Swire Mariners Association - Changsha Grounding

Recollections of the Changsha grounding in 1959 have provoked much interest in the SMA Ship's Log (2010 edition) and Brian Bird has been kind enough to send us his own recollections and photographs of this untimely event.

Changsha during early days of salvage

Brian was 4/O when she grounded in September 1959. He wrote the following about ten years ago:

September 25th we left Kobe sometime in the afternoon for Yokkaichi as the typhoon was forecast to hit Kobe. During the early evening the forecast changed the path of typhoon to pass over Nagoya so we turned back to Kobe.

As we neared Kobe the forecast changed again and the typhoon was predicted to hit Kobe, so we altered course again for Yokkaichi. It was changed again in the early hours to hit Nagoya but it was then too late to go back to Kobe.

I came on watch at 0800 as we were approaching the entrance to the bay, and the one thing that stuck in my mind was that we were in a dredged channel, but outside the channel in the shallows the waves were breaking some considerable distance off shore.

During the morning we anchored in the bay several miles off Yokkaichi, the wind was increasing quite steadily by now. I was off anchor watch 1200, usual afternoon, then dinner 1830. Except that the wind was increasing I don’t think any of us off watch thought much about it.

About 1900 we were all called from dinner to the Bridge. The rain was torrential, wind very very strong, visibility nil. The old man told us we were dragging broadside on, he had paid out all the anchor cable on both anchors and was now going full ahead and full astern to try to turn into the wind. We were so lightly loaded; Yokkaichi was our last port, that this made no difference.

We struck the shore at 1940, but had no idea where, we only had a small-scale chart of the bay and larger scale of Yokkaichi/Nagoya.

We could have been anywhere, on rocks, sand or the sea wall. We all made trips to the lounge to see how the passengers were, they were singing from time to time, hymns I think, but at least we were able to get a smoke in the dry. The trip to the lounge involved going out on deck so we were absolutely drenched by the time we got there. I recall seeing the engineers in the passageway outside the lounge and thought this was a little odd, but I suppose there was nothing they could do in the engine room. By this time the rain was horizontal and the waves were just breaking over ship, at least we could get to the lounge on the lee side.

The Bosun(?) came up to the bridge and said that the crew wanted to jump over the side and swim ashore. Freddie Follett had great difficulty in persuading them that it was safer to stop on the ship. All they wanted to do then was to get as far below as they could.

Some time when on the bridge I remember shining the Aldiss light over the side to see if anything could be seen, visibility towards the shore was nil but I was convinced that when I looked straight down I could see sand with only a few inches of water on the lee side. I don’t think anyone believed me but from then on I was convinced that we were high and dry. This later proved correct as unbeknown to us, (we must have gone aground in 15-20 feet of water), we were lifted by the waves and cast up the beach. As we didn’t start to break up, although we were pounding up and down all the time, it was decided that we were not on rocks or anything nasty. Sparks put out a SOS that was answered by Singapore Radio. The Japanese Coastguard replied that it was too rough and we were on our own, and the typhoon should pass by midnight. This is why I have a lot of time for the RNLI; we have a collection of their lifeboats where I work at Chatham Historic Dockyard, as they would never refuse to attend, if they get a call they respond instantly. At the time I thought it odd that the Japanese refused to assist.

Just before midnight the eye of the typhoon passed over us and all that you read about going quiet and then the wind coming from the opposite direction was absolutely true. Once the eye had past the wind dropped very quickly and as the Coastguard said it was all quiet by midnight.

The Mate and someone else climbed down and they were indeed on hard ground.

We all had a drink and went to bed. The next morning we found that you could in fact walk right round the ship, it was completely high and dry but with a list to port, 18 degrees rings a bell. We were on a spit of sand that enclosed a fishing harbour at Izosu, there were most of the fishing fleet aground round the harbour. We were lucky as about 100 yards astern was a concrete breakwater which would have done us no good had we landed on it and forward of us along the beach were some rocks, we were only on sand.

The Company really moved themselves, the passengers were taken away by coach on the first day, letters were sent from London on the Monday morning to my parents. The first Japanese to reach us were the Customs, who were a bit upset that we had come ashore from a shipwrecked ship without a pass. The first thing they did was to gives us all passes to land. What we didn’t realise that the death toll in the region was over 4500.

The crew built us tents on the beach; actually very sound they were, it being impossible to stop on the ship with the list to port.

A salvage company came within a day I think and they were worried that the ship would topple over, the first thing they did was to run cables from the top of the masts to large blocks of concrete anchored in the sand.

We lived in the tents until the ship was upright then we went back on board, this was over two months. A channel was first dug right round the ship then sand pumps were positioned under the ship and pumped away 24 hours a day until the ship settled into a dock, then a channel was dredged out to deep water, we were towed out into the bay, anchored whilst various holes were patched up, then it caught fire when they were trying to light the donkey boiler, it blew back and caught the engine room alight. We of course tried all the hoses and foam generators we had but of course nothing worked. We had a think and I believe the Second Mate suggested that we throw Co2 cylinders into the engine room, it didn’t help we couldn’t lift them. By this time the salvage ship was alongside and the boss was straight down the engine room and put the fire out practically by himself, I guess he could see his “no cure no pay” fee rapidly disappearing.

The fire was put out and we were towed to Yokohama arriving just before Christmas 1959, and we were fixed up by early February. From what people told me the ship was never right as the shaft was slightly bent.

The officers as I remember were Freddie Follett, Captain who stayed with us until we arrived in Yokohama, to be replaced then by W.A. Hargraves,

The mate, who I only remember as being Australian, must have left soon after we went on the beach

2nd Mate was Christopher Knight, who introduced me to my wife, he was a friend of my wife’s family, and they looked after him when he was in Australia. There were two brothers Anthony and Christopher, Anthony was an engineer and Christopher was sent to sea for experience before joining the Tug Company. He unfortunately died a few years ago. The J.P. Knight company now have their offices in one of the buildings at the Historic Dockyard where I work. Christopher stopped with us until his contract was up and he went home to UK.

3rd Mate was Jimmy Morton, a Scotsman; he stayed with us until Yokohama when I think he left.

Just for interest Christopher Knight (2nd Mate) who left to go to his family firm, J. P. Knight tug owners on the Thames and Medway told me many years later in the 70's when I returned to UK after living in Australia, that he had met the Swires several times in connection with shipping matters and that they considered it an accident did not blame anyone on the ship.