By Garland Davis
It has been a while since I have told a BT2 story. Many of my readers have been asking for more of his exploits. Mostly, other BTs. So here goes.
It was one of the ships we served in during the sixties and the Vietnam thing. We had been double toured on the gunline and were looking forward to some Subic liberty. The current skipper was a Bible Thumper who felt that Subic was a little too risqué and asked for a port call to Hong Kong instead. I guess no one had ever explained Wanchai or the Roof Tops to him.
BT2 was pissed because we had to steam at anchor instead of tying up to a pier and taking services from the beach. He had duty the first day, and I loaded stores and spent the afternoon and night in the Bakeshop baking enough desserts so I could take a couple of days off.
I was in the mess decks having coffee shortly after breakfast when BT2 came down from turning the duty over to his relief. He said, “The next boat is in forty-five minutes. That’s enough time to shit, shower, and shave. I’ve got my blues under my mattress, pressed and ready to go. Meet you on the Quarterdeck. First stop: Pinky’s. I want to get a stencil on my left arm to balance the one I got on my right arm the last time. Oh, by the way, that new fireman, the one they call Bigfoot, the boy who has the biggest Gawdamn feet I’ve ever seen on a human being, is coming with us. I promised to show him the ropes and where he can get some pussy off Suzie Wong.”
“Every other hooker in Hong Kong calls herself Suzie Wong. “I said.
“I know that, but he don’t. The boy can dream, can’t he?” he asked as he headed to Snipes berthing.
About forty minutes later, we met on the Quarterdeck. He was trailed by the biggest, most ungainly-looking Redneck I had ever seen. Bt2 said, “Bigfoot, this is the Stewburner. He is a pretty good Doughhead if you can keep him sober. Be careful if you eat any of the bread he bakes. One night, I caught him rubbing two slices of bread on his dick and singing ‘Grow, grow, with Langendorf bread.’ Stewburner, this is Bigfoot.
I looked. The only person I ever saw with feet that big was a basketball player named O’Neal.
We caught the one lunged liberty boat with the Chinese kids staring at us from under the forward deck and the mother cooking on the charcoal brazier while Papa piloted the craft. It was the family Rice Bowl.
We made Fenwick and, of course, stopped at the China Fleet Club for a beer that turned into six. From there, we stumbled over to Pinky’s tattoo parlor, where BT2 got a Woody Woodpecker stencil on his left arm. Since then, numerous times, the asshole has asked respectful women and some disrespectful ones, “You want to see my pecker? Before they lose it and slap the shit out of him, he lifts his sleeve to show them Woody.
When we left there, Bigfoot was hobbling along on his heels. BT2 had told him that sailors had a pig tattooed on their left foot and a chicken on their right foot. Sailors believed this would prevent them from drowning. He failed to tell him that the tattoos were supposed to be on top of the feet and had them tattooed on the bottoms of his feet. I guess all the free beer the tattoo parlor was providing numbed his feet. He tried to get Bigfoot to tattoo his dick, but the boy was reluctant. He felt it might mess up his assignation with Suzie later in the evening.
To make a short story longer, we had met a Radarman and an ET from the ship while at Pinky’s. They convinced us to go with them to the Hilton. There was a fashion show, and the ET was sweet on one of the models.
We ended up at a bar somewhere on one of the upper decks of the Hilton. We were drinking beer and watching the girl’s parade in the colorful dresses when BT2 discovered that every time the dressing room door opened, it revealed models in various conditions of undress. So, we all kind of moved our chairs around where we could see the door each time a model entered or exited the dressing room.
Now they didn’t ask us to leave. The waiter just brought the check and informed us that the bar was closed. We all chipped in and paid the exorbitant bill and commenced to unass the place. I heard a commotion and looked back to see what was happening. Two Chinese waiters were trying to take the table away from the Bt2 and the RD.
BT2 said, “The damn bill was so high, we thought we had bought the fucking table!”
They gave them the table and we left. Wanchai and all the Suzie Wong’s awaited!
Tales of an Asia Sailor 
Sounds very much like one of my Hong Kong liberties. Got kicked out of the Hilton for not wearing a tie – I had gone in to make a phone call to my Mother (collect, of course – $8/minute!
Gave blood to the Brit Red Cross – they take a pint and a half, but do give you a steak dinner and a night in the hotel. You really need that for all the blood they suck outta ya.
And, got to visit my favorite floating restaurant in Aberdeen.
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Made lots of liberty calls in Hong Kong on the Okcity in 65&66 since she was 7th fleet flag. Memories are somewhat foggy at this point in my life. I was just 19. But most of all was the Crows Nest bar on top of the Hilton and my tailor made dress blues. Still have those blues. Can’t believe I ever fit in them!!!
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I made Hong Kong a couple of times in the 70’s. There was an actual Suzy Wong Bar not too far from China Fleet. A couple of girls got into a knock down drag out while my buddies and I were there. Looking back on it I’m sure they did it for our entertaiment. Anyhoo, we di di’d out of there and hit the Star Ferry for main land China. There we went to the old Walled City. Yes, we knew it was off limits but did we care? Hell No!
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*Leading Seaman (E4) Frapper Lehman in Wanchai, Hong Kong 1972*
A visit to Hong Kong back in the days when the British had the lease on the colony was always good. Not as good as Subic or Manila or Thailand, but good nonetheless. My ship was the HMAS Derwent, a Destroyer Escort and I had been on this ship since March 1970. Being part of the Commonwealth, we always got an alongside berth at HMS Tamar (see photo below). Even our Carrier (HMAS Melbourne) got an alongside berth. Yank ships were always anchored off, sad for the Yanks, but good for us. Nothing worse than having to get a boat back to your ship when drunk.
At the end of the working day, and if you didn’t have the duty, China Fleet Club was the first stop. Drinks were cheap, food was cheap. The Brits had a Picture Theatre and also games of Tombola were regularly held here at the club. You could win big money. China Fleet Club was like a mini Navy base. You could get a haircut and shoe shine and many other things, as well as accommodation. It was a stone’s throw from the Wanchai Bars.
I knew Mama San at the Washington Bar in Wanchai and I had a girlfriend there that I had known for a couple of years. She was like a Chinese Honey Ko you might say. Frapper San I love you Mama would say and if I had a group of sailors off the ship with me, all the better. The Vietnam war era saw a big build up of bars in Wanchai and on the mainland at Kowloon, but for Aussies it was easier to go to Wanchai rather than get a ferry across the harbour.
Lots of the bars were given American names like, The Boston Bar, San Francisco Bar, Crazy Horse Bar, Arizona Bar, Apollo 11 Bar, Chicago Bar, Hollywood Bar and I could go on and on. I had another girlfriend at the San Francisco bar that I met in 1970 on my first trip to South East Asia, I was 18 and I was in Love. The San Francisco Bar had a Jukebox and every time I was there I played the song San Francisco by Scott Mckenzie. To this day it brings back memories of my time in Hong Kong. It was difficult holding down two girlfriends in Wanchai because the bars were not that far apart. I didn’t want to get the reputation of being a Butterfly.
Most nights we ended up at the Washington Bar (see attached photo) and most nights we ended up drunk. Dancing to Creedence Clearwater and Carl Douglas and Kung Fu Fighting. A few times the guys who worked for me had to carry me back on board and one night the Senior Petty Officer (E6) of the Communications Branch was on the Quarter Deck when I was carried back. Next day at muster he comes up to me and says it’s not a good look to be carried back by your juniors Frapper. He was right, but when your young and stupid who listens to the Petty Officer.
After a week in Hong Kong, it was time to sail and head for Singapore which was our main operational base during our 9 month deployment to South East Asia. They don’t do 9 month deployments any more as the precious Sailors of today can’t handle that long away from their mommies.
Singapore is another story to come.
On Sun, Oct 17, 2021 at 5:25 PM Tales of an Asia Sailor wrote:
> davisg022 posted: ” By Garland Davis It has been a while since I have told > a BT2 story. Many of my readers have been asking for more of his > exploits. Mostly, other BTs. So here goes. It was one of the ships we > served in during the sixties and the” >
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I really enjoy your stories … I too am a former westpac can BT, and can relate to your stories… Keep up the good work !!
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