LettersHong Kong typhoon: officer from stricken 1957 Dutch ship still looking for Chinese crewmates

Sixty three years ago, on Sunday the 22nd of September 1957, we ran aground on the slopes of Devil’s Peak in Junk Bay, in gusty winds during Typhoon Gloria (signal 3, Beaufort scale 12, winds at 185km/hour).

We were 80 people on board the Dutch freighter MS Tjibantjet: a Hong Kong crew of 60, 14 Dutch officers, six passengers. No casualties.

I myself, as fifth engineer, was on duty in the engine room at that time together with the second engineer, Johan Abas. We saw the water coming into the engine room from the portside, we left the engine room and within 15 minutes it was flooded.

We started the emergency generator on the higher deck. Thanks to the Hong Kong marine police we were saved. The vessel luckily settled steady on a natural rock at approximately 38 degrees.

On the 6th of May the vessel was tugged to the Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Company, they did a great job together with Taikoo Dock. About a year later, in 1959, the vessel was sailing again, until she was scrapped in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in April 1974.

I know that of the officers four are still alive, the wireless operator, the second engineer, the third engineer and myself. We lost complete track of the Chinese crew. I wonder who are still with us.