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PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES
This decision was rapidly put into effect. Mr A. T. Trenerry, TD, F.I.C.S. was appointed as Government's general agent for chartering a fleet of tankers and ancillary vessels, while a further ad hoc body, the Tanker Chartering Committee, was set up to assist him in this task. Working through a pool of leading ship brokers, suitable vessels were quickly secured, and the first tanker sailed for the Pearl River on 26th June. The fleet was thereafter built up to 10 vessels and was maintained at between eight and eleven throughout the remainder of the year. In negotiating the original charters in May and June, the chartering committee regarded the period May - September as representing the likely duration of the emergency, with the possibility that heavy rains would bring the crisis to an earlier end. They therefore sought to obtain short charter periods, with renewable options (which could be exercised if the rains should be delayed) to afford a measure of flexibility. In the event the rains were wholly inade- quate, with the result that in October the committee was obliged to re-enter the market to negotiate new charters to continue the lift throughout the winter. Unfortunately, the impact of the United States - Russian grain deal had caused the market to harden sig- nificantly, with the result that the necessary vessels were obtained only at a greatly increased rate of hire.
The actual operation of the fleet, even with the full co-operation of the Chinese authorities in the river, and the assistance of local shipowners and agencies in Hong Kong, posed a variety of practical problems. In principle, the modus operandi was simple in the extreme. The vessels would steam up the Pearl River to the three anchorages which the Chinese had reserved for their use. They would then fill their tanks by opening their sea cocks and would re- turn to Hong Kong for discharge. In Hong Kong, the owners of the Caltex and Gulf Oil installations had offered the use of two dis- charging berths free of charge, while the Hong Kong Brewery had similarly made available its pier at Sham Tseng. Major engineering works however, still remained to be undertaken. Berths for five vessels, including the construction of four reinforced concrete dolphins, designed to withstand the impact from 25,000 ton tankers, had to be improvised at Sham Tseng, the area off the Caltex and Gulf Oil wharves had to be dredged, while to deliver supplies to the mains system involved laying a total of 12,800