The tanker "Chelsea Bridge" was steaming westwards across the Atlantic, bound for Bayonne, New Jersey, with a cargo of domestic heating oil from North Africa. James Tully, the third engineer, had finished standing his watch in the engine room at midnight, and was dying for a drink. He showered, put on a little pair of blue shorts and a pair of flip-flops, and went up to the Officer's Lounge only to find that it was shut up for night. Undaunted, James went up to the bar and pushed up one of the security panels. The wooden panels comedown when the barman closed the bar, and could be locked shut, however the centre panel could not be locked. All James had to do was to push the heavy panel up, stand on the bar rail, then squeeze between the bar top and the panel, in order to gain entry to the bar area.
On this occasion, however, the panel jammed when it had only moved up about 10". This meant that Jim had to bend over the bar top and squeeze himself through the small gap. He managed to get his head and shoulders through the gap only to find that he was well and truly jammed. He could not get his shoulders back out, nor could he force the panel up to allow his bottom to get through the gap. He was completely trapped, bent over, his top half in the bar, his bottom half outside. He started calling for help, but everyone else had gone to bed. Suddenly, he heard someone enter the lounge and asked the person to help get him free, but the footsteps went away. After about 5 minutes the footsteps of about 4 or 5 people were heard returning, and approaching him; nobody said a word, despite his pleas for help.