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03/08/2011 - 14:56 |
Erik De Pooter |
Op de Kara was ik leerling stuurman. Stronteigenwijs en een nagel aan de doodskist van sommige mede-opvarenden. Met onze kapitein kon ik echter het wel goed vinden. Dat was ?dolle dries? A. Tijsma. Mischien wel daarom.
We lagen ergens buiten de Theemsmonding voor anker in dikke mist. Onze ouwe vond het niks om door te varen naar bestemming Middlesborough en nam me mee naar zijn hut, plus twee flessen Berenburg. We hebben daar tot in de kleine uurtjes zitten gokken met twee dobbelstenen (hoogste worp telt, dubbel gooien is dubbel betalen) en die twee flessen soldaat gemaakt. Zijn tempo lag wel ietsje hoger dan het mijne en ik kon mijn katje aardig spekken. In een vlaag van plichtsbesef heb ik nog gevraagd: "moeten we toch maar niet vertrekken om het tij te halen?" Waarop Tijsma zei: ?Als jij zo nodig naar Middlesborough wil, moet jij boven maar gaan zeggen dat ze anker-op gaan?.
Aldus naar boven en de wachtdoende 1e stuurman medegedeeld dat we weer verder konden, met de complimenten van de kapitein (die toen allang in zijn kooi lag). Vervolgens ben ik zelf ook mijn mandje ingedoken.
De volgende morgen op volle zee was het nogal een verbazing voor Tijsma, die zich niets meer herinnerde en met een knallende koppijn in ochtendjas boven kwam informeren waarom we toch weer waren gaan varen. ?Dat had die leerling gezegd?, was het droge antwoord. ?Eigenwijs mormel? was zijn enige kommentaar. Ik werd van mijn bed gelicht en moest op het matje komen. Daar kreeg ik een uitbrander, een klap op mijn schouder en een flinke scheut Berenburg?.
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12/16/2008 - 18:41 |
Aad H.c.j. Born |
From US Navy archives the following story was extracted:
At 0010h, on April 12, 1967, the privately chartered 9,000 ton British flagged Shell Oil tanker M/V AMASTRA had been holed by an external explosive device while moored in the POL transfer anchorage in Nha Trang Harbor, Vietnam.
The AMASTRA was preparing to off load aviation fuel for military aircraft when the explosion ripped open a four by six foot jagged hole at the waterline near the fire wall between the engine room and the boiler room.
The engine room, fire room and the after pump room flooded in twenty minutes causing the AMASTRA?s stern to settle to the harbor bottom leaving the rear decks awash.
Another Shell Oil tanker, the Dutch flagged M/V KARA from ?s-Gravenhage, Netherlands arrived and moored port side to the AMASTRA. The KARA provided auxiliary power and steam so AMASTRA could transfer 640,000 gallons of fuel to the KARA. The AMASTRA's damaged area was thirty feet below the water line and required a twelve by twelve-foot patch.
In the early morning hours of April 13, USS ?Current? ARS-22 arrived at Nha Trang. Shortly after arriving, the work boat was placed in the water and a salvage team departed for the tanker to survey the damage and plan a course of action. Commander Service Group Three salvage officer Commander J. B. Orem was designated Officer in Charge of the AMASTRA salvage operation. USS ?Greenlet? ASR-10 as well as Harbor Clearance Unit One's HCT-3 staff members were also sent from Vung Tau to assist during the re-floating operation.
Floodlights were secured on USS ?Current? ARS-22?s rails and directed into the waters around the ship at sunset. Armed sentries were posted during darkness to defend against any attempt to attach an explosives charge to USS ?Current? ARS-22's hull. Early each morning, USS ?Current? ARS-22 weighed anchor and moored starboard side to AMASTRA. At the end of each day, USS ?Current? ARS-22 departed AMASTRA and re-anchored in the center of Nha Trang Harbor for security.
Prior to transferring fuel oil to the KARA, USS ?Current? ARS-22 diver LTJG Vince Weis along with a HCU-1 diver wearing shallow water diving gear went into the AMASTRA's engine room, filled with dangerous gas fumes, to close a set of valves that allowed AMASTRA's oil cargo to be transferred to the KARA. USS ?Current? ARS-22?s crew rigged salvage pumps and compressors then transferred them to the decks of AMASTRA. After the ship?s divers maneuvered a fabricated patch into place to stop the inflow of sea water into the engine room, the salvage pumps were started and the AMASTRA began to show freeboard. The spaces on the AMASTRA that had been flooded were cleared with the help of thirty to forty Vietnamese and Filipino stevedores.
With the loss of power for refrigeration, combined with the hot climate of Vietnam, an estimated six thousand pounds of spoiled meat and vegetables were removed from AMASTRA to a barge then dumped at sea. While ashore hiring the stevedores, USS ?Current? ARS-22?s Operations Officer LTJG Mark Lusink in a conversation with local villagers was informed that the AMASTRA was mined by the South Vietnamese to prevent it from sailing to Haiphong, North Vietnam. Shell Oil tankers did not travel to North Vietnam.
The initial investigation indicated that a Limpet mine of approximately 80 to 90 pounds of explosives was used. In view of the close proximity of 150 yards to the beach hamlet of Truong Tay, a known haven for local pilferers, black marketers and other questionable individuals, the investigation determined that the explosive charge was most likely delivered from the hamlet area by a swimmer sapper. The Vietnam war was certainly a strange and crazy war. The majority of the 43 man crew was removed by local Army landing craft about half an hour after the explosion. They spent the night at the American Army Officers' quarters at Camp John McDermott in Nha Trang.
On April 22, 1967, USS ?Current? ARS-22?s salvage crew successfully raised and dewatered the AMASTRA. The fabricated patch was removed and a more permanent steel patch was constructed. SFM2 "Ace" Acfalle, one of USS ?Current? ARS-22's ship fitters, spent the better part of two days, without any rest, welding the metal patch to the AMASTRA to make it seaworthy.
The AMASTRA was towed by commercial tug to Singapore for dry-docking and repairs.
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