The 9th August is a date that my wife and I will never forget – not for the normal reasons such as birthdays or wedding anniversaries, but the day we were in the middle of the South China Sea on the Bendearg bound from Nagoya to Singapore. I was Second Mate at the time and Jenni was signed on the Articles as Librarian. This was our first trip at sea together; the ship was on a liner run between Europe and the Far East and was on the return leg of the journey.
After the Vietnamese war ended on the 30th April 1975 with the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese army 130,000 people sympathetic to the USA and the South Vietnamese government were evacuated. However, many left behind were victims to the punitive policies of the new government. It has been estimated one million people were sent to ‘re-education camps’ and in addition to this another one million city dwellers ‘volunteered’ to live in New Economic Zones, where they had to survive by reclaiming land and clearing jungle to grow crops. In addition to all this, around 100,000 extrajudicial executions took place from 1975 to 1985.
The result of these policies resulted in a mass exodus of people from the South and primarily leaving from the Mekong Delta. Any type of craft was used to escape Vietnam, some not suitable for anything other than river work. Between 1975 and 1995 800,000 people arrived safely at relocation camps; the number lost at sea will never be known, impossible to accurately record, but an educated guess was hundreds of thousands.
The small craft we spotted was an old riverboat used during the war as a gunboat. This had been prepared under great secrecy before leaving the Mekong Delta. They only had food and water for about three days; the plan being to head out into the shipping lanes and hope they would be rescued. Unfortunately the engine broke down and they drifted well clear of the normal shipping lanes. By the time we rescued them they had been adrift for 17 days. All were dehydrated and very hungry.
The 16,000-ton Bendearg was manoeuvred very close and a line thrown from our deck. One of the refugees jumped into the water to get the rope, showing how desperate they were. All those years ago we were under the impression that most of the refugees knew each other and this was the reason they were together. However he explained that was not the case – they were all strangers at the start of their journey. He also explained that he had been picked to go on the boat as he could speak French and that he was one of the very few who had not paid to be on the boat. The person planning the boats ensured that one person on board could speak French and one English, so they could communicate with rescuers. He also explained they were all so very weak and that he prayed for the baby to be saved. Soon after they had been rescued he decided he wanted to pay back the people of Britain for saving them and giving them a new home.
When the craft had left Vietnam there were a total of 76 on board. Just two hours before they were rescued the baby was born and I can remember Capt Schofield saying that had the baby held on to be born on the Bendearg, he would have been a British citizen by birth. I can also remember a dropper from the boiler chemical kit being modified to feed the baby milk.
The next two days while they were on board the children had the run of the accommodation and they were a great lift to the spirits of all on board, especially during a long voyage. The refugees left us in Singapore on the 12th August and were all transported to a rehabilitation camp in Singapore which was one of the better camps. The largest camp was Hong Kong followed by Bidong Island in Malaysia and the Galang refugee camp in Indonesia. We heard little bits and pieces of news about the countries they had been sent to - those being the USA, Australia and the UK.
Fast-forward 34 years and an email from the President of the local Rotary Club about someone looking for Jenni and Ian McBain. This turned out to be Nick Holden-Sim an assistant producer from the BBC Songs of Praise who was keen to find out if we had been on the Bendearg at the time of the rescue. The BBC was planning to interview a Father Michael, a priest in Sutton Coldfield, who was a Vietnamese refugee who has been rescued that day in 1980.
After a few emails we found ourselves on a ‘plane to Birmingham for a meeting with Nick and a presenter who turned out to be Pam Rhodes. During the initial meeting we showed them our photo album and the pictures of the rescue and some of the refugees after they had been given water and food.
After a very emotional meeting with Father Michael we went to his office and we showed him our photo album with some pictures Jenni had taken all those years ago. He immediately picked himself out in the photos and a number of his friends. Our time was limited but he was able to tell us his story of escape which was just incredible.
He then went on to tell us about the rehabilitation camp in Singapore before a number of them arrived back in the UK. First of all they were sent to an old Army camp to learn English and soon after this Michael went to Rome to become a priest before returning to the UK to become the first Vietnamese ordained priest in the UK, in his new parish of Sutton Coldfield.
The interview with Father Michael was televised on Songs of Praise, Sunday 8th March. We sat down at the TV with the family and were moved by his story of his time in the small boat.
The whole experience has been something special, bringing a fading memory back to life. Now, with the background to the story of why they had to leave their homeland in the first place, it has made the experience so much more poignant.
