High and - Almost - Dry
On Monday (see first comment below) I published a photo from aboard the MV Rajah Brook, and said she was aground.
This photo, taken later, shows the tide out, the rocks and beach off to the right and the ship almost completely out of the water as she sits atop the wider sand bar. This was as the passengers were moved ashore. Later, two (oil industry?) barges, almost the size of the ship, were positioned one on either beam, and between their additional buoyancy, the kedge anchors (seen deployed above) and a tug, the undamaged Rajah Brooke was refloated and the passengers returned aboard to continue their journey.
The steel-hulled 2312-gross registered ton MV Rajah Brooke was built by Caledon Shipbuilding and Engineering Co Ltd in 1948 for the Sarawak Steamship Co for service between Singapore and Sarawak.
She was sold to the Straits Steamship Company and is seen here in their colours in late 1972. I think this might have been whilst departing the port of Labuan on the island of the same name, in the Malaysian state of Sabah, but I'm not sure.
A passenger/cargo tramp steamer, Rajah Brooke shuttled between Sarawak and Singapore, taking about five days each way, and stopping in at a variety of very small ports along the way.
The split superstructure was typical of many of the tramp steamers operating in the region at the time. By positioning the bridge forward and high, it allowed the Captain and helmsman to see over the tops of the trees and round the bends in estuaries and rivers as the ships negotiated poorly-charted and shifting navigable waters to reach inland ports, although they patently got it wrong on this occasion!
Scanned from a slide, this image was taken by a relative who was working in the Far East, sometimes travelling aboard her.
High and - Almost - Dry
On Monday (see first comment below) I published a photo from aboard the MV Rajah Brook, and said she was aground.
This photo, taken later, shows the tide out, the rocks and beach off to the right and the ship almost completely out of the water as she sits atop the wider sand bar. This was as the passengers were moved ashore. Later, two (oil industry?) barges, almost the size of the ship, were positioned one on either beam, and between their additional buoyancy, the kedge anchors (seen deployed above) and a tug, the undamaged Rajah Brooke was refloated and the passengers returned aboard to continue their journey.
The steel-hulled 2312-gross registered ton MV Rajah Brooke was built by Caledon Shipbuilding and Engineering Co Ltd in 1948 for the Sarawak Steamship Co for service between Singapore and Sarawak.
She was sold to the Straits Steamship Company and is seen here in their colours in late 1972. I think this might have been whilst departing the port of Labuan on the island of the same name, in the Malaysian state of Sabah, but I'm not sure.
A passenger/cargo tramp steamer, Rajah Brooke shuttled between Sarawak and Singapore, taking about five days each way, and stopping in at a variety of very small ports along the way.
The split superstructure was typical of many of the tramp steamers operating in the region at the time. By positioning the bridge forward and high, it allowed the Captain and helmsman to see over the tops of the trees and round the bends in estuaries and rivers as the ships negotiated poorly-charted and shifting navigable waters to reach inland ports, although they patently got it wrong on this occasion!
Scanned from a slide, this image was taken by a relative who was working in the Far East, sometimes travelling aboard her.