Being an old Navy man, I have experienced
the fury of a storm at Sea. I rode out a Typhoon, in the far off China Sea, in the month of June, 1955.
My ship, the USS Bryce Canyon (AD-36), was anchored in Tokyo Bay outside of Yokosuka, Japan, when we got the word to rig the ship for heavy seas and be ready to get under way to head out to Sea to ride out a coming storm. Now, when I heard storm, I was thinking in Midwestern terms, you know....severe thunderstorms, maybe an isolated tornado ever now and then, hail, wind...stuff that I had grown up with on our Ozark farm. Friends, I had no idea what we were in for. A Typhoon, a Hurricane on steroids, occurs in the Far East and is like nothing you have ever seen, and to be seeing it from the deck of a ship at Sea is a Life experience you never forget. As we moved away from our mooring, the sky darkened and the rain began to fall in such volume that you could not see beyond a few feet in front of you. We got out of the sheltered harbor and into the open water and suddenly the wind hit like a sledge hammer. It's hard to imagine what 125 MPH winds do to open water, and a ship moving through it. The Bryce Canyon was a pretty big ship, kinda bulky and a little top heavy and riding it in a storm of this intensity was not a fun thing. I was standing the bridge watch, on the outside platform, high above the deck and just outside of the bridge and command center of the ship. We were heading into waves that were as high as the main deck of the ship, while I was standing behind the solid framework of the four foot high bulkhead that went around my area, holding on to keep from getting swept away by the wind and water. I could just barely make out the bow of the ship, plunging beneath the waves, shuddering and groaning as the steel plates strained to hold together, threatening to break loose my death grip on the railing, when the great ship would rear back up from beneath the waves , pointing at about a 45 degree angle up the next giant wave and then crashing down in the trough between waves.
Seasickness is a terrible thing, under normal conditions. Seasickness in the middle of a Typhoon is beyond description. 30 minutes into the worst of the storm I was sick as I have ever been in my life before or since. And a Typhoon doesn’t come and go as quick as our Ozark thunderstorms….it just keeps on getting worse and goes on and on and……wooo uggggghhhhh gaggggggggg…..until there is nothing left down to your toenails to come up….so you’re left with the dry heaves until your whole body aches with the strain.
Seven days and seven nights of absolute agony, before we finally ran into some calmer water as the storm front moved off to the East. I made my way out to the starboard deck of the ship, so weak I could hardly stand. The blue Pacific sky was cloud free with only a slight breeze as the ship calmly made its way toward Hong Kong harbor. As I stood at the rail, 15 pounds lighter than a week ago, but finally managing to regain my sea legs and stand up straight like a sailor should. I stood watching the exotic city of Hong Kong come in view, beautiful in the morning sun, reflecting the windows of the dwellings that were built, almost on top of one another, spreading up the mountain, with Victoria Peak visible for miles out at sea.
It seemed dream like, after the days and nights of dashing and crashing in the wind and waves of Typhoon, to come upon the calm waters of South China Sea and Hong Kong harbor. The storm had gone far to the North in the East China Sea and barely a breeze stirred in this harbor.
True, I had lost 15 pounds during my seasickness, spending a week with nothing but a bit of water, but I was young and I bounced back quickly as the lights of Hong Kong started coming on, as we lay at anchor in the harbor. After spending the daylight hours of getting the ship back to shipshape condition, grabbing a shower and dressing in some clean and pressed whites, I, and my shipmates, hit the shore to explore the pleasures of this incredible city. The streets of Hong Kong, in the 1950’s, seemed like an endless Carnival Midway to a kid, fresh from the Ozark Mountains. It was a dizzying, confusing mass of rickshaws, small cabs driven by suicide bent drivers, bicycles and every kind of pleasure palaces imaginable by man or beast. The most amazing thing that hit me was……this whole place was populated by Foreigners! Seemed like, to me, that the home folks were all living down on the water of the harbor on their house boats called “JUNKS”, and the main drag of the town was run by a mixture of every kind of ethnic group that you can imagine, and the home folks were relegated to the men pulling the rickshaws, and the women pulling their shifts in the bordellos and bars. In 1955 the English were still in control and the city was wide open, 24 hours a day, kinda like Vegas, but without the Casinos. There was all kinds of gambling, but in small backalley places and some of the bars and bordellos. The biggest gamble was taking your life into your own hands, and going into the wrong bar or rowdy house and finding it populated by Marines. Some of the worst fights I have ever witnessed were in Hong Kong, between Sailors and Marines. They would beat themselves silly, then get up and wipe the blood off, have another drink, and go back to it again. The Mama-sans would try to get the antagonists to go out back in the alleys that ran along the back of all the bars and bordellos, which , by the way, were one and the same, Bars/Bordellos, you could get a drink or a woman at all of them. These establishments were all managed by Mama-sans, usually older women that were tougher than whet leather, and could handle a room full of Marines and Sailors all by themselves. By golly, this must be what Brother Pringle, our preacher back at New Hope Baptist Church, had been preachin’ against all those years when I was growing up. Yessir, I could look down the main drag of Hong Kong and see everything he ever preached against. Hmmmm, dang, this was gonna take some real investigating to get to the bottom of all of it……
Well, whether it be the storms at sea, or the storms of life, both can be devastating and can blow you away if you ain’t careful. I came through these storms intact, but bruised and battered. When things would get bad, I would harken to the words of this old song…..”When the Storms of Life are raging, Stand by me (stand by me) When the Storms of life are raging, Stand by me (stand by me) When the world is tossing me, like a ship upon the sea, Thou Who rulest wind and water, Stand by me…”
That old Carnival Midway of pleasures can be mighty tempting, to a young man fresh from the hills, but the Forgivness and Mercy, that Brother Pringle also preached about, trumps everything the Devil can throw at us. Thank God I lived to come back to the Hills and Hollers of the Ozarks and now Tennessee, and that the mature man, seasoned by the Storms of Life, has found the safe harbor of Peace.
Verse two of my favorite song: “When I’m growing old and feeble, Stand by Me, When I’m getting old and feeble, Stand by Me, When my life becomes a burden, and I’m nearing chilly Jordan, O Thou Lily Of The Valley………Stand By Me. -Stan
My ship, the USS Bryce Canyon (AD-36), was anchored in Tokyo Bay outside of Yokosuka, Japan, when we got the word to rig the ship for heavy seas and be ready to get under way to head out to Sea to ride out a coming storm. Now, when I heard storm, I was thinking in Midwestern terms, you know....severe thunderstorms, maybe an isolated tornado ever now and then, hail, wind...stuff that I had grown up with on our Ozark farm. Friends, I had no idea what we were in for. A Typhoon, a Hurricane on steroids, occurs in the Far East and is like nothing you have ever seen, and to be seeing it from the deck of a ship at Sea is a Life experience you never forget. As we moved away from our mooring, the sky darkened and the rain began to fall in such volume that you could not see beyond a few feet in front of you. We got out of the sheltered harbor and into the open water and suddenly the wind hit like a sledge hammer. It's hard to imagine what 125 MPH winds do to open water, and a ship moving through it. The Bryce Canyon was a pretty big ship, kinda bulky and a little top heavy and riding it in a storm of this intensity was not a fun thing. I was standing the bridge watch, on the outside platform, high above the deck and just outside of the bridge and command center of the ship. We were heading into waves that were as high as the main deck of the ship, while I was standing behind the solid framework of the four foot high bulkhead that went around my area, holding on to keep from getting swept away by the wind and water. I could just barely make out the bow of the ship, plunging beneath the waves, shuddering and groaning as the steel plates strained to hold together, threatening to break loose my death grip on the railing, when the great ship would rear back up from beneath the waves , pointing at about a 45 degree angle up the next giant wave and then crashing down in the trough between waves.
Seasickness is a terrible thing, under normal conditions. Seasickness in the middle of a Typhoon is beyond description. 30 minutes into the worst of the storm I was sick as I have ever been in my life before or since. And a Typhoon doesn’t come and go as quick as our Ozark thunderstorms….it just keeps on getting worse and goes on and on and……wooo uggggghhhhh gaggggggggg…..until there is nothing left down to your toenails to come up….so you’re left with the dry heaves until your whole body aches with the strain.
Seven days and seven nights of absolute agony, before we finally ran into some calmer water as the storm front moved off to the East. I made my way out to the starboard deck of the ship, so weak I could hardly stand. The blue Pacific sky was cloud free with only a slight breeze as the ship calmly made its way toward Hong Kong harbor. As I stood at the rail, 15 pounds lighter than a week ago, but finally managing to regain my sea legs and stand up straight like a sailor should. I stood watching the exotic city of Hong Kong come in view, beautiful in the morning sun, reflecting the windows of the dwellings that were built, almost on top of one another, spreading up the mountain, with Victoria Peak visible for miles out at sea.
It seemed dream like, after the days and nights of dashing and crashing in the wind and waves of Typhoon, to come upon the calm waters of South China Sea and Hong Kong harbor. The storm had gone far to the North in the East China Sea and barely a breeze stirred in this harbor.
True, I had lost 15 pounds during my seasickness, spending a week with nothing but a bit of water, but I was young and I bounced back quickly as the lights of Hong Kong started coming on, as we lay at anchor in the harbor. After spending the daylight hours of getting the ship back to shipshape condition, grabbing a shower and dressing in some clean and pressed whites, I, and my shipmates, hit the shore to explore the pleasures of this incredible city. The streets of Hong Kong, in the 1950’s, seemed like an endless Carnival Midway to a kid, fresh from the Ozark Mountains. It was a dizzying, confusing mass of rickshaws, small cabs driven by suicide bent drivers, bicycles and every kind of pleasure palaces imaginable by man or beast. The most amazing thing that hit me was……this whole place was populated by Foreigners! Seemed like, to me, that the home folks were all living down on the water of the harbor on their house boats called “JUNKS”, and the main drag of the town was run by a mixture of every kind of ethnic group that you can imagine, and the home folks were relegated to the men pulling the rickshaws, and the women pulling their shifts in the bordellos and bars. In 1955 the English were still in control and the city was wide open, 24 hours a day, kinda like Vegas, but without the Casinos. There was all kinds of gambling, but in small backalley places and some of the bars and bordellos. The biggest gamble was taking your life into your own hands, and going into the wrong bar or rowdy house and finding it populated by Marines. Some of the worst fights I have ever witnessed were in Hong Kong, between Sailors and Marines. They would beat themselves silly, then get up and wipe the blood off, have another drink, and go back to it again. The Mama-sans would try to get the antagonists to go out back in the alleys that ran along the back of all the bars and bordellos, which , by the way, were one and the same, Bars/Bordellos, you could get a drink or a woman at all of them. These establishments were all managed by Mama-sans, usually older women that were tougher than whet leather, and could handle a room full of Marines and Sailors all by themselves. By golly, this must be what Brother Pringle, our preacher back at New Hope Baptist Church, had been preachin’ against all those years when I was growing up. Yessir, I could look down the main drag of Hong Kong and see everything he ever preached against. Hmmmm, dang, this was gonna take some real investigating to get to the bottom of all of it……
Well, whether it be the storms at sea, or the storms of life, both can be devastating and can blow you away if you ain’t careful. I came through these storms intact, but bruised and battered. When things would get bad, I would harken to the words of this old song…..”When the Storms of Life are raging, Stand by me (stand by me) When the Storms of life are raging, Stand by me (stand by me) When the world is tossing me, like a ship upon the sea, Thou Who rulest wind and water, Stand by me…”
That old Carnival Midway of pleasures can be mighty tempting, to a young man fresh from the hills, but the Forgivness and Mercy, that Brother Pringle also preached about, trumps everything the Devil can throw at us. Thank God I lived to come back to the Hills and Hollers of the Ozarks and now Tennessee, and that the mature man, seasoned by the Storms of Life, has found the safe harbor of Peace.
Verse two of my favorite song: “When I’m growing old and feeble, Stand by Me, When I’m getting old and feeble, Stand by Me, When my life becomes a burden, and I’m nearing chilly Jordan, O Thou Lily Of The Valley………Stand By Me. -Stan
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