My first voyage
By Jack Madden
Without warning (happened to a lot of us!) I’m told “Get
over to 32 – you are needed there”.
OK. Arriving at Woolwich I’m told
Joe Pioli is going off to do his WO Qual at SME and as from now I’m the SQMS on John Monash. Uh huh. I can handle that.
John Monash was already over at Rozelle loading and Jim Broughton, the RSM told me, as he
passed over the salmon coloured ID card and gave me a
good senior WO1 to junior Sergeant lecture, to go via the RMO at Hunters Hill and
update my inoculations. Well, my Med 4
and 5 were not there so the fat slob who turned out to be the RMO gave me all
the injections required for overseas in one hit.
Next day I staggered on board – sick as a blue swimmer crab
that has been thrown in a bucket of fresh water from about nine needles that had
been given the day before. Only to have Alec McLeod tell me he could have given
me all the needles between Sydney and Darwin.
Ah well…one gets used to this in the 26 years I spent in the Army.
A mad rush…. Joe Pioli had two days to teach me everything, show me
where all the stores had been thrown in the haste to get ready for sea, deal
with all the new crew marching on board and try and do a check of the
‘attractive items’ in the ship’s ledgers.
No time for stuffing around. The Ordnance Corps Sergeant on board had a bit of a
drinking problem so he wasn’t much use till about smoke-oh.
On the last day before sailing there was three months of
rations to collect and stow. Dunno about stowing but Paddy Watson and Blue McClymont managed to sort everything out and feed everyone
at the same time.
Then there was also a
bunch of Young Officers from SME who also wanted to interfere in the chaos that
was going on at pre-sailing time. They
were put down in the accommodation in the tween decks
in No 3 hold. Got a bit torpid there in
the tropics as the cabins were on the end of the blower air trunk and the hatch
cover couldn’t be opened because of the big freezer on the deck. But that was
the best place for them - kept them out of everyone's way.
At last all the cargo is stowed and secure. Bombs in No 1 and No 2 hold plus general stores
for the Navy, parcels and a bit of miscellaneous cargo in No 3 hold. The big white cold-room was placed on No3
hatch (RAASC organized the frozen food that went into it – we never saw what
went in there), right near the container of White Phosphorous on the deck!.
All ready to
sail…No…have to wait till after 0900 so that the swinging bridge on Victoria Road at Balmain can be opened.
Took about 15 minutes from when we signaled for the Glebe Island
Bridge till we were
through and the bridge closed. This
wasn’t to be the last time we went into Rozelle Bay and I bet the motorists were pretty
pissed off.
Sailed up Sydney
Harbour
with time for just a short glance at the passing scenery. Then all of a sudden we were through the
heads and heading north. Now we are beam
on to the sea and although fully loaded it took a few days to get used to the
roll. Not many drinking in the
Sergeant’s mess on that first night!
Ten days to Darwin – time to secure everything, get to know
the ship, the routine and the crew,
organize the last of the fresh rations (the Sigs
loved me – they had to encrypt and then send by morse
code the ship’s order for salad vegetables, the type of meat we preferred, so
much fresh milk and how many pumpkins and bags of spuds I wanted.). In Navy terms we victualled
and bunkered in Darwin.
In Darwin few of the crew used
to drop in to the Don
Hotel on the way back to
the ship. Hard to believe that the dirt
floors, bamboo walls and furniture concreted into the ground is now a high
priced Casino. Who remembers the Darwin Stubbies?
Leaving Darwin we sailed
around the bottom of Borneo (Kalimantan) and on to Labuan to take on more fuel. I managed to finish up in some Chinese
gambling den in Labuan and somehow got back to
the ship alive with hundreds of Ringgits stuffed in
my pockets, an electric fan under one arm and a roll of about 10 yards of top
quality Chinese silk material under the other.
Don’t remember too much.
A pommy minesweeper tied up
alongside us and having a few good Negrita drinkers
on board some idiot challenged the Brits to a rum drinking competition. Naturally the Brits chose their Royal Crown
Rum in a 5 gallon barrel and it was soon evident that we were going to
lose. Eventually honour was saved when
we traded the Brits sundry sacks of potatoes for a couple of cases of butter
(we always seemed to be short of butter).
Quietly slipped out of Labuan –
everyone was too sick to make much noise and headed for Singapore. Because we had bombs on board we anchored out
in the Western Roads, some where off Pasir Panjang and we kept the local ferry boats in business
transporting drunks from the passenger terminal back to the ship.
Terry Radford dragged me along to get a haircut and we
finished up in some back street barber shop.
Now for someone who is having their first visit to Asia
this was just one more of life’s new experiences. Handled the hair washing OK
but the head and shoulder massage followed with a pair of scissors being shoved
up the nose to cut out all the hair was different. And, the sights of Bugis Street
with the Kai Tais, the goings on at the Britannia
Club (NAAFI), Change Alley, the smells and sights of an Asian city were all so
completely new to me. Little did I know
that the next six years of my Army career were to be spent in Asia!
Leaving Singapore
we passed through the Straights of Malacca and up to Penang,
tying up at the wharf at the mouth of the Perai River.
Discharged the bombs we loaded in Sydney
and took on bombs that had been in storage at RAAF Butterworth.
Back in the 1960's driving from the ferry terminal to the RAAF Base there was 11 Fd Sqn RE with an Australian Field Tp on the left side of the road along with the
Artillery then nothing but kampongs and paddy till the RAAF base was reached. Nowadays it is all either industry or suburbia.
The only way to the nightlife of Penang was across on the ferry. Unfortunately there was still a Malaysian
Customs post to pass through on the Butterworth side. Gee those Malaysian Customs jokers had no
sense of humour and a few of the crew spent the night
in a Malaysian cell. Reg
Maza had them fooled because they thought he was a blowpipe carrying Dyak from Borneo and they were
scared of them. We usually stayed in Penang
for a more than a week handling cargo and waiting for a diplomatic clearance to
enter the Philippines
as a third armed force (joke). This was pretty hard on the wallet.
Also some of the crew had to pay for a
jukebox that was thrown off a third floor of a ‘bar’ because someone, not from
the ship, kept on turning the volume up.
Then there was a group of men from the ship who, while watching another
crew member getting a massage, succeeded in collapsing a wall and half of the
building disappeared into a heap of plaster dust and broken bamboo. This also took a few of the crew’s hard
earned dollars to keep the owner quiet.
Never saw any of the Young Officers from SME at these venues
….they probably stayed in the sterile, boring environment of the RAAF Officer’s
Mess. Oh how much they missed out on!
John Monash then left Penang and
headed for Subic Bay in the Philippines.
On this trip we had general stores for the Navy; on later trips we would carry
ammunition and barrels for the destroyer with the 7th Fleet. Subic
Bay – what a place. Tied up
to the Magazine Wharf, about 6 miles south of the main
Naval Base we thought that getting ashore on leave would be a problem. Luckily there was an Australian CPO based
there and the destroyer with the 7th Fleet was at sea so he
organized transport for the ship in the form of a plywood LCVP – Higgins
Boat. Dunno
how it happened but one night coming back to the ship I vaguely remember the
ship’s electrician being the coxswain.
What an eye opener. Subic Bay or more properly Olongapo
with its main street lined with bars all full of girls willing to show, for a few pesos, how adept
they were with seven ping pong balls and other mind opening tricks.
An US LST
(LST-1166 WASHTENAW COUNTY) tied up alongside us at the Magazine Wharf
and her crew had to cross John Monash to get ashore.
They were amazed that the Australian Army allowed its men to drink at sea and
more so the facilities that the Sergeants enjoyed on board. A few enjoyable nights were spent in our mess
by both the USN personnel and us. They
made the fatal mistake of inviting us on board after one sociable evening. I wonder if the gold and silver embroidered
US Navy Ensign that was pride of the CPOs mess ever made
it to the museum at SME. If it is it may
be a good gesture to arrange for it to be returned and presented to the ship’s
association.
The US Navy supply system there was unbelievable. Self service on a massive scale and when I
was asked “Where does the debit slip for all this go” my reply was “It goes to
the Australian Embassy in Manila or the Cash Office in Vietnam but give it to
me and I’ll make sure it gets there”
Hah. I still have the poncho
liner and the lambswool liner for a Combat Jacket.
We also had picked up a consignment of 84 mm rockets for the Carl Gustav rocket
launcher in Subic Bay. This was the only way that Australia could
get ammo for the ‘Charlie Guts ache’ because Sweden didn’t believe in the
Australian involvement in the Vietnam War but was happy to sell the ammo to the
Philippines Army who resold it to Australia. However, the Philippines Army never had the Charlie Guts-ache but had a military presence in
Vietnam through the Philippine
Civic Action Group, Vietnam!
Food – we had that much food on board – US, British from Singapore, RAAF
from Butterworth and eventually Aus/US from Vungers. It all had to be sea dumped before entering Darwin on the return voyage
because it wasn’t from Australian origin.
From Subic Bay things now became
serious. Next port was Cam Ranh Bay to unload.
Unfortunately we couldn’t get into the wharf – container ships only – so
we had to swing on the anchor and unload onto lighters. Slowest discharge I experienced. The Yanks couldn’t comprehend the concept of
having one lighter being loaded and one ready to load. Of course while all these explosives were
being handled the ship’s red flag was flown. Nothing to do ashore in Cam Ranh Bay except drink in the US PX/Canteen. Lousy beer and the company wasn’t great. We found one USN pusser
that had collapsed into the trough urinal and the rest of them kept urinating
on him. We dragged him out, propped him
up in the corner and washed him down with a hose and the Yanks were amazed that
we would do that. Invited the Sergeant’s
Mess from 39th Engineer Battalion on board for a social evening but
they were an all-black unit and declined the offer but quietly said that would
never happen in the US Army and really appreciated the invite.
Next stop was Vung Tau to unload the eagerly awaited parcels and food from the
big on-deck freezer. Oh, we also
unloaded the white phosphorous ammo that the Jeparit
refused to handle. The backload consisted of a couple of APC shells and a lot
of 17 Const Sqn’s plant that was either US or sent to Vietnam and never used.
After Vung Tau
we head for Australia
but the main seal on the DeLaval fuel oil separator gives
up. Quickly fixed but that was the last
spare so …oh me oh my we have to call into Singapore for more spares. This time we are able to anchor in Keppel Harbour
which gave us much quicker access to the delights of Singapore. By now I’m an old Asian hand and knew how to
keep out of trouble. Those pommy redcaps were pretty conscientious and could pick you
as being a digger by your haircut.
Finally sailed for Darwin,
refueled and re-rationed and headed for Sydney. After passing out of Torres Strait the
skipper headed east till the engine intake water temperature told him that the
ship was in a southerly set current and we navigated by intake water
temperatures. This gave us 13 knots over
24 hours - the fastest that John Monash had probably
sailed for a continuous period.
Arriving in Sydney we went
under the big crane at Garden
Island to unload. The civvy wharfies there stood around for hours discussing how to
unload the 22RB excavator in No2 hold.
One of the Sergeant seamen made a fatal mistake and said “ I was
responsible in Vung Tau for
the loading of the ship….if you take out the 62.5 kva
genset, then the bitumen truck you should be able to
lift the 22RB straight out” That was
it. The wharfies
stated “The Army is trying to tell us how to do our job” and proceeded to go on
strike.
We never unloaded at Garden Island. Another trip to Rozelle Bay
through the Glebe
Island swing bridge to
the disgust of motorists. Eventually
unloaded by a couple of 100 ton mobile cranes as Rozelle
Bay was too shallow to get alongside so there had to be a lighter between us
and the wharf. It took two big cranes to boom out to get that 22RB.
Eventually arrived back at Woolwich, followed by a visit to Cockatoo Island dry dock for a haircut and paint
job. Somebody accidentally made a brew
in the ORs galley and washed up thereby letting water
flow into the dock. This was good as the
ship then stayed there another 24 hours while the painters and dockers were on strike and that meant another day at home.
Next voyage, new skipper, new destinations, new adventures,
new challenges and a new crew. I haven’t
mentioned names except where they aren't involved any of the ‘non
regimental’ activities of the members of 32 Small Ship Sqn
RAE. Life was good on the ships. A great crew together with a great lifestyle
and the lessons that I learned from those old Sergeants and Warrant Officers
carried me through the next fourteen years of my Army career.
As I write this article it comes to me that we should
have lined up the crew for a 'formal' photo before the start of each voyage.
Just like doing a Course at SME. At least SME can still produce those
course photos!
