Arrival S.A.

[vic mcclymont]

My first trip on the S.A. Vaal, arriving Cape Town after standby completion, went on deck.
Looked over the side Chief Electrician approached, asked what I though about Cape Town, looking over the City, I was impressed, my reply not what I expected, him, you expect mud hits, me no, just the modern outlook.
Had my head out side the safety of the ship, C.E., don't do that you never know what will happen as box shot by, it had fallen from a sling.
Vic

[Chris Thompson]

I was 4/E on the mv Baknes(before it became SilverClyde), we were on our way from Aus to Rostock, we called at Capetown for bunkers, the view of the city from the bay left an indelible imprint on my memory, what a beautiful sight! I was a Saturday and they closed half day! half day still in 1974 unbelieveable. There were some dock workers bringing stores on board, soles flopping on their wellies, we treat our dogs better than they treated the coloured people of their own country.
AS 4/E I had to take the bunkers on board which wasn't a problem, normally that is, but this was the day of the cup semi finals, radio blaring on deck had me up and down from the engine room like a bloody jack rabbit, Liverpool was the commentary, no mention of how Newcastle were getting on, final whistle goes, thank god what's Newcastle's score? "and now we go over to Kyalami for the SA grand prix", didn't find out the score till later! No didn't get back in time for the final, 2 week anchorage put paid to that.
lube oil was loaded onto the ship in WA in 45gallon drums and the donkeyman spent the crossing from Aus pumping this by hand, we took the piss saying it was coming in Capetown the same way, didn't it just as well, chief took pity and made shoreside pump it!
Capetown though, one of the most stunning sights in the world, in my opinion at any rate for what its worth.

[happy daze john in oz]

My first trip and my first sight of Cape Town and Table Mountain, instantly I wanted to go to the top of that mountain it appeared so impressive.
Did get there eventually on return trip.
But in those days it was a town of wonders, so many places to go, so much to see, so many bars and night clubs, so many good looking shelias and the sun was shining.

[John Arton]

The first time I went to cape town was to join a vlcc by helicopter in 73. Had two nights in a very nice colonial style hotel near the parliament buildings.
Went to the helicopter base, climbed on board and off we went. Met the ship some miles off the cape and delivered the under slung load of stores first, hovering over the deck. Then it was my turn to be winched down. The crewman beckoned me to come forward to the open door, all done by hand signals as the noise of the rotors and engine made speech and hearing impossible. He put the harness on me and attached the winch wire to it. Standing in the open door looking down on the deck below, the crewman started pushing me on my shoulders, I took this as the signal for me to step out of the helicopter and be winched down so I duly stepped out into mid air only to be grabbed and pulled back in. I then realised that I was meant to sit on the helicopter floor with my legs dangling outside before pushing off and been winched down. Eventually got onto the deck and an hour later was in charge on my first watch on a vlcc.
Up to the gulf to load at ras tanura, bantry bay discharge and then Lisbon for dry dock.
Rgds
J.A.

[Captain Kong]

1976 I spent three months on assignment at Cape Town, flying with Court Helicopters, A fascinating experience, My assignment was to rewrite the Helicopter/Ship Operations Manual, which didn't take long to do. The rest of the time was just excitement and adventure.


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 knots.
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 in Cape Town on the Esso Northumbria, we had broken down off the Cape and were to be there for around three months, I was put on an 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 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 bastard. `Oh`.
Many of the ANC terrorists, 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 few 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, John, 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 cabin 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 for 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 couldn`t 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, Fritz and Stretch 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 and Fritz` 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 to have a few whiskies. It felt good to be alive.
Another day the worlds largest tanker was arriving on her maiden voyage, the BATILUS, 510,000 dwt.a French Shell Tanker, she was BIG!
They wanted stores and to take the `Delivery Crew` ashore, There would be six trips out to her. So when we landed on deck I took the papers to the bridge and stayed there as she slow steamed around the cape for around four hours, until the last trip then I re-joined the helicopter, another interesting day.

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 JUST taken early retirement from Esso, I got a telephone call asking me to go for an interview by Pipelines, a company that controlled the oil pipe lines through the country, . 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 could not get rid of the voices,
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.
I guess sometimes it pays to listen to voices in your head.
.
In 2014, I was on the World Cruise on the Amsterdam, when I bumped into a lady, she was from Cape Town and I recognised her from many years ago, I had been to her home,
I said, "Hi are you Fritz`s wife, " she said, yes, so I told her I was with Court Helicopters for a spell in 1976 and flew with Fritz, then I said "Is Fritz on board ??" she said "No, he was killed in 1977 when the helicopter crashed into the sea off Cape Town," that was a shock. I knew the helicopter had crashed again and someone was killed , I didn't know it was Fritz, we had had a few parties at his home in 76.

So I am not too keen to fly in helicopters anymore.

We used to say, " Aerodynamically Helicopters cannot fly,
But the Helicopter doesn't know that so it does.

Cheers
Brian.

[happy daze john in oz]

Interesting things happen in and around Cape Town including sending Mandela to the island.

In about 62 a ship arrived carrying a consignment of 'Blic' lighters.
Early days of the throw away ones.
But in Cape Town there was a match making company, fearful that the lighters would effect their trade they bought to lot.
The had them taken out into the bay and dumped.

[Captain Kong]

I had relatives who lived in Cape Town, Aunt Esther and Uncle Jimmy with cousin Ernie , lived in Seapoint,
In 1946 just after the war with full food rationing, they came over to visit us and brought cases full of fruit and food we had never seen before.
Ernie and his wife Bunty, owned one of the very Best Restaurants in the Cape. The Westminster Restaurant.

This was very handy when we were starving on the New Zealand Star in 1953, Had some great meals there,
I was in Cape Town every year after and it wasn't always good, all hand in the Del Monaco with all the girls, and me stuck in with family, Bunty, a lovely young lady died suddenly in the late 50s and the restaurant without her soon ran downhill and Ernie got into a lot of debt and then disappeared.
So when I was there for the three months in1976 there was no one left.
Cheers
Brian