# For Siggy. R.I.P.



## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

His real name was Andrew Cheribin, although he preferred the nick-name of Siggy. When I first met him, he was 'on the beach' in St. Barthelemy, in the Caribbean, after being put ashore from the old motor boat he was crewing as a skivvy, by the elderly owner. He asked me if I'd let him work his passage back home to Grenada. Our excellent chief, Thomas, welcomed him as his KP. On arriving in St. Georges, Grenada, his father threw a great party for the return of his prodigal son, and all of Debut's crew were invited. He took me aside during the festivities and thanked me for bring his son home, but asked me to take him with me on my voyage out to the South Seas. All his brothers and sisters had respectable jobs with the island's government, and he himself was the Administrator for the hospital. All Andy wanted to do was sit under a coconut tree on the beach a bop to Bob Marley, while smoking marijuana. He sailed on Debut as cook, and later as my steward for the next four years, crewing on many salvage operations and adventures throughout the South Seas. During our year and a half stay in Pago Pago, in American Samoa, while I was using it as a base in the South Seas, he met and fell in love with a local girl, married her and settled down to start a family. He worked for awhile on a super seiner after I left Pago Pago with Debut, then as the watchman for these large fishing vessels during their stay in port to unload their catches. He became quite portly, what with abundance of food and drink they stocked. After many years in this peaceful occupation, for some reason he decided to go back to sea as deck crew on a large American super seiner. While fishing up near Guam, he was told by the captain to jump across to the large skiff and help lay out that net. He slipped on the wet bulwark and fell into the sea between the mother ship and the 35 foot skiff, and was crushed between them. He left a wife and a large family of mixed race Afro-Caribbean and Polynesian children behind him in Pago Pago. Good on you, Siggy, you had a great life of adventure. May you rest in peace. Reed his story in 'The Black Ship' Odyssey' by Cpt. Dick Brooks, published on Kindle by Amazon.


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## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

*Bridging the gap for Siggy.*

Last night I was thinking, 'Wouldn't it be a great idea to join Siggy's family together?'. What a wonderful thing it would be if Siggy's family in St. Georges, Grenada, in the Caribbean, could be united, if only by post or phone or the internet, with his new family in Pago Pago, in American Samoa, in the middle of the South Seas. There must be dozens of people out there in the ether on ships, yachts or planes, as well as tourists, who are or plan on visiting these islands, that could look up both sides of the Cheribin family and help them get in contact with each other. They may not even know of each other's existence!
Use this website to co-ordinate these enquiries. Whether his parents are still alive is hard to say... his father was the Administrator for the hospital in St. Georges, and his many brothers and sisters were in the Customs and police services. As far as I know, he lived in the north-eastern corner of Pago Pago Harbour, next to the large tuna canneries of Starkest and Van camp. Let's give it a go, Shipsnostalgia enthusiasts... let's give it a go. Siggy loved his time on board my ship, spending four years as my steward. He loved his hero, Bob Marley, and had a good collection of his songs which he played continually to himself on his 'ghetto-blaster'. Read of his adventures in my latest book, "The Judas Kiss" by Cpt Dick Brooks, then in its sequel, "The Black Ship's Odyssey". Both books are published by Amazon on their Kindle system, codes in their chronological order, B00KJ3664C and B00FNKV88A . Enjoy the read, and lets see if we can't get Siggy's family together. All the best, Dick Brooks.


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## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

*'G.I' Siggy.*

At five o'clock on a Tuesday morning, I was awoken by the bear squeaking against my ear. I looked up and heard a noise out on deck.
"Good boy." I brushed my hand over his coat and tickled the back of his neck, then reached between the pillow and the bunkboard for the Colt .45 automatic I kept there. I was alone on board, as Siggy had taken off for a night out on the town the previous Friday and had not returned to the ship.
I went out on to the starboard bridgewing and looked down to see a dugout canoe alongside. There were two men sitting inside it, and one man had climbed on board Debut. He was standing on deck, leaning over the rail and talking to the others.
"What do you want?" I asked him. It was bright enough from the lights of the fishing ships on Star-Kist wharf to make out their shapes, and I could see the man on deck was wearing native dress.
"It's me, Dick... Siggy! Thanks, mate," he shouted down to the canoe alongside. The two men dipped their paddles and made off towards the fishing ships on the cannery wharf.
"What's going on, Siggy?" I asked him. "What happened to your clothes?"
"It's a long story... I can tell you!"
"Come on up, it's no good me trying to get back to sleep now." I watched him head for the companion-ladder and start to climb.
"Bloody hell, Dick, it was a close shave!"
I slapped Siggy on the back and followed him into my cabin. "I'll put the kettle on, and you can tell me all about it over a cup of tea."
Siggy sat cuddling with the bear on his lap, and it was squeaking and making a fuss of him, glad to have his friend and bed-mate back on board the ship.
"They nearly had me!" he gasped. "I'm not going ashore again, ever! I'll stay on board, from now on."
"What happened to your clothes?" I asked again.
"I met up with this chick at one of the nightclubs. Evalani's it was... real sleazy! Anyway, she was a good-looking chick. Young, no more than eighteen years old... so I thought... small, not like most of these big Samoan girls. I came across with the G.I. bit. You know, here on furlough, straight from the States. Really laying it on, I was... giving her the jive, with my phoney American accent.
"After a few drinks and dances, she invited me back to her place. Yahoo! I thought, here we go. We got a cab, and she took me to her parent's house. All her family got up and made tea, and they all sat around me as I gave them the bull-dirt. She was cuddling up to me and kissing me and stroking my hand. I felt like a million dollars, man!" He took a sip of his tea and got his breath.
"Go on," I encouraged him, as I watched him stroke the bear.
"Her parents invited me to spend the night, and she took me to her room. A separate bedroom, not all the family in together like these islanders usually sleep. I think it was her parent's room because, in the morning, they were asleep with all the kids in the main living-room of the house.
"Well, talk about hot! She nearly screwed my meat clean off. She said I was the first black man she'd ever seen, let alone slept with. Did she like my black ham! Boy oh boy, we were at it all night. And she was yelling and screaming! I thought her folks would come in and get me at any minute."
"You'd better have a drop of this in your tea." I poured a shot of whisky into both of our cups.
"When I awoke in the morning her mother served us breakfast in bed. And a real bed, not just mats on the floor. I was treated like Royalty! After awhile, I wanted to get up for a pee. I looked around for my clothes, but they were gone. She gave me this lava-lava and said her mother was going to wash them. What did I care! We stayed in bed all the time, anyway.
"Several times when I was screwing her, her mother came in and sat on the bed to watch. She would hold the girl's hand, and they would both laugh and talk away together in Samoan. I gathered they were talking about my black ham, and what it felt like inside her. Boy oh boy! I thought, I've arrived in paradise! There was this young girl, who couldn't keep her hands off me, my meals were served to me in bed by her mother, and my clothes had been taken away to be washed and pressed.
"Then, yesterday morning, after I'd had my breakfast and morning root, her father comes into the room. He tells me the wedding is all arranged for next weekend! I was absolutely flabbergasted! I told him I was just on leave, and had to report back to my unit in a couple of days.
"And then he lays it on me! He told me his daughter had just turned sixteen, and under American Samoan law I was guilty of statutory rape. He said if I didn't agree to marry her then and there, he'd sit where he was on the bed, and I'd stay where I was until his son had fetched the Marshal.
"Man-oh-man, I nearly crapped in my pants! She was all over me, crying and saying please and how much she loved me. Both of us were sitting stark naked, and her full of my juice. Boy, had they set me up!" He shook his head and sipped from his tea.
"I agreed to marry her... what else could I do? Her mother came in and was slobbering all over me. All the brothers and sisters came in and climbed all over the bed. Her father sat there with a big grin on his face. Right then I would have agreed to slide down the wire of the cable-car on my bare backside, using my balls as a brake! Was I suckered in?" He shook his head and laughed. "What a prize pratt I've been!" 
I slapped him on the back, and we both laughed. "Go on," I encouraged him.
"Three o'clock this morning, I snuck out of the house... bare-butt naked... and did I run!"
We were both laughing at the thought, and I refilled our cups with tea and topped them up with whisky.
"So what happened then?" I asked him. "How did you get down to the harbour?"
"I ran... I only stopped long enough to tie on this lava-lava. And with it wrapped around my waist, I ran all the way to the Seaside Garden Club... it was ruddy miles! I met George getting his canoe loaded to go and get his fish, and he offered to drop me off on the way."
"Did you have any I.D. in your clothes!" I enquired.
"No way!... thank goodness. I don't carry my wallet when I go to these knocking-shops they call night-clubs... it's too easy to get it lifted. I just had a few small bills scrunched up in my pocket, and they're welcome to them."
"Serves you right, you pratt! I told you your dishing out the bull-dirt would catch up with you one day. Talk about getting away by the seat of your trousers... by the skin of your backside is more like it!"
"That's it, Dick." He emptied his cup. "No more shore leave for me. If they catch me now, I'll be glad to see the police. They'll string me up, and by the balls! Come on, boy." Siggy picked up the bear. "Let's go and get some sleep... I haven't slept a wink all night. Talk about scared witless!" 
We're all thinking of you, Siggy... all of the Debut's! May you rest in peace. All the best, Cpt Dick Brooks.


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