The Last Voyage of the Pong Su · The Age and Sydney Morning Herald

Pong Su extra: Taking the helm of the Pong Su

December 23, 2019·39 min·2 clips

Every cabin on the Pong Su had portraits of Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung on the wall and no personal photographs — no family, no reminders of home.

Nicholas Martin begins with a change of ambition. He entered the military thinking about helicopters, then found clearance diving and took the slower officer route through seamanship and navigation. That training matters once the Pong Su comes into view. Before Martin could take its bridge, he had learned how ships move, how crews work, and how naval procedure holds under pressure. The interview stays close to the work itself. Martin explains how the ship's high superstructure would have swung through the swell, while the propeller's rise and fall put strain on the engines. Weather was not scenery. It was part of the threat. The boarding team studied nautical architecture diagrams and intelligence so the vessel would not be a complete mystery when they entered it. The dangers were specific. Martin remembers two main risks: armed resistance from the upper decks, and hidden explosives meant to stop capture or sink the ship. Planning could not make those risks disappear. It gave the team a way to keep moving if either one showed up. The principle was blunt: selection and maintenance of the aim meant boarding and detaining the vessel was still the job, even as contingencies piled up around it. The bridge work is tense in a quiet way. After checking for hidden devices, Martin took command there and worked with a captured North Korean to bring the ship toward Sydney Harbour. The ending leaves a question hanging. Martin still wonders why that landing location was chosen, since northern Australia could have offered faster exits toward PNG or Indonesia. He does not force an answer. What remains is a procedural account of risk, training, and a choice that still feels exposed.

As heard by us

A careful sea-story where procedure, risk, and memory carry the tension.

The piece gives The Last Voyage of the Pong Su a more human scale by focusing on the boarding, the search for hidden explosive devices, and the moment Martin takes the bridge.

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