What lies beneath?

[David mullins]

Following the article “Shanghaied” last month, I was pleased and delighted on seeing the photograph of the MV British Monarch which Graham Shaw kindly submitted.
Gazing at various aspects of the ship brought back many memories of daily happenings which occurred over the extended period of that lengthy voyage.
In particular though, I spotted the pilot rope ladder on the after end of the foredeck on the starboard side. it was lowered to its full extent which brought back a humorous episode I’d almost forgotten about.

Buoyed off at Ocean Island, part of the Kiribati group in the Gilbert’s, waiting to load 5000 tons of Guano bound for Hobart, Tasmania, the mood on the ship was pretty grim. Literally on the equator, no wind, no AC, no indication when we’d be going alongside and the accommodation akin to a pizza oven, the crowd were defiantly not happy bunnies.
Out came the pilot ladder which just about reached sea level since we were light ship. Because of the height from the gunwale to the sea, most used the pilot ladder to descend to the beautiful blue relief which beckoned from below. Braver younger crew members jumped for it with squeals of excitement and anticipation. Quite a few of the crew had swimming goggles of various sorts which they took with them.
The visibility was, I can only describe as incredible. Swimming below the surface felt like flying without wings with hundreds of feet of crystal clear vision.
A plethora of all types of fish in almost unbelievable colours seemed to accept our presence without hardly a glance.
Nobby Clark’s where always on most peoples minds when dipping in tropical waters and this area was no exception.
There was probably twenty or so crew members enjoying the relief of these beautiful waters at any one time. Probably an hour or so passed when an aura of absolute hell descended on the the swimmers.
To an observer, it looked as though the sea had reached boiling point. It appeared sheer panic had struck each swimmer as each thrashed the surface with wild strokes in a desperate effort to reach the pilot ladder.
I think pilot ladders were designed and constructed for both the ascent and descent of one person.
This all went to pot as about twenty or so seamen tried to climb the ladder en-masse. This was accompanied by screams and shouts as many attempted to climb over each other in an effort to get their feet out of the water.
Eventually all reached the foredeck, wide eyed and gasping for air.
“What’s happened” we enquired, desperate to know what lay at the route of the issue.
“Creatures, massive creatures attacking us” was the general consensus of opinion.
After much explanation and description of the attack it eventually transpired that a family of Manta rays were trawling in the area and approached the swimmers. Apparently, Mantas which are totally harmless, can reach a width of sixteen feet and adding the magnification factor of the water would of course look rather sinister particular with their mouths wide open in the trawling process.
Eventually we went alongside and laden with the birdpoo, we headed south for Tasmania.

[Keith Tindell]

I always remember Graham, she was the first ship i ever sailed on with air conditioning, and it never worked on her for the whole of the 6 months i was on her, just the homemade plastic wind scoop. bloody hot ship on that run

[David mullins]

Never saw a plastic wind scoop. The type I vividly remember though, was the 5 gallon drum with one end sawn off and half of the side section removed. A length of wood was used to keep the mouth open. Sometimes a canvas bag full of water was secured directly in front of it for cooling. Sounds like I was living in medieval times.

[Keith Tindell]

That's the one, those drums just fitted the porthole exactly, don't know who thought of it, but they were use on pretty much all the ships i was on late 50s.

[John F Collier]

The first time I was there John was in 1953 and the last time was in or about 2005 , best remembered in 1953 though , the weekend on a Sunday a dead day to Most was a trip out to the. Barrier Reef , Green Island , which had a sole glass bottomed row boat to look at the bottom and nothing else, today they have and underwater obseravatory and all the modern aids .On a Sunday night however we used to get the one track railway to go up to Corunda where the dancing and drinking went on,and come back Monday morning. Today there is a world known aerial railway available for transport. The only things I recognised in Cairns on my last visit was the mangrove swamps and the crocs. Anyone wanting to swim in the harbour must be nuts. Cheers JS.

Thanks for the Cairns update JS, it still amazes me that such a dump could become a city in a such relatively short time, thankfully we weren't there too long and the pub was the
furthest I got from the ship. There is another name that comes to mind, "Rockhampton" I know I've been there but can't recall anything about it, a bit of a mystery really as I've not
got a bad memory, there is one possibility though and that was a place we went to for a couple of days, it was just a wharf and sheds the same as Cairns but didn't see any wildlife at all,
just a long concrete road with a cafe at the end of it, a high wire fence with double gates, can only think this small port served an inland town, possibly "Rockhampton" , any
ideas where this may be?. Cheers

[j.sabourn]

The ports in FNQ that I partially remember were the sugar ports of Cairns, Mackay, and Townsville.Cairns as you say was a small port where loading of sugar was by splitting the bags and emptying them by hand down the hold , took 3 weeks sometimes in the wet season when had to cover the holds for rain. Today you would just about load 10,000 tons in 3 hours by a mechanical loader , just as fast as loading iron ore in Sept Isles in Canada .in a previous post I had described the pubs along the dock road as the Barbary Coast ( in Cairns) which all closed at 1800 hrs on the dot and of course closed on a Sunday. There was a legal brothel in Mackay don’t know if it’s still there , I never visited it but walked past it many times . Cheers JS.
Don’t believe Cappy he will say I lie like a pig in its own manure . JS

[j.sabourn]

Time heals most wounds . In 1953 Cairns as a you say was a one horse town. However the inhabitants were extremely hostile to the Japanese . Today the streets are named in Japanese and English to oblige the high amounts of Japanese tourists that they get. Cairns is a holiday destination many both Australian and foreign tourists make for. JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi John.
Rockhampton has gone the way of all those small ports we visited in Queensland, now a big town. I was in Bowen in 1950 same thing tiny place a couple of pubs, now the Bowen basin is one of the biggest coal loading places in the world.
AS for sharks ,the biggest I ever saw was a hammerhead that came out from under the wharf in New Plymouth in NZ just as I was about to dive in. Cold sweats all over.
Des

[j.sabourn]

#10 Maybe she was open and closed shelter deck and some nit head of a reporter just chose the wrong tonnage at different times. JS

[j.sabourn]

#17 Would of been handy to have had Mary with you there Des just to test the water with her wooden leg first. JS

[John F Collier]

Hi John.
Rockhampton has gone the way of all those small ports we visited in Queensland, now a big town. I was in Bowen in 1950 same thing tiny place a couple of pubs, now the Bowen basin is one of the biggest coal loading places in the world.
AS for sharks ,the biggest I ever saw was a hammerhead that came out from under the wharf in New Plymouth in NZ just as I was about to dive in. Cold sweats all over.
Des

Hi Des, Those big hammerheads have a reputation for their ferociousness so yeah, "Squeaky bum time indeed" , for me seeing the snow capped Mount Egmont for the first time is a
great memory, love NZ and always will. Cairns and Rockhampton were the two smallest ports I saw in Aus, the next I think may have been Lyttleton that was a real one horse town
remember seeing two lads of about 13 walking down the main drag carrying a rifle and a box of cartridges, they were heading for the bush country at the end of the road. Wino's laid
out on the sidewalk, a shop with a pickled Taipan snake in a big jar and the pub, we climbed a hill and found ourselves surrounded by snakes, don't think I've ever run so fast in my life as that day. Cheers.