A Drop in the Ocean

by James Cooke

  ‘Christ alive Brian, I’m not sure about this. I don’t know if I could put up with this godawful stench,’ moaned Sarah.

  Brian didn’t want this to become a possible stumbling block and sought to move quickly on.

  ‘I’m sure that once we’re at sea, with a gentle breeze, it shouldn’t be a problem.’ He tried to reassure her.

  ‘Okay, but you’d better not be lying to me, Brian. C’mon, let’s find this damned boat then.’ Sarah retorted.

  After walking up and down the dockside for a while trying not to appear too conspicuous, which seemed pretty much impossible; Brian decided to act and approached a fisherman who was sat down on a packing case and working on a large fishing net. He asked him where they might find the Forties Siren. He glanced up at Brian with a forlorn face, and after a long pause said, ‘Go to the very end of the dock, it’s the last boat moored up. You can’t miss it. You know Captain Gustav then?’

  ‘Not exactly, but many thanks for your help.’ Brian replied without going into any details.

  All the dockside workers eyes were upon the trio as they made their way to the southern end of the dock and Brian was very conscious of the fact that Lucy and Sarah were drawing unwanted attention from the entirely male local workforce. Brian ushered them on as best he could. Thinking they might be taken for a ride, the bad feeling subsided when at last they saw what they were searching for. She was indeed the very last boat, the Forties Siren. She was much bigger than Brian had imagined, fifty-odd feet of freezer stern trawler. Her freeboard above the water line was blue and white below it. On her starboard bow was the name Forties Siren and below that a painting of Thalassa, the Greek Primordial Goddess of the Sea. She was like a mermaid only with a pair of formidable horns that curled around like a devilish goat. A lot of activity was taking place with pallet loads of provisions being craned aboard and several forklift trucks loading more provisions out of the back of lorries. Emboldened so far with his progress, Brian approached a worker stacking boxes of foodstuffs onto a pallet and asked him where they could find Captain Gustav.

  The worker paused and took a good view of Brian, Lucy and Sarah, his eyes filled with suspicion.

  ‘Who are you?’ he asked in a slightly unfriendly tone.

  ‘Very important people, that’s who.’ Sarah replied.

  Brian raised an eyebrow.

  ‘We’d like to talk with your Captain about fish.’ Brian came straight to the point.

  The worker smiled and then burst out laughing.

  ‘Ha-ha, would you look at him, you want some fish. Why don’t you go to the supermarket, they have plenty of fish?’

  Brian had tried to ask nicely, but now he could feel the hackles on his back rising.

  Before he could say any more, Sarah interjected, ‘Now just a minute, we’re world-class scientists, and we have business to discuss with your Captain. So, if you don’t mind,’ Sarah barked.

  The worker stopped laughing, momentarily and replied ‘Oh why didn’t you say so in the first place. You’ll find him at Peaches.’

  ‘What the devil is Peaches?’ Sarah replied, frowning.

  ‘Peaches bar on Earl Street,’ eventually came the reply after an awkward pause. A couple of other workers, who must have been able to overhear the conversation, came over. Brian was worried that an unwelcome crowd might form, and before Sarah could get going again, he chipped in, ‘Thank you, sir, you’ve been very helpful. Come on guys, let’s not bother the man anymore, you can see he’s very busy.’

  Sarah appeared miffed and then Brian intimated to Lucy to take his hand, and together they walked briskly away.

  With a flea in her ear, Sarah prodded Brian’s arm.

  ‘Hey Brian; I had things under control, you should have let me deal with him.’

  Before she could say any more, he replied, ‘Sarah, please don’t be so headstrong. Believe me, I can tell when things are on the verge of getting out of control.’

  Sarah raised both hands and purposely gazed away; it was her way of admitting she might be wrong.

  ‘C’mon Sarah, let's not argue about this. Okay, so we’ve found out where he might be, that’s all we need to know for now.’

  They headed back in the general direction of town, and after forty minutes or so, eventually found Earl Street and halfway down it, Peaches bar. Brian wasn’t entirely surprised when he saw it, for it was a very seedy place and he’d been to a few of those in his time, but this was on another level altogether. Passing through the filthy swing doors, adorned with a multitude of call girl cards, they were hit with the deep bass of hip-hop music thumping away. A large central bar surrounded a raised dais with a dancing pole at each end. Two young ladies, wearing nothing but neon coloured thongs, gyrated away to the music.

  ‘Oh - my - god.’ exclaimed Sarah. It seemed to Brian as if she had never seen anything quite like this before, but then again, he thought, maybe she has.

  ‘You take me to such nice places, Brian, I might have known,’ Sarah muttered, eyes wide opened.

  Brian shrugged his shoulders in apology as if it was his fault bringing her into such an establishment and said, ‘Come on let’s get this over and done with; then we can get out of here.’

  Sarah eyeballed the dancer’s as they went in, captivated by their dancing skills.

  Brian was relieved that it wasn’t busy; it was only late in the morning after all. After quickly scanning the place, he could see just three men sat at the bar together with one bartender. Trying to act as if he were a regular customer, Brian casually sat on a bar stool, while Sarah and Lucy hung back and sat at a nearby table. The bartender came over to Brian.

  ‘What’ll it be?’

  ‘Beer,’ came his reply while pointing to a Castle lager pump.

  After a brief pause; Brian went on, ‘Excuse me sir, but do you know where I might find Captain Gustav?’

  The bartender poured a beer and without saying a word motioned with his head and eyes to his immediate left. Brian got the message. He went over to Sarah and whispered into her ear, ‘that’s our man, Captain Gustav is over there; please let me do the talking.’

  ‘Be my guest Sarah replied,’ still watching the dancers.

  Taking his beer with him, Brian walked over to where Captain Gustav was sitting and sat on the adjacent stool. He decided to come right out with it, rather than wait a short while. He didn’t want the man to get any wrong idea’s about him.

  ‘Excuse me, sir, are you by any chance Captain Gustav?’

  Captain Gustav eyeballed everyone suspiciously and without saying a word, nodded confirmation.

  ‘Excellent, okay in that case I’ll just cut to the chase if I may. We that is myself, and my two friends over there need to get to Marion Island, and we were hoping that, if we were to pay you in cash, you might consider taking us with you; on your boat so to speak, the Forties Siren. Of course, we would pay you for taking us. Cash up front.’

  A deceased uncle of Brian’s once gave him some advice many years ago; “Always be yourself, and never try and pretend to be something else,” he had told him. It was something that had always stuck in the back of his mind; no doubt just like many other memorable sayings that people accumulate over the years. Brian had always tried to live by that mantra whenever he met somebody for the first time. He hoped it would pay dividends for them now.

  Captain Gustav smiled. ‘Marion Island? Is this a wind-up? If it is, please don’t waste my time Mr.’

  Seem’s like the right man, and he’s talking. I just need to be careful now, though Brian.

  ‘No sir, we are deadly serious. We wouldn’t dare to waste your time. You see, we have some - some serious business to attend to on the Island, and it's vitally important that we go there.’

  ‘Really, is that so? So, you want me to believe that and go another thousand miles past my fishing zone?’ Gustav replied.

  Brian could see that this wasn’t going to be quite so straightforward as he’d had hoped.

  ‘
As I said, we’ll pay you whatever it takes, upfront and in cash of course. Could you please at least consider it?’ Brian replied as sincerely as he could. A nagging doubt crept into Brian’s mind, and he wondered if this was going to lead to a dead end.

  After a silent pause, Captain Gustav suddenly relaxed and chuckled.

  ‘Well if you’re really that desperate, let me think about it. Three extra crew members to feed, it’ll take another two weeks to go to that godforsaken place and back again without doing any fishing.’

  He paused momentarily while doing a mental calculation.

  ‘Three-hundred thousand, cash!’ he replied positively.

  ‘Three – hundred - thousand!’ Brian repeated, parrot fashion.

  He tried hard not to appear overly alarmed at that.

  Jesus, we’re screwed now, wait till I tell Sarah, thought Brian.

  ‘Okay, Captain give me a minute please to discuss with my friends.’

  ‘Suit yourself.’ Gustav replied.

  Brian to Sarah and Lucy, slowly shaking his head. Conveniently, the dancers had stopped for a while, enabling Sarah to give Brian her full attention.

  ‘So what did he say, have we got a deal?’ Sarah asked.

  Brian sported a melancholy expression, ‘Sort of, I mean yes but there’s a problem.’

  Sarah frowned, mouth open in confusion, ‘Come on, Brian, deal or no deal?’

  ‘Okay, he’ll take us, but I think the price is way too much, even for you, Sarah.’

  ‘Oh, for god’s sake, how much, Brian?’

  ‘Three hundred thousand.’ Brian replied, sheepishly.

  Sarah didn’t react initially, but Brian could see it in her eye’s that she was thinking about it.

  ‘What currency did he say Brian?’

  ‘Currency, err he didn’t, does that make a difference.’

  Sarah sighed in frustration.

  ‘Of course, it does, if he’s taking Rand, then I think that’s reasonable. Go and ask him again.’

  It had never crossed Brian’s mind at the time to ask, and now he felt stupid having to go back and ask, but he did, and he came back and told Sarah it was Rand as if that would make a difference.

  ‘Just what I thought, three-hundred thousand Rand, just over twenty-thousand dollars. I can cover it. Go tell him we’ve got a deal. Oh, and don’t you forget, we’re not getting our hands dirty.’ Sarah replied.

  Brian went back to Captain Gustav and said, ‘Captain, I’ve had a chat with my friends, and we’d like to accept your offer. Will you take American dollars?’

  The Captains beaming smile said it all.

  ‘Sure, why not,' the Captain replied, and then he chuckled again.

  ‘Just one other thing, Captain, before I forget, there are just a few things I need to ask you.’

  Brian relayed Sarah’s concerns, ‘Don’t you worry about that, it’s dangerous enough as it is out there without having to nursemaid a trio of townies.’

  Brian smiled in relief, ‘Thank you, Captain, this means a lot to us.’

  Captain Gustav took on a more serious tone.

  ‘Okay, this is the way it’s going to happen. We set sail at five this afternoon, if you’re not there by then, too bad, I shan’t wait.’

  Sarah came over and paid him half the amount in cash, as discreetly as she could.

  ‘Ten thousand, where’s the rest?’ Captain Gustav asked.

  ‘Captain, you can’t expect us to pay everything up front surely? Half now and the rest when we arrive, you can’t say fairer than that, can you?’

  Captain Gustav smiled and laughed, ‘You drive a hard bargain lady, sure why not!’

  After shaking hands on the deal, the trio departed.

  They didn’t have long to get some of their own provisions to take with them, and once they had finished doing that, it was nearly four in the afternoon; time to head straight back to the dock and the Forties Siren.

  By now it was a quarter to five, they were cutting it fine. Fortunately, the gantry was still down. Since there didn’t appear to be anyone around, they invited themselves on board. Brian could immediately feel the swell of the sea and the strong smell of diesel and fish. He was used to the smell of diesel but wasn’t too sure about the fish. They performed a discreet inspection of the boat and eventually saw some of the crew busy at work. Just then, a door opened, and a young man came through. ‘Hey! Welcome aboard. You must be the crazy folks the Captain was telling me about. I’m Jimmy, the Captain's mate.’

  Brian smiled back at him ‘Hi I’m Brian, this is Sarah, and this is Lucy. Is the Captain here?’

  ‘Sure, he is, he’s on the bridge. C’mon I’ll take you there, just follow me. Watch the steps ladies, ha, ha,’ Jimmy replied enthusiastically. He came across to all who met him as a happy character, and it seemed that unusual guest made him even more so. Jimmy led the way up to some steps and through a door into the small bridge. The Captain was sat in a deck chair with his feet up on a small table.

  ‘Well now, so here you are. I thought for a moment that you might not show up. Jimmy here is a good lad; he’ll show you to your bunks and what little else we have in the way of facilities. I’m afraid it’s not much. You have to remember that this is just a fishing boat, not your average cruise liner,’ chuckled the Captain.

  ‘No problem at all Captain. We can’t thank you enough for taking us. When do you think we might arrive?’ Brian asked.

  ‘Well, like I said before it’ll be the best part of a week. Let me be perfectly clear; it’s going to get rough out there, very rough. The Southern seas can be merciless at the best of times. I’d advise you to stay indoors if you can, but if you have to go topsides at all, Jimmy will find you some oilskins to put on. Now if you don’t mind, I’ve got to get going. Join me for supper at nine this evening, and perhaps you can tell me why you so desperately need to go to Marion Island.’

  Jimmy was happier than ever to have something new to do for a change and took great pleasure in showing Brian, Lucy and Sarah to their bunks. Sarah was glad that it was relatively calm as the sun sunk lower and lower to the West. She smiled at Brian and agreed with him that this wasn’t so bad after all, as they sat on a storage chest, watching the sky go through a cascade of colours. Shortly before nine, Sarah knocked on Brian’s cabin door. ‘Brian, are you ready? I was thinking, perhaps it might be an idea if Lucy didn’t join us unless of course, you want to explain why she doesn’t eat.’

  Brian knew Sarah had a point, but he didn’t feel comfortable with the idea.

  ‘I know what you’re saying, be we can’t keep her locked away like she doesn’t exist, for days on end,’ he replied.

  ‘Okay, I’ll leave it up to you then.’

  Thanks a lot, thought Brian.

  ‘I don’t think it matters one way or another now personally. I’m getting a bit tired of all this cloak and dagger stuff.’

  ‘Well it’s up to you, Brian, god only knows how he’ll react to that little revelation.’

  After collecting Lucy, they all made their way to the Captain’s table and saw that Jimmy had been busy setting a small square table with a curious collection of old knives and forks that had seen better days. The Captain invited them to sit down with him. Jimmy was the jack of all trades it seemed, for he had prepared a hearty fish stew and was busy ladling up portions in a collection of various enamelled bowls.

  ‘Jimmy, you’ve excelled yourself again, I see. Go and fetch the rum for our guests. Eat my friends, eat.’ Captain Gustav said jovially. Brian didn’t hesitate, he for one, was hungry and tucked into the stew with gusto. Sarah was turning an unhealthy shade of green and pushed the bony chunks of fish around in the watery stew with her fork. Lucy naturally did not attempt to eat. Captain Gustav saw that Lucy and Sarah hadn’t eaten.

  ‘Come on girls eat up, I’m afraid this is all there is more or less for the duration of the trip, it’s the one thing we’ve got plenty of. Now tell me, why on earth Marion Island? You know there’s nothin
g there apart from a few crazy scientists.’ the Captain explained.

  ‘I think you’re right Captain. The thing is, the Island has some interesting geology that we want to study, and we’d prefer to see it with our own eyes,’ Sarah offered by way of a lame explanation.

  Captain Gustav didn’t press the subject any further much to Brian’s relief. After a few shots of the Captain’s navy strength rum, Brian’s head was spinning, and he could see Sarah giving him the eye; Brian cottoned on and had the sense to stop while he was ahead. After thanking the Captain for his hospitality, they retired to their meagre bunks to sleep, or in Lucy’s case, go into low energy mode, or so they hoped.

  They had no problem getting off to sleep, the fresh sea air had made them both feel very tired and together with the gentle rocking of the boat they were both fast asleep. But at three a.m., Brian was awoken, thrown out of his bunk due to the violent motion of the Forties Siren; he felt they were on a giant rollercoaster of some sort, going up then down continuously to such an extent it was difficult to stand upright without falling over. Then, it dawned on him that the horrible howling and clanging noise meant that we were in a terrible storm. He saw the rain lashing at the porthole window and occasional bright flashes. Through the sound of the maelstrom, he heard someone retching and stepped outside to see Sarah puking up in the corridor. The honeymoon was over. For the next four days, the weather gradually deteriorated. Ahead lay colossal waves as big as two-story houses; such that as they reached the bottom of a trough, the crest of the next wave was higher than their boat. Brian wasn’t afraid to admit he found it terrifying wondered if Sarah would last the voyage at this rate. Even Lucy appeared alarmed and held onto something most of the time. On the morning of the fifth day, the roaring forties subsided a little, and the waves grew smaller although still several meters high.