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Norma Connolly

Fifty years after Dutch freighter  Tjibantjet ran aground at Junk Bay during powerful Typhoon Gloria, the engineer on watch the night it smashed into the rocks is returning to Hong Kong and hopes to track down his former crewmates.
Adriaan Rommen, 71, arrives in Hong Kong today  for a week's holiday with his wife and hopes to trace some of the 60 Hong Kong Chinese crew who were working with him on the ship during the No10 strength typhoon that stranded it on the rocks below Devil's Peak in Junk Bay.
The ship ran aground in the early evening of September 22, 1957. None of the 74 crew  and six passengers  was injured and all managed to reach shore on a gangplank with the help of the marine police.
'We remembered the fact of the stranding in May 2007, with the eight still living members of the Dutch crew, during our yearly reunion of Royal Interocean Lines  personnel in Alphen,  the Netherlands,' said Mr Rommen, who retired in 1998.
'None of the Chinese crew was present there for practical reasons. How many are still alive? How are they doing?'
He wondered if any of his former crew members held similar reunions in Hong Kong or whether they ever visited the site of the grounding again.
Mr Rommen, as fifth  engineer,  together with the second engineer, was on watch during the storm.
'I  saw the water come in on portside through a hole of approximately 10 to 15 metres.
'The engine room and holds were flooded within 15 minutes,' he said from the Netherlands  last week.
He said the ship ran aground during  gales of 185km/h and waves of more than 3  metres.
Efforts by the marine police to reach the stricken merchant vessel were  hampered by heavy seas and a rescue party was sent  to help the crew and passengers eventually to get to shore.
Mr Rommen stayed on board the ship for three months on 24-hour shifts, and when not on duty he stayed at the Melbourne Hotel in Mody Road,  Tsim Sha Tsui, or the Four Seas Hotel in Waterloo Road.
'The other officers were stationed on other ships and the same thing happened to the Chinese crew, of which we lost track completely.'
He transferred to a passenger liner in January 1958 and left Hong Kong.
Anyone with information on Mr Rommen's former crew members can reach him at the Mariner's Club in Tsim Sha Tsui until Friday.



50 years on, engineer seeks reunion with pals on stricken ship