Tainted Treasure (China Marine)

by Buzz Harcus

  Even though it was 55 degrees, there was no wind to speak of, so the crew took advantage of the weather.

  The radar picked up a number of ships. Through the binoculars one could make out freighters, and an occasional fishing trawler. The radar had been working well ever since Captain Andress had raised hell with the electrician, telling him in no uncertain terms to make it work!

  First Officer Helmstrund had Bert Kilgrew take over the helm relieving Harry, who headed below to the galley for a cup of fresh coffee. Osa was not to be seen. He shrugged. Later. He grabbed a couple of fresh jelly rolls and sat back at a corner table to drink and nibble.

  Heading home. The thought excited Harry. Home. Saginaw. It’d be good to stop by the Pub, have a couple of beers with Gunther and Al, maybe even exchange nasty remarks with good old big boobs Janie. He smiled. She had it all: good looks, long blonde hair that trailed to the middle of her back, and those disarming blue eyes. Yeah, but she wasn’t his type. Yet she had made known to him that she was interested in him, and available. He recalled, with a slight chuckle, her comment about being available that one night—just a couple hours before the shit hit the fan!

  Suddenly Osa came to mind. Yeah. Life is strange, unusual, crazy. It was odd how they had bumped into each other that one day early in the voyage. They had developed into a love-hate relationship until that night in Shanghai. And now she was so important in his life. Yeah, she was the one, and he knew it. She was loving, sexy, compassionate, good sense of humor and just plain fun to be with.

  But would she be willing to come back to Saginaw with him? It would be one hell of a change for her, the flat land around Saginaw as contrasted to the mountains of Sweden. On the other hand, it would be one hell of a change for him to go to Sweden and leave his kids behind, especially with Sissy expecting a baby soon. He mulled over these thoughts and several related thoughts before loosing a deep sigh. Yes, they really had to discuss where they should live, and much, much more.

  “Hello Harry, how are you doing?” Harry looked up seeing Chief Engineer Gueder Svenson heading in his direction. Harry shoved a chair out for him to sit. “Fine now that we’re underway,” Harry replied. “How about you?”

  “As you say in America, hanging tough.” he replied with a weary smile. He plopped down. “It is good to get undervay again. I did not like hafing to stay an extra day because of der storm.”

  “You and me both,” Harry agreed. “I’m looking forward to getting back to Saginaw.”

  “Good for you,” Gueder grinned. “Ve haf to make vun more round trip, und den ve head for Stockholm. A year is too long to be gone from home.”

  “I agree. Even six months, as is my case.”

  “Haf you met der new men who came on board?” asked Gueder.

  “Yeah. The captain and his two mates,” Harry replied. “Why?”

  “Vot do you tink of dem?”

  “No comment at the moment. They look legitimate.”

  “Den you haf not met der oiler. Dat man is someting else. His name is Ace Dingman. He’s a tall muscular brute, bull necked, solid muscle.” The chief flexed his bicep and tapped it with his fingers. “I mean solid.” As he looked at Harry his face darkened into a scowl. “See dis.” He pointed to his face. “Dat man has a mean scowl all der time. Mean black eyes. I tink he may be Greek or Arabian. I haf tried to get to know him. I haf tried to get him to do his job as oiler der vay I vant it done.” He tapped his forefinger to skull. “He is dense. But I tink he is dense like a fox. I don’t know. I hate to judge a man vis out knowing him, but I don’t haf a good feeling about him.”

  “Is it something he said? Something he’s done?”

  “No. I chust don’t feel right about him. Ven he took off his cap und jacket, he vas a mass of tattoos. Tattoos all over his head, neck und arms. Nasty tattoos. Evil is der best vay to describe dem. I don’t know, I just haf dis feeling about der man.”

  “Sorry to hear it,” Harry said trying to placate him. “Captain Andress wants any problems brought to my attention, much like people did to Peter Selham. If I can resolve them, good; if not, I’ll take them to the captain.” He waited for several seconds for his comment to sink in. “Is this something I should bring to the captain‘s attention?”

  “No!” exclaimed Gueder holding up his hands. “I‘m sorry, Harry, I just had to speak my toughts out loud.” He slapped his hand hard on the table. “At least you know how I feel about dat Ace Dingman fellow. Now I get a cup of coffee und a jelly roll. I be right back.”

  Harry watched after the chief engineer. Among all the Nurad crew he was one of the finest. A hard worker, and he had a good sense of humor.

  But it was what the chief had said about the oiler, Ace Ding-man, that bothered Harry. He’d have to meet the man, see for himself what kind of person he is. What kind of crew had they picked up back in Qingdao? The word he got was that they had lost all their personal effects, including their papers and wallets, when their ship went down.

  They were apparently in a Chinese jail for a period of time because the jackets and clothing they wore were prison issue. They all spoke English fluently, were said to be Americans according to Colonel Pui and Shen Lee Ma, so Captain Andress had taken them at face value—and yet he had asked him to keep a close eye on them.

  He recalled Captain Andress had checked up on him once they were underway in Lake Huron, knew all about him, even the death of his girlfriend. Maybe he could contact someone to find out about this foursome.

  Just then the chief returned with two cups of coffee and two jelly rolls. He pushed one cup of coffee over to Harry, along with one jelly roll. “Eat. Enjoy.” He sat down and got comfortable, then took a sip of coffee. “Dat Osa, she is vun fine voman, an excellent cook und smart—a professor—” He chuckled. “She is alvays cheerful, especially since Shanghai. Haf you noticed?”

  Harry grinned. “Yes, she does seem to smile a lot more since Shanghai.”

  CHAPTER 8

  A Change of Course

  Harry awoke abruptly from his sleep. Something was not right. He lay still for several seconds listening. There was a normal thump, thump, thump to the engines. He looked out the cabin porthole. The moon was high in the east. East! That wasn’t right; they should be headed into the moon’s track; they were headed in a southern direction! Rising, he dressed and headed topside continuing on upwards to the bridge.

  Captain Andress, Sigmund, Sven and Alward were hunched over the chart table with their backs to the door. Harry eased the door open and stepped inside giving a wave of his hand to Dieter at the helm.

  “Davao is here on der tip of der island of Samar,” Harry heard Captain Andress say, pointing to the northern tip of the Philippine Islands. “Sigmund, has already charted a course for us to Davao.”

  At that moment he caught sight of Harry where he was standing just inside the cabin. “Come in Harry,” he called, waving him to join them. “Ve got a message from der home office. Two tings of interest to you. First, our newest grain carrier, der Kristan Malmo, is now at Saginaw loading der second shipment of grain for China—”

  He caught the surprised look on Harry’s face, and said, “Not to vorry, Harry. Ve get you home.” He laughed heartily, slapping Harry solidly on his shoulder. “Der Kristan Malmo is a larger, newer ship. It can hold much more grain, plus it is faster dan der Nurad. Dey vill deliver to Shanghai und Qingdao in much faster time, but—” And his face broke into a Cheshire cat grin at all those assembled around the chart table “—ve vill beat dem back to Stockholm!”

  Sigmund and Sven broke into big grins and applause. Harry and George also joined in a round of applause.

  “Der second ting of interest is dat ve haf changed course heading south to der port of Davao on der island of Samar.” Again, Harry wore a puzzled look. “Ve haf been ordered to pick up a mixed cargo for shipment to Charleston, South Carolina.”

  “Charleston?” Harry questioned.

  “Yah, Charleston.”

  Harry rec
alled Charleston, it was about a thousand miles south and east from Saginaw. He’d been there once before joining the Marine Corps. It was a quaint historic city dating back to a time before the Revolutionary War. And it was very romantic. Yeah, he could show Osa a good time there. Heck, they could even get married there, might even live there. He’d talk to her about it after her uncle told the crew about the change in plans for the Nurad.

  “It vill take us five or six days to sail down to Davao,” continued Captain Andress, interrupting Harry’s thoughts. “Sigmund has set up der duty vatches so dat he vill take der 8 to 12 vatch; Sven der 12 to 4 vatch; and George vill be on der 4 to 8 vatch.” He looked at the others. “Any problems?” All nodded in agreement.

  “Good. It is now 1800 hours,” he said checking his watch. “George, der vatch is yours now until 2000 hours.” George snapped off a salute to the captain. “Aye. Sir.”

  “Und Harry, as long as you are here now, I vant you to be his helmsman for tonight. You can be very helpful to George in getting used to der operation of dis ship. I’m sure George knows everyting about command, but a good helmsman like Harry is to his benefit.” The comment was made for George’s benefit and, obviously, to let him know Harry was a good reliable helmsman.

  “Fine, sir. Be happy to help out,” Harry grinned, throwing off one of his usual snappy salutes. A moment later, his face broke into a bigger grin for he suddenly thought of Osa. If she pops into his cabin tonight she’s in for a surprise—I won’t be there; I’m on duty!

  Captain Andress laughed off Harry’s salute. “You must vatch dis man,” he said to Alward. “He is alvays vis der jokes—but he’s a good man!”

  “Good, Captain Andress,” Alward chuckled. “I’ll keep an eye on him. I look forward to working with Harry. I’m sure he can teach me a lot about the operation of the Nurad.”

  Harry relieved Dieter at the helm, and at that moment, he began his first night serving under the command of Captain George Alward, newly appointed Third Officer.

  At first it seemed odd to Harry not to hear the voice of the captain or first officer, but then the watch began in earnest when Alward said, “I see the First Officer set a course that will take us clear of Taiwan. Good. We don’t want to run into any difficulty there, especially with the Nationalist government. I’ve sailed these waters before, even put in to Taiwan. They’re okay, got much better treatment from them than the Communists,” he chuckled. “The Commies hate our guts!”

  Harry grinned at the comment. “Apparently the Commies gave you a rough time after they picked you up, eh?” he retorted.

  “Rough is putting it mildly,“ Alward replied. “We were picked up two days after that damned storm sunk our ship. As luck would have it, none of us had been able to get any of our personal papers, not even our wallets: nothing. Poor Ace was lucky to get out of the engine room. He was in his skivvies. Bert, Doyle and myself jumped off the ship just before she turned turtle and disappeared. In spite of the stormy seas, we had managed to drop a lifeboat, even several life rafts.

  “The water was frigid. I came up by one life raft and crawled aboard. Later, I spotted Doyle and yelled for him. Bert popped up from under the raft and we pulled him aboard. Then I spotted Ace and we pulled him aboard. I never saw anything of those damned crazy Asians and Chinks who made up our crew. If any made it out the lifeboat and rafts were there for them, but the seas were rough and it was getting dark fast.

  “The four of us huddled through the night. It was bitter cold. In the morning the seas were still rough with huge swells and a cold, driving wind. I couldn’t see any other life rafts, not even the life boat, not even any bodies.

  “We got tossed about for another twenty-four hours. Let me tell you, brother, it was cold, damned cold! We thought we were going to freeze to death out there but lucky for us the next morning, a Communist patrol boat spotted us. Apparently they had heard my one mayday call before the boat sunk. Anyways, we were hauled aboard and taken into Qingdao.

  “The Commies don’t like Americans. They were not happy to see us. We were considered to be spies? Man, those damned Commies interrogated us incessantly over the next few days, then left us to rot in their stinkin’ jail cells.”

  “Not very cordial of them,” Harry said, giving a shrug of his shoulders as offering support to the man. “How’d you get out?”

  “A Colonel Pui came to see me. We had quite a long talk and I think I finally convinced him that we were just four poor bastards who’s ship was lost in the storm, and by pure luck, we had survived. He was gone for a couple of hours, and then came back. He said all charges would be dropped. However, he wanted the four of us out of China as quickly as possible.

  “Well, wouldn‘t you know, lady luck smiled on us again. The Colonel said your ship was in port unloading grain, and that you were headed back to the states for another shipment of grain. Perhaps they could accommodate us. And that’s what brought us to the good ship Otto J. Nurad.

  “It was obvious as hell that the Chinks didn’t want us to stay in China any longer than necessary, and we sure as hell didn‘t want to rot in one of their damned prison cells any longer, so we were happy as hell when they unloaded us beside the Nurad.” He chuckled at his comment, which brought a chuckle from Harry.

  Alward picked up the binoculars and set them to his eyes, scanning the seas ahead of them. “In a few days we’ll be sailing into what I consider unfriendly waters,” he said over his shoulder. “The south China sea is especially noted for pirates.”

  “Pirates.” Harry gave Alward a questioning look. “Pirates?”

  Alward had turned facing him, his face serious. “They’re out there, friend. Piracy is a big business in southeast Asian waters. You have to be careful.”

  Harry gave a doubting shake of his head. Pirates?

  Alward was actually talking about real life pirates.

  Harry recalled when he was a kid back in the late thirties and forties, one of his favorite comic strips was Terry and the Pirates. He couldn’t get enough of the action comics, always getting wrapped up in the adventures of Terry and the other characters. It seemed like every month there was a new Terry and the Pirates comic book to be found at Swan’s Drugstore.

  His mind harked back to those youthful days. The artist, Milton Caniff, had created the comic strip. At the time, he wanted to be an artist just like Caniff.

  Standing at the helm, he prodded his mind trying to recall Terry and the Pirates characters. There was Pat Ryan, April Kane, Dale, Connie and the very hateful Dragon Lady. He broke into a grin. Not bad recall after all these years. He shook his head. Terry and the Pirates was pure fiction, but Alward was talking about actual pirates, that they actually exist in this day and age.

  Alward set the binoculars down, then checked the radar, several other dials, and ended up pouring himself a fresh cup of coffee. “Coffee?” he called to Harry. “Yeah, Harry replied. “Black.”

  CHAPTER 9

  Osa’s Knight in Shining Armor

  First Officer Sigmund Helmstrund and Dirk Pedersen newly assigned helmsman relieved Harry and Third Officer Al-ward at 2000 hours. Doyle Masters was with them.

  “He is going to observe for dis vatch,” Sigmund said in answer to Harry’s un-asked question. After a brief review of their watch, Alward and Harry bid adieu and left the bridge. With a wave of his hand, Harry headed below for sack time.

  To his delight, a pleasant surprise awaited him on his bunk all wrapped up in a white silken nightie, and wearing a big welcoming smile. “Well, hello,” Harry said, laughing as she held out her arms. “Obviously you still have the key to my cabin.”

  “Yes. Und I vant you. I been tinking about you for der last four hours—”

  “You haven’t been in here all that time?” he questioned, suddenly concerned about her uncle, What if he’d stopped by to see her and she was gone?

  “No. I chust got here a few minutes ago. Sigmund told me earlier you vas on duty till 8 o‘clock. I been tinking about us.
I got more good ideas,” she said bouncing off the bunk and rushing into his arms. “I really vant you, Harry. Now!” Urgently she peeled off his shirt, grabbed at his belt buckle, and then they were lovers heatedly thrashing about on his bunk.

  As the darkness of night slowly changed into dawn on Monday morning, a myriad of thoughts criss-crossed through Harry’s mind as he lay wide awake on his bunk thinking, watching as bold shafts of sunlight slowly brightened his cabin.

  First, he was very glad to be far away from Qingdao. He had feared the worst the other day when the army truck had stopped on the dock, but it was only to drop off the four American sailors. Were they all legitimate sailors? Time would tell. Captain Al-ward operated the vessel last night like he knew what he was doing.

  Still, the foursome would be a continuing concern. As a newly appointed mate, he was now challenged to keep an eye on them; Captain Andress personal watchdog for the foursome. And why the hell had Alward mentioned pirates last night? Apparently he had sailed the south China seas during his career and had a real concern about them. He’d have to discuss pirates with Captain Andress.

  Another major worry was the money. Now he was faced with the challenge of getting the two million dollars back into the States. Charleston would be a challenge for getting the money ashore. It would be much easier to sneak the money in through Saginaw. Another burning question: how do you report black market money to the IRS—or do you! He guessed he wouldn’t; there had to be another way.

  Still another major worry was Osa. She was the one. Sure he knew a lot about her, at least that which he felt was important. No! They had to sit down one day soon and discuss everything. She was probably aware by now of Nurad’s new course heading for Davao on Samar, and then heading for Charleston, South Carolina.

  The more he thought about it, the more he thought Charleston would be a good place to get married, maybe even settle down there. She could probably get a job teaching home economics at a local college while he got a job in public relations. Yeah, they could make a go of it.