By Capt. William Bennett in Familygram May 27, 1968

"Many of the crew saw for the first time in their lives the poverty and want that is created when there is a mass exodus of three million people from their native land.  The meaning of freedom is much clearer to everyone of us when we witnessed how hard these determined people are to maintain it. 

Hong Kong is the only port we have visited in which the Navy has not had to pay to have its garbage and trash hauled away.  A famous Chinese lady in Navy circles, known as Mary Soo, pays for the privilege of taking this garbage away by painting the Yorktown's sides.  They finished in 3 days!  She then re-distributes this to the poor and sells the bent nails, broken wooden crates and scrap brass she receives to pay the small wages of her painters.

Nearly 800 orphaned school children visited the ship, and all departed "The Fighting Lady" with full stomachs and proudly displaying the honorary crewmember badge.  Although the British government provides minimum support for these children, they do insist that they attend school six days a week.  While many had slept in the streets before being placed in these orphanages, they are considered the most fortunate children in Hong Kong for an economic and educational standpoint."  

MARY SOO's workers paint the USS Yorktown in Hong Kong Harbor. Hong Kong people accepting coins tossed by Yorktown sailors while Yorktown is at Hong Kong anchorage.
 (circa late 1940's early 1950's)

Pictures courtesy RM1 (ret) George Brubaker

 

 

News Story  MARY SOO, who's known as Hong Kong's garbage queen relaxes with R V Bertain, seaman aboard seaplane tender Orco in Hong Kong Harbor.  Mary first gained fame 25 years ago when she worked a deal with the skipper of a US destroyer. Through the years, this deal has evolved into a sort of "gentleman's agreement" between Mary and the US Navy. When a ship enters Hong Kong, Mary and her helpers board her and, in exchange for the garbage and leftovers from the crew's mess paint the ship from stem to stern, saving the Navy many man hours and the deck force many liberty hours. She sell the left-overs "somewhere" in Hong Kong and probably at a good price. Dateline probably 1950, Hong Kong) R.V. Bertain of Santa Rosa, CA

 

 

Don Cole, V-7 Div., ABAN, 1952-'55
Mary Soo's Side Cleaners
I remember well Mary Soo and her crew of women. I seem to recall that they didn't just scrub the hull, but also put on a coat of Navy Gray. I never heard about the spaghetti and meatball dinner at Harry's. But I can tell you that on Christmas Eve (12/24/53) I had an all day work party on the fantail. We spent the entire day lowering garbage cans down to Mary Soo's sampans, where the women would dump them out and go through a methodical sorting process.

It was really incredible to see, When the deck was full of the various piles of sorted foodstuffs, another boat would move into place. I don't remember seeing anything tossed over the side during their sorting process. It seems that every morsel of anything had some kind of value. We are talking about SERIOUS RECYCLING here. I don't mean to make light of it either. Seeing those women working hard all day and knowing that there would be people poor and hungry enough to consider our garbage to be so valuable made me think and come to a real appreciation of how much we are blessed in America.

 

Editor's note: The poverty of Hong Kong was crushing and heart breaking during and after the Korean War.  The communist had taken over mainland China in 1949 and many refugees flooded the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong.  When the USS Yorktown came into Hong Kong it was surrounded by hundreds of refugees in flimsy boats.  The hungry Chinese attempted to board the Yorktown to find food.  The Captain ordered and the Yorktown sailors opened up with streams of water from the Yorktown fire hoses to keep the hundreds of starving Chinese from boarding the USS Yorktown.  One Yorktown sailor overcome by the attempted boardings threw a motor overboard and into a boat alongside.  It crashed through the hull of the small boat and sank the boat.  One sailor said to the sailor who tossed the motor, "You just sunk that family's house!"




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