[BITList] Cyclones and the Sundarbans

Fri Sep 5 10:41:18 BST 2008

NOT SURE IF I EVER REPORTED THIS STORY ON BISHIP WEB .BUT THINKING OF 
CYCLONES !!!!!

IN 63 I WAS C/O ON BRITISH HK FLAG SHIP , ASIA FIR EX DENHOLMS , WE HAD A 
CARGO OF COAL FROM CHINGWENGCHOW NORTH CHINA , FOR CHITTAGONG , ON ARRIVAL 
CTG WE AWAITED FOR A BERTH FOR SEVERAL DAYS , NO NEWS FROM THE AGENTS , AND 
WE WERE NOT KEEPING ANY RADIO WATCH , THE MASTER A DRUNKEN /AUSSIE SCOT TOLD 
ME TO GO ASHORE WITH THE PURSER AND SEE THE AGENTS , TO FIND OUT OUR FATE , 
WE HAD HAILED A PASSING LAUNCH AND PAID THE OPERATOR TO PUT MYSELF AND 
PURSER ASHORE .

WHEN VISITING THE CHATTERERS AGENT TO MY HORROR I WAS TOLD THAT A CYCLONE 
WAS EXPECTED TO HIT CTG THAT NIGHT ! AND THE PORT HAD BEEN CLOSED .

SELF AND PURSER WERE PUT UP IN FLEA BAG HOTEL , AND THE CYCLONE HIT US THAT 
NIGHT , WHAT A NIGHT , ALL THE WINDOWS IN THE HOTEL WERE BROKEN AND THE ROOF 
IN MANY PLACES BLOWN OFF .

THERE WAS  TERRIBLE DEVASTATION IN THE CITY , THE PAPERS SAID THAT 3O000 TO 
50000 PEOPLE HAD DIED IN THE CTG AND COXS BAZAAR AREA .

I SPENT ONE WEEK IN CTG TRYING TO GET BACK TO MY SHIP , I SAW MANY DEAD 
BODIES ON THE STREETS ,, THE WORST WERE THE ONES KILLED BY ELECTRIC CABLES 
FALLING , AND THE BODIES LAY FOR MANY DAYS BEING ATTACKED BY WILD DOGS !!

I HIRED A COUNTRY CRAFT BOAT TO SAIL BACK TO THE SHIP , BUT MISJUDGED THE 
TIME DOWN RIVER AND WENT UP AGAINST THE FLOOD TIDE AND ADVERSE WEATHER , 
WHAT HAS ALWAYS REMAINED IN MY MIND WAS THAT WHEN WALKING ALONG THE BEACH 
FRONT WERE THE HUNDREDS PERHAPS THOUSANDS OF DEAD BODIES[ MUST HAVE BEEN 
SIMILAR TO THE LANDINGS AT NORMANDY ] , MOSTLY FISHING FOLK AND PEOPLE IN 
VILLAGES ON THE WATER FRONT , THE BODIES WERE BEING EATEN BY CRABS , IT TOOK 
ME A LONG TIME TO EAT CRAB MEAT THEREAFTER !!.

WHEN I EVENTUALLY GOT BACK TO MY SHIP , WHICH SOMEHOW HAD SURVIVED , ] THE 
CREW HAD ALL GONE TO THE BRIDGE DURING THE STORM , WHILE THE MASTER SLEPT 
DRUNK IN HIS BUNK , THE SHIP HAD 12 SHACKLES PORT ANCHOR AND 14 STARBOARD , 
AND HAD BROUGHT UP IN MINIMUM DRAFT , ALMOST ALL THE PAINT WORK HAD BEEN 
SHEARED OF ON THE MIDSHIP SUPERSTRUCTURE . MASTS AND FUNNEL ,, MY CABIN 
FACING FORWARD ,,THE PORT HOLE HAD BEEN LEFT OPEN AND MY CABIN CLOTHES AND 
OFFICE WERE RUINED .

THE SAME CAPTAIN [ CAME FROM STORNOWAY EX BEN LINE BUT GUESS HIS MIND HAD 
GONE WITH THE BOOZE AND PERHAPS OTHER AILMENTS ] HAD AN EYE TATTOOED ON EACH 
BUTTOCK , AND IN THE CENTRE OF HIS BACK ABOVE THE EYES WERE THE WORDS " I 
CAN SEE YOU " HIS PARTY PIECE WHEN DRUNK WAS TO DROP HIS PANTS WAGGLE HIS 
ARSE AND SHOUT I CAN SEE YOU !!HE HAD ALL SORTS OF OBSCENE TATTOOS OVER THE 
REST OF HIS BODY .

I COULD RELATE MANY STORIES ABOUT THIS SHIP , AND COMING FROM THE BI IT WAS 
A CULTURAL SHOCK .

BUT THAT'S LIFE , AND IN HINDSIGHT ALTHOUGH WISH IT HAD NOT HAPPENED ITS 
PART OF LIFE'S EXPERIENCE .

THE ABOVE IS A TRUE STORY AND NO BULLSHIT .

SALAAMS

JOHN
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Feltham" <wulguru.wantok at gmail.com>
To: "BITList" <BITList at lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com>
Sent: Friday, September 05, 2008 3:26 PM
Subject: [BITList] Cyclones and the Sundarbans

>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>
> As you might have heard, many parts of the state of Bihar in
> north India were recently inundated by the berserk waters of
> the river Kosi. Apart from floods, we are also occasionally
> tormented by cyclones.
>
> I was intrigued to read the following: from the BBC -
> ''The word cyclone was coined in the Sundarbans by the British
> in the 19th Century, when their attempt to build a port there was
> wrecked by a storm.''
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4095701.stm
>
> This led me to this etymological find -
>
> *** The word cyclone was introduced by Henry Piddington in his
> The Sailor's Horn-Book for the Law of Storms of 1848.  As he
> said, "I suggest that we might, for all this last class of circular
> or highly curved winds, adopt the term 'Cyclone' from the Greek
> kyklos (which signifies amongst other things the coil of a snake)
> as expressing sufficiently the tendency to circular motion in
> these meteors."  By 1856 the word was being used to refer
> to tornadoes, and by 1875 it was an accepted meteorological
> term for a low pressure system, from the central low pressure
> to the winds (and clouds) rotating counterclockwise (in the
> Northern hemisphere) around it.  A high pressure system then
> came to be known as an anticyclone (1877). Other languages
> have since borrowed these terms from English.
>
> The OED comments upon Piddington's derivation, suggesting
> that the true Greek source word was kykloma "the coil of a
> serpent", which might explain the early variant cyclome.
> Kyklos actually means "wheel" or "circle" in Greek.***
> http://www.takeourword.com/TOW170/page2.html
>
> And then I found out that Henry Piddington's book is online
> (full view) at:
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=UIMDAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Henry+Piddington
>
> There is a great description of the Sundarbans in either Miss
> Fane in India, or one of the books by the Godden sisters
> (probably Under the Tropical Sun). I'll have to dig them up from
> my shelves. I know most of you have read these excellent
> books.
>
>
> ooroo
>
> If you don't hear the knock of opportunity - build a door.
>
> Anon.
>
>
>
>
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