Originally Posted by
Simon Harris
According to the Bibby Gazette number 47 (my memory isn't that good!).........
I called Capt Middleton to the bridge at 1440 on 16th August. We arrived on scene at about 1720 and launched the starboard lifeboat at 1747. By 1853, all survivors were on board and the craft was scuttled (with some difficulty, I remember). We resumed passage at 2006, but it doesn't say when we arrived in Koh Sichang, but I would guess that it was about dawn on 18th. The refugees left the ship on 28th August.
I re-read the article/report last year (on the 30th anniversary) and also a letter from one of the Vietnamese that was printed, brought tears to my eyes again. The letter was sent to Biibby's.
"To the Captain and all the Crew Members of the steamship (sic) Staffordshire.
As Christmas and New Year approach, all the Vietnamese refugees now living in Canada, Australia, America and in the Reception Centre at Sopley in England, who were rescued by your ship Staffordshire, give grateful thanks and ask you to accept our esteem.
We have never forgotten that we owe our lives to your kindness and generosity. We will always remember that in the dangerous time in the Gulf of Thailand, it was you who saved our lives, or to say it another way, it was you who gave us a second birth. If we have been living on the paradise with a free life, it was you who picked us up and opened the door instead of Saint Peter.
If we had not been rescued we would probably have finished two hours later on the bottom of the deep sea. It is very difficult to save a man's life, but you saved the lives of many men, women and children that day, and you should be justly proud of what you did. Our families will never forget it forever.
On Christmas and New Year's Day, we wish you above all things, that you may be in good health and that you will prosper. We hope that your trading business will be even more prosperous than in the best day of Onassis.
At Christmas we will pray to Christ to bless all of you every day, everywhere, and always.
Yours Faithfully,
Nguyen duc Cung"
I will get round to uploading a few of the photos (never previously published anywhere), but my computer skills aren't brilliant.
Simon