Singapore / Nha Be run

[richard hesketh]

I sailed on the Axina doing the Singapore - Nha Be run from Sept 73 to March 74. I reckon that you must have been there before the jungle had been stripped with Agent Orange. On 2nd Dec 73, the whole Shell installation went up in smoke after an attack by the VC. The official report was that the VC had shelled the installation from across the river, but the truth came out later that the VC had smuggled themselves in by hiding in oil drums that had been rigged with locks on the inside. After dark, they emerged from the drums and planted charges at the base of each tank. Check my profile for pictures.

[Martin Kenny]

The Haustrum may not be the ship remembered by JC but she was the ship hit by a series of bullets fired from a recoilless rifle set on automatic, with the casualties you correctly quote.
On the way back down the river in thick fog she collided with a german freighter and ran aground, arriving back in Singapore in a bit of a state.
I joined her in Singapore after the event.

Was it not the HAUSTRUM.She took a shell (sorry about the pun) in the bridge killing the Quarter-master(Chinese) and wounding the Old Man 12.1.1967(funny this incident dose not feature in Howards "Sea Shell" or "Oil")