Diving Stations

by Edwyn Gray

  Firefly was lying broad-side on the destroyer, just over a mile away on the western side of the bay and the bows of the submarine were just visible abaft her stern. Ottershaw nodded.

  ‘Very neat,’ he conceded. ‘But I don’t see what good it’s going to do. You can’t torpedo a Japanese destroyer in broad daylight and get away with it.’

  Hamilton shrugged. ‘Let’s hope it won’t come to that. But I most certainly intend to if the worse comes to the worse. And Aritsu knows I will.’

  ‘You’re forgetting one thing,’ Ottershaw retorted sharply. ‘I happen to be the Senior Naval Officer present. You therefore take your orders from me. And I have no intention of allowing you to cause a major diplomatic incident merely for the sake of maintaining appearances. We’ll sort this matter out by negotiation. And if that fails we’ll have to rely on the authorities in Hong Kong getting us off the hook.’

  Hamilton said nothing. Ottershaw might be SNO but if Rapier fired her torpedoes neither of them were likely to survive the resulting explosion. In which case seniority wouldn’t matter a damn!

  Ottershaw closed the glass scuttle and returned to his armchair. ‘We’ve got to play for time. It looks as though there’s a nasty storm brewing and Aritsu’s bloody twitchy. Don’t ask me why, but that’s how it seems to me. In my opinion he’ll bluff it out as long as he dares, but I’m certain he intends to up-anchor and steam clear of the bay before the storm hits us.’

  The steel door behind Hamilton’s back opened and before he could reply Aritsu returned to the wardroom. He looked completely at ease and was smiling to himself as if enjoying a secret joke.

  ‘I meant to congratulate you on the way you handled the submarine, Lieutenant,’ he said ingratiatingly. ‘My lookouts had no idea you had passed under the boom until you surfaced behind the gunboat. They will be suitably punished, of course, for their inefficiency.’

  ‘I hope they were not too inefficient to note the position in which Rapier has been moored,’ Hamilton stressed pointedly.

  Aritsu looked at him impassively. He was quite willing to acknowledge the lieutenant’s skill in seamanship, but he was not prepared to accept that he had been outsmarted.

  ‘A little unfriendly, I thought, Lieutenant. After all Suma has her guns trained fore and aft and is in no way menacing the gunboat.’ He spread his hands. Firefly is free to leave whenever she wishes.’

  ‘Without her Captain?’

  ‘I see no reason why not, Lieutenant. He is, as you can see for yourself, an honored guest. He will come to no harm.’ Aritsu smiled expansively to reveal his over-large teeth. ‘We were in fact, just considering the terms of a suitable apology when you arrived. The matter would have been concluded within a few more minutes.’

  ‘Is this correct, sir?’ Hamilton asked Ottershaw.

  ‘Well, more or less, I suppose,’ Firefly's captain agreed. ‘Of course I don’t accept that an apology is called for, but if Commander Aritsu insists and provided Hong Kong agrees, it would seem the simplest solution.’

  ‘You will be pleased to know that Hong Kong has already authorized an apology,’ Aritsu said smoothly. He took the folded signal clip from his pocket and handed it to Ottershaw. ‘The signal was apparently received about fifteen minutes ago - my wireless operator passed it to me when I went up to the bridge.’ He smiled. ‘So there now seems no impediment to clearing the matter up.’

  Hamilton who had been listening to the exchange, walked back to the scuttle, pulled it open, and sniffed the air.

  ‘Except for the typhoon,’ he said casually.

  ‘What typhoon?’ Aritsu asked with unexpected sharpness.

  ‘It’s probably nothing worth worrying about,’ Hamilton shrugged. ‘Our Met officer is always getting his facts mixed up. Everyone knows it’s not the season for typhoons.’ Aritsu was not so easily put off. He suddenly seemed ill at ease. Walking to the barometer hanging on the bulkhead he tapped it with his finger. The mercury dropped a full inch and Hamilton could see tiny beads of sweat glistening on the Commander’s forehead. The expression on his face, however, remained as impassive as ever as he turned away from the glass.

  ‘A bad storm perhaps, Lieutenant,’ he agreed. ‘But surely not a typhoon? I have received no weather warnings from Combined Fleet HQ.’

  ‘There was a freak wireless blackout a couple of hours ago,’ Hamilton told him with seeming innocence. ‘An electrical storm or something. My radio operator picked up a Japanese Navy transmission, but it was practically unreadable. Perhaps that is why you have heard nothing.’ Aritsu strode to the opened scuttle and stared out at the glowering mauve-grey sky. He made no comment, but Hamilton could see him gnawing at the knuckle of his right hand with his splayed front teeth. So Ottershaw had been right. It was a situation that might prove to be worth exploiting and he decided to play on his fears.

  ‘I’ve never been caught in a typhoon myself,’ he continued conversationally. ‘But I hear they can be damned frightening. Didn’t your people lose a destroyer in one a few years ago, Commander?’

  Aritsu was too busy with his own private problems to pay much attention to the question and he nodded absently. ‘That is correct, Lieutenant. The Tomodzuru capsized off Sasebo in a typhoon during exercises in 1934. I was serving in the same flotilla when it happened.’

  ‘Must have been an unpleasant experience,’ Hamilton said sympathetically. ‘Isn’t this boat - Suma - one of the Tomodzuru class?’

  Aritsu was slowly pacing up and down the wardroom. He nodded curtly but ignored the question and Ottershaw wondered what Rapier's skipper was leading up to. He was more than a little surprised at the depth of technical knowledge shown by Hamilton’s next remark. Nick had obviously been doing his homework.

  ‘That’s odd then,’ Hamilton continued. ‘I thought they’d cut down top-weight and added bilges to increase stability. I don’t recall seeing any additional bilges on Suma. And, if you’ll forgive me for saying so, she looked bloody top- heavy when I came alongside in the sampan.’

  Aritsu stopped pacing and turned to face the two British officers. ‘You are very observant, Lieutenant. And, unfortunately you are quite correct. They modified Chidori and the other ships of the class, but for some reason, Suma was never taken in hand. Believe me, gentlemen, this boat is a death trap in bad weather. We have less than a two to one chance of surviving a-typhoon on the open sea. If we are trapped inside this bay we might just as well commit suicide here and now.’

  Ottershaw suddenly grabbed the drift of Hamilton’s carefully guided conversation and, taking his cue, he stood up. ‘In that case, Commander, perhaps we should not detain you any further. You will obviously wish to get to sea as soon as possible.’

  Aritsu gestured in agreement. ‘Of course, Lieutenant Commander. I will have my motorboat take you and the Lieutenant back to your ships. As professional sailors, we are all aware that our greatest enemy is the sea itself. I am sure you will be equally anxious to get back to your own ships before the typhoon strikes. I suggest we tell our respective governments that the whole incident was due to a misunderstanding and that no apologies are called for.’ Ottershaw picked up his cap from the table and started towards the door, but Hamilton reached out his hand and stopped him.

  ‘Hold hard, Harry,’ he whispered, ‘we’ve got the bastard on the run. Let’s rub his bloody face in it while we’ve got the chance.’ He turned to Aritsu before the gunboat captain could object. ‘It’s too late to get out of the bay, now, Commander.’ The cutting edge of authority in Hamilton’s voice caused the Japanese officer to look up sharply. ‘I reckon the typhoon will hit us inside the next thirty minutes - and that won’t even give you time to flash up your second boiler. I suppose you could lay out extra anchors, but if you can’t hold your bows into the wind I don’t give much for your chances.’

  Aritsu nodded with stoic resignation. ‘I have no doubt you are right,’ he agreed quietly. ‘I would like to have a few minutes alone while I consider what to do. In the circ
umstances, gentlemen, I must ask you to return to your ships without delay.’

  Hamilton could feel the deck of the destroyer moving beneath his feet as the sea took on the long swell that normally preceded the approach of a typhoon. Ottershaw fidgeted impatiently at the delay. What the hell was the fool playing at? Aritsu undoubtedly had problems, but Firefly’s predicament was no less worrying. And even Hamilton would have more than his fair share of trouble when he tried to steer the submarine out of the storm- lashed bay. And yet, for some unaccountable reason, Rapier's skipper seemed in no great hurry.

  The three men made their way along the narrow steel corridor leading out to the well deck just abaft the bridge companionway. Suma’s officer-of-the-watch greeted the Commander with a copybook salute and acknowledged Aritsu’s clipped instructions before scurrying away to carry them out. Taking advantage of the hiatus, Hamilton walked to the rails and surveyed the worsening weather conditions.

  The sea was already rising and small white wave crests scattered the bay as the wind grew in strength and intensity. The entrance of the bay, flanked by tree-clad cliffs, seemed sealed by an impenetrable black curtain as the front moved towards the coast.

  ‘What’s your maximum speed with one boiler?’ he asked Aritsu.

  ‘Fifteen knots if we’re lucky.’

  Hamilton did not answer immediately. He stared at the ominously dark storm clouds gathering over the sea beyond the entrance to the bay. ‘I suppose that’s not much if you’ve got to fight your way out in the teeth of an eighty knots gale,’ he commented. He turned away from the rail and glanced up at Suma’s single funnel in time to see a billowing mass of black smoke spluttering from the stack, as the engineer switched on the sprays and flashed up the cold Number Two boiler. Then his eyes moved down to the heavy bridge hamper and he shook his head sadly.

  ‘The Commander’s right, Harry,’ he said loudly enough for Aritsu to hear. ‘The sooner we get off this floating bloody coffin the better. She’ll be over in a couple of seconds if she breaches and the wind catches her.’

  ‘I couldn’t agree more,’ Ottershaw said fervently. ‘I don’t know why you’re hanging about.’ He made his way across to where Suma’s motorboat was waiting to take them off. Hamilton’s gloomy comments were beginning to send cold shivers down his spine. And what they were going to do to Aritsu was anyone’s guess!

  But Hamilton continued to survey the situation with all the leisure of a man intent on solving an abstract technical problem from the quiet depth of a comfortable armchair. ‘Of course,’ he observed to Aritsu, ‘it’s unfortunate you chose to anchor with your stern facing the entrance. It means you’ll have to swing completely round to get your bows to the wind. We do things differently in the Royal Navy. We always make sure we’re pointing in the right direction to begin with.’ He nodded towards Firefly and Rapier and swallowing his pride, the Japanese was forced to concede his point. Hamilton’s cruelly objective analysis of the situation only served to increase his own unease over the impossibility of his position.

  Even assuming he could perform the herculean task of turning the destroyer through a complete half circle of one hundred and eighty degrees without breaching, Aritsu was doubtful whether Suma’s engine would produce enough power to make headway against the ferocious strength of the hurricane-force winds.

  ‘Not much use laying out extra anchors either,’ Hamilton continued as if he could read Aritsu’s mind. ‘Bad holding ground - shifting sands according to our charts. You’ll be hurled back onto the reefs.’

  ‘Are you quite...’ Ottershaw began, but Hamilton cut him off brusquely in mid-sentence.

  ‘If you’re willing to take part in a spot of unorthodox seamanship, however. I reckon I might be able to help,’ he told Suma’s skipper with a sudden and totally unexpected smile.

  ‘I am quite prepared to consider anything you suggest, Lieutenant.’ Aritsu successfully hid the eagerness in his voice, but Hamilton knew the reaction was that of a drowning man clutching at a straw. And, in the circumstances, it was an apt analogy. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully as if considering his plan.

  ‘I reckon we could use Rapier as a sort of sea anchor. If we pass a couple of six-inch hawsers around the conning tower and I submerge to say, thirty feet, I could drag your bows around in half the time it would take you using your engines and rudder. Then, having got you pointing into the wind, Rapier could act as an anchor. What’s your weight?’

  ‘535 tons standard - probably less at the moment as our bunkers are half-empty.’

  ‘Excellent! Rapier displaces just under a thousand tons in diving trim. If I poke my motors up to full power, I reckon I could just about hold you until the typhoon blows itself out.’

  ‘It’ll never work,’ Ottershaw interjected before Aritsu could answer. He had learned his seamanship at Dartmouth and he did not believe in unorthodox solutions. Hamilton’s ideas were all very well in theory, but practice would be another matter. It was just the sort of foolhardy scheme he would have expected from this crazy submariner.

  ‘Perhaps it won’t,’ Aritsu agreed. ‘But it’s worth trying. And I can see no alternative.’

  Hamilton grinned, patted the Commander on the shoulder reassuringly, and swung himself over the rail. Ottershaw followed and moments later they were huddled in the sternsheets of the open motorboat, as it throttled to full power and eased away from the destroyer’s beam.

  The epicenter of the storm was still some thirty minutes away, but the waters of the bay were already being whipped to a frenzy of flying spray by the rising wind. The two British officers were quickly soaked to the skin as the coxswain of the motorboat swung the bows towards the distant Rapier. Once out of the protective lee of the Suma, the mounting strength of the sea swept the cockleshell boat to starboard and it pitched violently as Shinikani fought the controls to maintain course.

  ‘You must be bloody mad, Nick,’ Ottershaw grumbled as a wave broke against the side of the boat and threw several gallons of unpleasantly cold water into his lap. ‘After all the things you’ve said about the Japanese, I’m surprised you’re prepared to help them. If I had my way they could bloody well drown.’

  Hamilton ducked as another wave struck the motor boat squarely on the beam and kicked it to port. He wiped the water from his face and grinned. ‘You’ve got to admit one thing, Harry. I succeeded in getting you away from Aritsu. And saved you from making that apology.’

  ‘We’d have got away in any case,’ Ottershaw objected. He clung to the gunwales as the motor boat pitched and yawed. It was worse than riding on a giant roller-coaster, and, for once in his life, he felt the insidious pangs of seasickness. Exposed to the full blast of the gale now roaring through the entrance to the bay, the motorboat wallowed unsteadily and then dug its bows into the foam- flecked seas. The well-deck was several inches deep in water, and Heichiro started operating the manual bailer as the mechanical pumps failed to cope with the inrush. ‘If you’d have left when Aritsu first suggested it we might have had a more comfortable ride home. But no - you have to hang around until the weather conditions made things virtually impossible.’ He paused for a moment. ‘And why the hell did you say this was bad holding ground?’

  Shinikani spun the wheel sharply to avoid being pooped by a towering wall of water coming up from astern, threw the motorboat into the trough that followed and then allowed it to climb the next wave. There was a loud crash and a shuddering jolt as the little boat fell into the trough beyond but, apparently undeterred by the punishment he was inflicting on the vessel, the Japanese coxswain kept the throttles wide open and continued steering towards the submarine.

  ‘I’m quite friendly with a Portuguese merchant in Macao,’ Hamilton explained as the boat corkscrewed from wave top to wave top. ‘He’s taught me a lot of things about the East that I didn’t know before. The worst thing that can happen to an Oriental is to lose “face”, and that’s precisely what I’m planning for our friend Aritsu. I had to hold on to the last moment
in order to convince him that nothing could save his ship. And by then he was so shit- scared he never thought of checking the facts on his own charts. As it is, I reckon we can save him. And, if I do, the Japanese Navy is going to lose “face” to us in a big way-enough, probably, to make up for all those damned apologies we’ve been forced to make recently.’

  By some unexplained miracle, Shinikani brought the motorboat alongside Rapier without mishap although, for one horrifying moment, Hamilton thought the wind would sweep them hard against the submarine’s sharp steel bows. But, with a deft touch of the helm, the Japanese coxswain swung the motorboat under the sheltering lee of the hull. The deck party quickly threw a line to Heichiro, who grabbed it and wound it tightly around the fo’c’sle mooring cleat. Hamilton and Ottershaw struggled up the sloping, wave-swept ballast tank like mountaineers scaling the Matterhorn in a blizzard. The smooth steel plating offered no footholds and their leather shoes slipped and slithered on the weed covered surface. Morgan and one of the deckhands came to the rescue and moments later both officers had been hauled up to the foredeck.

  Having delivered his passengers, Shinikani ordered Heichiro to let go of the rope, opened the throttle and circled away from the submarine. The strength of the wind had rapidly increased in the past few minutes and spray spuming from the tumultuous waves cut visibility to little more than a hundred yards. If the motorboat was not equipped with a compass, Hamilton did not give much for its chances of completing its return trip. He turned away. There was no time to worry about Shinikani and his companion - they were expendable. He was after bigger fish!

  ‘You’ve no chance of getting back to Firefly,’ he shouted to Ottershaw. ‘Best if you stay aboard Rapier until the typhoon’s blown itself out.’

  Hamilton was clearly in no mood to be trifled with and, despite his senior rank, the gunboat’s skipper acquiesced without argument.