Originally Posted by
Ken Atkinson
SHARPNES – HITTEEN – Second Voyage (Sharpnes), Jebsens Ship Management Ltd., Jebsen House, 215 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 1EJ. 2/E 13/7/83 Hamburg (fertiliser) via Yangtse Kiang (River), Jiangsu Province of China, Vancouver (sulphur) to 28/11/83 Chittagong.
King Hussein of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was on the bulkhead of the saloon in place of the Queen’s portrait as the port of registry had changed to Aquaba with the Jordanian flag replacing the Red Duster so we saluted him with a pork chop.
We took our cargo of fertiliser from Hamburg to the Yangtse Kiang (River) in China’s Jiangsu (Kiangsu) Province in the vicinity of Suzhou although near Shanghai is easier to find on a map. Meal with company and shop
Our cargo of yellow powder i.e., sulphur was loaded in Vancouver on the West coast of Canada for Chittagong in Bangladesh on the coast of the Bay of Bengal, a cargo which now you could not give away. Anchored off Chittagong the radio reception was very bad so to reach Portishead Radio Station we had to relay via other company vessels. Off the mouth of the river leading to Chittagong we could see a ship which appeared inland according to our charts. This turned out to be the Clan Alpine which on 31st October 1960 while on voyage from Glasgow to Chittagong with general cargo, the vessel was caught in a cyclone while anchored off Chittagong. Driven from her moorings by 135 knot winds pushing before it a 35-foot tidal wave. She was carried eleven miles up the river dragging her anchor which would not hold in the mud and left high and dry with all the crew safe in paddy fields at Skonai Chori, 11 miles N.N. W. of the entrance to the Kharnapuli River. The vessel was declared a constructive total loss, and the cargo was discharged into lorries. Even our Queen and Prince Philip went to see it while on a tour of the area. On February 14th 1961 she was sold to East Bengal Trading Corporation Ltd. and broken up as she lay. Twenty-two years later she was still recognisable so progress was slow. As I was being relieved while still at anchor an immigration officer came out to the ship and met me in my cabin where he asked for cigarettes. I told our Captain who shrugged and gave me a carton to pay the extortion no doubt booking it on expenses as O.C.S., on company service. We might pontificate in the West about the evils of bribery and corruption but this is how the rest of the world operates. Sitting next to me on the shore-going launch this official informed me that England is a fine country and he would like to live there. I told him that next time I met the Home Secretary I would tell him but I am still waiting to meet him. In the dock area there were a row of about twenty white United Nations UNICEF lorries which looked familiar. On asking I was told they were the same ones I had seen on the Wandby twelve years earlier but no one had paid the baksheesh to get them out of the docks. So much for charity! Instead of the airport as I was expecting I was taken by the ship’s agent to an hotel in its own grounds while he kept my passport. I later found out the hotel manager and he were related which explained the delay and instead of being safely in the air and out of the country a civil insurrection started as the BBC World Service referred to it. The BBC informed me that there were minor disturbances and the military had fired blanks which was in contrast to our hotel guest intelligence service. We came out of the swimming pool and headed inside as a mob walked past the main gate with an obviously dead body being carried lying on a door. Another Brit was there building a lighthouse and phoned his foreman who told him a couple of policemen had been thrown off a bridge. A couple of nurses from the W.H.O. also had contacts and between us we accounted for nine killed. The upset locals had no grievance with foreigners so I went to the nearby agent’s office to find it closed and of course my passport locked inside. After a couple of days another resident managed to organise with official permission a coach to the airport for those adventurous enough to wish to leave. On the road to the airport each roundabout was guarded by the army then the air force and I was able to note that the ammunition had pointed ends denoting live rounds rather than blanks. Luckily, we were not stopped and arrived at the airport where I was able to buy a flight ticket to London using my credit card and grateful that its limit was sufficient. I asked later for it to be increased just in case of future incidents. I flew and presented my red Seaman’s Card at immigration in Heathrow and explained the situation but there were no problems. I phoned the office and explained all what had happened and asked for my passport to be returned.
