FARRAH: You want to know why I’m such a boat-brain, Jack? ’Cause captains are real leaders, real legends, real rock stars of the sea.
JACK: Crap they are.
Pause.
FARRAH: Listen, buddy, I was doing you a favour. You don’t want to call them tankers to anyone who knows.
JACK: Yeah, good favour, freak.
The boys get on their skateboards and roll off.
FARRAH: It was a good favour.
JACK: Boat-brain.
FARRAH: Scum wad.
SCENE NINE
Three girls enter, identically dressed. They are Farrah’s mother, MATILDA. Each girl speaks separately; sometimes they speak together.
MATILDA ALL: I don’t need to listen.
FARRAH: But don’t you want the truth, Mum?
MATILDA 1: Well, why would someone else spray your name?
FARRAH: I went there this morning and it had already been graffitied. I just picked up the can.
MATILDA 2: I don’t believe you.
FARRAH: But don’t you know that I would never graffiti something like that?
MATILDA 3: Then why did you have the photo on your phone?
FARRAH: One of them sent it to me, as a threat. You were never supposed to see it.
MATILDA ALL: Oh, I know that.
FARRAH: Why were you looking at my phone?
MATILDA 1: The school has told us to pay attention.
FARRAH: To snoop?
MATILDA 2: If we have to, yes.
FARRAH: So I just have no privacy?
MATILDA 3: If you haven’t done anything wrong why do you need privacy?
FARRAH: Why are you being so ruthless with me about this?
MATILDA 1: I was shocked that you would do something like that.
MATILDA 2: You say you’re looking at ships but you’re actually a vandal.
MATILDA 3: And you must be hanging out with other vandals.
MATILDA 1: Because this is not like you.
MATILDA 2: Not the Farrah I know.
MATILDA Where did you even get the paint?
FARRAH: It wasn’t me.
MATILDA 1: Then who was it?
FARRAH: It was this boy. These boys.
MATILDA 2: Your fellow vandals?
FARRAH: No.
MATILDA 3: Then how do you explain the photo on your phone?
FARRAH: You weren’t supposed to see it.
MATILDA ALL: Oh, I know that.
FARRAH: It was their idea of a joke.
MATILDA ALL: I don’t see that.
FARRAH: I know. It’s not even funny.
MATILDA ALL: But this is what you do every afternoon while I’m at work.
FARRAH: No.
MATILDA 1: You’re never here when I call.
FARRAH: Why do you call?
MATILDA 2: To check up on you.
FARRAH: Mum. You can’t check up on me. You can’t look in my phone.
MATILDA 3: I’m glad I did.
FARRAH: I just go out and look at the ships coming in.
MATILDA What?
FARRAH: I love going out there. I love it. I think a part of me would die if I couldn’t go out there.
MATILDA ALL: God save us from teenagers and their weird obsessions.
FARRAH: It’s not a weird obsession. It’s a passion, alright. It’s not a strange, dangerous perversion. It’s an interest. I have an interest. Remember those? Back before you lost interest in everything and everyone.
Pause.
MATILDA 1: Well, I don’t care what it is.
MATILDA 2: You’re grounded.
FARRAH: This is so unfair.
MATILDA 3: No, Farrah, defacing a public place is unfair. If they trace it back to you do you know what kind of a fine I would face?
FARRAH: But I told you I didn’t do it.
MATILDA 1: You were just looking at the ships.
MATILDA 2: Then why did you pick up the spray can?
FARRAH: If you’ll just listen to me.
MATILDA ALL: I don’t want to know.
FARRAH: Just listen to me!
MATILDA ALL: Don’t you shout at me, Farrah.
FARRAH: Just listen to me. Please. [Pause.] It’s these three boys, the Blue Jays.
MATILDA 1: They took the photo.
FARRAH: Yes.
MATILDA 2: Why?
FARRAH: Because… one of them is kind of interesting to me.
A long silence.
I thought I could maybe join up with them. I dunno.
MATILDA 2: And did you?
FARRAH: No.
MATILDA 3: No, instead I’m supposed to believe that you went out there and they set you up.
FARRAH: They’re clever.
MATILDA 1: They’re all clever. And when they’re not clever, they’re cruel.
FARRAH: You shouldn’t have looked in my phone.
MATILDA 2: Who pays for it?
FARRAH: You do.
MATILDA 3: Well, while I pay for it I can look at what is being done with my money.
FARRAH: Fine.
MATILDA 1: You’re not to go out there again?
MATILDA 2: To any part of the port.
FARRAH: Not at all?
MATILDA ALL: Not at all.
FARRAH: Please don’t make me promise that.
MATILDA ALL: Promise me.
Pause.
MATILDA 3: You’re thinking that you hate them. You hate that they have got you into trouble. My job here… my job as your mother is to tell you that it is not fair but that’s the way it works. You can’t go out there on your own otherwise they will hassle you. Yes. Stop it. They will hassle you and worse and people will say you were asking for it by being out there on your own. I know that’s wrong. I know you’ve done it all your life. But that is how the world works. Do you understand me?
FARRAH: One last time.
MATILDA 1: Only to clean off the graffiti.
FARRAH: Fine. When?
MATILDA 2: I was going to say tomorrow morning. But I’d say you’ve got a pass because of the storm.
FARRAH: I don’t mind a bit of wind.
MATILDA 1: Farrah, they’ve issued a severe weather warning.
FARRAH: Mum, if it’s my last time. I’m going.
MATILDA 2: Let’s see what the weather is doing in the morning.
FARRAH: I’m going.
MATILDA waits.
Can I ask you one more thing?
MATILDA ALL: Go on.
FARRAH: Will you come out there with me sometime?
Pause.
MATILDA ALL: Clean it off and come straight back.
SCENE TEN
The graffitied wall. FARRAH begins cleaning.
There is already a strong wind blowing and the signs of an approaching storm.
The FIGURES enter. They are dancing and moving around like waves. Their hair is flowing like seaweed. They are seaweed creatures and barnacles and wind-whipped waves.
FIGURE 6: Farrah Martin at the harbour’s mouth
The wind blows hard from the violent south
The wind tears hard at the fringe of the land
The waves now smash on the fragile sand.
FIGURE 1: Farrah Martin, stubborn girl
Enough to make the seaweed curl.
FIGURE 2: Enough to make the fishes weep.
FIGURE 3: The waves are now a metre deep.
FIGURE 4: The waves are now a cliff of water.
FIGURE 5: She’ll soon become old Neptune’s daughter.
FIGURE 6: The force of the water roils and fights
And Farrah’s face turns deathly white.
FARRAH: There. North-east, four nautical miles.
FIGURE 1: She sees the ship.
FARRAH: He’s still got his anchor dropped.
FIGURE 2: She sees the ship in trouble.
FARRAH: He’s still facing south. If he’d weighed anchor he would be facing east.
ALL: Who taught you that?
FARRAH: I taught myself.
The storm is coming with raging wind.
FARRAH: But look, that bulk carrier is coming in even closer now.
FIGURE 1: He’s trying to turn around.
FARRAH: No, he’s not. What’s he doing?
The storm begins around them in earnest and they huddle down.
There is wind and lights and water and noise—embellished with all the theatrical storm-making effects possible.
They are shouting above the sound of the howling storm.
ALL: You should go in.
FARRAH: Go in where?
ALL: Go into the lighthouse.
FARRAH: Are there…?
ALL: What?
FARRAH: Are there people?
ALL: Where?
FARRAH: In there?
ALL: In the lighthouse?
FARRAH: Right.
FIGURE 1: Electronic.
FARRAH: Detectors?
FIGURE 2: Electronic eyes.
FARRAH: Can I go in?
FIGURE 3: I don’t know.
FARRAH: I can go in.
FIGURE 4: You won’t damage anything?
FARRAH: No.
FIGURE 5: Can you see the…?
FARRAH: Yeah.
FIGURE 6: I think he’s going to come in.
FARRAH: Do you think?
FIGURE 1: I hope not.
FARRAH: He’ll turn it.
FIGURE 2: I hope so.
FARRAH: He’ll turn it.
FIGURE 3: I don’t think so.
FARRAH: That sea is so strong.
FIGURE 4: It is.
FARRAH: Look, it’s coming in.
FIGURE 5: It’s too strong.
FARRAH: I can’t believe he would ground it.
FIGURE 6: But look at the swell.
FARRAH: I am.
FIGURE 1: He’s coming in.
FARRAH: He’s got to turn it.
FIGURE 2: Please turn it.
FARRAH: Turn it.
FIGURE 3: Look out.
FARRAH: It’s the swell.
FIGURE 4: He’s going to ground it.
An enormous physical model of the bulk carrier, the Pasha Bulker, crashes onto the stage. The size of the model should dwarf the characters so it might only be the bottom of the prow. But it should be astonishing and frightening for the audience.
FARRAH: I think she’s hit.
ALL: She has.
FARRAH: I think she’s stuck.
ALL: She is.
FARRAH: She’s stuck.
FIGURE 1: I can’t believe it.
FARRAH: How bad.
FIGURE 2: I can’t believe it.
FARRAH: How freakishly bad.
FIGURE 3: She’s stuck.
FARRAH: She is.
FIGURE 4: She’s stuck.
FARRAH: She is.
FIGURE 5: I never thought I’d see this in my lifetime.
FARRAH: I never thought I’d see this in my lifetime.
FIGURE 6: Let’s go inside.
FARRAH: Would they know?
FIGURE 1: What?
FARRAH: The Port Authority, would they know?
FIGURE 2: Absolutely.
FARRAH: So they’ll come.
FIGURE 3: They will.
FARRAH: They’ll come and rescue the crew.
FIGURE 4: Yes.
FARRAH: How?
FIGURE 5: Helicopter.
FARRAH: In this weather?
FIGURE 6: They’ll come.
FARRAH: I don’t have to call?
FIGURE 1: No, they’ll know.
FARRAH: Are you sure?
FIGURE 2: Yes, there are electronic eyes. They will have seen it go in.
FARRAH: Not like that.
FIGURE 3: Not like that.
FARRAH: That was terrible.
FIGURE 4: It was.
FARRAH: We should go inside.
FIGURE 5: Alright. Let’s go in.
SCENE ELEVEN
FARRAH: I went into lighthouse and I was just gutted. Totally gutted. Because, well because it’s the ultimate in any master mariner’s career, isn’t it? It’s the absolute ultimate in failure to see his ship blown up on the beach. When I was standing there on Nobbys watching it all unfold, mostly I was just imaging how much that captain must have been panicking and the panic in that man’s voice that the pilots must have heard on the VTIC must have been so pitiful. I was thinking ‘why did you let yourself get in this position?’ You know, ‘you’re a captain, you’re supposed to look after your ship and your crew and you have a responsibility to keep your ship off our coastline, you know, because of what you can potentially do to it’. I was just overwhelmed by this feeling of being so let down by a captain, someone who I just automatically admire because they are a captain. You know, why are you letting this happen?
HARBOURMASTER: People who actually saw the ship come in said that she was literally driving toward the beach. They described how, when it was coming in the ship was in ballast, it hit the rock ledge like that bang and that instantly cut vast sections out of the ship’s bottom, so a high percentage of the ship’s ballast just dropped out, so the ship itself popped up, and that was the lurch people told us about. And then, exposed to the wind and the waves it got driven over the rocks, onto the sand and went bomp. If it hadn’t hit the bit and cut the bit underneath, the water wouldn’t have dropped and it wouldn’t have popped up and it would have hit that rock and it would have just been totally destroyed. The ship would have fallen apart within an hour. So, as far as grounding a ship goes it was the most perfect grounding in history. The captain rode that ship in and all the gods were on his side. Having got to the point where he was definitely going to go onto the beach, it’s a funny thing to say but the way it happened couldn’t have happened better.
FIGURE 6: I got out of bed that morning and thought that the weather wasn’t too hot. And although I wasn’t on duty I had to go in and be on an interview panel for some positions with our VTIC which is the Vessel Traffic Information Centre. When I drive in I always drive along the beachfront and as you come along the beachfront to get into the pilot’s station I just couldn’t believe the state of the weather and what was more alarming was the fact that there were still ships closeish to shore in the anchorage. We always get these bad weather events that time of year and it’s always common for a few ships to take their time to get out of the anchorage. And it’s absolute madness because it’s so dangerous to stay where they are. There’s a fear of not going too far out, of the pilot boarding ground because I might miss my cue coming in and then my owner’s going to be dark with me for the time delay. There’s all these pressures that are applied to captains these days that are not just about the shipping conditions but are applied to them by masters sitting in head offices somewhere else.
FIGURE 2: I was in the pilot station to do these interviews with senior management and we ended up cancelling up because of the unfolding saga. We couldn’t see anything from the Nobbys’ camera because the wind and the rain was belting it around and on top of that we had limited tracking capabilities for the ships because radar gets knocked out with rain clutter. So at one stage I was tracking about six or eight ships that were dangerously close to shore and to be honest when the Pasha actually went on the beach I was relieved. Because I thought it should be alright and the crew would now be safe. The nailbiter was the Sea Confidence which almost went up onto the beach at Stockton. That went on all day and didn’t end until 11 o’clock that night and it was just so close.
FIGURE 3: There was also another ship near Swansea that almost went up on the southern end of Redhead and Blacksmiths Beach. He was another one who couldn’t get his anchor up, he was dragging toward the beach and he was starting to get quite panicky. We actually sent a tug out, the Wickham went out in absolutely foul conditions and headed down the coast to him. The guy up here near Stockton, he could see himself getting into trouble but he did some good things, he pumped emergency ballast to get the
ship heavier in the water, when he realised he was probably going to go aground he put both his anchors out which is a dire straits thing to do and he hung on for grim death, I’ve got the photos of him bouncing around about a mile from Stockton Beach and people on the beach are just looking at this thing going ‘shit, when is this thing going to come up on the beach?’ So yeah, the Pasha was a secondary thing parked on the beach.
FIGURE 4: The whole focus became on how to refloat the Pasha Bulker. The salvage crew are not employed by the port, they’re a whole separate crew. Trying to control the crowd was a huge job for the police and council. There was a shelter up at Nobbys and I saw a guy there for three days, he was taking photographs. He drove from South Australia just to get the best shot. And that wasn’t unusual. I spoke to people from Brisbane, Tasmania, lots come up from Sydney. One day we had 250 journalists and photographers and we just didn’t know how we were going to service all those people.
FIGURE 5: One day I had the producer from a breakfast program ring up and this is the first week and, um, wanted to make arrangements for her production crew to get on the bow of the Pasha Bulker because they were going to do the morning show from there. I thought this woman was joking until I realised she was serious. I said, ‘do you realise what we’re trying to do here?’ They had no perception of the scale of the problem. She said to me ‘imagine what we can do for you if you help me to do this’, and I just said ‘no thank you’. I said a number of times to the media ‘this is not a media circus for you’.
FIGURE 6: A journalist rang up and said I’m gonna come up Thursday and I want you to spend two or three days with me so that I can write my story for this week’s paper. I said, ‘Mate, do you really realise what is happening here? You are one of two or three hundred journalists and you want me to spend two or three days with you.’ He said ‘Well, that’s what my editor told me to do. He wants to do graphics of how the ship is going to be pulled off the beach.’ ‘Well, you can’t do that because we don’t even know so whatever you’re going to do is going to be wrong. Don’t do it.’ I was pretty strong. In the paper there was the graphic of four tugs at the back pulling the ship off the beach. Completely wrong. Rang him for two days and never heard from him.
JACK: I was down there with the boys with the Jays, you know and there was all this media and they just wanted to talk to anyone, anyone who was local and I said ‘yeah, I’m local’, and then I dunno I threw in a couple of things about how they weren’t tankers you know and how the tugs were there as risk management you know, and so they interviewed me about it and I was on the news. Yeah, on the evening news and yeah so then I started making stuff up, boat-brain shit you know about how my father used to tell me about the night when the Sygna came in on the beach and it was just some random shit I remembered from when we went to the museum with the school you know. But they wanted to talk to anyone. Anyone at all. It was fierce. We had a bit of fun with them. Boned up on shit we could get out of the library and we’d come up on the captions as local ship enthusiast. It was random but it was fierce. Nobody got hurt. Who cares, huh?
Cyberbile & Grounded Page 8