoyed that type of work better although it did not leave me much time for study.

When I got my exam results in November 1964 I informed the Manager of EIL in Melbourne that I had obtained higher qualifications. I was told that having the E&C Certificate would not help me in his organisation, they were only interested in me, as a Service Engineer, doing maintenance and repair work.

I applied for a position as Technical Officer – Electronics & Communications with the Metropolitan Water Sewerage & Drainage Board, better known as Water Board, and was accepted. I gave notice and resigned from EIL.

Good-bye ships and salt water; Hello fresh water!

Apart from the occasional visit when old friends were in port I did not have anything to do with ships or shipping anymore.

Not until 1969 when I had accumulated enough leave to take my wife and two sons back to Europe and the UK to meet our respective families.

We booked on the “Achille Lauro”, originally “Willem Ruys”, a ship that I had visited in my Radio Holland Training School days in Rotterdam. The “Achille Lauro” did round trips from Europe to Australia with migrants and return to Southampton with passengers from Australia via Nieuw Zealand, Punta Arenas in Chile, the Straits of Magellan, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro and Porto.

It was a wonderful feeling being on board a ship again and the whole family enjoyed that voyage which lasted five weeks.

My Electronics & Communications work in the Water Board was varied, always associated with fresh water but never with salt water!

That all changed when the Water Board began studies in early 1970 to establish whether primary treatment combined with submarine outfalls was the answer to an ocean and beach pollution problem.

Where Consultants overseas could draw on certain overseas experience, notably in California, the daunting fact was that there was no data that could be applied specifically to Australian (and certainly not to Sydney) coastal conditions.

It was a matter of starting from scratch; the Board’s first move was to bring in a team from the US with experience of submarine outfall investigation and design.

This team started to train Board’s engineers in the aspects of oceanographic investigation work and a call within the organisation for volunteers to work on oceanic survey vessels went out. And guess who volunteered!

Another Technician and I from the Electrical Branch were seconded to service the sophisticated electronic equipment bought from the US for the field studies. The task of the Board’s team was to gather sufficient data on physical and chemical ocean conditions, including currents, water temperatures and chemical constituents of the ocean. This date was needed to determine the design of the outfalls and to provide the background against which ocean conditions could be compared once the deepwater outfalls were in operation.

The Board put tenders out for the hire of survey vessels that conformed to the NSW Maritime Service Board regulations and by February 1972 we were operational.

The first vessel we went out on was the m.v. “Morotai”, a fishing boat. We found out that this vessel did not meet all our requirements and it was replaced by the m.v “Beleena”, a small ship originally designed and built by Trygve Halverson to do research work in the South Pacific. She was fitted out with radar, gyrocompass and Board’s VHF radio and later fitted with hydraulic winches to lower and raise the heavy instrumentation packages.

M.V. “Beleena”

- Photo by Douglass Baglin taken at the island of Nive - South Pacific -

The survey went into full swing and lasted for three years during which time we went out to sea almost very second day. The type of work depended on details required by the Designing Engineers, some days we would anchor and stay overnight to do hourly profiles in one location, other days we would travel up and down the coast of Sydney between Turrametta Head and Bundeena to stop at selected locations and take water samples or anchor to do current measurements and take water samples.

In Lavender Bay we had a jetty to moor the boat and a temporary building in the grounds of a sewage pumping station where we analysed our water samples, calibrated our equipment, made repairs and wrote our reports for the Designing Engineers.

Some days the weather was rough and made work very difficult, other days it was sheer bliss! I always remember the glorious early morning departures from Sydney Harbour and the wonderful sight of Sydney and the foreshores in the afternoon sun when the ship returned to Lavender Bay after a day’s work.

To comply with the Maritime regulations regarding qualifications on board we had one regular, Captain Max Darling, who had a Master’s ticket and a marine engineer with a BOT ticket. The marine engineers were on casual or part time engagements, they worked on the “Amanda Miller” but during their leave periods they would do a “moonlighter” on the “Beleena”.

These men had a few more irons in the fire, not only did they do part time work on the “Beleena” they also ferried newly built tug boats from Australia to the Persian Gulf during their leave periods.

Altogether we had a good team and things went well.

One day Captain Max wanted to do some work on the ropes and asked the engineer to take the wheel whilst he went forward. The engineer was not familiar with the Sydney Harbour channels and steered the ship on a straight course towards the Heads.

Next minute one almighty bang and the ship struck the Sow & Pigs rocks! There we were, high and dry on the rocks, in clear weather, with all that navigation equipment available and radar antenna going around, looking like fools!

Captain Max nearly had a heart attack and took the ship into Watson Bay to assess the damage. Fortunately the hull was only dented, no real damage done.

Trygve, the owner, was furious, Max hung his head in shame and would never let the engineers steer the ship again! You can imagine the sniggers that went around the boating fraternity in Sydney when the news spread!

In discussion with the Miller Tankers engineers about ferrying tugs across the Persian Gulf I found out that on these voyages they also needed wireless operators with an Australian Radio Certificate of Proficiency and that such a person was not always available.

That put thoughts in my head and I decided that I could do with a break and join the tugboat ferrying operation. From the Persian Gulf I could fly to Holland and see my parents for a short visit and then fly back again. The return flight ticket from the Persian Gulf would cover part of the cost of flying.

To get my Australian ticket I went back to night school; when I got my Commercial Operators’ Certificate of Proficiency in March 1975 I got in touch with the people who organised the ferrying only to be told that the work had finished!

I was disappointed but I still wanted to go and visit my parents. The alternative I hoped for was to get on an ANL ship that sailed between Australia and Europe. I made enquiries to AWA Marine Division and was told that there was a possibility, provided that I signed on for 5 months.

I discussed it with my wife and arranged to take 3 months Long Service Leave at half pay from the Water Board.

I spoke to AWA Marine only to be told that they did not have any ANL ship available for me, the best they could offer was work on the Australian coast on a BHP bulk carrier.

Since I had finalised all the arrangements with the Water Board I decided to take the offer from AWA marine and go ahead.

m.v. "Iron Endeavour" (built 1969). Owned by Nile Shipping Coy, UK, and built for long-term charter to BHP.

I took over the “Iron Endeavour” from my predecessor in Newcastle in June 1975.

Although I had given it much thought, I only partially knew what to expect. Life on board would be entirely different from my earlier sailing days 16 years ago!

Certainly nothing like the camaraderie on the RIL ships or even the “Beleena”, I found that out in the first two weeks on board this huge bulk carrier.

The officers, although friendly towards one and other, did not socialise. Only when there was a BBQ on deck whilst the ship was anchored outside would you see anyone with a beer in his hand. Meals in the mess room were very quiet, as soon as the meal was over people would disappear into their cabins.

Since the ship did short 3-week voyages between the ports of Newcastle, Port Kembla, Port Pirie and Port Headland nobody bothered to go ashore.

It seemed that people were only interested to do their 3 months stint, save money and get home as quickly as possible.

The ship itself was huge in my eyes! I had noticed a helicopter pad on one of the holds and asked the captain about it. “To get the pilot on board and off again in rough weather off Pt Headland” he told me.

And indeed I did witness that activity a number of times!

I remember very few of the people on board, they came and went very quickly. The only person I talked to regularly was the Third Mate; we came on board the same day and signed off on the same day.

I used go on the bridge and have a yarn and a cuppa with him after I finished my late watch. He was very particular how his cup of tea was made; I got into trouble one day because my tea making sequence and method was all wrong according to him. ”Heat the pot first with boiling water, then put the tea leaves in and pour boiling water in the pot, NOT BOILED WATER! Milk in the cup first, then pour the tea from the pot”.

He was serious and got shirty with me when I ridiculed him! Later I found out that his’ was the correct way; I owe him a belated apology.

The round trip from Pt Kembla or Newcastle to Pt Headland was 3 weeks. The Captain was good to me and let me go home when we berthed in Pt Kembla or Newcastle. That allowed me to see my family regularly and kept us happy.

I used to ring home regularly from the ship on the HF radiotelephone via Sydney Radio. When I first came on board the radiotelephone system did not work, the antennas had been rigged the wrong way and kept blowing the receiver up. I re-arranged the aerials and got the radiotelephone working with the result that the crew started to make regular radio telephone calls home from the ship.

The ship was 6 years old by then and a lot of the antenna cables had deteriorated. Over the period of time that I was on board I convinced BHP Shipping to replace faulty cabling resulting in good communications.

The old man was happy with the work I was doing, perhaps one reason why he let me go home every time we arrived in Pt Kembla or Newcastle.

He wanted me to sign on again after I finished my 4 months on board.

I explained to him that I had realised that my place was home with my wife and sons and that, as far as I was concerned, my sailing days were over.

I had decided to go back to my work at the Water Board and try to find another avenue of interest within that organisation.

Life on board was nothing like it was in “the good old days” anymore; the writing was on the wall about the future of the Radio Officers on board ships and after my break and being out of a rut for a while I felt confident that there were opportunities for me within the Water Board.

I resumed my duties in the Water Board in October 1975 and I have never looked back since!

As far as wireless operators, radio officers, sparks, or whatever you may want to call them, they have disappeared. The dinosaurs of the shipping world. (Does that make me a living dinosaur?)

I have never lost my love for the sea and ships, nowadays Sheila and I go cruising, at least once a year. Life has been good to me and I give back some of my time to work as a volunteer guide at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour, Sydney Australia.

John Papenhuyzen

September 2005.

Acknowledgements:

Photo of the M.V. “Beleena” kindly donated by Trygve Halvorsen.