BIG STORY
AS I WATCHED THE AMBULANCE DRIVE OUT OF THE NAVAL BASE WITH THE TWO GIRLS WAVING GOODBYE FROM INSIDE, I KNEW THAT LIKE TIME AND TIDE, ONE OF THE BEST MOMENTS OF MY NAVAL CAREER HAD JUST PASSED, NEVER TO RETURN, BUT I ALSO KNEW THAT THE MEMORIES WILL REMAI
A day that I will never forget – the final saga of the Navy rescue
Rear Admiral Viliame Naupoto is the Commander Republic of the
Fiji Military Forces. The events he recounts here occurred when he was the Commanding Officer of the RFNS
KULA. This is the final part of the search and rescue operation.
The foul weather gear was brought on deck ready and the crew rehearsed the sequence of recovery. I did a few turns just to find out the best angle to the wave that afforded the least pitching and rolling motion on the ship, noted the compass reading and we steered that course and signalled to the seaboat to come alongside.
The girls were going to be recovered via a helicopter strop and hoisted onboard using our boat crane. The seaboat would drive up to the ship, hook up to the boat rope, slow down and allow the boat rope to take the weight of the seaboat and then put the outboard engine on reverse and keep it that way just in case another big wave catches us unexpectedly from the back.
The helicopter strop was already lowered to the surface but it was held up by hand and will be hand-lowered as the seaboat was secured alongside. This way you have control of the metal weight at the end of the cable, to prevent it from getting smashed into someone, and also allows some freedom to lower or pull it up by hand to match the rising and falling of the seaboat as it rides the waves. The crew had learned the lessons from the seaboat launch and so did I. On my part I had to watch more closely the wave from the stern (back).
I steered the ship in a direction to keep the wave coming towards us from either the starboard or the port quarter (back right or back left) and not directly behind. WO Ravuravu Turaga (our Charge Engineer) was on the throttle, PO Vasukiwai on the wheel and the rest led by Sub-lieutenant Kean and WO Jitoko at the launching area as the boat recovery crew. On the seaboat was PO Vodo and Rokovino with the two girls. The signal was given for the seaboat to approach and we commenced the recovery as per the first plan.
The seaboat approached, and successfully hooked up to the boat rope and slowed down, allowing the boat rope to take the weight of the seaboat. The steadying rope was secured and the outboard engine was engaged astern and helped keep the seaboat against the ship. WO Ravuravu, the Charge Engineer, coped very well with the fast engine orders from me.
An example of my orders to him could be “Revolutions ten hundred” and then the next second it would be “Stop both engines” and then immediately after “Slow astern both engines” and then “stop both engines, slow ahead both engines” and so on.
What we were doing was adjusting the speed to ensure that we were riding with the wave comfortably, trying to match the speed of the wave as close as we could.
Rescuing the girls
The cable with the helicopter strop was lowered by hand and we attempted to hoist the first of the two sisters. This was the older of the two (18-year-old) and the one who was lying flat on her back and obviously the weaker of the two.
As they were strapping her in with the helicopter strop, the seaboat dipped with a passing swell and this girl all of a sudden was swinging in midair, and to make matters worse, the helicopter strop had hooked her the wrong way. The strop was around her chest and under her arms instead of around her back and under her arms.
We hoisted her nevertheless because she was going to be slammed against the ship side and the seaboat was on its way up and was going to hit her from the bottom. As soon as she was hoisted above the railing, the crew literally wrapped themselves around her to cushion her against the side of the ship’s superstructure.
She was successfully lowered to the deck, wrapped in a blanket and carried into the ship and laid on a prepared bunk (bed) in the non-crew cabin.
The second girl, the younger (15-yearold) who was a little stronger was strapped correctly and the same procedure was repeated successfully and carried inside and laid on the second bed.
Team work
It was just sheer strength and determination from the crew that ensured the safe transfer of the two sisters from the seaboat onto KULA. From the flying bridge, I could hear the crew cheering and shouting in jubilation. My reaction was a “THANK YOU LORD “and then the loudest “YES!!” I have ever shouted in my life.
We then recovered the two Petty Officers and our seaboat with just one hoist. The two jumping off the seaboat as soon as it reached deck level.
The Guardian was so accurate when dropping the dye marker as it was drifting right beside the punt, so Petty Officer Vodo recovered it as well.
(This was returned to the Guardian during one of its later surveillance flight trips to Fiji.)
The two girls were attended to by our medic, Veresoni, and we gave the two sisters some of our clothes to change into and some blankets to warm them up quickly and allowed them to rest for a while. These two sisters had been adrift in that small punt in very rough seas with nothing over their head for approximately 52 hours.
After some needed sleep, they gained enough strength and had a hot shower.
After a cup of warm KULA Milo, they were well on their way to full recovery. I later came down from the bridge and knocked on their door, and there we met face to face for the first time.
Tears
I introduced myself and we shook hands and kissed them on their forehead as I would do to my daughter. They did not say much but just stood there, heads bowed with tears streaming down their faces. That brought tears to my eyes also as it felt as if I had just saved the lives of my own children.
I felt their thankful heart, through their tears saying... “Vinaka Vakalevu”
RFNS KULA carries the Motto “Semper Primus” or “Always First”, a minesweeping theme inherited from her decommissioned namesake, which was an ex-US Navy Coastal Minesweeper. On this day, the young KULA was on her first operational task, first search and rescue mission and she had just completed her first successful rescue. She had lived up to her Motto!!
As we were steaming back to Suva, I came down and joined the two sisters for a cup of Milo at the mess deck. Out of curiosity, I asked them if they had seen the lights from the ship the night before. Their answer sent shivers down my spine and still do today whenever I think about it. Their answer was... “Three times we could touch the ship”! The invisible loving hands of God was definitely around those two sisters that night!
As I watched the ambulance drive out of the Naval Base with the two girls waving goodbye from inside, I knew, that like time and tide, one of the best moments of my naval career had just passed, never to return, but I also knew that the memories will remain with me for the rest of my life.
This story is a tribute to the hard work, dedication and comradeship of that RFNS KULA delivery crew that I was so privileged and honoured to have served with; as their Commanding Officer. “SEMPER PRIMUS” “ALWAYS FIRST”!