OK, I know that I saidI wasn't going to comment on my time in Benhiant, but looking through my old Discharge book reminded me of a quite different experience. Being caught in a full blown typhoon in Hong Kong. Nothing startling about the voyage. Same old same old and now getting seriously miffed at still being a dogsbody cadet. Mainly because cadets in other companies that we used to meet up with now and again (back to Connell House etc.) could all look forward to a spell as an uncertificated 3rd mate to give them a good grounding (oops, wrong word) in bridge procedure etc. But the Ben Line seemed to think that painting and chipping underneath a winch was more important. For "miffed", choose your own word. I assume some warning of the approach of a typhoon must have been promulgated as many ships up and went away to ride it out at sea. Possibly we had a mechanical problem, but all we did was to pay out more anchor cable....a further "aside" on anchors and cables (chains). Most ships carry around 8 or 9 "shackles" of cable on each anchor. As I mentioned earlier a shackle is 15 fathoms x 6 = 90 feet. 8 x 90 gives a total of 720 feet of very heavy chain to each anchor. That's a lot of chain and an awful lot of weight....even more when you add on 7 tons each or more of 2 anchors. Seamen know this, but an anchor is not there to hold the ship. It is there to hold the cable. The weight of the cable holds the ship. I never sailed in a ship longer than 680ft. So a ship can put out a length greater than her own length. During dry-docking periods it is normal practice to range all the anchor cable on the dock bottom and swap the outboard end to being the inboard end, thus "renewing" the lengths. (After taking the anchors off, of course!). I would say that all ships nowadays have "self-stowing" cable lockers which by their design prevent the anchor cable either getting knotted up or jamming in the spurling pipe. Earlier ships did not have this facility. Although to be honest, I have examined both sorts of locker when empty and still can't work out much of a difference. Anyway, the non self-stowing sort required man-power or boys (read cadets) armed with 3ft long steel hooks to guide the incoming cable to precent it piling up. Pretty dangerous work really, especially when a pile of chain decides to topple over unexpectedly. Great fleetness of foot was required. It was also fairly common for a hook to get jammed and be trapped in the pile of chain, (sorry about the use of "cable" and "chain"..same thing in this context) only to reappear at great and lethal velocity when that anchor was next dropped. I imagine that many windlass drivers were killed or injured by these flying hooks over the years, but I only ever saw a few near misses. When you consider the sort of sea bed a ship would normally anchor in ( let us assume the Thames in the 1950s) imagine if you can what would be clinging to the cable. This was by far the most dangerous, smelliest and filthiest job on board a ship it was possible to do. Saw a few guys get broken ankles and so on but no deaths..."fleet of foot" being the watchword. But quite awful.
But back to the Typhoon. The tale itself is quite simple. The wind got stronger and stronger. The rain became a deluge and the noise became deafening. The bamboo scaffolding on nearby buildings collapsed in great heaps of debris. We were anchored just off the SW end of the Kowloon peninsular, just in sight of the old Kai-Tak airport. We actually observed a 3000 ton ship being swept up and plonked across the runway. Awesome. But "our" night was just beginning. At the N. end on the west side of Kowloon was (maybe still is) an area designated as a refuge for the many Junks and Sampans etc. during a typhoon. Just about all of these vessels had families of all sizes living aboard them. probably a few thousand people in all. As with all typhoons the wind changed and our anchors just dragged and the ship began to move sideways towards the "haven". The ships First Officer and his crew (including me) were depatched to pay out more cable. Walking was impossible. We all crwled along the deck but couldn't climb the foc'sle ladder to reach the windlass. Our old-fashioned "oilskins" had gone, as had much of our clothing and we were all being quite severly battered. Surrender. Benhiant eventually slammed sideways into the "haven" pushing and crushing the boats sheltering there. Many of the Chinese families tried to climb up on to our deck but our crew were ordered to beat them back. Every time this episode comes to mind I am so grateful that I was not involved in this carnage. Lord alone knows how many deaths "we" were responsible for apart from those caused by the typhoon itself. As far as I know no action was ever taken to find out. A very frightening and not glorious night. An that IS the end of my involvement with the Ben Line. RFA next! BY.