Fortunately the man who was going to be their spokesman wasn’t heavy. The most difficult part was getting him over the lip of the hold and onto the deck. He stood on the deck and raised both his arms, looked up into the clear blue sky and said:
‘Allah be praised…’
He then turned first to Kev, his eyes brimming with tears and a broad smile spreading across his face. He placed a hand on his chest and said to Kev:
‘Allah be praised… he sent you to save us.’
At first Jack thought the old man was about to collapse but he simply moved forwards and embraced Kev in a gesture of thanks. Jack could smell the stale body odour and guessed he would be embraced next. As Jack wrapped his arms around the elderly man he could feel bones through the skinny man’s shoulders. He could also feel the heat in his body. The man quickly composed himself and seemed to grow in stature as he announced:
‘I am Murat. I am, no, I was Professor of European Languages at the University of Damascus. I speak Arabic, of course, English, German and French; my Italian is poor. Please forgive my young friends. We are all frightened and simply wanted to get out of the hold. We all thought we had been abandoned and the ship was about to sink. How can …’
Jack cut short the questions and began to explain how he needed his help.
‘Murat, we have to do two things as quickly as possible. I need to explain what we need to do so that you can tell everyone in the hold. Do you understand?’ asked Jack.
‘Yes, tell me what you want me to say to my friends,’ he replied.
‘The ship is holed below the waterline but the watertight doors are holding. The ship is not sinking!’ he stressed. ‘We cannot risk opening the watertight doors in case sections are flooded or they feed oxygen to the fire. As a result we plan to lift everyone out of the hold using a pallet suspended from the hydraulic crane near the hold. At first you need to identify six strong, young men, one to operate the hydraulic crane and the others to help people off the pallet and onto the deck.’
Jack paused and then went on:
‘You will need to find out how many sick people are in the hold, those who cannot hold onto the chains and pallet as they are winched out of the hold.’
The smile had left the face of Murat and the brimming eyes gave way to tears. They rolled down his grubby cheeks and into his beard:
‘There must be at least ten, maybe more, who are sick, so sick that they will need help to get on and off a pallet. There are at least two people who are dead, but there may be more,’ he added.
‘OK, the men we get out first can help the women and children off the pallet, then the sick. You need to organise the evacuation so that the first group of fit people can start to prepare and cook food in the galley. You can also organise a system for people to use the toilets and showers. Can you remember all of this?’ Jack asked.
‘Yes, over the last few days I have got to know many of the passengers.’
‘Murat, we need you to do this because our two engineers will be trying to restore power to the ship, power for lights and to pump water. Sandro and I need to get into the water and inspect the damage to the ship. If we can make temporary repairs it will make the ship safer until help arrives,’ he said. ‘Everyone on board our ship will be busy so we need you to get all the passengers organised.’
They helped Murat back onto the rope ladder and lowered him into the hold.
Chapter 37
On life support
Kev had the Sultano lashed to the Gronkowski 34, fore and aft, and was trying to hold them into the slight breeze so that the smoke from the oil fire streamed astern but it was difficult. The Sultano simply wasn’t powerful enough and struggled to hold their position. He had also placed an axe below each bollard in case they needed to separate from the burning ship in an emergency!
‘Kev,’ said Jack, ‘you will have to cut the engine whilst we are in the water, otherwise there is the danger you will flush us away. We will talk through the obvious damage and decide what, if anything, we can do.’
Jack took a giant stride off the diving platform on the Sultano and entered the water. As he bobbed to the surface he kicked with his fins so that he could see Sandro and acknowledge everything was OK.
‘Kev, do you hear me?’ asked Jack as he spoke into the cheek microphone inside his full face mask.
Kev acknowledged and announced that Shaun and Patrick had the auxiliary generator working and were winching the first passengers out of the hold; all was going well above water.
The current was mild and visibility excellent as Jack and Sandro dropped below the surface. They continued a slow descent as they turned and finned towards the hull of the Gronkowski 34.
‘When was the last time the hull was scraped?’ asked Sandro as they started to swim alongside a hull completely covered in weed and barnacles.
The mild current was causing the weed to ripple and it gave the impression the ship was underway. They started to fin towards the suspected damage and suddenly there it was!
‘Kev, we can see the point of collision now,’ stated Jack as he started to assess the damage to the hull.
The initial point of impact was clear as the accumulated weed and shellfish stopped and a trough of bright metal, scoured free of filth, began to form, broaden and deepen as the shape of the hull slowly began to change. Jack and Sandro could see how thick steel plates had been initially deformed and then where a weld had started to fail and two plates began to separate. Above the trough there was a broader scrape as though both hulls had rubbed together. About five metres from the initial impact the trough suddenly stopped as the hull was breached and steel plates gave up their last resistance. Jack guessed the breach was at a point where the hull plates had been welded to a structural rib.
‘Kev, the hull is definitely breached. It looks like the bulbous nose of the ship that collided with Gronkowski 34 scraped a five metre trough before it penetrated the hull. It looks as if the two hulls rubbed together before they separated.’ explained Jack.
‘Sandro, what do you think?’ asked Jack. ‘Do you think we have enough ArmourTech to cover the main breach and where the plates have sprung?’
‘Sealing the sprung plates wouldn’t be a problem,’ replied Sandro. ‘They have been scoured clean and I reckon we could cut and stick strips in place. The actual breach is more of a problem.’
Sandro finned towards the hull and ran his hand over the trough and the section of crumpled plates that had deformed.
‘We will have to scrape off the weed and barnacles to make a clean surface. I think the best solution would be to cut several strips of ArmourTech to seal the sprung plates and then position a large sheet to cover the main breach. We could always try to seal the sprung plates next to the crumpled area but it will be tricky. Didn’t Will have some form of pneumatic hand tool that he used to clean encrusted nuts and bolts, valves and levers?’ he asked. ‘Perhaps we could use that,’ he offered.
‘I recall Will talking about it,’ replied Jack. ‘It must be in one of his kitbags but I’ve no idea how it works. As to the ArmourTech, the rep said it sticks to virtually anything and to itself. However, he did say the sheet needs to overlap to ensure a strong bond,’ he replied. ‘We need to measure this area and ensure we have enough ArmourTech to do the job,’ he added.
With Jack measuring and Sandro making sketches of the damage and writing notes they mapped out the area to be repaired. It didn’t take long to complete the job.
‘Kev, we are coming up. We are going to try and stick some ArmourTech over the breaches. If it looks like it is sticking we can try to put out the fire and pump her out. It’s got to be worth a try. Oh, ask Shaun and Patrick what the chances are of putting out the fire and then pumping out the hull.’
Jack and Sandro had rummaged through Will’s kit crate. Most of it was the property of the company but it still seemed like an invasion of his privacy even though he was dead. They found the heavy, handheld scouring tool but no instructions!
The only guide to its use was raised writing on the casing near the hose connection that said “Do not exceed 50psi”.
It was Patrick who to came to the rescue.
‘I’ve never used one of these but I’ve seen them used,’ Patrick explained. The high-pressure hose is used to create a vacuum. The tool sucks in sea water under pressure and turns the circular wire brush. It also sends a small jet of water over the wheel and a bigger jet away from it. The effect is to force the tool onto the thing it is cleaning and to wash away the rubbish being cleaned off. Simple but effective, but you have to hang onto it!’
Patrick’s advice was remembered the first time Jack tried to use it near the breach of the hull of the Gronkowski 34. Patrick had rigged up a pressure hose and connected it to the scouring tool. Jack held it over the deformed plate and pulled the trigger. The next moment it slammed against the hull and was almost torn from his grasp as it fought to be free! Through trial and error Jack discovered it was a case of bracing himself with one free arm, both knees and just trying to hang on as the wire wheel was forced against the hull and blasted away years of weed and shellfish. The result was amazing. The hull plates around the breach were quickly taken back to the layers of paint and then to bright metal. After a while Jack was able to control the action of the tool without his whole hand and arm being held rigid. However, it was slow, painstaking work. The weed and shellfish disappeared readily but, whilst some of the paint flaked off, other areas were rough and uneven. Both Jack and Sandro realised they had one attempt to position the ArmourTech. If they left just one weak area, one point where the adhesion was poor, the whole patch could fail. They decided to scour away until they had a broad band of burnished hull plate. Jack and Sandro alternated every fifteen minutes to maintain their momentum. It took almost two hours to clear the area around the breach and sprung plates. It took less than an hour to stick the ArmourTech in place. Their practice in the sailboat made it much easier this time.
Even as Jack and Sandro were stripping off their wetsuits Kev brought them up to date. The Italian coast guard had acknowledged and said they would be maintaining a news blackout about the abandoned ship. They also indicated that they wouldn’t be arriving in the near future. Kev had described the situation and confirmed the Gronkowski 34 wasn’t in imminent danger of sinking. It seemed the coast guard had other emergencies to attend! The calm seas had prompted numerous refugee groups to risk the crossing from North Africa to Europe. Overcrowded and often in unseaworthy boats, they were a disaster waiting to happen. Kev had agreed to provide hourly updates and to send out a mayday if the Gronkowski 34 started to go down.
All the people had been hauled out of the hold but five were dead and over a dozen pretty ill; there were one hundred and seventy-two refugees in total. Murat had organised everyone. It seemed two brothers amongst the refugees were cooks and they were busy at work. Food was being cooked and people were being fed. There were lines queuing for the showers but now people wanted to return to the hold to collect the possessions they had left behind! Kev had stressed to Murat that it was too dangerous at the moment. No one should return to the hold. He was still waiting to hear from Shaun and Patrick about the engine room.
Shaun and Patrick had transferred all the foam extinguishers from the Sultano and supplemented their haul with all of those on the Gronkowski 34. It was then a case of estimating where the seat of the fire, or fires, were and trying to smother them with foam. If they could extinguish the fire it would be a relatively easy job to snake a length of large bore hose into the bowels of the ship and pump her out.
Shaun and Patrick looked almost comical in the fire-fighting suits which gave them the protection they needed against the smoke and heat. Their biggest problem was vision. Once inside the engine room it was almost impossible to see anything! The thick black smoke billowed and either gave a quick view of the carnage or obliterated everything. With Patrick leading and with Shaun’s hands on Patrick’s shoulders, they ducked their heads and headed into the engine room. Over repeated trips they paced out and sketched the space until they were confident of the layout. They resisted the temptation to descend the stairwell, towards the fire below; it was simply too dangerous. Both Shaun and Patrick had worked on similar freighters and were pretty sure where the fuel oil would have accumulated and where the fire and smoke were coming from. In the end the plan was agreed. They simply dragged all the extinguishers to the far side of the engine bay and stood them next to the rail overlooking the lower engine deck. When they were all lined up they worked their way along the line. An extinguisher trigger was pulled, locked off and the foam spewed into the black void. Another extinguisher, and another and yet another were set off and foam released. There was no thought of “is it working? Is the fire out?”. It was merely a case of getting every bit of foam onto the surface of the burning oil as quickly as possible. If they couldn’t smother it at the first attempt they wouldn’t be able to put out the fire.
With all extinguishers pouring foam onto the fire they retraced their steps and into bright sunshine. They emerged with their once bright orange suits dulled and soiled by the greasy black smoke and where they had brushed against rails and bulkheads. Patrick walked to the ship rail and called to Jack, Sandro and Kev on the dive deck of the Sultano. They were waiting for him.
‘How did it go?’ Jack shouted.
‘Too early to say,’ replied Patrick. ‘Even if we put the fire out it’s hot as hell down there and stuff may smoulder for hours. We need to be sure the fire is smothered and let the hot air continue to rise and clear the smoke. If it doesn’t start to clear in the next ten minutes we wasted our time,’ he added. ‘If it looks as though the fire is out we can start to cool down the metal surfaces with sea water, but we don’t want to pump too much into that space.’
‘The ArmourTech patches are on, so as soon as you are ready we can start to pump out the engine room,’ replied Jack.
Shaun joined Patrick at the rail. He leaned over and called down to those below:
‘As soon as the smoke starts to clear we can assess the damage and may even be able to get the engine working again. If we can, then we have power, light and the pumps working. It will all help,’ he added.
‘Shaun, Patrick, I hear what you said about the fire and the smoke needing to clear. However, would it be worth setting up the Moffat so we are ready to cool the engine room if the fire is out? If you can restore power it would be a real bonus. Oh, and is there any way we can create an access route for the big bore pipe if we are able to start pumping out sea water?’ he added.
‘We can knock out one of the air vents that serves the engine room and, when it’s cool enough, drop the pipe into the lower engine room. I reckon we have just enough pipe to do it, but it will be tight.’ Shaun added.
‘If we get the engine running we could always use the ship’s hoses to cool down the engine bay and keep the Moffat hoses cool as we pump out. The Moffat will pump out more water than the fire hoses pump in,’ confirmed Patrick
‘OK, Sandro and I will check with Murat and start getting everyone ready to meet the coast guard, whenever they arrive,’ he added as he and Sandro turned to scale the rope ladder onto the Gronkowski 34.
Sweat was now running down Shaun’s face and into his eyes. He blinked, but it made no difference as he concentrated on tightening the fuel coupling. Both he and Patrick were convinced that the fire had been smothered but it was still “hot as hell” in the engine room. The heat from the fire still caused the hot air to rise and was carrying the smoke away. It revealed a scene of devastation in different shades of black. He could see the heat shimmering above surfaces and could feel the heat of the pipes through his gloves. They had ignored the damage to the prop shaft, bearing housing and other equipment. Instead they had reconnected the pipes and lines that had been smashed by the thrashing of the prop shaft. They had replaced sections of pipe that had been deformed by the heat and checked for any damage that could disable the engine. It looked bl
ackened but should work.
‘I reckon it’s worth trying to start the engine,’ said Shaun. ‘If we can get it going then we can start the pumps, the fans and see any leaks we haven’t spotted so far. There may be other damage but that will have to wait until we have pumped her out.’
Despite her age and rough treatment over the last few days the Gronkowski 34 kicked into life at the end of the start-up sequence. One moment it was quiet and dark in the engine room. The next the overhead lights and fans came on. The engine pounded out its reassuring message and vibration echoed through the entire ship. In their bulky firesuits, Shaun and Patrick attempted an awkward embrace to celebrate but their visors bumped together and started them laughing.
Chapter 38
Calling in favours
Jack and Sandro were also celebrating but in a more restrained manner. As soon as Shaun confirmed that the fire was out Jack was punching in the first of two numbers he wanted to dial. The first was a speed dial number for “Sinjun” or rather Charles St John Stevens at Lloyd’s of London. Jack had developed an unexpected friendship with Charles and needed his help now. It was late afternoon in London but Charles was still in the office. Jack brought him up to date on discovering illegal immigrants in hold no. 5, salvaging the Gronkowski 34 and his concerns about making his claim public and contacting the ship owners and insurers. He was also concerned about the cargo. There was always the chance of the fire reigniting or the ArmourTech failing. He needed to know if any of the cargo was inflammable, toxic or if it would pollute the ocean if the ship sank. Also, if illegal activity was taking place he didn’t want to alert the people traffickers or fraudsters before the authorities had a chance to act. As usual Charles was quick on the uptake and straight to the point.
Missing Presumed Lost Page 22