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Wellpark rescue painting
A painting of the rescue by A. Cumming of Lenzie, Scotland. As someone who was there I am amazed at how accurately the artist (who was not there) portrayed the scene. The following is the story of this scene:
PART 1:
My mind drifted for a moment, drawn to the glass of ice cold water sat on my desk. The water tilted within the glass and then shuddered as the ship around it rolled on the wave and vibrated to the cavitation of the propeller. I glanced towards the black porthole. I had tightened the dogs on it earlier when the roll of the ship coincided with a high wave and momentarily our cabin view looked underwater, down into the ocean. I was a little weary. With the warm air and physical nature of our work I knew I should get some sleep before my duty watch started on the ship’s navigation bridge at midnight.
But I had to finish my Correspondence course. As only a second trip deck cadet, training as a Navigation Officer, I was almost the lowest of the low, and it was important my study at sea was completed on time. Our ship, “Wellpark”, was only three days from arrival in Kaohsiung in Taiwan and my work would have to be posted back to Nautical College in Glasgow on the other side of the world for marking. As luck would have it, we had speeded up a few days earlier from our normal cruising speed to our maximum of 15 knots, so that the ship could meet its dry-dock slot in Korea and still connect into a lucrative string of cargo charters thereafter. Dammit: I had even less time to finish my studies!
I could have excused myself. As I had just written in a letter to my mother it had already been a very eventful trip, a real experience for a young man keen to see the world. The journey itself from my home in the extreme north of Scotland to the south of Argentina had involved no less than seven separate flights over three days. And the weeks at sea crossing the lower latitudes of the South Atlantic, watching the albatross glide for days, before we moved into the warmer Indian Ocean and relaxed in its sunshine, had made it seem more like a cruise. After the mountainous waves we endured around South Africa we had time for fun after work, playing games on deck and organising our Crossing the Line Ceremony. Later we had passed through the Sunda Straits, passing tropical islands on both sides. Here we watched brightly coloured sailing boats dart between the islands, flying fish, and plumes of smoke erupt from a huge volcano. We were a happy ship and we were on a journey that had now taken us into the South China Sea.
Read the full story here
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Wellpark Rescue Painting
Vietnamese boat people After three decades of separation the Vietnamese boat people tell their stories
On 01 October 1978, a group of over 300 Vietnamese refugees were dramatically rescued from stormy seas by a British merchant ship, the Wellpark.
This group, who became known as the ‘Vietnamese Boat People’, fled Vietnam in the mid-1970s because they felt that life was going to be untenable under the new communist government there.
Many had used their entire life savings to secure a place on one of the boats headed for neighbouring countries.
Troubled voyage
The group had set sail under the cover of darkness and soon ran into trouble in rough waters.
Vietnamese refugee on the Wellpark.
The engines and pumps stopped working properly, and the makeshift vessels started sinking. Panic set in, and the Boat People became certain that they would drown.
Diep Quan recalls “I had heard that we were going to sink quite soon, and that we probably had a few hours.
"And I did not swim, didn’t know how to swim. I couldn’t imagine […] what it’s like if water goes over your head. I didn’t know what it’s like to go underwater."
Another refugee, Huy, recalls that, "It was very dangerous, because the waves were very big, and a few people fell into the sea, including my mum.
"She’s a non-swimmer, but luckily someone grabbed her and pulled her up."
Wellpark to the rescue
In desperation, they set off their last flare, which amazingly attracted the attention of the Wellpark.
The Boat People were hauled up onto the merchant vessel, some being lifted up in nets.
Aboard the Wellpark.
For two weeks, the refugees lived on the Wellpark while world governments decided their fate. It was then decided that they would be brought to England.
The survivors were flown there and temporarily housed at Kensington Army Barracks, before being offered council homes across the capital.
Emotional reunion
In the intervening decades, the Boat People have dispersed to many different parts of the world.
Now, 30 years on from their dramatic rescue, the group have just had an emotional reunion in Los Angeles, USA.
There, they had the chance to meet some of the Wellpark crew and express their profound gratitude for the rescue that saved their lives.
Trưừng Xuân's Last Voyage
I handed to Thanh my communiqué to leaders and the presses of the free world:
“Truong Xuan ship carried more than 3,000 Vietnamese fleeing Saigon after the Communists invasion. The engine room is deep in water. The ship will likely sink. We were lucky to be rescued by the Clara Maersk ship, of Denmark. On behalf of all the refugees on board, I hereby appeal to all the countries of the free world to accept and save my fellow refugees.”
Signed: Captain Pham Ngoc Luy
Truong-Xuan.pdf
BOLINAO 52
Following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, millions refugees took the perilous escape across South China Sea to find freedom. Many died of drowning or starvation and thirst. Other lost at sea for days while some were pillaged, robbed and raped by pirates. However, more than 30 years after, no major film or television program tells their stories. Bolinao 52 is a long-silenced voice, an unspoken legacy of the Vietnam War - the story of the Vietnamese Boat People.
When Tung Trinh, a survivor of the Bolinao 52, stepped foot onto a crowded boat one night in May 1988, she did not know it was a trip that forever changed her life. After leaving Vietnam the Bolinao 52 engine died. They were ignored by passing ships. 19 days later, a US Navy ship stopped. But the captain refused to pick up the dying refugees. Facing death, they resorted to cannibalism. After 37 days at sea, 52 of 110 survived. Two decades later, this Bolinao 52 survivor returned to her past to close off the unresolved chapters.
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