HMS Ulysses

by Alistair MacLean

  Step by step, fraction by menacing fraction, mercury and barograph crept down in a deadly dualism. The waves were higher now, their troughs deeper, their shoulders steeper, and the bone chilling wind lashed the snow into a blinding curtain. A bad night, a sleepless night, both above deck and below, on watch and off.

  On the bridge, the First Lieutenant, the Kapok Kid, signalmen, the Searchlight L.T.O., look-outs and messengers peered out miserably into the white night and wondered what it would be like to be warm again.

  Jerseys, coats, overcoats, duffels, oilskins, scarves, balaclavas, helmets-they wore them all, completely muffled except for a narrow eye-slit in the woollen cocoon, and still they shivered. They wrapped arms and forearms round, and rested their feet on the steam pipes which circled the bridge, and froze. Pom-pom crews huddled miserably in the shelter of their multiple guns, stamped their feet, swung their arms and swore incessantly. And the lonely Oerlikon gunners, each jammed in his lonely cockpit, leaned against the built-in "black" heaters and fought off the Oerlikon gunner's most insidious enemy-sleep.

  The starboard watch, in the mess-decks below, were little happier. There were no bunks for the crew of the Ulysses, only hammocks, and these were never slung except in harbour. There were good and sufficient reasons for this. Standards of hygiene on a naval warship are high, compared even to the average civilian home: the average matelot would never consider climbing into his hammock fully dressed-and no one in his senses would have dreamed of undressing on the Russian Convoys. Again, to an exhausted man, the prospect and the actual labour of slinging and then lashing a hammock were alike appalling. And the extra seconds it took to climb out of a hammock in an emergency could re-present the margin between life and death, while the very existence of a slung hammock was a danger to all, in that it impeded quick movement. And finally, as on that night of a heavy head sea, there could be no more uncomfortable place than a hammock slung fore and aft.

  And so the crew slept where it could, fully clothed even to duffel coats and gloves. On tables and under tables, on narrow nine-inch stools, on the floor, in hammock racks, anywhere. The most popular place on the ship was on the warm steel deck-plates in the alleyway outside the galley, at night-time a weird and spectral tunnel, lit only by a garish red light. A popular sleeping billet, made doubly so by the fact that only a screen separated it from the upper-deck, a scant ten feet away. The fear of being trapped below decks in a sinking ship was always there, always in the back of men's minds.

  Even below decks, it was bitterly cold. The hot-air systems operated efficiently only on 'B' and 'C' mess-decks, and even there the temperature barely cleared freezing point. Deckheads dripped constantly and the condensation on the bulkheads sent a thousand little rivulets to pool on the corticene floor. The atmosphere was dank and airless and terribly chill-the ideal breeding ground for the T.B., so feared by Surgeon-Commander Brooks. Such conditions, allied with the constant pitching of the ship and the sudden jarring vibrations which were beginning to develop every time the bows crashed down, made sleep almost impossible, at best a fitful, restless unease. Almost to a man, the crew slept, or tried to sleep, with heads pillowed on inflated lifebelts. Blown up, bent double then tied with tape, these lifebelts made very tolerable pillows. For this purpose, and for this alone, were these lifebelts employed, although standing orders stated explicitly that lifebelts were to be worn at all times during action and in known enemy waters. These orders were completely ignored, not least of all by those Divisional Officers whose duty it was to enforce them.

  There was enough air trapped in the voluminous and bulky garments worn in these latitudes to keep a man afloat for at least three minutes. If he wasn't picked up in that time, he was dead anyway. It was shock that killed, the tremendous shock of a body at 96ø F. being suddenly plunged into a liquid temperature some 70ø lower, for in the Arctic waters, the sea temperature often falls below normal freezing point. Worse still, the sub-zero wind lanced like a thousand stilettos through the saturated clothing of a man who had been submerged in the sea, and the heart, faced with an almost instantaneous 100ø change in body temperature, just stopped beating. But it was a quick death, men said, quick and kind and merciful.

  At ten minutes to midnight the Commander and Marshall made their way to the bridge. Even at this late hour and in the wicked weather, the Commander was his usual self, imperturbable and cheerful, lean and piratical, a throw-back to the Elizabethan buccaneers, if ever there was one. He had an unflagging zest for life. The duffel hood, as always, lay over his shoulders, the braided peak of his cap was tilted at a magnificent angle. He groped for the handle of the bridge gate, passed through, stood for a minute accustoming his eyes to the dark, located the First Lieutenant and thumped him resoundingly on the back.

  "Well, watchman, and what of the night?" he boomed cheerfully.

  "Bracing, yes, decidedly so. Situation completely out of control as usual, I suppose? Where are all our chickens this lovely evening?" He peered out into the snow, scanned the horizon briefly, then gave up.

  "All gone to hell and beyond, I suppose."

  "Not too bad," Carrington grinned. An R.N.R. officer and an ex-Merchant Navy captain in whom Vallery reposed complete confidence, Lieutenant-Commander Carrington was normally a taciturn man, grave and unsmiling. But a particular bond lay between him and Turner, the professional bond of respect which two exceptional seamen have for each other. "We can see the carriers now and then. Anyway, Bowden and his backroom boys have "em all pinned to an inch. At least, that's what they say."

  "Better not let old Bowden hear you say that," Marshall advised.

  "Thinks radar is the only step forward the human race has taken since the first man came down from the trees." He shivered uncontrollably and turned his back on the driving wind. "Anyway, I wish to God I had his job," he added feelingly. "This is worse than winter in Alberta!"

  "Nonsense, my boy, stuff and nonsense!" the Commander roared.

  "Decadent, that's the trouble with you youngsters nowadays. This is the only life for a self-respecting human being." He sniffed the icy air appreciatively and turned to Carrington. "Who's on with you tonight, Number One?"

  A dark figure detached itself from the binnacle and approached him.

  "Ah, there you are. Well, well, 'pon my soul, if it Isn't our navigating officer, the Honourable Carpenter, lost as usual and dressed to kill in his natty gent's suiting. Do you know, Pilot, in that outfit you look like a cross between a deep-sea diver and that advert for Michelin tyres?"

  "Ha!" said the Kapok Kid aggrievedly. "Sniff and scoff while you may, sir." He patted his quilted chest affectionately. "Just wait tUl we're all down there in the drink together, everybody else dragged down or frozen to death, me drifting by warm and dry and comfortable, maybe smoking the odd cigarette------"

  "Enough. Be off. Course, Number One?"

  "Three-twenty, sir. Fifteen knots."

  "And the Captain?"

  "In the shelter." Carrington jerked his head towards the reinforced steel circular casing at the after end of the bridge. This supported the Director Tower, the control circuits to which ran through a central shaft in the casing. A sea bunk, a spartan, bare settee, was kept there for the Captain's use. "Sleeping, I hope," he added, "but I very much doubt it. Gave orders to be called at midnight."

  "Why?" Turner demanded.

  "Oh, I don't know. Routine, I suppose. Wants to see how things are."

  "Cancel the order," Turner said briefly. "Captain's got to learn to obey orders like anybody else-especially doctor's orders. I'll take full responsibility. Good night, Number One."

  The gate clanged shut and Marshall turned uncertainly towards the Commander.

  "The Captain, sir. Oh, I know it's none of my business, but", he hesitated "well, is he all right?"

  Turner looked quickly around him. His voice was unusually quiet.

  "If Brooks had his way, the old man would be in hospital." He was silent for a moment, then added soberly. "E
ven then, it might be too late."

  Marshall said nothing. He moved restlessly around, then went aft to the port searchlight control position. For five minutes, an intermittent rumble of voices drifted up to the Commander. He glanced up curiously on Marshall's return.

  "That's Ralston, sir," the Torpedo Officer explained. "If he'd talk to anybody, I think he'd talk to me."

  "And does he?"

  "Sure, but only what he wants to talk about. As for the rest, no dice.

  You can almost see the big notice round his neck, 'Private-Keep Off.'

  Very civil, very courteous and completely unapproachable. I don't know what the hell to do about him."

  "Leave him be," Turner advised. "There's nothing anyone can do." He shook his head. "My God, what a lousy break life's given that boy!"

  Silence fell again. The snow was lifting now, but the wind still strengthening. It howled eerily through masts and rigging, blending with a wild and eldritch harmony into the haunting pinging of the Asdic.

  Weird sounds both, weird and elemental and foreboding, that rasped across the nerves and stirred up nameless, atavistic dreads of a thousand ages past, long buried under the press of civilisation. An unholy orchestra, and, over years, men grew to hate it with a deadly hatred.

  Half-past twelve came, one o'clock, then half-past one. Turner's thought turned fondly towards coffee and cocoa. Coffee or cocoa? Cocoa, he decided, a steaming potent brew, thick with melted chocolate and sugar.

  He turned to Chrysler, the bridge messenger, young brother of the Leading Asdic Operator.

  "W.T., Bridge. W.T., Bridge." The loudspeaker above the Asdic cabinet crackled urgently, the voice hurried, insistent. Turner jumped for the hand transmitter, barked an acknowledgment.

  "Signal from Sirrus. Echoes, port bow, 300, strong, closing. Repeat, echoes, port bow, strong, closing."

  "Echoes, W.T.? Did you say 'echoes'?"

  "Echoes, sir. I repeat, echoes."

  Even as he spoke, Turner's hand cut down on the gleaming phosphorescence of the Emergency Action Stations switch.

  Of all sounds in this earth, there is none so likely to stay with a man to the end of his days as the E.A.S. There is no other sound even remotely like it. There is nothing noble or martial or blood-stirring about it. It is simply a whistle, pitched near the upper limit of audio-frequency, alternating, piercing, atonic, alive with a desperate urgency and sense of danger: knife-like, it sears through the most sleep-drugged brain and has a man, no matter how exhausted, how weak, how deeply sunk in oblivion, on his feet in seconds, the pulse-rate already accelerating to meet the latest unknown, the adrenalin already pumping into his blood-stream.

  Inside two minutes, the Ulysses was closed up to Action Stations. The Commander had moved aft to the After Director Tower, Vallery and Tyndall were on the bridge.

  The Sirrus, two miles away to port, remained in contact for half an hour. The Viking was detached to help her, and, below-deck in the Ulysses, the peculiar, tinny clanging of depth-charging was clearly heard at irregular intervals. Finally, the Sirrus reported. "No success: contact lost: trust you have not been disturbed." Tyndall ordered the recall of the two destroyers, and the bugle blew the stand-down.

  Back on the bridge, again, the Commander sent for his long overdue cocoa. Chrysler departed to the seaman's for'ard galley, the Commander would have no truck with the wishy-washy liquid concocted for the officers' mess, and returned with a steaming jug and a string of heavy mugs, their handles threaded on a bent wire. Turner watched with approval the reluctance with which the heavy, viscous liquid poured glutinously over the lip of the jug, and nodded in satisfaction after a preliminary taste. He smacked his lips and sighed contentedly.

  "Excellent, young Chrysler, excellent! You have the gift. Torps., an eye on the ship, if you please. Must see where we are."

  He retired to the chart-room on the port side, just aft of the compass platform, and closed the black-out door. Relaxed in his chair, he put his mug on the chart-table and his feet beside it, drew the first deep inhalation of cigarette smoke into his lungs. Then he was on his feet, cursing: the crackle of the W.T. loudspeaker was unmistakable.

  This time it was the Portpatrick. For one reason and another, her reports were generally treated with a good deal of reserve, but this time she was particularly emphatic. Commander Turner had no option; again he reached for the E.A.S. switch.

  Twenty minutes later the stand-down sounded again, but the Commander was to have no cocoa that night. Three times more during the hours of darkness all hands closed up to Action Stations, and only minutes, it seemed, after the last stand-down, the bugle went for dawn stations.

  There was no dawn as we know it. There was a vague, imperceptible lightening in the sky, a bleak, chill greyness, as the men dragged themselves wearily back to their action stations. This, then, was war in the northern seas. No death and glory heroics, no roaring guns and spitting OerKkons, no exaltation of the spirit, no glorious defiance of the enemy: just worn-out sleepless men, numbed with cold and sodden duffels, grey and drawn and stumbling on their feet with weakness and hunger and lack of rest, carrying with them the memories, the tensions, the cumulative physical exhaustion of a hundred such endless nights.

  Vallery, as always, was on the bridge. Courteous, kind and considerate as ever, he looked ghastly. His face was haggard, the colour of putty, his bloodshot eyes deep-sunk in hollowed sockets, his lips bloodless.

  The severe haemorrhage of the previous night and the sleepless night just gone had taken terrible toll of his slender strength.

  In the half-light, the squadron came gradually into view. Miraculously, most of them were still in position. The frigate and minesweeper were together and far ahead of the fleet, during the night they had been understandably reluctant to have their tails tramped on by a heavy cruiser or a carrier. Tyndall appreciated this and said nothing. The Invader had lost position during the night, and lay outside the screen on the port quarter. She received a very testy signal indeed, and came steaming up to resume station, corkscrewing violently in the heavy cross seas.

  Stand-down came at 0800. At 0810 the port watch was below, making tea, washing, queueing up at the galley for H.U. breakfast trays, when a muffled explosion shook the Ulysses. Towels, soap, cups, plates and trays went flying or where left where they were: blasphemous and bitter, the men were on their way before Vallery's hand closed on the Emergency switch.

  Less than half a mile away the Invader was slewing round in a violent half-circle, her flight-deck tilted over at a crazy angle. It was snowing heavily again now, but not heavily enough to obscure the great gouts of black oily smoke belching up for'ard of the Invader's bridge.

  Even as the crew of the Ulysses watched, she came to rest, wallowing dangerously in the troughs between the great waves.

  "The fools, the crazy fools!" Tyndall was terribly bitter, unreasonably so; even to Vallery, he would not admit how much he was now feeling the burden, the strain of command that sparked off his now almost chronic irritability. "This is what happens, Captain, when a ship loses station! And it's as much my fault as theirs-should have sent a destroyer to escort her back." He peered through his binoculars, turned to Vallery. "Make a signal please:' Estimate of damage, please inform.'... That damned U-boat must have trailed her from first light, waiting for a line-up."

  Vallery said nothing. He knew how Tyndall must feel to see one of his ships heavily damaged, maybe sinking. The Invader was still lying over at the same unnatural angle, the smoke rising in a steady column now.

  There was no sign of flames.

  "Going to investigate, sir?" Vallery inquired.

  Tyndall bit his lip thoughtfully and hesitated.

  "Yes, I think we'd better do it ourselves. Order squadron to proceed, same speed, same course. Signal the Baliol and the Nairn to stand by the Invader."

  Vallery, watching the flags fluttering to the yardarm, was aware of someone at his elbow. He half-turned.

  "That was no U-b
oat, sir." The Kapok Kid was very sure of himself.

  "She can't have been torpedoed."

  Tyndall overheard him. He swung round in his chair, glared at the unfortunate navigator.

  "What the devil do you know about it, sir?" he growled. When the Admiral addressed his subordinates as "sir," it was time to take to the boats. The Kapok Kid flushed to the roots of his blond hair, but he stood his ground.

  "Well, sir, in the first place the Sirrus is covering the Invader's port side, though well ahead, ever since your recall signal.

  She's been quartering that area for some time. I'm sure Commander Orr would have picked her up. Also, it's far too rough for any sub. to maintain periscope depth, far less line up a firing track. And if the U-boat did fire, it wouldn't only fire one-six more likely, and, from that firing angle, the rest of the squadron must have been almost a solid wall behind the Invader. But no one else has been hit... I did three years in the trade, sir."

  "I did ten," Tyndall growled. "Guesswork, Pilot, just guesswork."

  "No, sir," Carpenter persisted. "It's not. I can't swear to it", he had his binoculars to his eyes" but I'm almost sure the Invader is going astern. Could only be because her bows, below the waterline, that is, have been damaged or blown off. Must have been a mine, sir, probably acoustic."

  "Ah, of course, of course!" Tyndall was very acid. "Moored in 6,000 feet of water, no doubt?"

  "A drifting mine, sir," the Kapok Kid said patiently. "Or an old acoustic torpedo-spent German torpedoes don't always sink. Probably a mine, though."