Captain Song

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Captain Song Kaohsiung Fishermen 高 雄 漁 民 The story to be told after 40 years: Humanity at its best! Above photo is from the internet, showing a big Taiwanese fishing ship and a smaller fishing boat similar to mine. Chapter I: An Unforgettable, Humble Journey across the South China Sea After living almost 38 years in the USA I moved to Brisbane, Queensland Australia at the end of December 2016. I was very much done with my 30-year engineering career and wanted to retire early so that I could enjoy my life a little bit. My Aussie-citizen wife and I finally got a nice waterfront apartment where we could see and visit the river or the beach every day. Chevron Island, a view from our living room in Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia I am staying at the number-one tourist attraction in Australia: Surfers Paradise in the City of Gold Coast, not too far from Brisbane, State Capital. There are only 25 million Australians in the whole country but each year there are more than 12 million tourists that visit this wonderful city alone. What’s a lucky life you may say! I could have embraced the fresh air, great tropical fruits, beautiful view, warm sea water, and relaxing atmosphere for the rest of my life on this earthy Paradise. Seeing the river, ocean and ships perhaps made me think about the story of how I got here. I am a Vietnamese American, meaning a US citizen born in Vietnam; South Vietnam to be exact. Just a brief history lesson here, per the Geneva Agreement, Vietnam was divided into two halves on July 20th, 1954. The North was controlled by the Communist government, following Karl Max and Stalin’s ideology. The South was under the leadership of a Democratic government with its first elected president named Ngo Dinh Diem (Ngo is his last name). However, the civil war started shortly after the Geneva Agreement. When the Americans got involved, it was later called the Vietnam War. President Diem and US President Johnson, photo from internet Fast forwarding to April 30th, 1975: after over two million deaths from both sides and their allies, the North finally took over the South. The term “Fall of Saigon” was referred to the loss of our former Capital of South Vietnam, Saigon. None of the Vietnamese people from the South wanted to live under the new Communist government. By the time North Vietnam’s tanks reached Saigon, about a million civilians, mostly former government employees, soldiers and their family members had left the South either by ship or by aircraft. I was 20 years old at the time and did not have any clue of how to live my life. I had a chance to leave Vietnam before the Communists took over but I could not. I was living and studying in Saigon, 100 kilometers away from my parents. I had lost all contacts with them several weeks before the Fall of Saigon because my hometown had already been taken by the Communist troops a few months prior. There was no communication of any kind back then. I could not get on the plane and leave the country without knowing what happened to my mom, dad, and my siblings. My three older brothers had served in the South Vietnam Armed Forces, and the next to oldest brother was killed by the Communists in 1969. You could see why the new government was not kind to my parents and my former-soldier brothers. It did not take me long before I realized that I could not live under the iron first of the Communist regime. In 1976, a friend and I tried to escape Vietnam on foot; it was our only option because we did not have a boat. Going with someone else who had a boat required a hefty payment in advance, 5 to 10 ounces of pure gold, which was considerably more than all of the money our entire families possessed. We intended to walk westward across Central Vietnam through Cambodia (called Kampuchea back then), and then to Thailand. We quickly abandoned our risky plan just after one night in the jungle near the border. We almost got killed for walking into the base of the Communist Vietnamese troops. They themselves were planning to cross the border in the effort of invading Cambodia. Since my hometown was near the coast, a year later I made connections with a few wealthy folks in Saigon and they agreed to finance our escape plan by boat. They gave me money in advance for a wooden boat, a used diesel engine, fuel and food. Along with my older brother and several high school classmates, we decided to carry out a very risky journey. Our mission was to escape Vietnam along with the people who financed us. Me, second from left and my high-school classmates in 1976 (all are living in Australia). Following are a few details of our faithful trip: · July 7th, 1978: we left VN with 29 people on board in a small boat only 10 meters long and 3 meters wide. Due to the rush of getting out, we did not prepare properly: no oceanography map, a bad engine and transmission, and not enough fuel, food or water. All I had was a small compass and a tiny map that was ripped out of an elementary school geography book. The boat stopped every few hours because the propeller shaft disengaged from the engine flywheel (engine still running but not the propeller). (1) · July 9th, 1978: late in the afternoon, we were down to the last two spare bolts that attached the propeller-shaft to the engine. The boat was still moving but we knew it would stop forever once the bolts broke. As the sky grew darker due to a coming storm, two big fishing ships suddenly appeared from nowhere. In brief, they allowed us to climb on one of the ships. I understood that the two ships were from the same company in Taiwan. They used a large fishing net that connected to both ships and dragged it along as the ships moved forward. All sea creatures between two ships would be caught. The Taiwanese Captain only knew some English but thankfully one of the people on my boat spoke some Chinese. The Captain told us that he was on his way north back home to Kaohsiung City when he saw our dire situation and was certain we would die if he did not rescue us. Since he was not allowed to take us back with him to Taiwan he turned his ships around 180 degrees and brought us south to Singapore. Knowing that several children and women in our group would not be comfortable sleeping outside on an open deck, he asked his crew members to give up their cabins for us. Furthermore, the chef had to work overtime, doing his best to cook extra food for 29 additional people. Instead of going home as scheduled he and his shipmates had to spend an extra week at sea taking care of us! On July 12th, 1978, still dark in the early morning, we arrived in the Singapore harbor-territory. We were put on a small life-raft (an emergency floating-device that was reserved for the fishermen in case something bad happened to their ship). They also gave us water and mi-bao (meat-filled buns). The Taiwanese Captain assured us that Singapore Coast Guard would pick us up when they saw the life-raft in their harbor. It was then the Captain and his crew waved good-bye as they turned their ships around and headed home to Taiwan. He left no name or address and ordered all his crew members to do the same. (2) We were spotted, but sadly not rescued by the Singapore Coast Guard. After a full day of floating and drifting around we finally reached a small island belonging to Indonesia. According to the current laws in 2019, all 29 of us would have been arrested as illegal immigrants. Luckily back then we were accepted as refugees and later allowed to migrate to Australia, Canada, France, or the USA. I came to America on February 9th, 1979 in the middle of winter. Reminiscent of how I was welcomed by the crew on the Taiwanese fishing ships, I was met and helped by the kindest people of Duluth, Minnesota. They gave everything I needed to start a new life. Working during the day and going to school at night I finally got a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota on December 14, 1985. From the late 70s to early 90s, there were approximately 1 million South Vietnamese people who escaped from the Communist regime either by boat or by foot (walking across the border). The term “Boat People” (3) was created to identify those that left Vietnam by boat or ship during this period of about 15 years. Roughly 250,000 Vietnamese refugees died on their way due to hostile weather or poor planning. Some were even raided and raped by pirates. Those who were lucky enough to survive the journey would arrive to neighboring countries like the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, and Hong-Kong. A few good-seaworthy boats even made it all the way to Darwin, Australia. None of those mentioned countries were wealthy back then yet they still opened their borders and took in hundred thousands of refugees, each! Perhaps the world was more compassionate back then and people had kinder hearts during the post-Vietnam-War.
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