Page 67 - Michael Frost-Voyages to Maturity-23531.indd

with him (besides which, the light vespers were pleasant indeed), so I decided to
take a trip to the bridge (which, of course, was half-way up the ship).

There I encountered a quite chaotic situation. I asked the cadet what was
going on, and he, knowing that he had to look as though he had something
important to do, directed me to the chart, telling me quickly that we seemed to
have run aground. This I had, of course, ascertained myself, but I looked at the
chart and saw that our last charted position was near the south-western end of
Kiltan Island, which I noted had last been charted in 1896, but about which there
was a hand-written note (which notes are legitimately made on charts to reflect
the latest marine developments) stating that ‘coral growth’ had been observed
on the south-west corner of the island. I looked then at the Pilot Book (these
provided much information about everywhere in the world) and saw that this
was one of the Laccadive Islands and a leper colony administered from the state
of Kerala; that was all that I and the 3rd engineer really needed to know.

This was, of course, more than enough for the engine-room staff, who by
now had been joined by what seemed to be every other engineer aboard. This
was now a chaotic place; normally, preparations for engine manoeuvres began
many minutes before needed, as many adjustments to the whole system had to
be made. However, those involved were more than up to the job, and, inasmuch
as it could be a smooth operation in such circumstances, the Chief Engineer was
fully in control. And he needed to be; the commands from the bridge were ‘half
ahead’ followed moments later by ‘half astern’, this to produce a sort of rocking
motion to effect release from the bottom (coral being sharp, but not very solid
– assuming that it was, in fact, coral! – it could just be ground down. It is to be
remembered that we were a light ship, having only a small tonnage of ballast
water aboard, therefore with little to pump overboard to lighten the ship and raise
us in the water). I had noted on the bridge that every interested party in the ship
(P&O, Shell, local agents of P&O and the like) had been notified of our situation,
but one irony did not escape my notice: Cochin was the nearest port that could
offer some assistance, but the nearest port that had tugs of sufficient power and
ocean-going capabilities was no less a place than Colombo!

Fortunately, the need to undergo the same experience twice did not arise; after
an hour or so of slight, and then greater, to-ing and fro-ing, we made our own
way off the bottom. I was by then on the bridge (the carpenter had ascertained
by soundings that we were not taking on water, so the need for any emergency
measures was avoided), but as we steamed slowly northwards away from Kiltan,
we were disconcerted to note that a BP tanker appeared on the north-east corner
of the island (hitherto obscured from our view). The Pilot Book informed us that
that vessel had been aground there for three years!
There being no apparent damage to the ship, we headed towards the Strait of

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