by Antony Trew
‘To do what sort of things?’
‘Sometime for lookout. Sometime to clean and polish around wheelhouse and chartroom. Sometime to help officer check compass, check clocks. Sometime to make coffee for wheelhouse. Sometime to fetch or take something from engineroom, radio office, pantry. Any place. Sometime to take message or radio signal to wheelhouse or Captain. Many things like this.’
‘Where do you wait until you’re wanted?’
‘If near the land, in recreation room on Deck One.’
‘What do you do there when you’re not busy?’
‘Sometime read book, or write letter, or listen to music. Hi-fi you know. Sometime just sit to think.’ Cavalho grinned. ‘Sometime sleep till telephone rings.’
‘You are called by telephone, are you?’
‘Yes. By telephone.’
Kahn said he had no more questions and the witness stood down.
Chapter 27
To Captain Crutchley, in a court of law for the first time, the proceedings were entirely strange and much of the cross-examination incomprehensible. The only part of it so far which seemed relevant to the charge against him was Goodbody’s attempt to throw doubt on Fernandez’s evidence about the telephone conversation. To what extent that had impressed the court he had no way of knowing. Crutchley was impatient to get on with the main business of the enquiry. The testimony of the minor witnesses seemed irrelevant. Why didn’t the court get down to the heart of the matter right away? Put Jarrett in the witness box first. He was, or should have been, the major culprit. The ship had run aground in his watch. For more than an hour and a half before that he’d been in sole charge. Why not hear his story first? And Foley’s. There was another man who’d had a good deal to do with what had happened. The court should surely have heard his evidence early on. Sort out the story that he’d given Jarrett the incorrect course when handing over. Find out what he was doing in the chartroom before the ship struck. Why wasn’t he heard before the quartermaster, the lookout man, the light-keeper and those others?
At lunch that day Goodbody had enjoined patience. ‘A most interesting situation is developing, my dear Captain. Lourens has something up his sleeve, young Kahn smells a rat somewhere, and poor Fernandez has been sunk with all flags flying. Frans Lourens didn’t like that one little bit, you know. Nor did that person Ohlsson. But of course he wouldn’t. No, it’s coming along splendidly. What you call “trivial evidence” is always heard first. But it’s by no means trivial. Dear me no. Just you wait and see. I’ve had a chat with Kahn. He will call Foley to the box after lunch. That should see us through to the adjournment.’ After that Goodbody had launched into a dissertation on cheese soufflés, and Crutchley had been unable to get anything more from him about the enquiry.
Putting aside these thoughts, he once more concentrated on the proceedings, sitting always with his back half-turned so that he did not have to see either Jarrett or Foley who were some little distance away on his right. He had ignored them both ever since the preliminary enquiry.
To Sandy, sitting well back in court, the proceedings were absorbingly interesting. She didn’t understand the legal procedures, nor could she appreciate the tactical subtleties of the various counsel as they examined and cross-examined, but she sensed – perhaps it was her feminine intuition – that the drift of the cross-examination was against Jarrett. If it was against him, she assumed it must be good for her husband and that helped relieve anxiety.
Slowly, painfully slowly, she was re-establishing her relationship with him. The traumatic experiences of the shipwreck and the storm had helped: since then they had, little by little, drawn closer together. She’d had to work hard at it. He’d been stern and unforgiving, deeply hurt, very conscious of the wrong done him; whereas she was aware that she was entirely to blame. At times when he rebuffed her she would cry herself to sleep, but she had never given up. Couldn’t he see, she would ask herself, her affair with Jarrett for what it was? Proximity, mutual attraction, opportunity. Didn’t he understand what a powerful though transitory weapon sex was? That when a man and woman with compatible chemistry were thrown together something was almost bound to happen, given the opportunity? Of course it was adultery; of course it was disloyal; but it was happening every day to thousands of people. Couldn’t he accept the reality of that and forgive?
As for Freeman Jarrett – well, that was all over. Once she’d learnt he was doing his best to put the blame for the stranding on her husband, whatever feelings she’d had for him – and they were always more physical than emotional – had gone. Not that she hated him. That was too strong a word. What she felt was something closer to contempt. He was no longer the strong compelling, attractive man, but a conceited, self-seeking individual who was determined to save his own skin at her husband’s expense. Jarrett was, she reflected, a strange contradiction. It was he who had gone into the sea off Durban when the wire parted and swept Cadet Price over the side; it was he who, during the gale, had searched in the darkness for Malim and the crewman in the faint hope of finding them alive. And there had been no audience then, except Fernandez. Yes – Freeman Jarrett was a strange contradiction and perhaps that was why she couldn’t bring herself to hate him. Or was it because they had been so important to each other, even if only for a very short time?
Whatever it was, it was all over now. She wanted Jarrett to lose and George to win. However mixed-up she may have been, she was sure of that. And George so badly needed support, even if he pretended he didn’t. She could see that he was desperately worried and uncertain about the outcome of the enquiry. To a far greater extent than she believed was necessary, since it was Jarrett who’d been on watch in the hour and a half before the ship ran aground, even if Foley had made a mistake in handing over the course – something he strenuously denied.
She could not help wondering what Jarrett felt about all that had happened; the sudden end to their relationship, and the awful worry of the enquiry with himself as a central figure. He was such an aggressively self-confident man, so certain always that he was right, that the situation for him must be a particularly trying one. To have his conduct, skill and judgement publicly questioned would, she believed, hurt him more than most men. And there was Captain Crutchley – that stern, unapproachable man of whom she had seen so little during the voyage, and with whom communication had been so difficult when she had. She felt dreadfully sorry for him. In spite of his reserved, highly formal manner, he had the reputation of being a fine seaman and a conscientious Master. She realized how galling it must be for a man like that to stand charged with ‘wrongful act or default and gross negligence’; yet the fact remained that throughout the fog, right up to the time of the stranding, he’d not been on the bridge.
She knew it hurt her husband deeply that the Captain had cut him since the preliminary enquiry, scarcely acknowledging his attempts at polite greeting outside the courtroom. Of course Foley and Jarrett ignored each other but there were good reasons for that, as she well knew. She and Jarrett had had no contact since leaving the wreck, other than glimpses of each other entering and leaving court. He was always polite on these occasions, though in a rather distant way. Occasionally in court she would see him turn and look back into the public gallery, but if their eyes met neither gave any sign of recognition.
On the second afternoon of the enquiry she was getting used to the atmosphere of the court, beginning to identify those involved and their roles and to sense the developing drama. She’d already established likes and dislikes. She admired Arnold Kahn whom she’d met several times during the weeks since the preliminary enquiry, and she was glad he was her husband’s counsel. She knew that he was regarded as one of the brighter men at the Cape Town Bar in spite of his apparent youth, frailty and helplessness. Another man she liked was James Goodbody whom she described to her husband as ‘a lovely, big, huggable sort of man’. She’d become aware that he was anti-Jarrett and that commended him. She mistrusted Dirk Ohlsson, no doubt because he was Jar
rett’s counsel, and described him as ‘that man with the sly, foxy look’.
She couldn’t make up her mind about Frans Lourens, but decided he was probably neutral. The Chairman struck her as stern but just and she thought of him as a rugged, attractive man – her sort of man. The two Assessors hadn’t yet said a word, so they were for her enigmas. Jerome Bassett, counsel for the company, had only spoken once and she had found him pompous.
Though what went on in court was interesting and even exciting in a strange way, she suffered from loneliness. There was no one with whom she could share the experience, no one with whom to exchange whispered confidences. The only person in the public gallery she’d recognized was a man sitting at the back. On the first morning she’d seen him, she thought he looked familiar but couldn’t place him. During the lunch adjournment that day he had spoken to her and she’d realized he was Piet Pieterse, the steward who’d joined Ocean Mammoth the day before sailing from Durban. She had not really been aware of him until the gale when he’d brought blankets, pillows and food to the women in the chartroom. She remembered how he had laughed and joked in an effort to raise their spirits, and how grateful they’d been.
When they met outside the court she asked him what he was doing. He said he was looking for work but it was not easy to find because of unemployment. She asked him why he was at the enquiry and he said, ‘Nothing, madam. Just passing the time, you know. It was my first job in a ship. After three days we got wrecked. Then there’s the gale and the helicopter comes and takes us off. Now there’s this court of enquiry. It’s been a fantastic experience. I thought I better see it through. Like watching the big picture from the beginning to the end.’
She smiled. ‘Of course. I understand. It is interesting. I just wish my husband wasn’t involved.’
And he had said, ‘Yes, madam. That’s no joke for him, is it?’
Since then they had done no more than exchange smiles.
After Cavalho’s departure from the witness box, Lourens informed the Chairman that apart from Ernst Rohrbach – the electronics expert who would not be available until the Thursday – he had no further witnesses.
Kahn asked leave to call the second officer. Foley made for the witness box, walking with a slight stoop, his dark grey suit matching the shadows under his eyes. When he had taken the oath and testified that the statement handed to him was the one he’d sworn at the preliminary enquiry, Kahn began his examination.
In response to his counsel’s questions, Foley gave a brief, matter-of-fact account of events leading up to the stranding. He confirmed that he had been officer-of-the-watch from midnight to 0400 on 29 October. At 0240 he had obtained and plotted a position by Decca Navigator which showed that the ship had, over the previous hour, been set just over a mile to the northwest, that was inshore. A radar bearing showed Cape Agulhas at that time to be bearing 275°, distant 36-5 miles. The ETA for a position 10 miles off Cape Agulhas was 0530, and with the Captain’s approval he had altered course from 264° to 257° to counter a similar set of current over the next three hours.
Soon after midnight he received a meteorological report from the radio officer. He immediately phoned the Captain and told him it contained a fog warning. The Captain had come up to the wheelhouse soon afterwards, remaining there for about fifteen minutes before going below.
At five minutes to four he had been relieved by the chief officer to whom he’d handed over course and speed, details of traffic in the vicinity, and other routine information. He had told him of the fog warning, and the instructions in the night order book that the Captain was to be called in the event of fog and for the alteration of course off Cape Agulhas. He had then gone to the chartroom, established the ship’s position by Decca Navigator at 0400, plotted the position on the chart and found that the course made good since 0240 was 261° which was correct for the ETA position. Throughout his watch the Decca Navigator and both radar sets had functioned satisfactorily.
Kahn then questioned him about his movements after leaving the wheelhouse at 0400. Foley said he had gone to his cabin, undressed and got into bed. About an hour later – he was uncertain of the exact time – he got up because he couldn’t sleep. He’d slipped on some clothes, gone up to the lower bridge deck and found that the ship was in fog. He had been surprised that no siren was sounding, but was not alarmed since he thought the Captain was on the bridge. Some time later he noticed that the ship was steering well to the west of the course he had plotted. He assumed they had rounded Cape Agulhas and altered course to the north-west to make for the position off Cape Point. Later when course was altered back to the south-west, he thought they might have been altering course for another ship, but as he’d heard no fog signals and since Ocean Mammoth herself was silent he became uneasy. He went to the chartroom, checked the charted course and noted the time – it was just after 0530. He then switched on the Decca Navigator and found that there was no display. He switched on the echo-sounder and saw that the depth of water was considerably less than it should have been at a safe distance from land. While comparing the readings on the echo-sounder with those on the chart he had noticed that the figure 257° which he’d pencilled against the course line during the middle-watch had been altered to 267°.
He was puzzling things out, trying to make sense of what had happened, when the chief officer came into the chartroom and demanded, ‘in a most aggressive way’, what he was doing there. He had replied that ‘something funny was going on’; the Decca Navigator was dead, the ship was not sounding fog signals, and the figure he’d written against the course line had been altered. He’d then looked at the echo-sounder again and seen with a shock that the depth of water had shoaled to eight fathoms. He had at once drawn Jarrett’s attention to that fact.
Jarrett had shouted ‘Christ’, run back to the Wheelhouse, ordered hard-a-port, pressed the full ahead button and phoned a warning to the engineroom. After that the chief officer had sounded emergency stations on the steam siren and broadcast ‘emergency stations – land close ahead’. Moments later Foley had joined him in the wheelhouse and it was then that Jarrett had told him that both radar units were out of order. At much the same time the Agulhas light-keeper warned by sound signal and voice radio that the ship was standing into danger. Within minutes Ocean Mammoth had struck. Almost immediately afterwards the Captain arrived on the bridge and ordered fire stations.
Foley completed his evidence with an account of what had happened between the Captain’s arrival and his own relief by the third officer.
Kahn said he had no further questions. Ohlsson and Goodbody reserved cross-examination for a later stage and the witness stood down. After a brief consultation with counsel for the enquiry, the Chairman adjourned the proceedings until the following morning.
It was close to five o’clock when George Foley and his wife left the courtroom with Arnold Kahn to drive back to their hotel in Cape Town.
Chapter 28
THE THIRD DAY
The enquiry was fully reported in the Cape Town press and interest in its proceedings grew steadily. It was therefore not surprising that at the resumption on the morning of the third day ‘C’ court was full to overflowing.
The low hum of conversation ceased when the clerk of the court called for order and everyone stood. Moments later the Chairman and Assessors entered the courtroom and took their places on the dais.
When Ohlsson asked that Freeman Jarrett – the man he was defending – be called there was a ripple of excitement. In pre-trial accounts of the disaster and in stories gleaned from interviews with crewmen, the media had inferred that the chief officer, the man on watch when the ship ran aground, would be the principal defendant. It had been freely rumoured in Cape Town that he and the Captain were at loggerheads about the latter’s absence from the bridge; and it was common gossip that Jarrett and Foley were doing their best to saddle each other with responsibility for the disaster. These elements of drama had not been overlooked. Finally, the story of how Jar
rett had rescued Cadet Price from the sea off Durban, and later risked his life in the gale in an abortive attempt to save Malim and a crewman, had been prominently featured in the newspapers.
Thus all eyes were on the tall man in the fawn suit who got up from the big table in front of the dais and walked quickly to the witness box. The livid scar on his forehead was a reminder if any were needed of the failed but gallant rescue attempt and added rather than detracted from the manly looks and strong features.
The preliminaries of oath taking and statement verification having been completed, Ohlsson began his examination by asking Jarrett to narrate events on the bridge of Ocean Mammoth from the time he took over the watch at 0400 on 29 October, until the stranding just over an hour and a half later.
Speaking in a firm voice, his manner composed and assured. the chief officer embarked on his story and it seemed to those in court that the Chairman and Assessors listened with particular attention and sympathy to what he was saying.
He had begun by stressing the difficulty of reconstructing accurately such a complex series of events – compressed as they had been into a short space of time – without the relevant chart, the missing pages from the logbooks and the course-recorder trace; but he would, he said, do his best. At that point Ohlsson interrupted. ‘When did you last see the chart and the other items you’ve just mentioned?’
‘A few minutes before we stranded. When I went to the chart-room and found the second officer there.’ Jarrett hesitated, looked for a moment at Foley who sat slumped in a chair at Kahn’s side, before turning back to Ohlsson.
‘What was the second officer doing?’
‘Working on the chart, I presume. He was leaning over it with a pencil and had parallel rulers in his hand.’
‘Did he have an eraser?’