preface
In 1993, when I was seven years old, my father took a break from his stable job as a civil servant and floated out to sea for nine years. I used to yearn for life at sea, and whenever my father came home, I would badger him for stories. So he told me about a day he would never forget.
1
Early in the morning of December 31, 1999, the mist lifted. A cargo ship named Dongfang no.3 is leaving Ningbo Port and sailing into the vast East China Sea.
This is a large private coal carrier of 17,000 tons, commissioned by the employer, to load the coal at Tianjin Port. Before the departure, the owner of the ship made a special telephone call to the captain, asking him to be punctual. “The employer is in urgent need of this coal,” he said.
It’s 373 nautical miles from Ningbo to Tianjin, and if all goes well, it will be within 68 hours. Without objection, the captain arranged the work as usual. He knew that there was a strong wind at sea, but the exact number and speed of the wind would only be accurate if he got close to it. After a lifetime on the sea, we are used to “singing as we walk”. What’s more, tomorrow is a new century, and everyone is looking forward to arriving smoothly, quitting work as soon as possible, and returning home a week later to meet his wife and children.
From the East China Sea to the Yellow Sea, and from morning till dusk, V-3 maintained a northerly posture.
At 4 p.m., the operator knocked on the door of the captain’s office. “We have the news that there will be a northwest wind of 8-9 tonight, which should be caused by the cold wave.
Taking shelter from the wind in any place that night could be different from the original voyage plan. The captain looked out to sea through the hatchway, and thoughtfully replied: “Go on at daybreak, and if that’s not possible, take shelter in the next port.”
2
It’s a gale. It’s coming.
It was after seven o ‘clock in the evening, when the sea fell into darkness, and the water which it raised splashed onto the deck and shook, everyone felt the vibration of the sea clearly and vividly.
The risk is great to push against the wind. But no. 3 had already passed Rongcheng Bay, and there was no other choice. The captain finally ordered: “take shelter in Weihai tonight.”
The sea in front of them was the site of a large-scale naval battle during the Sino-japanese War of 1894-1895. In 1887, the Qing government built the Ports of Lushun and Weihaiwei, established the Beiyang Naval Division, and set up a navy supervision office at Liugongdao. When the Sino-japanese War of 1894-1895 came to a critical stage, the Qing government ordered the Beiyang Navy to Sue for peace and retire to Weihaiwei, which is now Weihai Seaport.
More than 100 years later, the smoke of war has dissipated with the sea breeze, and Weihai Port has become a busy anchorage for ships passing through. The captain was familiar with this history, but not with the waters of weihai today. To be exact, v-3 carries goods from all over the world, but never in weihai harbor from the wind.
Ahead, everything is unknown.
That night, the cold wave hit, the sea and the sky as black as ink, joined together.
As the Vostok-3 approached Weihai harbor, everyone who was awake felt acutely that the ship was not moving. It was as if someone with a puff of air were moving forward and their legs were suddenly frozen. Everyone knew at once that the propeller was entangled in something.
“Quick, turn on the searchlight!” The eyes, fixed along the beam of light, saw the surface of the sea vaguely pulling the net, pulling the line – they were trapped in the kelp farm.
At the end of December, kelp is still a young seedling, embedded in the nylon rope, sank under the sea. The ship’s radar could not identify the nylon line under the sea, but as soon as it passed, the propeller became entangled.
It was too late to dump the boat. “What can we do?” The third officer, the radio operator, the chief engineer, and the boatswain all looked at the captain and waited for his order.
The captain hesitated for a moment, then gave the order — to cut the line.
The crew immediately went looking for axes, even the kitchen knives. The sailors pumped water into the bows while the stern drained out, and soon the ship was tilting on the sea in an attitude of low forward and high back, with the stern half cocked, and the propellers gradually rose to the surface.
On a winter night when the temperature is below zero and the sea is rough, the men on board are carrying lanterns. Two sailors are wearing life jackets tied with hessy ropes that hang like flying leaves from the blades of propellers. The boatswain screamed as the sailors began to wave and hack away at the nylon ropes that clung like glue to propellers.
It was extremely hard physical work, and they had to take turns doing it to resist the cold and relieve the swelling in their arms.
As the clock in the cockpit moves from eight to twelve, and as the New Year 2000 rolls in, the sailors break the last of the coiled nylon ropes.
“Go!”
The ship restarted, and the only sound on the sea was the sound of rolling waves. The fishing village in the distance was silent and all the fishermen were asleep. There was darkness ahead, and darkness behind, and the thought of leaving the scene and arriving at Tianjin was like a light, and the wind on the sea was the background music against this light.
3
However, they still did not leave Weihai.
Half an hour later, Dongfang 3 was forced to stop again. Everyone on the boat looked at each other. It was clear to everyone that this time the propeller had been caught in the nylon rope, and it was tighter than the last time.
“The ship should have been heading northeast, but we went northwest, where there were still large kelp farms.”
“The boat shouldn’t have gone so fast all at once, so the propellers wouldn’t have got tangled up.”
“The ship should not have taken shelter in the unfamiliar Sea of Weihai, but should have stopped at Rongcheng Bay when it was still light…”
At the end of the “rush” the sailors were exhausted, some of them lying flat on the planks, their hands shaking. From 12 to 4 am is the second officer’s shift time. The third officer and the first officer who can retire dare not rest. All of them are standing in the bridge.
Dongfang no. 3 is sure that it cannot reach Tianjin as expected.
In four or five hours, the sun will rise above the sea level, and then the fishermen will find a cargo ship has destroyed their hard-earned kelp. The extent of the losses, the economic losses, can not be estimated in the dark, when the day will be clear.
Each waited in silence for the captain’s choice, whether to break the rope again and try to get away, or to wait for daylight. The captain, a slender figure like a statue, clasped his hands on the platform, was silent for a moment, when at last he said, ‘Everybody go and rest, for your pains.’
When the crowd dispersed and went back to their bedrooms, they found the ship’s planks, which they had been walking on, now as flat as a rock.
4
As the first rays of the new millennium shine on the sea, huge kelp farms emerge.
From the west to the east, kelp network lines along the Weihai sea to the horizon, the sea dotted with piles exposed, patches of dark green kelp shoots attached to the hemp rope, floating with the waves.
Early in the morning, the crew began to get up and go on deck to see the damaged kelp farms. At 8 a.m., fishermen on the shore found a freighter parked at their kelp farms, and soon several small fishing boats rushed to the edge of Vostok-3 and surrounded it.
The fisherman took out a film camera and snapped a crackling sound. Someone on the fishing boat was Shouting, but the sound was blown away by the sea breeze and could not be heard. The captain spoke to the boss on the phone. He looked at the small fishing boat surrounding Dongfang no.3, smiled wearily, and began to arrange the work of the day as usual. At 4 p.m., a rumor spread on the ship — “The fishermen have filed a claim, 3 million.”
Damaged kelp worth 3 million after all, no one carefully, we began to calculate quickly, a month’s salary is how much, but also over 3 million to use how many years.
All the men on board were once again worried about the captain. There is a clear hierarchy on board, with the captain receiving the highest salary and the greatest responsibility. It was the boss and the captain who were finally to blame for what had happened.
Transcentury Eastern Cargo Ship 3 incident
In the early 1980s, China began a vigorous economic reform.
In the 1970s, it was a commodity economy with “capitalist road”, which was suddenly replaced by the rumor that the salary of a university professor was not as good as the old lady selling tea eggs. At a time when most people’s thinking patterns cannot be completely changed, the brave go into the sea, as the boss of Three East is an example.
In 1984, in his early thirties, he courageously raised money and eventually joined forces to buy a small bulk carrier and start shipping. In a decade or so, his ship had changed from a small one of several hundred tons to a large one of ten thousand tons, and from a partnership to a sole proprietorship.
Private boatmen became rich, but the market did not keep up. He began to poach people with high salaries. The second mate was the first to be drawn to him, at a time when he was working in the same line of work in the public sector, earning a salary of 300 a month, 13 times less than what he earned on a private ship.
At first, on the pretext of ill health and needing a holiday, he turned and tried his hand on a private boat. A month later the ship paid his wages. He was so excited that he stayed up all night that night.
The money came in too fast. One civil servant after another began the crazy “half sea”. According to the regulations, they do not receive wages, allowances, do not enjoy labor insurance, but also on time to pay three to four hundred yuan fees, in exchange for a special freedom.
No exception was made for the captain of the Bureau of Shipping, who succumbed to the lure of high pay and jumped on a private cargo ship just before retirement age. It was 1997, and his salary was fourteen thousand a month.
5
On the night of January 1, 2000, there was no noise at sea. The sea wind come fast, go fast, last night’s big wave suddenly disappeared without a trace. The second and third officers, the boatswainsman, the telegraph operator, and the captain were gathered in the captain’s room, and before them lay a great China which had been sent to them by their boss before departure.
Surrounded by the eyes of the four men, the captain was a small, shrunky man, looking older than ever. Based on his age, he will officially retire next year. What to do when he retires, he didn’t elaborate, but everyone assumed he would stay on The Eastern Three.
The ship had become his whole life. Sometimes, when the boat was near the dock and everyone was rushing to get a taxi to get home, he would slowly check everything on the boat again and then be reluctant to leave. He was often the first to return at daybreak the next day. “Love boats,” everyone laughed at him.
Everyone tried to console him, and the boatswain even said, half seriously, half jokingly: “Thirty-six. At your age, you can retire next year, and we shouldn’t even know!” The operator also gave an idea: “things are so, it is not your intention, the biggest free to help the boss to do a few years!”
The captain’s eyes floated behind the smoke, and he said nothing, but smoked one cigarette after another. At half past eleven, the captain, who had been silent all the time, looked round at his comrades with a smile, and said to them, “Everybody, go to bed. You’ve been working hard these two days.”
It was 5:30 a.m. on January 2, 2000. The harbour superintendency administration in the building on the shore sent word on a high frequency walkie-talkie that the harbour superintendency administration would board the ship today. The man on duty was the first mate, who, upon receiving the news, went immediately to inform the captain.
Knock at the captain’s door. No one answers. He hesitated, but decided to open the door. The captain’s room is a suite, the first thing you see when you enter is the conference room, the cigarette butt on the table, the smell of smoke is lingering. On the left was the bedroom, with its door ajar and no one inside. On his right was the wet and dry separate bathroom and toilet. The door was wide open and the first mate looked there without thinking. He would never forget the sight of the captain ending his life with a heaving line for drying clothes and a lead bucket for putting them in.
Soon the sound of voices, footsteps, and crackling iron awakened all the crew. When the men trickled into the captain’s cabin, the captain was laid flat on his bed. He had a calm face and a red strangle mark on his neck that did not reveal his tongue, as if he were asleep.
The men on the ship did not cry. They were trembling and silent. Soon the harbour master and the public security bureau came, and the captain’s room was full of people.
In his room, the crew amassed $38,000 in cash, a box of white gold and a posthumous note written at 2 a.m. for his wife. All the belongings were sealed with the suicide note and were prepared to go ashore to be given to his family.
A day later, the nylon rope wrapped around the propeller was cut by gas welding, and Dongfang 3 docked. But the captain was gone.
Postscript:
Soon after this incident, a new change gradually took place.
As more and more people were lured by higher salaries to get their shipping certificates, graduates poured into the market and wages on private cargo ships began to plummet. At the same time, the state unit began to reform, and by 2003 or so, there was no significant difference between the two salaries.
The co-captains and the telegraph operators went back to their old units and lost their chances of promotion because of a long absence. The chief engineer lost his job in the conversion of the unit and simply went aboard a private ship. In that case, the affected kelp farmers were not satisfied with the amount of compensation, and the ship owners fought a long legal battle.
At first, those who left the ship were still concerned about the legal process. Then they occasionally thought of searching the Internet, but nothing came up. They only heard that weihai kelp industry is increasingly prosperous, has become a well-known kelp hometown. And the boatman made his way and ended up rich.
Except for the captain, everyone lived in various ways.
December 31, 1999, across the century, like a small stone dropped into the ocean, without a trace.
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