THE STRANDING OF THE TJIBANTJET

m.s. TJIBANTJET

To replace the ageing TJIBESAR, once the largest cargo ship in the Dutch merchant navy, Royal Interocean Lines placed an order in February 1948 on Bartram & Sons in Sunderland UK to build the TJIBANTJET. She was launched on 3 October 1951, a cargo ship of 8,248 BRT with accommodation for 6 passengers and 60 crew, powered by a 6 cylinder Doxford Diesel of 6,800 PK and capable of doing 16 knots.

The ship’s life started off with a hiccup; during construction it was discovered that she was too wide to pass through a set of locks between the shipyard and the open sea, consequently the design had to be altered causing delays. It was not until 15 June 1952 that she was handed over to RIL to start work on the Japan Line.

My involvement with the TJIBANTJET began in February 1956 when I signed on as Radio Officer in Tandjung Priok in Indonesia. I had left Holland in November 1955 for Japan where I picked up a newly built tanker to take to Singapore. From Singapore I was sent to Tg. Priok where I arrived towards the end of December 1955 and was told that my new ship would not be here before the end of January 1956.

I was put up in the Zeemanshuis in Tg. Priok and between doing inspections on ships in port with the Radio Holland technicians I did a stint on a tug towing a dredger to Palembang in Sumatra and back before the TJIBANJET finally arrived.

She was a beautiful ship, good lines and structure, well kept and nothing like the ugly blocks of flats that you see come floating down Sydney Harbour nowadays. Amongst the ranks of us Radio Officers it was considered a privilege to be sent to a KJCPL ship and I certainly felt privileged.

The first part of the voyage was in familiar territory for me, loading general cargo in Semarang and Surabaja then on to Kidjang on the isle of Bintang to load bauxite for Japan and from there on into the unknown to Hong Kong and Japan.

During my time on board we did call into Saigon once and on an other occasion we made a diversion to Manilla but the regular routes were Indonesia – Hong Kong – Japan and vice versa.

Life was good, there always seemed to be such a relaxed atmosphere on board amongst the etat major, when the day’s work was over we used to sit out on deck and have a social drink before going down for dinner. Very little time was spent inside one’s cabin, air-conditioning had not made an impact on our social life on board and as a result we talked a lot and got to know each other very well. Friendships developed that have lasted for years and some are still are ongoing.

The radio station is closed for business in most ports; apart from doing maintenance work on the equipment and listening to traffic lists or unilateral transmissions from Scheveningen Radio I had time to spare and I used the opportunity to go ashore and do a lot of sight seeing. There was always someone else off duty and willing to go ashore with me; I must say that I have seen an awful lot of Japan and Indonesia during the time I served on the TJIBANTJET.

The TJIBANJET departed Moji on 18 September 1957 for Hong Kong with a half laden ship, a crew of 74 people and 6 passengers.

At the time weather forecasts made no mention of any disturbances and therefore the normal course to Hong Kong through Formosa Straits was set.

On September 20 at 22:36 local time a weather forecast received from HK reported that a tropical depression east of Luzon had developed into a typhoon to be named “Gloria” which was moving at 5 knots in a WNW’ly direction. Also 760 miles to the east of “Gloria” another typhoon called “Faye” had developed.

From information given by the weather forecasts and maps that I received at regular intervals from coast stations Sangley Point - NPO (The United States Navy Pacific Area Coastal Radio Station) and Cape d’Aguilar - VPS (Hong Kong Coastal Radio Station) the Captain deducted that typhoon “Gloria” would pass to the south of Hong Kong.

Barograph readings 21 – 22 September 1957

Since the Captain had decided to head for Hong Kong he sent a telegram at 23:00 to the Royal Observatory “From Moji bound for Hongkong ETA Lye Mun 21/9 23.30 L.T. Do you advise to wait for typhoon Gloria in Hongkong Bay? Is Gloria passing over Hongkong?

At 23:32 when the HK pilot boarded the following reply was received: “Typhoon Gloria expected to pass close to south Hongkong on 22^nd. Possible gales from east beginning on morning 22^nd”.

The pilot advised the Captain that the whole port was full with ships, one free spot near Kowloon Dock was suggested but was rejected by the Captain as unsafe and not suitable. The alternative, which the captain took, was to anchor in Junk Bay, although considered as poor anchorage because of the muddy bottom it was free of other large ships.

From there on things went wrong. Sangley Point - NPO reported on 22 September at 12:25 that typhoon “Gloria” now went north whilst Hong Kong some time later gave a contradictory report. The report from Sangley Point - NPO was ignored in favour of the latest Hong Kong report.

From 15:30 onwards the ship was hit by full hurricane strength winds and heavy rain, the decision to run the engine at different speeds to keep the ship in position made little or no difference and the ship started to drift. Then, to add insult to injury, the portside anchor chain fouled, with only the starboard anchor holding. All hell broke loose at 18:44 when a heavy gust and pouring rain coming in from starboard pushed the ship abeam of the anchor chain towards the rocks. All that could be done was manoeuvre the ship parallel to the shore and put her fair and square on the rocks in relatively shallow water.

When the ship hit she trembled, pitched and heaved on the swell coming from the shore and listed heavily to port before she sank. The engine room flooded quickly and the watertight compartments could not be shut, it was then decided to flood the hull and fill the deeptanks to settle the ship securely on the rock shelf.

The Captain had asked me to keep a sharp eye on the movements of typhoon “Gloria” after we arrived at Junk Bay in Hong Kong on 21 September 1957. During the night I received regular typhoon warnings from Cape d’Aguilar Radio - VPS and also the weather map observations from Sangley Point - NPO.

I kept normal radio zone watch during Sunday 22 September and delivered up-to-date typhoon warnings from VPS to the Captain.

The wind strengthened in the afternoon and by 5 o’clock we had hurricane strength winds and gusts of 100 miles per hour. VPS started to send navigation warnings about ships cast adrift in Kowloon Bay and one report of a collision.

I went down to the mess room to have my evening meal when I suddenly could see the rocky shore rapidly appear next to the ship. I jumped up to rush to the radio station when the call from the bridge came – “Sparks - - - SOS”.

In the radio station I started the main transmitter to send out the alarm signal on 500 kHz. The time was 09:45 or 09:46 GMT on my ship’s clock.

Straight after I had sent the alarm signal the ship hit the rocks with a tremendous bang and as a result the main antenna snapped and came down. I switched over to an emergency antenna and tried to tune the main transmitter on the emergency antenna; this did not go to well and as I found out later the main antenna and a stay with the direction finder sense aerial had fallen across the porcelain antenna inlet and into the water shorting the emergency antenna out. Luckily there was some radiation from the main transmitter and I was able to send the best part of the Emergency Message in spite of the ship heaving, pitching, rolling and pounding the rocks with tremendous power and I being thrown around.

The engine room had flooded causing the mains power generators to fail. Without mains power the radio station relies on auxiliary power from the emergency generator as the first back-up, failing that everything then depends on the radio station’s own lead battery supply and emergency transmitting and receiving equipment. (During a mains failure the emergency generator is supposed to cut in automatically, this time it did not work). Fortunately the Engineers were able to start the emergency generator manually even though the ship moved and listed heavily. This allowed me to still use the main transmitter, but not for long.

Sparks flew and smoke came pouring out of my good old, dependable 4-U, almost certainly caused by water that had entered the radio station and short-circuited the cabling. Shortly thereafter the emergency generator jammed, caused by the heavy listing and violent movements of the ship, no wonder, auxiliary diesel engines are not designed to work under those conditions.

The only way left to communicate with the outside world now was by means of the emergency medium wave transmitter and receiver working from lead acid emergency batteries. Using this equipment and a defunct antenna I was able to finish the last part of the emergency traffic with the MYONIA relaying the traffic to and from VPS.

Cape d’Aguilar - VPS had received my Emergency Message and confirmed receipt but could not hear me on my emergency transmitter working with the aerials shorted out. Luckily the Dutch Shell tanker MYONIA - PGBZ was anchored close by around the corner from Lye Mun in Kowloon Bay and could hear me. (The location where the TJIBANTJET hit the rocks is almost on the Lye Mun thoroughfare to Kowloon Bay under an outcrop called “Devils Peak”).

During this ordeal I had to shout a number of times to the bridge for an exact position, no one could help me at that stage because all the charts and maps had been blown away and were scattered around the wheelhouse. It took about an hour before the navigators could finally give me a position in latitude and longitude taken from a large-scale map.

The radio station itself was also in a mess; books, paperwork and spare parts all had fallen into the water that had come in through the windows and a crack in the upper deck.

After the ship had sunk with a list of 38 degrees to portside, the weather conditions slowly improved during the night, the movements became less violent and around 6 am she had settled on the rock shelf. I was then able to crawl out onto the flying bridge and remove the broken antennas and stays from the aerial inlets. That made the emergency transmitter operational again and from there on I could communicate with VPS and the MYONIA directly.

I had to remember what I had communicated in the various Emergency Messages with Cape d’Aguilar - VPS, the Hong Kong coast station, and the MYONIA in order to complete my entries in the ship’s Radio Daily Logbook. To secure myself I had positioned myself in a chair, pressed hard against and lashed to the writing desk, where I - like a rodeo rider - morse key in the air in my left hand, tapped messages with my right hand. It was impossible to stand up with the violent movements going on and the ship listing 45 degrees or more, so, filling in paperwork was the least of my worries.

The typewriter had survived the ordeal and after the ship settled I lashed it securely to the desk, amazed that the carriage worked against gravity and that I could still use it. To send messages I still had to hold the morse key in my left hand in the air and tap with my right hand.

At the start of the emergency I was able to send telegrams to the company and the authorities detailing the situation; later in the day we received orders from the company to report hourly on the conditions and the listing. Until I was able to communicate directly with VPS my colleague on the MYONIA stood by through the night to relay my emergency traffic to and from VPS.

Hard aground at Devil’s Peak – Lye Mun

As the weather improved HK Marine Police came on the scene during the night and in the early hours of the morning most of the Chinese crew were taken ashore via rope ladders. The 6 passengers and the rest of the officers were taken ashore, the Captain, second Officer, fourth Officer, third Engineer, fifth Engineer and I stayed on board. I kept regular radio watch for another four days and had to follow VPS traffic lists and weather forecast before I could be relieved for one night ashore. To provide some comforts a timber platform was put up on deck outside the radio station; as you can imagine the 38 degrees listing made it very hard to do work or get any rest at all.

Without mains power on board to charge the batteries they ran down and I discontinued the radio watches. I only stayed on board for eventualities during the day, at night we were all accommodated in the Melbourne Hotel in Kowloon. Salvage and survey operations had started and there was no need for a Radio Officer on board any more. Shortly thereafter I signed off and the second officer and I flew back to Holland to go on leave.

Looking back at what happened all these years ago and with the benefit of hindsight one wonders what would have happened if the Captain had taken notice of the Sangley Point typhoon warning and weather map instead of the warnings from Cape d’Aguilar and turned out to sea again instead of anchoring in Junk Bay.

Was there another motive for going to Hong Kong when he could have been riding the bad weather out at sea? Was he under pressure from his passengers who had deadlines to meet in Hong Kong and did not want to miss their connections?

For his shortcomings the Captain received a 4-week suspension from the Raad van Scheepvaart (Maritime Court of the Netherlands).The old saying “Damned if you do and damned if you don’t” certainly applies here.

As it will be 50 years ago next year in September when this story began; lots of memories are coming back. Fortunately I have not been left with any hang-ups from this ordeal.

Nowadays people receive counselling if they have a traumatic experience, in 1957 there was no such a thing and you had to sort yourself out and I must confess that when I got relieved after 4 days I was stressed. To my good fortune there was Mr. Koekebakker, our Radio Holland representative in HK, who picked me up in Kowloon and took me home for dinner and a “chat”. After a few stiff drinks and a lovely Chinese dinner prepared by his housekeeper I relaxed and then let it all hang out. He let me talk - the fright when the ship first struck the rocks, the helplessness when the equipment packed up and the inability to do anything about it, the fear of going down with the ship - I got it all off my chest and then cried on his shoulder, like a little boy.

Mr. Koekebakker, bless your soul, you got me over the hump that night.

What happened to the ship? After salvage work had been completed the ship was towed to HK Whampoa Dock on 5 June 1958 for further repairs. She departed HK on 19 May 1959 to commence normal service. Rumours have it that after the repairs she always had difficulties in steering a straight course. Perhaps ships have memories like elephants and therefore she was still trying to steer away from land?

In 1972 she was renamed MERCURY RIVER and was sold and scrapped in Koahsiung in 1973.

My story ends on a happy note. On 25 March 1958 the Netherlands Consul in Melbourne presented me with the silver DE RUYTER Medal, a decoration awarded by Her Majesty Queen Juliana, for my meritorious service, exemplary devotion to duty and moral courage in very adverse circumstances during the grounding of m.s. TJIBANTJET on 22 September 1957. Present at the short ceremony in the Netherlands Consulate in Melbourne were the Agent for RIL and the captain and officers of the STRAAT JOHORE, the ship I served on at the time.

The DE RUYTER Medal is the highest Dutch award in the nautical field and is in fact a Royal Award established by Royal Decree dated 23 March 1907 on the occasion of the commemoration of the birth of Michiel Adriaanszoon de Ruyter, Lieutenant Admiral General of Holland and West Friesland, born at Flushing on 24 March 1607, “as a badge of honour for skippers, mates and other members of the crews of mercantile and fishing ships and other persons who have distinguished themselves through meritorious deeds for Netherlands Shipping”. The medal can be awarded in gold, silver and bronze.

Next year I will be travelling to the Netherlands and attend the commemoration service in de St. Jacobskerk in Flushing to mark M. A. de Ruyter’s birth 400 years ago and the establishment of the de Ruyter Medal 100 years ago. I will be there as one of the thirteen people still alive who have received this honour.

I will also be attending the annual reunion in May of the Vereniging van Oud Personeel der KJCPL (ex RIL personnel club) and at the same time and place we hope to have a small get-together of the 9 people, who are still alive and who served on the TJIBANTJET at the time of the grounding, to commemorate the stranding 50 years ago in September 1957.

John Papenhuyzen

Sydney 1 November 2006.