My job was making the water to run the ship, and we were making fresh water running the evaporators. Those ships were not designed to stay at sea for long. They were designed initially for Russian convoys in World War 2 so not made for the heat. The heat on Pukaki was intense as we had a steel deck whereas the Rotoiti had a wooden deck.
It was 60-70 degrees in that Engine Room so you could only do short stints. The protective clothing made it worse, it was so hot. For the first lot of tests we had anti flash gear, and we had a Dosy meter around our necks that was calibrated.
When a bomb detonated you would feel the heat before you turned around to look. When the sound wave hit, there was a big lift of the ship. It was like a massive fire, like everything was on fire…all these colours. You kind of got used to it, but it was still a bit scary.
When the bombers returned from each bomb test the paint was all peeled off.
I remember at Christmas Island there was a coral atoll, and there were frigate birds everywhere – hundreds of them! After the detonations the birds had no feathers and were flapping around, and there were loads of dead fish. We were given rifles to shoot the birds.
We went ashore to the canteen at Christmas Island and caused a bit of havoc, and riled up the Poms. We were the hillbillies from the Antipodes. It was a beautiful island, and the place was full of manta rays. All the manta rays are gone now – I’ve been back since on a cruise.
We were issued a bottle of beer on the ship each night. I remember one night after one of the bomb tests, we were having a beer five or six hours later and the mushroom cloud had got bigger and there was this huge big circle up above that was pushing everything aside. I remember looking at that and getting a horrible feeling about it. That was one of the last ones.
My biggest concern has been the health of our children and grandkids. I have no doubt at all that my time at Operation Grapple contributed to my son Tony’s death. He developed cirrhosis of the liver as a 12 year old boy, then colitis and the kicker was pulmonary hypertension. He was a dental surgeon with the world at his feet and was 31 when he died. He had been on the list for a heart, lung and liver transplant, but made the decision to come off the list, he couldn’t do it anymore. He died three months later. His wife committed suicide shortly afterwards leaving 2 little kids, so yes…there were some hard times.
I remember us veterans getting together at a reunion some years back and then all the horror stories came out, we all had no idea of what we each had gone through.
Hank passed away aged 88 on November 26, 2022.