# Where are you, John Bates.



## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

I first met John Bates in The Seaside Garden Club, a bar on the waterfront of Pago Pago, in American Samoa. He was introduced to me by one of my deck-crew, Michael Lindstrom, who had recently joined my crew from the Danish prison sail-training ship, Gallery, when she visited Pago Pago earlier that year, after completing his sentence.
John had just signed off as second engineer on board an American super-seiner, along with Black-Balls, a half-chat Māori, who'd served as a deck-hand. Michael had told him that I needed a Chief-engineer for a charter to the Cook Islands, carrying a party of American adventures for Goodtravel Tours, so I signed him on as part of my crew, along with Black-Balls as his oiler. He had Egon, a Swedish yachtsman, as his second engineer. He asked me if he could fly his girlfriend, Julie, up from Whangarei, in New Zealand, and she joined the crew as Siggy's KP, in the galley.
Debut got underway for Avatiu Harbour, on Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands on 1.7.1982. It was a long up-hill slog of some 900 miles, and we entered the harbour four days later. The usual round of drinking and form-filling took place with officials all over the ship, and she was locked up and fumigated against the dreaded rhinoceros beetle. All the crew hit the bars and hotels of the small town, until Debut could be cleared by the fumigation inspectors.
Young native girls crowded on board the ship and asked if they could party with the crew, so a good time was had by all. They helped out in anyway they could in the crew's quarters , and gave themselves willingly to anyone just for the pleasure of being loved. After being caught by Julie with one of the young girls, John eventually got back in her good books by hiring a motorcycle to take her sightseeing around the island. 
In Puka Puka John wasn't so lucky when he got caught by Julie again, this time with Imi, Egon's Samoan girlfriend. There threatened to be a major war in the engine-room. Julie moved out of his cabin and spent the rest of the voyage sleeping out on deck.
On his return to New Zealand, John got a job as second engineer on a Kiwi purse-seiner. When his ship visited Honiara, in the Solomon Islands, he was offered a chief-engineer's position on a local purse-seiner, because of the time he'd spent as chief-engineer on Debut, which I'd stamped up in seaman's book. After each three to four week trip, he was able to buy another house in Australia. At the start of the Solomon Island civil war over Bougainville, he returned to Australia, sold his dozen or so houses, then returned to New Zealand to buy a sheep-station near Whangarei.
John set about building a private housing estate on his land, laying out the roads, drainage and utilities. But he soon got board with this routine, so left the construction site in the hands of the engineers and went back to sea as a Chief-engineer on a New Zealand super-seiner. Despite sending him E-mails to his last address, which were not received, I haven't seen or heard from him since. Get in touch, John, so we can chew the fat over old times. All the best, Dick Brooks.


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## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

*For all Debuts and interested people.*

I finally made contact with Jon Bates on Sunday, when he sent me four E-mails containing a group of photos of our adventures in the Cook Islands and in American Samoa. There was also a couple of written text about his recent life. He's been working on an American super-seiner out of Pago Pago, two voyages on and two off, but don't think the tuna fishing business has long to go. There are so many Asian fishing-boats destroying the fish stocks. 
He now lives in Whangarei, with his pet dog for company. One of the photos he sent me was from his kitchen window looking down on a grassy valley, enclosed by trees. There was not another building in site. The nearby coast was only ten miles to the turquoise blue water and the sandy beach.
He has made contact himself with Annie-Banana, who is trying to contact Siggy's family in Pago Pago. She is trying to find out if there was an inquest into his death, and what the results were. Good old Siggy. R.I.P. All the best to you all, Cpt Dick Brooks.


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