A Sparker in Korea
The following contribution was made by John Paull. Thanks John I am sure this will stir up memories of Peter Mollison with many Korean vets and shipmates of Peter.
In 1957 Royalist was in Korean waters when Peter Mollison, a sparker, became ill. He was transferred ashore to hospital and unfortunately died there. He was buried in the United Nations Cemetery in Busan ( previously called Pusan).
It has been on my bucket list that my wife and I should return to Busan to pay my respects to Pete.
Early in November this year I found that four New Zealand war Vets would be travelling to Korea as guests of the Korean government to take part in services to commemorate the eleventh of the eleventh.
I made contact with the Korean Embassy in Wellington and through the Korean Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs made arrangements to join the group, at my own expense, and take part in the ceremonies. Unfortunately Jan was not able to travel with me.
Our NZ group met up with others from United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, making 21 in all.
Barrie Chivers (ex Chief Yeoman), who had previously visited Korea, gave me an insight of what to expect.
The Korean people have not forgotten how the United Nations Troops came to their rescue nearly 60 years ago. Those I spoke to knew of NZ but not always where it was except that it was a long way to come. The NZ contingent was the second highest based on population of any of the 21 nations involved.
On the first day we were taken to the DMZ and viewed the building and table where negotiations took place after the Ceasefire. It is a surreal place where the line goes through buildings with the North Koreans not many metres away. Both sides still have posts looking at each other.
Next day it was by train to Busan. This train gets up to 300k per hour along most of the track. They are working on having the trip completed by next year. We had a tour of the city which is second biggest with 4 million in the population,
We visited the UN cemetery the next day and took part in the wreath laying ceremony. The service was very impressive with a guard of honour and many dignitaries there.
Children also sang in both English and Korean. This is where Pete has a grave stone. I glued a small version of the Royalist crest and shed a tear. I shed a tear also for his family whose son is buried in a foreign land so far from home. It is a well kept place and I will include some photos.
There is a large stone from Coromandel and carved with a Maori motif which is very impressive and alongside the flags of all the nations.
There are two other NZ sailors also with stones but whose bodies were never recovered. Someone may know the stories which go with them.
After a train trip back to Seoul we were taken on a sight seeing trip around the city. It has a population of 11 Million which increases to 25 Million when the outer suburbs are added. In 1953 at the time of the ceasefire Seoul was a ruined city on the side of the river Han with just one bridge across the river to the airport on the other side.It has expanded considerably across the river and now has 27 bridges across and building another two. Nearly all live in high rise apartments. There is no recession there with nearly everyone employed. They have no natural resources and import everything. The country cant grow enough food as the ground freezes over in winter. Even the stones for the concrete are imported from China. From the airport they have built a second motorway and because there was no room on the land it is built over the water. The first length of 27K is called a bridge. The crime rate is low and the locals very friendly. They have the four biggest ship building company’s in the world and one is called Samsung. They specialize in building LPG tankers and have build a ship for our Navy as well.
The following day we attended another wreath laying ceremony at the National Cemetery. Again an impressive place and another Guard. Here on large bronze plaques about four metres high are the names of all the troops who were killed in their war. The civilian population also had two million killed.
North Korea has 1.2 million under arms and South Korea has 770,000 also. What a waste of resources.
I am very pleased to have been able to join in and get to see Pete’s grave and I thank those who made it possible.
