by Buzz Harcus
At ten minutes before 2000 hours, roughly ten minutes before eight P.M., First Officer Sigmund Helmstrund and helmsman Dirk Pedersen relieved Alward and Harry. Alward reported the barometer was still dropping, and it looked like they were in for a rough night. Sigmund grinned. “Yah, but ve haf seen vorse veather dan dat. No surprises.”
Alward gave a wave of his hand, and slipped out the side door hurrying down the ladder to the main deck. In confidence, Harry told Sigmund that he was headed for a meeting with Captain Andress. The captain had new information about Alward and his men. He assured Sigmund Captain Andress would give him a full report later. With a hearty, “Have a great watch!” Harry headed below to Captain Andress’s cabin.
He knocked on the Captain’s door and identified himself. “Come in, Harry,” came Captain Andress muffled voice. As Harry started into the cabin, he was suddenly catapulted forward by the force of someone violently shoving him, and he tripped falling hard on his knees, crying out, “What the hell—”.
Quickly regaining his footing, ready to punch somebody out, Harry was surprised to find himself facing a grim faced George Alward holding a menacing automatic in his hand, and aimed in his face.
“Why the gun?” Harry asked, warily looking at Alward. “What the hell‘s going on?” Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of Alwards three stooges: Bert, Doyle and Ace, all also holding guns aimed at him.
“Dey got der jump on me!” bellowed Captain Andress angrily. He was seated in his favorite chair with several strands of rope tied around his chest and upper arms.
“What the hell’s this all about?” demanded Harry.
“I told you I take care of my men,” Alward said in an even tone of voice. “These are my men. They’ve been with me a long time. I’ll keep them”
He cocked his head looking at Harry, then gave a slow shake of his head. “Sorry, Harry, but you and the captain have become a liability to my plans.” His gun was still aimed directly at Harry’s face. “I was impressed by the way you and Sigmund rallied the crew the other day showing them how to ward off boarders. You, especially, caught my attention. Too damned good with weapons. Marine hero. Dangerous for my plans.”
“Pirates,” hissed Harry all of a sudden. “The four of you are damned pirates!”
“You’re absolutely right,” Alward grinned. “I warned you about pirates but you wouldn‘t listen.” Waving his gun in the direction of the three others, he said, “We are pirates, and we’ve just taken command of the Nurad.”
Harry’s eyes swept the other three. He recognized a 9mm Luger in Bert’s hand, a small, but deadly nickle-plated police special in Doyle’s hand, and a larger automatic in Ace‘s hand, all aimed at him. His mind jumped into high gear: What the hell could he do to get the captain and himself out of this damned situation?
“Your mind’s working overtime Harry,” Alward warned. “I can sense it. Don’t try to be a hero. We’re all crack shots, and at this distance, you couldn’t move six inches before you’d be dead.”
Turning his attention to Captain Andress, Alward said, “You were so damned anxious to have additional crew that your First Officer never even bothered to check our small ditty bags when we came on board. We carried on our own weapons.” He chuckled. “You welcomed a band of pirates aboard—and still, we warned you about pirates!” Still grinning, he pulled out a set of keys. “I also have the keys to the armory.”
“This is insane,” Harry snapped. “You won’t get away with it!”
“We’re gonna’ take a walk to the stern,” interrupted Bert Kilgrew. “You, Andress, me, Ace, Doyle and George. Only you two ain’t coming back.”
“Dat’s murder!” snapped Captain Andress.
“Yeah.” Ace chuckled. “I guess you might call it that.” He waved his automatic back and forth between the two. “But then, we’ve had to eliminate people before who got in our way. No hard feelings. Nothing personal.”
“I can’t afford to keep you two on board,” Alward said. “You could cripple our plans for the Nurad. As far as I’m concerned, you’re both just excess baggage.”
“But dis is my ship!” Captain Andress protested. “I am in command—”
“Not anymore. Mine, now,” Alward corrected. “I’m the new skipper of this tub. I’ve got plans for it and they don’t include you, or your crew.”
“NO!” shouted Andress, lunging forward trying to break free of his bindings. “You vill not touch any of my crew! And you vill not touch my niece, Osa! Dat’s an order!”
Alward looked at him, a sadistic smile playing across his lips. “Dat’s not my order,” he retorted. The four pirates broke into gales of laughter.
“I have a feeling you deliberately killed off your crew when your ship sank,” Harry said. “They didn’t stand a chance, did they?”
Alward studied Harry for several seconds before shaking his head. “No great loss. Our biggest loss was the cargo. It meant five million bucks for the four of us.”
“You’ll need Nurad’s entire crew to operate this ship,” Harry stated, sensing the captain‘s concern for the safety of his crew. “Why kill them if they can be helpful to you?” He hoped his comment made sense.
Alward scratched the back of his head, thinking.
“You know, he’s right, George,” Doyle said, getting Alward‘s attention. “We do need a crew. When we get to port, we can dump them, or let them go, or—”
Alward gave Doyle a questioning look.
Harry knew he was thinking about what Doyle had just said. Nurad was a huge complicated ship, probably more than Alward had had under his command in the past. He really needed a crew: this crew!
With a somewhat disgusted sigh, Alward finally nodded yes. “Yeah, I guess we need them. Okay. They live. Now, let’s move outside with these two—and Harry,” he added pointing his gun at him, “stuff your hands in your front pockets and make fists of them. No heroics!”
With guns in their backs, Harry and Captain Andress were marched toward the stern. Kilgrew stopped them short of the stern at the starboard railing. “Yeah, this will do,” he chuckled. “Yeah.”
“Take off dis damned rope,” Andress snapped. “I vant a fighting chance.”
Bert laughed. He looked at Alward, who nodded, “Yeah, give him a fighting chance.”
“Yeah,” Doyle chuckled, “in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.” Then he roared with laughter, “yeah . . . a fighting chance—”
As his hands were freed, Captain Andress, in a last effort to stop their deadly plan, warned, “I tell you to stop now. Vat you intend to do is murder!”
“You two are fish food,” Ace said with a nasty grin. As he spoke, he circled around moving in behind Harry. A sudden sucker punch to his ribs staggered Harry. Gasping for breath, he yanked his hands from his pockets resting them on his knees as he bent over trying to recover from the blow.
“Damn you, Ace,” he growled still trying to catch his breath.
“That’s from Shen Lee Ma for his father,” hissed Ace.
Shen Lee Ma, Harry gasped: the bastard must have engineered getting these four aboard. He had to know they were pirates! He was as crooked as his old man!
As Harry straightened up, Bert caught him in the gut with a wicked left hook, following through with a hard uppercut to his chin that staggered Harry.
“That’s for earlier, stud!” Bert snarled. “You got lucky!”
With sudden swiftness born of hatred, he kicked out catching Harry in the gut with his foot knocking him hard against the railing. “For Colonel Pui,” Bert spat. “I don’t know what you did to them, but those two really hate your guts!”
Harry found himself clutching onto the railing for support. Looking Bert straight in his eyes, he wheezed, “You’re a damned coward!” Then, with a nasty grin, he added, “You’re a damned wimp—and you’ve got a glass jaw!”
“You’re a dead man!” screamed Bert, angrily grabbing for the pistol stuck in his belt. Fumbling, trying to get the weapon fre
e from his belt, he jerked the gun up firing at Harry without taking aim. The shot went wild, caroming off the top of the railing. “You’re a dead man!” he screamed again. “I’m gonna kill you!”
Before Bert could get off a second shot, Ace grabbed Harry’s belt at the back, twisted it sharply, and yanked him up and over the railing dumping him overboard.
CHAPTER 19
Pirates Take Command of NURAD
On the bridge the sound of gunfire startled Sigmund. He immediately glanced out the starboard windows looking astern at the very moment Captain Andress was thrown overboard. “My God!” he exclaimed, horrified.
Breaking free of his momentary paralysis, he sprang into action. “Man overboard!” he yelled at Dirk. At the same time he grabbed the telegraph handles and racked them around to stop. They had to launch a lifeboat.
His mind had automatically gone into MAN OVERBOARD drill: throw anything overboard, life rings, anything that floats— which was the initial thrust of the drill. Captain Andress needed help now!
Glancing about for something to throw overboard, Sigmund saw the damnable life raft. Yes! He had said he was going to get rid of it because it was a bad reminder for the Captain about his friend, Peter. Without hesitating, he grabbed the package, pushed his way out onto the starboard wing, popped the CO2 cylinder, and threw the package overboard. As it fell, the life raft was already inflating.
“Check our position,” he yelled at Dirk. “Ve vill haf to lower a boat to pick him up!” As he gave the order, he slammed his hand on the ship’s alarm, grabbed up the microphone, and shouted into it, “Man Overboard! Man Over—”
“Shut the damned thing off!” yelled George Alward bursting onto the bridge. “Shut it off now!” he ordered. “There is no man overboard! Rescind your last order!”
“But I saw—” Sigmund started to say, but stopped as George jammed his gun in his face. “I said rescind the damned order!” he screamed. “Now!”
Eyeing the gun, Sigmund nodded affirmatively and, grudgingly, picked up the microphone. “Attention! Attention!” he said in a controlled voice. “An error has been made. There is no man overboard. I repeat: there is no man overboard. Please return to your regular duties.”
“First Officer Helmstrund, I have just taken command of the Nurad,” Alward said. “I am now the captain. I give commands. You do what I tell you to do, or you’re over the side. Do I make myself clear!”
Alward held his gun leveled steadily in Sigmund’s face. “My men and I have taken control of the ship. You will obey me and my men, or you will be shark food. Understood?”
“Understood,” replied Sigmund still wary of the gun. “You are now in command.” His voice was quiet, even, and he showed no sign of fear.
Alward grinned. “That’s right. You’ve got it right. And don’t forget it!”
Caught by surprise at Ace’s sudden move, Harry had found himself plummeting down the side of the ship into an angry waiting sea. Try as he might to straighten up so that he entered feet first, he hit hard on his legs and buttocks sinking under several feet before popping to the surface moments later, and swearing a blue streak
Frantically he swam away from the ship to avoid the possibility of being sucked under the stern and ground up in the screws.
A splash close by startled him. “My God, the bastards threw Captain Andress overboard!”
Andress broke the surface moments later swearing a blue streak. “Era vifriga krak!” he screamed. “Era javla skitstovlar! Dos filthy bastards! Dos sonsofbitches!!”
The sharp repetitive sound of a gun firing could be heard above them. Bullets slapped into the sea about the startled two. Looking up, they saw Bert leaning over the railing pumping shots at the two bobbing heads until his gun clicked empty. As luck would have it, neither man was hit.
In a matter of minutes both men had cleared the stern and were falling behind helplessly watching their ship moving further and further away. Bert hung over the railing yelling at them. “Don’t worry about your broad,” Bert screamed. “I‘ll take good care of her! You’re both dead men! Shark food!”
Struggling in the choppy waters, Harry and Captain Andress looked in dismay after the departing vessel. “Look!” Andress yelled, “Another vun!” The two watched sick at heart as, what appeared to be a body, fell from the bridge wing. Who, they wondered? Sigmund? But then the body’s appearance seemed to change before their eyes slapping hard on the water, but it didn’t sink, rather stayed flat on the surface.
Fighting their way through the waves and wind-whipped spray, the two swam toward the spot where they figured the person had landed. Choking on sea water, eyes burning, the two struggled to find the third person.
“A raft!” yelled Captain Andress. “It’s a raft!”
Now fully inflated the raft was quickly caught by the wind and in danger of being swept past them. Captain Andress lunged forward quickly grabbing hold of a lifeline that encircled the raft and held on for dear life. Harry, too, lunged forward grabbing the lifeline and pulled himself tight to the raft.
Heaving himself over the side, Harry crawled into the raft dropping to the bottom. Turning, he grabbed hold of Captain Andress and pulled him over the side and into the bottom joining him. Totally exhausted, they sat back gasping for breath.
Captain Andress rested his beefy hand on the wet rubber. He looked down at it curiously for several seconds, then suddenly broke into laughter, laughing long and hard. It only took Harry a moment to realize why he was laughing, and he, to, laughed long and hard. The raft was Peter’s escape raft, and now it was theirs. God bless Sigmund, and they were sure it was him, for his quick thinking! And bless Peter, too, for his illogical plan to escape from the ship.
“We’re safe for the moment,” Harry yelled. “Yah, for der moment,” Captain Andress answered as his eyes turned toward thickening black clouds beyond the disappearing Nurad.
In the fading daylight, Andress hurriedly explored the inside of the raft. Tucked in every nook and cranny was food, two canteens of water, oars and several feet of line. “Peter must haf figured on being in dis raft for several days,” he yelled at Harry. “It is vell stocked.” Grabbing up the line, he threw one end at Harry yelling for him to tie the line around his waist. “Ve’re in for vun hell of a ride!”
Harry quickly tied the line about him, then looked to see that Andress had done the same. The small raft moved ungainly, bouncing about before the wind on white-capped waves which angrily drove them upwards cresting mountainous seas, then dropped into valleys that left them looking up at tons of water threatening to crush them. Screaming wind tossed them about sending them down the length of a wave in what could only be described as terrifying, only to crest another wave and repeat, all the while getting slapped constantly with stinging spray as the raft roared down the next wave.
Frantically the two held onto their safety lines for dear life as the raft pitched and yawed threatening to dump them. “At least we’re alive for the moment!” Harry yelled.
“Ve get dos sonsofbitches,” Andress yelled back. “And I’ll personally keelhaul every last vun of dem!”
Aboard Nurad, Bert entered the bridge a short time after the two men were thrown overboard. Without a word, he stepped behind Sigmund and Dirk. Calmly he re-loaded his gun. If it bothered Sigmund he didn’t show it. He had moved the telegraph handles to full ahead, and now stood facing forward watching the growing storm, ignoring the man‘s presence.
Doyle and Ace entered moments later.
“Mr. Helmstrund, these are my trusted crew,” Alward said stepping before the First Officer and giving a wide sweep of his hand at the three men. “Mister Kilgrew and Mister Masters are my two mates. My chief engineer is Ace Dingman. Do not cross them or do anything stupid. They kill at the least infraction of my rules. Is that understood?”
Sigmund acknowledged with a nod of his head. Poor Dirk stood erect at the helm, his knees knocking. “Shall I continue in charge of dis vatch?” asked Sigmund.
Sigmund returned to his task as First Officer. Quietly he picked up the binoculars and looked straight ahead into the approaching storm. No one other than Dirk had seen him throw the raft overboard for Captain Andress. He doubted Alward or the others would notice it missing from the bridge. However, his immediate fear was that with the storm’s increasing intensity, the raft might have been blown away from the captain; he might be struggling for his life at this very moment. All he could do was hope and pray, hope Captain Andress could find the raft, and pray that somehow he could ride out the storm.
Alward checked the barometer. “Still falling. We’re in for a blow!” He stepped to the chart table hunching over studying the chart of the Philippine Islands. With the dividers he started measuring, making changes in the course. “We’re gonna make a course change soon,” he said. “We’re heading for Manila.”
Almost as an after thought, he added, “Starting now, Sigmund, we work six hour watches. Understood?”
Sigmund gritted his teeth. It was another way Alward let him know that he was in command. “Understood,” Sigmund replied.
The storm raged on into the blackness of night. The small raft was battered constantly by pounding waves and wind-swept spray which sent the raft sailing down one trough then up to the crest of another wave, twisting and turning as the two soaked occupants held on for dear life.
On cresting a mountainous wave, the raft was caught by a powerful gust of wind that sent it cartwheeling down the slope of a wave tossing the soaked occupants into the water. Once again the two fought valiantly to save their lives. Harry wrapped his safety line tight around his wrist and slowly, surely, pulled himself back to the raft. With the help of another strong gust of wind, he was able to flip the raft over, righting it, and then pulled himself aboard.
