It was November 4, 1963 and the M/V Ganges had finished unloading its cargo of sugar at the Sugar Wharf in Brooklyn, N.Y. which we had picked up in Cairns, Queensland, Australia and we were setting sail for Beaumont, TX to pick up another cargo of Phosphates for the Pfizer Plant in Grimsby, Yorkshire, England.

The M/V Ganges was well on its way as we headed for Florida and had to make our way into the Gulf of Mexico. It was now the 10th as we began making our way into the Gulf, and since I was in charge of the 0000-0400 hrs. Watch, I phoned the 2nd Mate MacIver a chuckter from down in the western isles at 0200 hrs. and informed him that I needed at the very least 30 minutes notice to switch from heavy clarified oil to Diesel Oil so as to be able to manoeuvre the engine. I was not worried but what happened within the next 10 minutes there was going to be a misadventure way beyond anything I had ever encountered.

At about 0208 hrs. in the morning I heard a bang as if the ship had struck something and got an emergency stop on the engine-room telegraph from the bridge. As I did so, I noticed that seawater was pouring in from the portside
Hull plates that were stove-in and started up every pump I could to get the water out so as not to flood the Engine-Room. I looked around for the crewmen on watch and there wasn't a soul to be found. Apparently they had all fled top-side to safety. I was the only person from the dog-watch left in the Engine-Room.

A few minutes later the Chief Engineer Jimmy Henderson a Scot from Troon, Scotland came down to survey the damage to the Engine-Room. He turned to me and said: why didn't you also run away? I told him, Chief I am not the kind of man who could run away when there was something that I could do. Beside you will notice that I do not even have a Life-jacket so where was I going to run? From that day on Chief Engineer Jimmy Henderson treated me with a lot of respect.

Going top-side discovered that we had hit an Oil Rig in the Gulf of Mexico and were waiting to be towed into Beaumont, TX. The very next day the Lloyd's surveyors came to evaluate the damage. We then went down the Texas Ship Canal to get to a Dry-Dock in Beaumont, TX and were there for nine days having repairs done to the hull and taking a cargo of Phosphates for Grimsby, Yorkshire.

We left Beaumont on November 21, 1963. On November 23rd I went to have dinner in the officer's saloon. Someone came up with the story about President John F. Kennedy being assassinated in Dallas, TX by Lee Harvey Oswald. I of course thought that someone was having me on, and so I told them not to think that they could pull a fast one over me. Of course, they were not joking as I had assumed and the story was true. I turned on my radio and listened to the BBC Overseas Service and there was the news about the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, TX.

I guess sometimes you don't really know if someone is trying to pull a fast one and your doubts get the better of you.

After arriving in Grimsby, Yorkshire, England there was a court of inquiry into the cause of the collision in the Gulf of Mexico between the ship and the Oil Rig. It was found that that Look-out posted on the forecastle head had fallen asleep and only after we hit the Oil Rig did he start to ring the warning BELL.

Kenneth T. Tellis

Kenneth Tellis Magic City Column