# Castaway on Emily Reef. Part I.



## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

After being shipwrecked on Emily Reef, 25 miles south-east of Cooktown in Queensland, Australia, on 30.5.1987, life settled down for me and Mariana, and we got on with the day to day routine of living on board Début... hard aground on the reef. None of our foodstuffs had been damaged, and the freshwater tanks were still sound. We could make no immediate plans for the future, and there was no chance of getting the ship off the reef until the bad weather abated. I would have liked to get some anchors down, but it was far too rough to even try.
At dawn on our fourth day on the reef, there was the sound of running water in the engine-room, and I found that the bilge had risen over the floor checker-plates. On sloshing around in the mess, I discovered sea water running from the side tank lid on the port aft fuel tank... meaning it was open to the sea. When replacing the tank lids, using four nuts each, I was thinking the engine-room would most likely flood, not the tanks themselves. I replaced all twenty nuts on the tank lid, and the leak eventually stopped.
After an early lunch, I started rigging a pump and the necessary pipes to clear the bilge, pumping the water into the port forward fuel tank. It was over eighteen feet from the engine-room checker-plates to the weather-deck, making hard work for the small portable diesel pump, and the extra weight would help steady the ship. Any water that entered the engine-room, from then on by the stern gland, I pumped into one of the empty fuel tanks.
At high tide during the night of 5th June, Début moved six feet further forward onto the reef, and four feet sideways towards the port. The large solid block of dead coral that had sprung the rivets on the port aft fuel tank was now on the starboard side of the keel. At dawn, Début only had a degree of list towards the port.
There weather eased down a little on the 7th June, sufficient to make a survey dive around the ship, and surrounding reef. The keel was hard aground at the stern, but there was over forty feet of the bow clear of the sea-bed. Despite the 65 tons breaking strain of the anchor chain, it had parted 300 feet from the bow. The end was lying in ten feet of water behind the ship. There was a deep trench, both to port and starboard of Début, the section of reef being only a little wider than the ship herself.
By the 15th June, the strong winds eased a little, and I was able to place nine large truck tyres under the port bilge. When I drained the water from the starboard fuel tanks into the hold, Début leaned on them on the next tide. The ship was now comfortable during the night, without banging on the reef.

At 1400 hours on 16th June... two and a half weeks after being driven aground during the storm... we were finally visited by the authorities, to see if we were all right. Considering that they knew we had a baby on board, this was extremely negligent of them. The Customs launch came alongside at high tide, and they looked around the ship. After making a video of the three of us, they gave us some fresh bread and took our mail for posting onwards.
They were followed two weeks later by a vessel from the Marine Parks Department. Their main concern was the prospect of oil pollution, but we hadn't any quantity of fuel on board anyway. Two of their crew dived around Début, taking underwater photographs, and confirmed that most of the coral upon which she sat had been killed and eaten several years before by the crown of thorns starfish.

To protect the ship and safeguard her from further damage in the event of bad weather, Mariana and I strung together 30 truck tyres on a wire, and wedged them under the starboard bilge. We then did the same with another 102 truck tyres, strung on a double wire and lashed together. They formed a solid cushion between the starboard bilge and the sea-bed.
To prevent Début from moving further ahead on the reef, we swung a one ton anchor overboard with the crane at the stern, and secured it with ropes to the bow. Just in case the wind came from the north, the port anchor was dropped and secured to the ship on the port quarter to prevent her from blowing off the reef.
All this work came to nothing, as at 2115 hours the next day on a 2.9 metre high tide, Début drove over the reef, and fetched up on the next part of the coral reef to the north. She had a 25 degree list to port, with the port side-deck underwater. For the rest of that night, I pumped out the hold to lighten her, and for stability.
At 0845 hours the next morning, Début drove over the coral reef, literally chewing her way through the broken staghorn coral like a giant auger with her keel and bilge-keels. The wind was blowing hard from the south-east, with driving rain and spindrift. The ship laid herself alongside the main part of the reef, and I kept pumping the hold all that day to remove the ballast water that I'd loaded into her.
At 9 o'clock in the evening, Début swung north towards the reef, and the bow drove right onto the coral. The only thing for me to do now was get her as far upon the reef as possible to secure our future. If she came off and banged about in the lagoon inside the reef, she would eventually hole herself and sink in deep water, with only the wheel-house and masts clear of the sea.
Over the next two days, on the three metre high tides, Début drove another 60 feet onto the reef. Her stern still remained afloat in deep water, with the bow high in the air at low tide. She was balanced amidships on the edge of the reef, rocking like a seesaw with the tides.
Just in the nick of time, we placed the two 500 pound anchors I'd salvaged from Bora Bora ahead of the ship on 700 feet of three inch diameter polypropylene rope each to prevent her from going eastern. We winched them as tight as was possible with the anchor windless to hold her in position. Two days later, she slipped eastern six feet, but the ropes and anchors held.

For the next two weeks, Début rocked back and forwards on her keel with the tides, and every strange noise brought the fear that she was breaking in half. I had to get her further onto the reef, before we were left standing on a pile of rusting scrap. A twenty foot length of steel pipe was set into a small coral bommie on our starboard side to pull the stern round into the wind, ready for the next big tides.
With all her compartments empty of sea water, and her ruptured port aft fuel tank sealed on deck, then vented with air, Début drove forward another 85 feet onto the reef during the next spring tides. The wind was blowing between 20 and 35 knots from the south-east, pushing her forward from the stern with ten foot swells. We kept a constant strain on the bow anchors to help her onto the reef.
At low tide, I walked around the ship on the dry reef. She had a degree and a half list to port, and her keel sat on solid reef from stem to stern, with her rudder overhanging deep water. She had gauged a deep trench in the coral, and now sat securely wedged inside it. To keep her safely aground on Emily Reef, I pumped 800 tons of seawater ballast into the hold. We both felt a lot more comfortable, knowing our ship was no longer in danger of breaking up, leaving us without a home. To be continued. All the best, Cpt Dick Brooks.


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## ART6 (Sep 14, 2010)

Don't leave us in suspense! Give us the rest of the story -- or are you still on the reef? (Jester)


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## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

*For ART6.*

Good to hear from you, ART6. I was castaway on board my ship, M/V Début for three years, after I'd arranged a lift back to Australia with visiting fishing-boat for my young Samoan wife, Mariana, and our young son, Robbie. As there was no food left in the pantry suitable to wean a baby, we had to think of his welfare after they had stayed with me for eleven months on board Débuted. 
While I was castaway alone for more than two years, I wrote three books, which are published by Amazon on their Kindle website. They are all covered under the general heading of 'The Black Ship's Trilogy', but are published independently under their own titles.
I have since written six more... the last one I hope to have published before Christmas this year. It covers our attempt to return to Début in May this year, and although I say it myself, is a good read. The other five books are also published by Amazon on their Kindle website, and their code can be taken from the Books Forum on this site.
For the full story of my twelve year voyage on Début around the tropical world, may I suggest you read 'The Black Ship's Odyssey, Books One and Two. Book Three covers the twenty six years that it took me to first be published on 4th October,2013.
I see you are into sailing ships! My first two ships were sailing ships... the first being the 42 foot Whitstable ouster smack, Blue Bell. I bought her a week after I turned eighteen, before I joined the Ipswich Police Force as a constable in 1965. My second ship was the French thornier, Biche, a 72 foot gaff yawl that fished for tuna from the Isle de Groix, in the Bay of Biscay. After spending four years rebuilding her while working as a police officer, I was the first private person to charter a tall ship from Ipswich Dock in 1971. Both these ships are covered in my last book to be published, 'From Beat to Open Deck'. 
The voyages I made on Biche are covered in my earlier book to be published, 'Whisky and Water', which mainly covers the voyage of my third ship, Dauntless Star out to the Persian Gulf. After selling her to an Arab shipping company, Ahli Marine, in Dubai with a contract to act as her master for two years, she was converted into a water tanker to service the ships waiting at anchor to enter the port to unload their cargo. We later supplied the water for the construction of the new port under construction at Dubai of Jebel Ally... now one of the largest ports in the world. I naturally supplied the 5,000 Kollies working there with the one thing they wanted above everything else... whisky. The Dauntless Star was originally the 110 foot drifter-trawler class vessel, working out of Lowestoft as an gas-rig standby vessel owned by Putford Enterprises. All of my books can be accessed by the Books Forum, and I hope you enjoy the read. The story of my castaway for three years will be told over several weeks of short stories on the Ship's Nostalgia website, along with many others from my past. All the best, Cpt Dick Brooks '


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## ART6 (Sep 14, 2010)

Dick, you post has whetted my curiosity because if your books are like your post here then I am hooked! I will head to Amazon!


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## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

*For ART6.*

Good on you, ART6, there is nothing like a life at sea. I spent 26 years as captain of my own four ships all over the world, and don't regret a single day. If I could, I'd do it all over again... without a second thought. I'm 70 years old now, and am enjoying every minute of my retirement... what with writing and looking for new adventures.
Last year, I flew over to France, via Paris to Lorient, just inshore of the Isle de Groix, and sailed on my Biche for the first time since 1974. She had been laid up in a mud-berth in Poole Harbour for many years, since the man I sold her to in 1974 later died. 
A group of sailing ship enthusiasts in Lorient heard about her, and that she was the very last of the hundreds of thornier that had sailed out of the Isle de Groix, fishing for tuna. They formed a preservation society to rescue her and rebuild her back to her former glory. After reading an article written by me about one of my old crew on Biche, they invited me to travel to France and sail on her. For two hours, I took the helm, sailing across the harbour of Lorient out to the Isle de Groix... a heart-warming experience, I can assure you!
In May this year, I flew out to Australia with my ex-Samoan wife, Mariana, to try and visit my good old ship, Début, that I'd taken on a twelve year voyage around the tropical world. We flew on a total of twelve planes some 30,000 miles, and another 500 miles on four coaches... one and a half times around the world in only 29 days.
Over the time that I sailed Début around the world, I had a total of some 300 crew to man my ship... mainly young students taking a gap year from university, and others in a good job who wanted a year out to travel the world, before settling down to the there 'M'... marriage, mortgage and maternity. Most of my deck crew in the earlier part of the voyage out to Pago Pago, in American Samoa, were girls... up to fifteen of them... with a total crew up to 27. 
If you can handle 'Train Spotting', you'll love my first book that I wrote after being castaway for 18 months... 'The Judas Kiss', set in the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean... when I was working for a large drug-running cartel, doing all the maintenance and reprovisioning of their fleet of a dozen yacht to carry two tons each of marijuana to the U.S.A. I promise you you'll enjoy this read, with some 35 photographs to enhance the enjoyment. 
When me and Mariana ran low on fuel, crossing the Coral Sea to Australia, we actually sailed Début without power 4,600 miles... a 190 foot ship of 1,000 tons displacement. She is almost the size of the Cutty Sark, but only crewed by two of us. This surely must be a world record! All the best, Cpt Dick Brooks.


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## PADDY (Oct 6, 2005)

Hello Dick,

Some newspaper cuttings from the 80's I previously posted.

Paddy


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## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

*To PADDY.*

It's good to hear from you, Paddy, and thank you for showing me your downloads from the newspapers. I have many myself to relive my old memories of my past adventures. I hope that our readers will also like to read these accounts of me being shipwrecked and castaway on Emily Reef for tree years. Thank you again. All the best, Cpt Dick Brooks.


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## tsell (Apr 29, 2008)

Hello, sailor! How are you going with number nine. Is Kimberley still working on it? I haven't heard from her in months, she must be busy.
Keep posting your stories Dick lots of readers enjoying them.
Regards to Mariana and yourself.

Taff


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## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

*For tsell.*

It's good to hear from you, Taff, how are you getting on in the Land of Oz? It was really good talking with you on the phone when I was down under. I've been working flat out since I arrived back from Australia on my ninth book, 'Return to Début', and you get a mention in the book that we tried to meet up.
I've finally completed the manuscript, and I'm working my way through the last few edits. Once I'm satisfied with the book, I'll send it on to my literary agent, then he'll send it on to Kimberley for her edit. When I get in contact with her, I'll give you a mention to her. 
Once I've e-mailed on the manuscript, it will be the turn of the selection of photos to be published in the book. I have a full memory stick of photos from Mariana's mobile phone to wade my way through, to select the best and most appropriate 30/35 photos to be published... definitely several of our climb of Mount Cook to try and see Début on Emily Reef, 25 miles SE of Cooktown, as the last resort ... but visibility was only 15 miles, worse luck. 
Mariana is flying back to Apia, in Western Samoa, for Christmas with the grandchildren so they can see where we went, and to meet some of the family out in the South Seas. She has been contributing considerably to the book, and could possibly be only the second Samoan woman to be published. This will be very important for her, and she's really looking forward to the day of publication.
I'm heading back out to Australia in two years time for the 90th birthday celebrations for Pauna... Mariana's mother... who is the head matia for the whole extended family. I'll try and give you a ring white I'm out there. All the best, Cpt Dick Brooks.


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## tsell (Apr 29, 2008)

Hi, Dick, you've worked hard to get to the completion of the manuscript I see. I bet Mariana is really chuffed with the recognition of her contribution to the story, no doubt about her deserving it - after all, she has to put up with you! Hopefully, we'll catch up next time you're in Oz!

All the best to you both and please pass on my regards to Kimberley.

Taff


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