[Ozzie]

Interesting John and, seeing as how you ask, in my view perfectly possible in several scenarios. The ship would be clearly moored to a single buoy forward by her anchor cable and possibly has a steel wire, probably in a bight around the shackle of the buoy, to assist when mooring and releasing.

The relative tension in the anchor cable and the wire varies depending on the state of the tide or direction of the wind for instance. So in my mind if the cable is taut, then it is easy to climb up from the buoy and if the wire is also fairly taut nearby then it is relatively easy to transfer to the wire, which would be secured over the foc'sle fore-leads and onto the deck, hence onto the ship.

On the other hand, if the ship was just moored by the anchor cable alone which it may well have been then if the anchor cable is slack you can squeeze through the hawsepipe itself by climbing on the cable and hence up to the foc'sle which seems to be the way he is describing.

Either way it is quite easy for an agile, ingenious young man and in fact the technique has been used for years in several shady ports in certain parts of the world to gain access to the ship...and steal your mooring ropes ...which are then fed down to the waiting boat.!