Coasts of Cape York

by Christopher Cummings

  “What’s the matter?” he asked.

  “A cloud is blocking the sunlight,” Carmen said.

  It was frustrating but true. Off to the east the sun had gone behind a thicker layer of cloud that had built up on the horizon. By the time the sun rose above that the ship was past. To their dismay it steamed on through the Rattlesnake Channel and behind Blackwood Island and out of sight. As the stern slipped from view on the ruffled waters Willy felt his hopes dip sharply.

  They sat down again, a mood of dejection gripping them all. Graham added to Willy’s feelings of anxiety by saying, “I doubt if we will see any more ships. If there really is a cyclone then none will come down from the north and the ones from the south will have all turned back or taken themselves into harbour.”

  “Wasn’t your Dad’s ship, the Bonthorpe, supposed to be heading this way?”

  Graham nodded. “Yes she was. But she should be well north of here by now.”

  The sun came out, striking so sharply that Graham untied his shirt and put it back on again. Willy sat and stared southwards, brooding over the events of the last few days. As he sat there with his head in his hands he fidgeted with the bristles of his unshaven chin and squirmed because of the grit in his clothes. ‘I should have had a swim,’ he thought.

  Then his eyes noted the tiny puffs of white way out across Bathurst Bay to the east. By now the whole surface of the sea was flecked by whitecaps and a haze was lowering visibility but repeated flecks of white that were larger than the waves caught his attention. ‘What is that?’ he wondered.

  Abruptly his eyes seemed to focus and he saw he was looking at a small ship bow on. It had an orange coloured hull and white superstructure. “Is that your Dad’s ship Graham?” he asked, pointing.

  Graham sprang to his feet and shielded his eyes. “Yes, yes it is!” he cried. “It is the Bonthorpe.”

  Willy’s hopes surged. Carmen and Andrew sprang into action with stick and mirror. Within a minute Carmen was flickering reflected sunlight at the approaching ship. But then more minutes went by and the ship seemed to take no notice. In fact it changed course away from them. Willy then saw that it was towing what looked like a big dark block bigger than itself.

  “What’s that behind it?” he asked.

  “The dumb lighter Oura,” Graham answered. “It is carrying thousands of empty forty four gallon drums.”

  More minutes went by and still there was no response from the ship. Carmen began to mutter in frustration but remained very careful in her handling of the mirror. “Oh, what’s wrong with the lubbers!” she grumbled. “Don’t they keep watch on your garbage scows Graham?”

  Graham sprang to the defence of his father’s ship’s companies but was cut short. Willy saw a stab of bright light appear at the bridge of the Bonthorpe. “A light! They’ve seen us!” he cried.

  The light began to flicker slowly. It meant nothing to Willy but he saw that both Carmen and Andrew were moving their lips. ‘Morse Code,’ he thought, feeling slightly guilty that he had never bothered to master such an apparently archaic if elementary skill.

  “He asked, ‘Do you need help?’,” Carmen explained. She began replying with the mirror.

  “What are you sending Sis?” Andrew asked.

  “S. E. M.,” Carmen replied, adding, “Get those flags ready.”

  Willy stood and watched as they did so. He felt excited and relieved and was even happier when he noted that the ship and its bulky tow had changed course and were heading towards them. Carmen took the flags and moved to stand on the highest rock so that she was sure she was silhouetted against the sky. She then held the flags up and then lowered them abruptly. The light flickered briefly from the ship and she nodded to herself and then began making the jerky arm movements with the flags that spelled out letters.

  When she finished these she crossed the flags and stood still. The light flickered again. Willy saw her nod and smile. “Good, they got it,” she said, her pride and satisfaction very evident. Willy was filled with admiration.

  “What did you tell them?” he asked.

  “Help. Wrecked,” she replied.

  The light flickered again, a long message and both Andrew and Carmen spelled it out letter by letter. “Move to lee of island. Sending boat,” read Carmen.

  “Hooray!” Willy cried. “Well done the navy cadets!”

  “You start down to the beach where we landed,” Graham instructed. “I will go and get the van der Heydens.” He took his shirt and pulled it on then set off, scrambling down the rocky slope with the agility of a rock wallaby.

  Willy didn’t argue. He was just feeling intensely relieved. After Andrew had also retrieved his shirt and pulled it on the group set off down the hill, Willy leading, followed by Carmen and Andrew. But he had only gone fifty paces before Carmen called after him, “Willy! Slow down! They have to launch a boat and it then has to get here. There is plenty of time and we don’t want to be trying to get you down if you have a broken back.”

  Willy flushed with embarrassment. “Just keen to get off this island,” he replied.

  “Why is that Willy? Overseas tourists pay big money to stay on tropical islands.”

  Willy had to laugh. “Yes, in a five star resort!” he replied.

  Twenty minutes later they reached the beach. All the way down Willy had been thinking about the violent incident the previous day and he even cast a few nervous looks around the islands to check that the Saurian wasn’t lurking somewhere nearby. Down on the beach they were sheltered from the worst of the wind and it was so hot that sweat poured from him. He became impatient.

  Another half hour went by before Graham appeared with the van der Heydens. They came around the end of the island. A few minutes later a rigid-inflatable lifeboat surged into view from the same direction. It curved out of the waves and into the sheltered water and nosed in to the beach.

  There were two men in it, both wearing safety helmets and buoyancy vests. As the boat grounded one of the crew stood up and stared at them. His mouth fell open in evident surprise. “Well bugger me! Young Kirk and his mates. Oops! Sorry ladies,” he said.

  “Hello Mr Marshall,” Graham answered.

  “What are you lot doing here? I thought you were on the Wewak. Where is she?” Mr Marshall asked, looking around the bay with an anxious frown on his face.

  “She’s alright Mr Marshall, or at least I think she is. When we left her yesterday afternoon she was up the Normanby River,” Graham explained.

  Mr Marshall clambered ashore and held the bow. “So why hasn’t she answered her radio? We’ve been trying all night and all morning to raise her,” he said.

  On hearing that Willy felt a sharp stab of apprehension. ‘Oh no! I hope those crooks didn’t shoot them all,’ he thought. Concern for his father made his eyes prickle.

  Mr Marshall turned to Mrs van der Heyden and put out his hand. “Alan Marshall, mate of the Bonthorpe,” he said.

  Introductions were made and Graham then said, “I thought you were on the Malita Mr Marshall?”

  “I was, but Mick Busuttin is sick. Besides, your dad likes to swap people around from ship to ship every few months,” Mr Marshall explained.

  “Captain Bligh that is,” Graham said. Both he and Mr Marshall burst out laughing. It was obviously an old joke.

  Mr Marshall gestured to the boat, “Anyway, that’s enough gabbing. Get aboard. You can tell us the story once we are under way. We want to get back to the ship before this wind gets worse of we may not be able to.”

  “Is the cyclone closer?” Graham asked as he nimbly clambered aboard.

  “My oath it is! It is only about two hundred kilometres to the South East and heading straight for us. It is a Category Four now,” Mr Marshall said.

  “Category Four!” Andrew and Carmen cried simultaneously.

  Willy looked at them and noted the drawn faces and lines of anxiety. As he climbed into the boat he said, “What category was the cyclone you got caught in at Bowling Green
Bay last January Andrew?”

  “Category Five, the worst,” Andrew replied. Willy noted the haunted look in his eyes and decided that Andrew was scared. ‘Maybe I should be too,’ he mused. ‘At least Andrew knows that it is like.’

  When all were aboard and seated the boat was pushed off. It reversed out fifty metres and turned. Mr Marshall spent five minutes making sure everyone had a flotation device correctly fitted. Then he nodded to the man at the wheel, “OK Dick, take her away,” he said.

  The coxswain opened the throttle and spun the wheel. The boat got under way with an impressive surge of power. Once again Willy experienced feelings of anxiety at how small the boat was, how big the sea was, and how close he was to it. Seeing this Mr Marshall said, “Relax. These ‘Rigid Raiders’ were developed for the Royal Marines and Royal Navy to use in the North Atlantic. She can safely carry twelve in Force Ten weather.”

  That reassured Willy a bit but his fear returned as they came out from behind the headland and into the wind and waves. The boat began surging across the waves, taking them diagonally so that there was a continual twisting and rolling motion but not too many hammering bumps. Spray began flying up, ending conversation and sending them all crouching low.

  Within minutes they were all soaked. Luckily the water was warm and it felt reasonably cool in the wind. For ten minutes they travelled over into the lee of Denham Island. Then they turned and pointed the bows to the South East. Willy saw that the Bonthorpe and her tow were right over on the far side of the Rattlesnake Channel. ‘Tucked in behind Bathurst Point to get some shelter,’ he decided.

  Crossing the five kilometres of the Rattlesnake Channel took only fifteen minutes but for Willy it was a quarter of an hour of hair-raising fear. ‘Give me flying anytime,’ he told himself. Out in the open water the waves were two or three metres high and to Willy’s eyes quite huge. The progress of the boat, quartering the waves diagonally downwind, resulted in an endless serries of sickening swoops. This soon had Jacob and Mrs van der Heyden going green and spewing over the side. Even Willy felt his stomach heaving and he wondered if he was going to be sick as well. To Willy’s shame and jealousy Graham, Andrew and Carmen kept looking around and smiling, like tourists on a pleasure trip.

  Willy found it a relief when the boat moved into the calmer water in the lee of Bathurst Point. There were then a few anxious minutes while the boat manoeuvred alongside the Bonthorpe. They were then hooked onto a crane and lifted onto the deck of the ship.

  Close up the Bonthorpe was much bigger than Willy had thought. The ship was almost as big as the Wewak but with a much higher bow and sides. A two storey superstructure was set forward, leaving a large working deck aft. They were met by two men who were introduced as the cook and the engineer.

  Once the flotation devices had been taken off and re-stowed in the locker on the boat the group were led through a door into the superstructure. They went along a companionway and up stairs to the wheelhouse. A middle-aged man with a pipe in his mouth met them.

  “Tom Proctor, skipper,” he said. “Now, what’s the story?”

  While they talked Mr Marshall took the wheel off the skipper and kept the ship heading into the wind. Willy noted that the engine speed was such that they got no closer to the mountain in front of them.

  Captain Proctor was amazed at the account of the crooks. He kept shaking his head. “Bloody hell! I’m worried about the people on the Wewak. I wish we could check on them.”

  “Can’t you send the boat?” Graham asked. He looked quite distressed and Willy felt the same way, fearing that his father might have been murdered. ‘But poor old Graham might have lost his father, mother and sister,’ he thought unhappily.

  Captain Proctor shook his head and pointed out the windows with his pipe. “I could, but I won’t. I am not risking lives. If they are alive then it is an unjustified risk, and if they aren’t then it, well, it doesn’t matter. The wind and sea around the other side of the point will be quite unsafe.”

  The implications of this caused Willy’s already upset stomach to feel quite nauseous. ‘But he is right,’ he thought bitterly.

  Graham then explained how they had spent the night on the island and then climbed the hill to signal for help. At that Mr Marshall said, “That was very well done. Where did you kids learn to signal with a mirror and to use semaphore?”

  “Navy cadets,” Carmen replied. “I am a Leading Seaman and Andrew is an Able Seaman.”

  “And which one of you did the work?” Capt Proctor asked.

  “Me, sir,” Carmen admitted, blushing.

  “Bloody well done,” Capt Proctor said.

  Mr Marshall laughed, then said, “You kids are bloody lucky. If I hadn’t done twelve years in the RN when I was a lad then there would have been no-one on this ship who could read semaphore or send Morse. As it was it took us a while to dig out an Aldis lamp.”

  Graham said, “Sir, can you try again to raise Wewak on the radio?”

  “Yes, and we need to inform the proper authorities about these pirates,” Capt Proctor replied. “I will get onto it as soon as I have checked the tow again.”

  “I can do it sir,” Carmen said. “If you just give me the schedule of frequencies and call signs. I am a qualified marine radio operator.”

  Capt Proctor raised on eyebrow. “Navy Cadets again eh? Hmm, you aren’t just a pretty face are you? Alright, I will show you.” He led Carmen to a table at the rear of the wheelhouse next to the chart table. After explaining the set-up to her and discussing who to call and the wording Capt Proctor turned to the others, “Now, you can all go down to the saloon if you wish. Cook will look after you.”

  “Can I stay up here sir?” Andrew asked.

  “Yes, you all can as long as you keep out of the way. I do not want you going out on deck for any reason.” He then went aft. Through windows in the rear of the wheelhouse Willy saw him and the deckhand, both wearing buoyancy vests and safety helmets, doing something to the towrope.

  Mr Marshall saw this and said, “You need to be very wary of a towline. If they snap and are clear of the water they can spring back faster than a striking snake. Steel wire doing that cuts men in half or can decapitate them. Tow ropes are really dangerous. Ours has broken three times since yesterday. That is why we are late.”

  The images of hissing ropes disembowelling and slicing flesh was too much for Willy. He had to ask where the toilet was and then hurry down to it. To his great shame he then vomited. To further hurt his pride he found he was frightened to be inside the bucking steel structure. ‘I must be claustrophobic,’ he thought miserably as he washed his mouth and had a drink. As quickly as he could he made his way back up to the wheelhouse.

  When he got there it was to find Carmen shaking her head and looking unhappy. “Can’t raise the Wewak. Sorry Graham. Sorry Willy.” She turned back to the radio and began calling the marine radio control.

  While she called the authorities and relayed the information about the Saurian and her crew Willy stared anxiously out the front. He found he was trembling and the awful realization came to him that he was frightened. Turning to Mr Marshall he said, “Can you take this boat up a mangrove creek like Capt Kirk did?”

  Mr Marshall shook his head. “Ship you mean. Nope. Wewak only draws a bit over two metres. This is a deep sea vessel. She draws five metres. Are you worried?”

  “Yes I am,” Willy admitted. “I’d like to be ashore.”

  “Wouldn’t we all,” Mr Marshall said with a chuckle. “But we can’t just leave the barge. Don’t worry, the cyclone may turn away. Anyway, if you are going to be at sea in a ship then Bonthorpe is the one to do it in. She was built for fishing and oil rig support off Iceland and in the North Sea. It doesn’t get any rougher than there, normally.”

  That was some small comfort to Willy but deep down he knew he was scared and he turned to stare anxiously through the windows. He found he was praying: that his father was safe; and that the cyclone would not come their way.
>
  But the midday weather report shattered that hope. The weather radar images on the computer screen clearly showed the swirling rain bands and the forecast track showed the cyclone to be only 150 km to the South East and still heading their way. On the nearby chart table was the carefully plotted position of the cyclone, hour by hour and based on satellite photos of its eye, showed a curving track with them directly in front of it. Instruments on the mast informed them that the local wind speed was now up to 50 knots- 100 kph, and rising.

  “We are really in for it,” Capt Proctor said grimly. “Alan, get down there and check every single thing you can secure is as tight as it can be. This is going to be bad.”

  Willy felt his heart beat faster with anxiety and the fear began to swell towards panic. “Oh no!” he thought.

  CHAPTER 36

  CYCLONE

  Willy looked out through the bridge windows and stared at the sea with growing anxiety. To deepen his concern he saw that the sea to starboard had quite changed in colour and character in a very short time. Now it was a sort of dirty brown or grey, all flecked with angry, tumbling whitecaps. There was a very clear line where the sheltered water in behind the mountains gave way to the open water that was under the influence of much stronger winds. Willy saw that there were sudden swirling eddies which came from either side to buffet the ship and to give the helmsman a few minutes of hard going till the ship’s bows were again held steady into the worst of the wind.

  After studying the steadily worsening scene for ten minutes Willy experienced what he recognized as intense fear. He knew enough about cyclones to feel that. But the van der Heydens were obviously quite ignorant of them, other than in the most general terms. When they came up from the saloon Julia joined Willy and Andrew near the chart table and she looked at it with a puzzled expression on her face. “If this cyclone is so far away why are we concerned? Can’t we just get out of its way?” she asked.

  Willy saw a look of baffled incredulity cross Andrew’s face. “We are already in it,” he said.