taking their families to their deaths. Then the MV Wellpark, run by a Scottish shipping company, appeared out of the storm. The difficult and dramatic rescue earned its captain, Hector Connell, an MBE. But that recognition came only after the destitute refugees found themselves caught up in an international political wrangle over who would take them in. In the end, the then Labour government agreed to bring them to London despite the alarmist cries of Britain “being full” and warnings that it would open the door to floods of refugees.

Holmes gave up his cabin for Van Nu’s family. As she left the ship for London and a country she knew nothing about, the 19-year-old seaman handed her a keepsake. “I had a necklace I’d bought in Peru,” Holmesfrom Thailand.

As the boat entered the Mekong Delta it damaged its rudder and lost its steering. The refugees headed out to sea with no idea where they were going. Among them was nine-year old Diep Quan, whose family had two strikes against it when South Vietnam fell to the communists because her father was a businessman and her parents were of Chinese ethnicity. On the day they left, her mother announced a family holiday. “My uncle came round with a truck because he was a goods driver. I was a city girl and all I remember is trees, jungle, mud. What’s this about? This is a weird place for a holiday,” she said. Then she saw the fishing boat moored on the Mekong River and understood she might