Man Overboard.

[Trampshipman]

Don`t know what my psychiatrist might make of this. A bit macabre maybe ? You`ll have to make your own minds up.

Man Overboard
[Imagination]

Careless move on a heaving deck,
a wintry Atlantic night.
Swept to a rail, pitched into space,
sea swallows you from sight.

Shock, from embrace of icy sea,
cold grips you like a vice.
Fight to rise from clutching depths,
your tortured lungs turned ice.

Head breaks surface, cough and gag,
draw agonising breath.
Can just make out ship steaming on,
how far away is death ?

Fight down panic, keep your head,
summon strength to shout.
Have they missed you did they see you go,
will she be coming about ?

What foolish hope, what could they do ?
Try as well they might.
What chance have they of finding you
in this black and stormy night ?

Can`t live long in this wintry sea,
your strength just cannot last.
The bite of cold in every bone,
exhaustion coming fast.

Limbs grown numb and made of lead,
sense of feeling all but gone.
The icy depths now dragging you down
to a freezing watery tomb.

Sing now of your far flung oceans,
of the sea`s you said you crave.
This sea you love is about to become
your lonely unmarked grave.


Copyright. Trampshipman.

Posted other sites.

[Captain Kong]

Another excellent poem, Ken.

I experienced drowning once.

We were in East London, in the Eastern Cape in South Africa in 1953 on the New Zealand Star.
Sunday 13 December 1953. The Mission Man took us and some of the Mission girls to Bonza Bay for a picnic.
Ken Hignet SOS aged 20,of Mill Road, Birkenhead couldnt swim and got into difficulties with the strong current and was swept away. I went to assist him and we were both swept out to sea.
The big Cape rollers got bigger and bigger,I was hanging on to him trying to get back to the beach, it was like being inside a washing machine, We were gulping water down and coughing our lungs up as we tried to surface before the next big sea hit us and forced us under again. It was a battle for survival, then Ken died and I lost his body, His last words were just "Help, Help, Help." then he was gone.The cramps started to go into my legs and then my arms, I was in a no survive situation as my vision started to go, just being swirled around in the raging sea.and then blackness.
Meanwhile a South African lad, David Brinton had seen it happening and he swam out with a life buoy on a line, he got me and I was towed unconcious, back to the beach.they gave me some rescusitation and the mission man took me to hospital where I was put to bed to recover. I came out two days later and taken back to the ship, we sailed to Durban and then to New Zealand. I never knew who had saved my life. Ken was washed up five days later and buried in the East Cemetery in East London.
48 years later as I was getting older I decided to find the lad who saved me to thank him before it was too late. In 2001, I went to East London to try and find him and also Kens grave. I found the grave, that was another experience, for a later date. he was there.
I had asked to Salvation Army if they could help to trace David Brinton,
When I got home The Salvation Army phoned me to say they had found him, He was living in Stranraer in Scotland after living in the Cape then Rhodesia and then Zimbabwe. Then one day the phone rang and it was Esther Rantzen of the BBC, TV, asking me to go on her show. So on 14 February, 2002, I went on the show at the TV Studio in London and she introduced me to David Brinton, what a wonderful feeling it was to be able to thank him after more than 48 years. We still keep in touch, what a brave lad he was.
I wrote a poem about it, not very good but the best I could do.


BONZA BAY.

In December, 1953 on the New Zealand Star
In East London we did stay
but Ken Hignett and I
didn`t know he would die
on some beach called Bonza Bay.

The story began
when the Mission Man
said he would take us away for the day
so all of us went off on his bus
to a beach called Bonza Bay

When Ken jumped in
he just couldn`t swim
and the tide soon carried him away.
Though I struggled and tried
Ken drowned and then died
near a beach called Bonza Bay

Then I was seen on a wave
by a lad named Dave
who swam out to get me away
and through struggle and strife
that lad saved my life
on a beach called Bonza Bay

When Ken washed ashore
his life was no more
Five days since he got swept away
and he lay all alone
on the the sand and the stone
on a beach called Bonza Bay

So they buried Ken in a Sailors grave
at a place where the palm trees sway,
on a foreign strand
in a far off land
near a beach called Bonza Bay

It`s been 50 years
since the grief and the tears
and in the time that I was away
I found Ken`s Grave
and the man named Dave
near a beach called Bonza Bay

Just in case some people think I have made it up here are the photos.


1, The Rescue, 2, Ken`s grave in East London 2001. and 3, Ken, Me and below Mo Riley AB. 7 days before on Sunday 6 December 1953 in Cape Town.

[Keith at Tregenna]

RE: Man Overboard.

This sea you love is about to become
your lonely unmarked grave.

Remembering the sad loss of:

James (Jim) Edward Luen (1939)

http://www.ss-tregenna.co.uk/Pdf/BDH%20JIM.pdf

A terrible way to go, further remember all lost souls.

Thanks to Ken Sherrocks / Trampshipman

Certainly thought provoking and I hope a strong tribute.

K.

[Trampshipman]

Brian, quite an experience, something which one could never forget.

What do you mean..."Not very good but the best I could do" ? I would beg to differ !

Thanks again for your compliment.

Ken.

[Trampshipman]

Hello Keith, I used your link and read the account of Jim Luens death at sea. It is a most moving account and of great detail, and when reading it you really are` right there`hanging over the rail and willing that man back aboard. Although it is a fate or risk which all seamen knowingly face up to, this certainly makes it no less sad when such things actually happen.

Thanks for that very sobering account.

Ken.

[Captain Kong]

Thanks for that Ken, the memory is as fresh today as it was then.

Hi Keith, thanks for that Link,
A very sad and tragic story and at the same time it is good that men like that are prepared to risk their lives to try and save another shipmate.
I could feel for him.
It is a very sad feeling to see an empty bunk and an empty chair in the mess room and the silence of a familiar voice.
Cheers
Brian.

[Keith at Tregenna]

For Them:

To The World They Might Have Been One Person;
But To One Person They May Have Been the World.

K.

[Roger Dyer]

Hello to Ken, Brian, Keith and all shipmates........Have just finished reading the contents of this thread commenced so powerfully with the poem by Trampshipman. It compels me to say how moved I was by the account of Jim Luen's death and, of course, Brian's telling of the sad loss of his shipmate, Ken,and the subsequent re-union with his own 'saviour', David Brinton. The bravery shown by Jim Luen and crew-members of the S.S.Harlingen, and by Brian and David, says much about the human spirit. The ability to mourn and feel the 'emptiness' and sadness after the loss, perhaps, says even more. As for the poetry, gentlemen, written as it is by those who would know of what they write, I can only say that for me, an ex-seaman, it is 'as good as it gets'................kindest regards, Roger.

[happy daze john in oz]

Leaving East London bound for Cape Town on Windsor Castle. The pilot was getting ready to disembark. There was a swell running and the pilot boat was having difficulty keeping close to the side of the ship. The jacobs ladder was ready for the pilot to go down. He began his climb down with the pilot boat swirling around in the heavy swell. He reached the point where he was ready to jump aboard, he jumpes and as he did the pilot boat was swung away from the ships side by a huge roller. The pilot fell between the ship and the pilot boat and sadly was never found.

[Keith at Tregenna]

A few words from a relative, K.

What feeling in the poem. How sad thinking about the person missing from a bunk or chair and the effect it must have on the other people on board who have lived and worked and slept and eaten together. And so pleased that all the souls lost at sea are remembered.

I was told that Jim raised his arm to show his position long after they thought he should have gone down - how awful to think of him being so cold and he must have known he was going to die. He actually was in a life buoy but slipped out. Wonder if raising his arm to show where he was caused him to slip out although the fact that he was even conscious then is a miracle.