Silas E Parks and the Pirate Attack

Pirates have been grabbing headlines recently. They seem to be grabbing ships from all nooks and crannies of the oceans and it makes me wonder what all the fuss is about. I mean, when I was attacked and boarded by pirates we would have fought them and chased them off like the rogues that they were had we been able to get to them. We would have stood up and faced them man-to-man, guns and all, and showed them that we weren't sitting down on the job.

No Siree, not me and certainly not my crew!

It was in 1993 when this particular nasty incident occurred. I was the Captain on this rather large oil tanker and having loaded up in Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia we were heading down the Malacca Straits towards Singapore for bunkers and much needed stores. After that it was straight on down the hill to Australia and hopefully for me a flight home for a well earned leave!

My old companion Joe Larkin, the Chief Engineer was with me, a man who I could trust to keep the engine ticking over through hellfire and an ice-age if that was required of him, although during this incident he failed miserably for the first time in his otherwise unblemished career. Anyway, I don't want to dig a grave for the man! I took the blame squarely on my shoulders as a Captain should even though it was not my fault at all, leaving Joe to continue his career unblemished and free of a black mark on his record.

Not sure why he stopped that engine in the middle of what is known to be rabid pirate country, peculiar really as I never told him to do so and certainly he should have known better for a man of his seasoning!

We were heading down the Malacca straights at about fourteen knots, as fast as we could go and with no intention of slowing down until Singapore clearly showed on the radar and daylight led us through to the safe anchorage. That was how we stood when our good ship entered the Malacca Straits and feeling secure in the onboard security measures the crew relaxed whilst we worked our way downward, plotting the courses as procedure dictates and navigating the ship in what was otherwise just another day at sea!

Drinking is banned in Ras Tanura even for those of alternate faith and nationality; inhumane treatment I agree but when in Saudi, must do as the Saudi's do or end up in jail! We were not allowed to drink and all our alcohol had been locked up since the day we arrived in that strip of unhealthy dessert! Five days of torture as we suffered the endless 50 degrees of daytime (and mostly night-time) sweat, the clanging and wailing of the early morning call to prayers and the constant phone calls to the poor chief engineer to fix the air-conditioning unit. He always said that it was working well - it was just not man enough for the job. It's alright for him, stuck down that control room with its well functioning unit, never a thought for us up-top that have to sweat without respite?

I suppose Joe did his best and after five days of hell and torment there was a combined sigh of relief as the engine trundled into life, the black smoke from the funnel turned greyer and the ropes were let go! Once our nose was pointed outward and the pilot was dropped off, once all the paper work had been completed, once the engine had been rung full-ahead and the start-of-passage noted and once the Second Officer affirmed that he happy with his watch I repaired downstairs to the bond locker with a sharp knife and a hefty pair of pliers!

The Saudi authorities lock these spaces up you know! Our bond locker, out sacred place were life itself was stored had enough stickers and stamps on it to keep Royal Mail in profit for a year and enough wire and wax seals to secure it against all manner of invasion; including an armed pirate attack! With my pliers and knife I worked these seals off, opened the door to let the fresh air in and then turned to my cabin with a good ol' bottle of whisky, a taste of the good stuff you know, before hitting the sack!

I think the heat must have gotten into my body and head! The period spent in Saudi Arabia is a time that no man or woman should have to experience; we lived it though and survived to tell the tale. We escaped with our souls intact but with some side-effects as the day after leaving I had some weird hallucinations, I could frequently see double and believe me my head thumped constantly like an angry mule was trying to break out. Delayed heat stroke or dehydration perhaps, maybe the constant white reflection of the sun caused nerves to be wrangled or the early morning call to prayers had produced sleep deficiency to build-up? No Doctor, no verdict, but it was bad, believe me.

Most of that voyage south remains a blank in my mind. That in itself was not a problem, my crew ably managed the vessel onward and downward and they kept me informed daily of events as we sailed merrily on! It took me ten days or so to clear myself up, ten days of minimal food and the odd hot toddy to keep me sane!

We were nearing the end of the voyage, heading down the Malacca Straits and I was on the bridge nursing a sore head from the terrible and delayed heat stroke that had laid me down for a number of days. As practice dictates it is always a good idea to hold a piracy drill well before entering pirate country as it keeps the crew on their toes and primes them for what to expect in the eventuality that an attempt is made to board the vessel. It was still very early in the morning I admit but the Chief Officer had forgotten to wake me the day before and so we were half way down the Straits and we were not prepared to my satisfaction!

I agree; nobody wants to get up at such an un-earthly hour, especially after a hard days work but as I have often been told "there is no time like the present" to hold a drill. Pirates certainly don't wait until the civilised hours to attack vessels, now do they?

At precisely 2am as we trundled our way ever southward I slammed my hand onto the General Alarm button on the bridge console in front of me. I think the loud screeching sound had the Chief Officer hitting the deck head in fright - he wasn't a true Chief Officer in my view, to meek and mild for my liking!

Anyway, the alarm galvanised everybody into action and before another slug of whisky could be poured the whole ships compliment was dressed for action, life jackets and safety helmets tied securely and the cook had even remembered to bring the first aid kit with him – he’s a good cook that one, a handy man to have around in times of need. With all the crew at the muster station and with the Chief Officer having now worked out what was going on I had them all repair to the bridge for a debrief and a chat!

I am still surprised today at the state and general feeling of hostility that their presence brought with them. Once they were on the bridge and getting used to the dim light I could have cut the atmosphere with a knife. I am a Captain though and must fight through these often sticky situations. Believe me it is tough at the top. I had them all stand around in a circle and I took them through what to expect and how to cope when piracy rears its ugly head! Between yawns and shows of noncommittal silence we went through the old and established techniques of battening down doors with ropes to prevent unwanted persons entering the accommodation, I had crew rigging fire hoses on the bridge to repel boarders and I made sure that they all knew how to change the bulbs in the searchlights as fast as possible.

Certainly the crew learnt allot from the scenarios played out and by 3am they looked as if they were getting to grips with all that they had learnt. There is nothing like a drill to get it perfect when real disaster strikes. It was during the last scenario building exercise that everything went pear-shaped and as I probably mentioned before I am perplexed as to why the Chief Engineer stopped the engine as he did. If he hadn’t stopped the engine we would have reached Singapore at our expected time of arrival (ETA) and without further ado to note.

Anyway, we were sailing down the Malacca Straits and I was showing everybody how to evade pirates by rapid manoeuvre and evasion technique by use of the vessels steering and the engine! The Chief Mate was pretending to be on the wheel when I shouted “hard a starboard”, the chief was on the sticks “when I shouted “Full Astern” and blow me down if the Chief Engineer didn’t actually do what I asked of him. It was a drill for heavens sake! He was at the console pulling the telegraph in the opposite position to where it had been for the last ten days and down stairs the poor old engine was struggling to cope with the sudden and unexpected demand required of it.

If only the Chief hadn’t taken the drill from pretend to reality. I screamed “stop” but it was far too late! The engine is what is called a slow-speed reversing engine and to get from full ahead to full astern it has to stop. It stops then re-starts in the opposite direction. On that fateful day the engine stopped but the much needed air valve was not open in the engine room so all we got was a bundle of engine room alarms and not much else!

At that exact moment we were faced with sudden and possibly dangerous reality.

Within the next second I could see the Chief Engineer scrabbling around at the internal door (this gave access from the bridge to the deck below and thus the engine room) in his hurry to get to the air valve!

During the drills previously the Second Mate had done an excellent job of securing all the doors and had used a large manila rope and a chain that he had somehow managed to find for the occasion. He had wrapped these securely around the two bridge wing door dogs in a spaghetti junction of knots and twists. And nobody could find the key for the locked door that lead down to the next deck - the one that the chief engineer now seemed to be trying to break through with his grubby finger nails.

I suppose life has its twists and turns and despite all our attempts none of us can ever predict which twist or which turn will hit next. In this precise instant the wrong twists and the negative turns were being churned out faster than we could cope with them.

Somebody came up with the good idea of turning on the bridge lights so that we could all see what was going on. Sadly somebody had spilt the bottle of whisky over all the radio gear and some of it must have dripped its way down to a junction box or two under the floor plates. As the light switch was depressed a few sparks and a sizzle emitted and then nothing.

The chief said screamed hysterically “the breakers are downstairs”.

A few more moments must have passed as we all thought and scrabbled around to come up with a solution. The second mate couldn’t find a knife or the bridge scissors and was shouting to the bosun about lost keys, the second engineer was deliberating melting the manila rope with a cigarette lighter and using the remains to produce a suitable twist lock that might then snap the chain, whilst the cook was busy dipping his finger into the split whisky and then licking it, an action that seemingly disturbed the endeavours of the Chief Officer who was busy trying to send out a distress signal on a radio that provided the only light available as it continued to spark intermittently!

Luckily somebody came up with the notion that an attempt to burn the manila rope might set-off the fire alarms thus driving everybody crazy until the second engineer found another shining light bulb in his head and started to cover the detector heads in sticky tape.

Not that a fire alarm would have been any worse than those currently sounding! The trouble on this particular occasion was that if an engine room alarm is not acknowledged within three minutes the general alarms sounds. There is not much difference between a general alarm and a fire alarm! They are both extremely loud; both drill the brain and as designed would wake even the dead from their bunk!

Whilst the chief engineer was attempting to unscrew the internal door hinges with a pair of callipers that made the second mate wince a loud knock was heard from the other side of the door!

I must admit that I have never managed to produce such dedicated silence as that knock caused even in my most lucid and lyrical moments. But that knock had everybody from me down glued into position, ears wagging like miniature antennas as we silently counted the crew on the bridge against a mental note of how many there should be!

It was then that the Third engineer shouted “Pirates”.

It transpired that some happy-go-lucky pirates must have spotted the drifting vessel in mid-channel and decided to come onboard for a look around! I suppose we were extremely lucky that we were all locked inside of the bridge for as much as we could not get out, these desperados could not get in and so such things like torture, ransom demands, and example producing swipes to the head and even deaths to provoke action were not on the agenda that night.

I suppose the fact that we were stopped dead in the middle of the Malacca Straits, without lights (our previous exercise had left the search lights without bulbs – a handy thing to know how to change them in an emergency) and no signs of moving life on deck left us very open to an impromptu boarding. The fire hoses were laid out on-deck but again everybody was on the bridge doing the drill so nobody was there to man them.

As I write these memoirs I wander again how Joe Larkin the experienced Chief Engineer could have been so slack to have actually stopped the engine! We were after all only conducting a drill.

The pirates stayed with us for a while. I suppose an hour must have passed since the unexpected knock and before the second mate insisted that he could see a small fishing boat departing our side – filled to the brim with cutthroat desperados, armed to the teeth with machine guns I’m sure!

They didn’t take much thankfully! Maybe the thought of oncoming daylight frightened them away, either that or the endless and deafening alarms drove them mad or the fact that we were drifting precariously close to Malaysian shore put them off from staying longer.

Shortly after they pirates departed the Second Mate found the key to the door, the Chief Engineer soon managed to open his valve and get the engine started and without further ado we got underway once again!

That day we limped into Singapore and reported the incident to the Pirate Control Centre in Kuala Lumpur. The police came and asked lots of questions and they kept on looking at me very strangely indeed. They looked at me as if I was trying to pull the wool over their eyes but they simply couldn’t find good cause to do that of course! I suppose they have to look at all angles in cases like these. They even asked me and the rest of the crew to take a breath test to see if were muddled with alcohol. Not that we would have been drunk or anything but the Pirates had removed every last drop of beer and spirits from the vessel leaving us high and dry! Lucky for us I suppose as it removed any suspicions about us having been drunk and not-in-command of the vessel – which we certainly were!

Anyway, alls well that ends well I suppose! We escaped with minimal loss and no injury and had I not told anybody about the incident we could well have kept it all to ourselves! Except for some minor damage on the bridge that is that required some urgent attention before the vessel could proceed.

I still can’t figure out why my Chief Engineer stopped the engine but I can honestly say that my impromptu drill went down well and should such an eventuality happen again those crew will be well prepared for it.

One seaman stood out from all the rest! Admittedly, his actions at the time caused mass damage and subsequent weeks of delay in Singapore for repairs but he was after-all reacting proactively and correctly in accordance with the duties prescribed for him on the muster list! When the Third Engineer hysterically shouted “pirates” the seaman reacted without pause and depressed the button that started the emergency fire pump forward. Within seconds the fire-hose that we had rolled out inside of the bridge for the drill charged-up and sprayed the whole works with salt water. Everything from the Radars to the breakers got drenched and it was quite a while before somebody managed to shut the valve (the stop switch was not working for some reason or another).

Thinking back those pirates may still be wandering to this day what we were up to that night! They boarded a blacked-out drifting vessel on their doorstep. Nobody was around, a ghost ship to all extent and purposes with loud unanswered alarms going off and perhaps had they stayed long enough they would have seen streams of water pouring out from under the bridge door. Perhaps they departed quickly on the assumption that the vessel was seriously jinxed or filled with demons!

Anyway, I got a flight home from Singapore. I never did tell anybody about what the Chief Engineer did that day! I kept that to myself and took the blame squarely for events as they unfolded but I still can’t work out why he stopped that engine.