# MV Amastra.



## barney b (Mar 31, 2008)

Ahoy, I am still going strong,any one out there that was on the Amastra the night we were sank in NhaTtrang 54 years ago this month.We were all very lucky that night that some Viet Cong decided to only disable the ship and not blow her to pieces with our full cargo of Jp4 jet fuel.It was the the one and only time I had to abandon ship.Lost all my possessions and got £95 pound compensation.A good memory to have.


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## Frank P (Mar 13, 2005)

Glad to see that you made it safely ashore Barney.

In 1969 - 1970 I was onboard the Mary Else Tholstrup a Danish gas tanker and we taking gas to Viet Nam mainly from Pulau Bukom, Batangas and Port Dixon for eight months.

In the aftermath of the sinking of the Amastra and a cargo ship in Qui Nhon, every trip when we were at anchor or in port along side at Nha Be, Nha Trang and Qui Nhon, every hour or so either the American Marines or the Viet Namese navy patrol boats were sailing around the Mary Else Tholstrup throwing hand grenades in the water to deter any Viet Cong swimmers from attempting to place any mines on us, it did not make for a good nights sleep but we felt a bit safer..

Cheers Frank


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## barney b (Mar 31, 2008)

Quite right Frank, next time I was up the river to Saigon just finished my work twiddling with knobs on my radio as we did in those days,Boom! echoed through the whole ship, I thought Not Again ,as you say it was the patrols going by throwing grenades in water around the ship. I got quite a fright as the lights went out when the trips went on Bailey board from the vibration through the ship as we were only part loaded.


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## Neil McInnes (Jun 24, 2005)

Barney was Peter Harkins in her then.


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## OzBoz (Dec 9, 2008)

This comprehensive account, plus pics, will bring it all back to you.

https://www.cnooks.nl/Jubileum/2 Other do***ents/2 History/Vietnam/Amastra - Vietnam.pdf


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## Frank P (Mar 13, 2005)

Ozboz, your link does not work, it comes up with " page not found "

Cheers Frank


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## barney b (Mar 31, 2008)

Neil McInnes said:


> Barney was Peter Harkins in her then.


Not quite sure,think crew messman was called Peter.He could always get a suntan,all I got was burned


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## Steve Sherwood (Jul 2, 2009)

Frank P said:


> Ozboz, your link does not work, it comes up with " page not found "
> 
> Cheers Frank


Change 'do***ents' in the link with 'do***ents', then it works. An interesting read, barney b, thanks very much.


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## Frank P (Mar 13, 2005)

Steve Sherwood said:


> Change 'do***ents' in the link with 'do***ents', then it works. An interesting read, barney b, thanks very much.


Thanks Steve, how ridiculous is this site getting.when you can not post a link.........

Frank


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