A Ravel of Waters

by Geoffrey Jenkins

  'Fine, fine!' she exclaimed. 'But when are we sailing? Every time I ask you when, you dodge the question! What sort of jinx is bugging Jetwind!'

  I lit a cigarette after offering her one, which she refused. I had decided to treat her as an ally; as an ally, she had to know what was in my mind.

  'There is no jinx, Kay, but there's something equally serious,' I said. Then I outlined Grohman's remarks that Jetwind would be detained, the imminent arrival of the Almirante Storni, the bureaucratic stalling port, and finally my forthcoming interview with the chief magistrate in half an hour or so.

  When I had finished, she remained silent. Then she burst out, 'What has Jetwind to do with some obscure squabble between Argentina and Britain over the Falklands? She's a ship, not a pawn in a petty political game, She's my ship!' 'Mine too, Kay.'

  'You're not going to let them do it, are you, skipper? Keep her boxed up here to rot! Why don't you up-anchor now — right now — and get the hell out of here before the destroyer can catch us…'

  'The Almirante Storni is capable of thirty-five knots,' I answered. 'She'd come after Jetwind if I did. She'd catch us before we'd gone a hundred miles.' 'What do you mean to do about it?' she demanded.

  'I'll plan my strategy after I've seen the chief magistrate. Meanwhile, what I've told you is between the two of us.'

  'Of course,' she said. 'There's something important I failed to mention, though — there's an important failsafe system built into the masts for the ultimate emergency.' 'The ultimate emergency?' I echoed.

  She gestured upwards. 'Yes. In the unlikely event of Jetwind being knocked down on her beam-ends by a squall, self-destructing explosive ring charges are built into the junction of the top and top-gallant masts. The charges are designed to blast away the top-gallant masts, either individually or together, to enable the ship to right herself again.' 'That seems very drastic to me.'

  'The masts can't be cut away because there's no rigging,' she went on. 'The charges operate on the same principle as the ejector seat of an aircraft.' 'Who fires the charges and from where?' 'You'll see the "chicken button" as it's called on the main bridge bulkhead. It's painted scarlet, and to get at it one has first to break a glass — like a fire-alarm.'

  'Things would have to be pretty far gone before, one resorted to such extreme measures,' I said. 'Now — a final question: how does one get out on the yard itself from here?'

  'There's this exit hatchway. It's held shut magnetically, like the ship's watertight bulkheads. Here's the switch. First, though, I have to obtain permission from the officer of the deck.'

  She dialled 'O' on a red-painted phone on a mast bracket. I wondered why Grohman hadn't used the instrument at the time of Captain Mortensen's accident. The sail rollers could have been halted via the bridge controls.

  Kay said, 'John? I'm opening the main tops'l yard-arm for the skipper to take a look-see — okay?'

  The door slid open and we ducked through. The yard itself was wide enough for Kay to stand on. She balanced, without retorting to the safety grab-handles.

  The vantage-point gave me a magnificent view of both ship and anchorage. The Narrows entrance seemed perilously close. Between Navy Point and Engineer Point, its twin land flanks, the grey-green water was coming in from the deep ocean beyond the outer anchorage. The sea had lost its brilliant cobalt of the morning. Neither headland was high; none of the hillocks running east and west of them was as high as Jetwind’s maintruck. Therefore a lookout in the crow's nest could see clean across the intervening land to what the Almirante Storni was up to.

  Then I turned round, and looked astern. Stanley town with its brightly coloured tin roofs still reflected the sunlight which was now becoming increasingly hazy.

  Next my eyes went deck-wards to admire Jetwind's long, lean hull. I stopped short. Two of Jetwind's big lifeboats were being swung out from the stern. There was a group of men at each. A third boat was already heading towards the main harbour jetty. 'What goes on down there?' I demanded. Kay shook her head.

  I ducked back through the hatchway, picked up the phone and dialled. Tideman answered. 'Who gave orders for the boats to be put out?' I had half anticipated his answer. 'Mr Grohman, sir.' 'What are they supposed to be doing?'

  I wasn't sure that I had heard his reply correctly. 'A picnic! Did you say a picnic?'

  'Aye, aye, sir. A picnic — rather an outing, for the crew. Through The Narrows to Cape Pembroke on the open sea.'

  'Recall those boats — at once, d'you hear? From now on, no boat or man is to leave this ship without my express permission — understand?'

  Chapter 11

  I banged down the phone. Kay was standing by uncertainly.

  'I'm going down to sort this out,' I snapped. 'Thanks for the conducted tour. I have the picture now.'

  I started down the ladder. Before I had gone a rung or two, she called 'Skipper!' 'Yes?' 'I'll be invoking Cape Horn good luck for your interview this afternoon.'

  I was halfway out of the service bay, my head and shoulders still showing. I had a worm's eye view of Kay from the level of her ankles. From that angle she seemed all long legs and big eyes. There was something in those eyes that I needed, the way things were crowding me. Our eyes locked for a long moment.

  I said, before I had consciously decided to involve her in the break-out, 'Kay, I'm holding a skull session in my cabin tonight. Tideman and Brockton will be there. I would like you, too.' She was very acute. 'Do they know?' 'Not yet.' Her expressive eyes became very thoughtful. 'After you know the results of your interview with the magistrate?' 'With or without, it makes no difference.' 'You're going to take the risk?'

  'Yes. That's why I want the three of you. I need your help and know-how!'

  'Apart from your own.' She leaned down impetuously and touched my forehead with the tips of her fingers. 'You'll have to take the rap — you know that.' 'I know that, Kay.' She went on looking at me, then added, 'I'll troll for a blow tonight, Peter.' 'You do that, Kay.'

  She waited, as if she expected me to say more. I was tongue-tied by all the cross currents. I said, 'Tentatively, ten tonight in my cabin with the others?'. She nodded. I hurried down the ladder to the bridge.

  Grohman was already there. His slick Jetwind uniform offset his aquiline Spanish features. I felt by comparison rather like a bum-boat skipper in the black cold-weather rig I had hastily bought in Cape Town. Tideman pretended to be consulting a switch panel; Brockton was in a neutral corner near the radio office door.

  Grohman tried to defuse the situation, for he must have been aware of my orders.

  'Lunch has been waiting, sir, if you'd care to come. I'm sure you would also like to meet other members of the crew.'

  I decided to play it cool and not precipitate a crisis. 'You mean, those that haven't gone off on a picnic,' I retorted sarcastically. 'Lunch is off. There's to be no picnic. This isn't a bloody Sunday school party’

  Grohman remained unruffled, a trifle supercilious. 'I understand you have already cancelled my orders about the boats.'

  'Picnic!' I exploded. 'What does a fit young crew like Jetwind's want with a picnic, for crying out loud!'

  I suspected why Grohman kept his control under my unequivocal stand. He was playing from strength — the strength of the destroyer's approach.

  'I felt that the morale of the crew was being affected by being cooped up in port,' he replied evenly. 'They needed a diversion. I arranged an outing in the ship's boats to Cape Pembroke — there's a fine beach there where they can swim and camp overnight…'

  Overnight! I saw his game. Half Jetwind’s crew would be absent next day when the Almirante Storni made port. It was a subtle method of immobilizing the ship. Not even automated Jetwind could sail with only half her crew.

  I cut his explanation short. 'As of now, the entire crew goes on regular sea watch. Four hours on, four hours off, plus the usual dog-watches. All shore-leave is cancelled. Is that clear?'

  Fortuitously, Grohman had given me the opport
unity to put the crew on full alert without raising suspicions of a break-out. It was a secrecy problem which had solved itself. Another — unsolved — was how to get a synoptic weather forecast from Weather Routing without revealing that I was preparing to put to sea. I urgently needed to know what was happening to the weather in the 400 sector of ocean between Cape Horn and the Falklands.

  'But,' Grohman was protesting, 'the Ladies Circle has arranged a special movie show at the Upland Goose for those staying behind tonight and we shouldn't disappoint them…'

  'The Ladies Circle can and bloody well will be disappointed,' I answered. 'What is the Upland Goose, anyhow?' 'It's the one and only local pub,’ Tideman interjected.

  'Forget it,' I snapped. 'Put 'em to work. Sailoring, not cinemas, is what a crew needs. That's what they signed on for.' 'Circumstances have changed since then,' commented Grohman. His temper was beginning to rise. 'Thanks to you,’ I retaliated. ‘I intend to have my crew sharp and seamanlike, in port as well as on the high seas.'

  Grohman bit his Up; Tideman said in his best officer-of-the-watch tone, 'What are your orders about the boat that is already ashore, sir?' 'What is it supposed to be doing?'

  'Collecting supplies for the picnic. Beer, barbecue mutton, and so on.'

  'I'm going ashore myself in a few minutes,' I replied. 'I want a small boat — I'll give the men at the jetty orders myself.'

  'There's only one supermarket in the town,' Grohman said. 'The loss of that amount of trade will cause ill-feeling if you suddenly cancel it.'

  'You're very considerate about other people's feelings, Mr Grohman.'

  He rode the rebuke. 'This is a small place. You don't understand the situation.'

  'It is not by my choice that Jetwind is holed up here,' I retorted. 'Remember that. This ship's place is on the high seas, not stagnating in this god-forsaken little port. A crew's a crew, and for me they work like a crew. Or else. Remember that, too. Further, you'll take the deck-now,' I told Grohman. I had done a quick mental calculation of watch-times so that Tideman would be on duty with me for the break-out. 'Get my boat alongside. I'll be back in an hour. 'Any questions?' I added rhetorically.

  There weren't any, of course, after that, but Paul, who had stood outside the blast area, intercepted me as I left the wheel-house with Tideman. 'Any objection if I go on casing the air waves with young Arno, Peter?'

  I wanted to say, I'd give anything for a weather intercept. Instead I replied, 'Okay, Paul. I want a word with you when I come aboard again.'

  Tideman and I set off down the deck. As we passed No. 4 mast, 'Thursday', where the engine room was situated, Tideman said in a casual tone, quite different to his attitude on the bridge; 'Do you also want the diesels to go on sea or harbour duty?'

  Did he suspect that 1 had something in mind for the night? 'Full sea watch’ I replied.

  At the stern, men were securing the two boats I had recalled. They fell silent as we approached but there didn't seem to be any anger or resentment directed at me.

  The small outboard was bobbing under the counter. I was just about to swing myself down a rope, when a tall, elderly man dressed in a fancy dude yachting outfit erupted from the companion-way. I knew at once it had to be Sir James Hathaway whose presence on board I had completely forgotten.

  'You the new skipper?' he barked. 'Damn well hope you can do better; than that dago who got us into this godforsaken hole! Wait until Axel gets to know about this. Confined to the ship. Disgraceful! British territory, too. What the devil goes on here? Not even allowed to communicate with the outside world. And what, may I ask, do you propose to do about it, young man? Never thought much of sailing ships. Always trouble of one kind or another…'

  He'd have gone on ranting had I not matched decibels with him.

  'Sir James,' I shouted, 'Sir James, just a minute please. Just a minute. Yes, I'm the new skipper. I've just arrived here. My name is Peter Rainier and I'm just off to discuss matters with Mr Dawson, the chief magistrate. I have instruction from Mr Thomsen, who appointed me not two days ago, to get this ship out of this hole, as you call it, and I intend to do it. Now, I have an appointment to keep, and if you'll forgive me, I must go.'

  And without paying further attention to him, I slid down into the waiting outboard, kick-started the motor, and accelerated across the calm waters to the main jetty.

  I tied up as a party of men, laughing and joking, came down the hill with their arms full of parcels. I stopped one of them with cartons of beer under each arm. He looked as big as the cathedral spire in the background. I guessed he was one of Tideman's sailor-paratroopers.

  ‘I’m the new skipper’ I told the men. 'I'm sorry, lads, but the party's off. All that stuff will have to go back. I'll sign any receipts for the supermarket's benefit. Then get yourselves back aboard.'

  The big man hugged the cartons. He asked with the same eagerness as Tideman and Kay had questioned me, 'We're sailing, are we, sir?' 'Today?' demanded another.

  I knew a good crew when I saw one. These were the sort of men who wouldn't baulk at putting the gaskets on a sail in the wild icy bedlam of a Southern Ocean gale at midnight.

  I evaded a direct reply. 'I'm hurrying to an appointment uptown. I'll let you know.'

  'No picnic either?' asked another. He looked more like a machineman than a seaman.

  'You can go by yourself if you like,' I jollied him. 'But I won't guarantee I'll stop the ship and pick you up at Cape Pembroke as we pass by.'

  That raised a laugh. I left the men arguing a little ruefully about lugging the stores back up the hill.

  As I turned from the jetty past a row of so-English, red brick, bow-windowed houses with green, red and light blue roofs to walk the half mile or so to the magistrate's office, the machineman's voice reached me faintly. 'That new skipper's a bit of a bastard but I think I could go along with him.' It was more than I could say of Mr Ronald Dawson.

  The chief magistrate's office, situated at the western end of the harbour between the Secretariat and the Town Hall, overlooked what was known as the Government jetty. His office was dominated by a framed print of Keith Griffin's fine painting of the S.S. Great Britain on, her maiden voyage. There was also a contrasting blow-up photograph of the famous vessel lying derelict in Sparrow Cove — just beyond The Narrows — before her historic salvage and restoration in 1970. An old ship's mercury barometer, nearly a metre long, all glass and brass, completed the nautical air of the office. The rest of the atmosphere was provided by Dawson's supercilious attitude.

  His one concession to my being a fellow human being was his perfunctory handshake. Boxers in the ring do it more kindly when they are about to batter one another.

  His eyes ranged over my workaday sailor's rig. 'My information is that you are to replace Mr Grohman as captain of Jetwind'

  ЈMy information is that Grohman was never appointed to command the ship.' 'So?' 'I had it from the owner himself.'

  Dawson had a way of drawing in the left-hand corner of his sandy moustache with his lower canine tooth after he had spoken, as if sharpening his next words.

  I said, without mincing words, 'Grohman wasn't able to handle the situation after Captain Mortensen's death. He blew the record attempt — and his own chances.'

  The canine tooth gnawed. 'That is only a matter of opinion.'

  I shrugged. 'I didn't come here to discuss the merits or impropriety of my first officer's actions.'

  'They enter very much into it, Captain Rainier. You may bluster and denigrate him, but you fail to recognize the peculiar and particular circumstances prevailing in this part of the world. There are some who consider him to have acted quite correctly.'

  'If you're going to throw the Argentina-Falklands political situation at me, you're wasting your time. It has nothing to do with Jetwind’

  'On the contrary, Jetwind has everything to do with it. That is why I have summoned you here this afternoon. Mr Grohman has a full understanding of the delicacy of the situation. It appears y
ou don't.'

  'Is that why he turned and scudded for port a thousand miles from any country's territorial waters?'

  'You make your opinion of Mr Grohman very clear, Captain.' 'Because I fail to understand how a long-standing and nebulous territorial dispute can be used to justify what I regard as poor judgement and lack of command ability, to put it mildly’

  He said pointedly, 'Captain Rainier, the entire legal jurisdiction of the Falklands Dependencies is under my sole control. That being so, I would rule that Mr Grohman acted correctly since he had a murder on his hands.' 'Murder?'

  ‘I cannot, of course, anticipate the outcome of the inquest on Captain Mortensen, but there is prima facie evidence of unnatural death.'

  'Of course it was unnatural. I believe he was suffocated by being caught in the roller-furling mechanism of the sails.'

  'We shall of course hear expert evidence on that,' he replied judicially. 'The true cause of death might have escaped an ordinary medical man, but in this case I was fortunate in that Sir William Hall-Denton was my guest.'

  He eyed me to note what effect the name-dropping had on me. My silence expressed my knowledge of Sir William Hall-Denton.

  'Sir William is a leading London pathologist,' he explained. 'A good friend and a passionate philatelic expert. You know, of course, of the Falklands' place in the realm of philately.'

  I didn't. I was more interested in Captain Mortensen's death.

  'Sir William interested himself in the case when the body was brought in. He established that death, in fact, was caused prior to the apparent suffocation in the sail roller. There was a small bruise at the base of the neck which pointed to the fact that he was probably dead by the time he was enveloped by the sail. He had most likely been struck by a blunt instrument.'

  I said, marking time while I digested this news, 'Where is Captain Mortensen's body now?'

  Mr Dawson indicated a building beyond the Secretariat. 'There. In the hospital mortuary.' 'So Grohman must either have known or suspected.'

  Dawson lifted one shoulder. ‘It is not for me as presiding officer of the inquest to prejudge any witness.'