Geoffrey Jenkins - Scend of the Sea

I fell into an exhausted doze after the stream of radio signals, questions and answers, technicalities, for I was awoken by Bates's hand on my shoulder.

'There!'

The Super Frelon was dropping fast from about 1500 feet. Ahead lay the line of the coast, the curious cleft of the Bashee Mouth, unmistakable. About ten miles offshore, I judged, a cluster of ships lay in a tight circle-three frigates, the survey.ship, a couple of long salvage pontoons, cumbersome and low in the water, and a cluster of small craft. On the outer fringe, hovering like cubs round a lion kill as if afraid to get closer, were more small craft; ahead, at a safe distance too, were two light aircraft.

'Press!' snorted Bates. 'See how they keep away? That's your Colonel Joubert's work. He's got a guilt complex about you the size of Table Mountain, and he's trying to work it off by being tough with everyone not immediately connected with the salvage operation. Flew specially from Cape Town to superintend things.' He gestured at the circling aircraft. ‘I just hope they don't try and come too close as we go in. They'll do anything for a picture, and you're about to give them one in a moment.'

'Me?'

'You, at the end of a winch line,' responded Bates. 'My orders are to drop you aboard Natal- she's the one nearest the survey ship.'

'Natal!' I echoed, dismayed. 'Lee-Aston!'

Bates laughed. 'You'll find a lot of attitudes towards you have changed! That includes Lee-Aston. All the big brass are waiting for you aboard his ship.'

'Thanks,' I said, but he cut me short and pointed at the horizon.

'Don't thank me yet,' he said quietly. There's your old enemy.'

The purple-blue smudge lay low on the horizon.

'It doesn't look good,' he said candidly. 'I've been getting special met. reports every hour. While you were asleep, the whole storm front seemed to pick up speed. It's heading towards us, fast. There's already a full gale off Cape St Francis.'

Here, in the sunlight and warmth of the helicopter cockpit, it seemed impossible that she should be entombed down there, sixty feet under icy water.

I craned to try and see through the waves, but Bates said, 'You can save yourself the trouble, chum. You simply can't see through that murky water. Here we go. Stand by.'

'What's the rescue plan, major?' I asked. 'Surely you're part of it?'

There's no plan-yet,' replied Bates. They're waiting for you. Everything depends on you. Her life.' He must have seen my face, for he added quickly, 'I shouldn't have said that. But you've got to face it. An hour ago the odds were fifty-fifty. Now they're sixty-forty against. In another hour. .' he indicated the grape-purple south-western horizon. 'I'm dumping this old grasshopper on a private field over there by the river which we took over as an emergency landing strip. I'm getting myself a trim little Alouette in her place.'

They lowered me by winch and 'horse collar' on to the frigate's stern.

Jubela was first at the cable. He could not speak. He took me, still suspended, in that curious high-up armshake he had given me the night I saved his life in the Southern Ocean. It was only when I saw the look on the sailors' faces who released me from the device that I realized how I must look:- I was still in my sea-stained, torn oilskins, and my hair and five-day beard were clotted with blood from the gash over my eyes. I held my bandaged hands clear, high away from the winch wire. Perhaps the two seamen thought I was a stretcher case, but it was Jubela who took me under the arms and guided me for'ard under their direction.

They rapped on a door.

'Come in!'

The men round the captain's conference table looked as startled as the seamen.

Lee-Aston, in faultless white, came forward, hand extended. He stopped at the sight of my bandages and blanched.

'I think I owe you more than I even thought,' he said quietly.

It was Colonel Joubert who pulled out a chair and fussed over me as I sat down.

'The thought of that pretty face down there kills me,' he said in a cracked voice. He turned away. 'What a bloody fool I was! Anything in my power to do now …'

Lee-Aston didn't waste any more time.

'Malherbe, Navy salvage,' he said crisply, introducing a sandy-haired lieutenant-commander. 'Jansen, Search and Rescue. Matthews, frogman. We've got the idea of the lay-out of the wreck and the chute from your signals. We haven't much time.'

Malherbe looked at his watch. 'It's 3.30 now. By five I must cut the airline.'

He fired the question savagely. 'What is holding that hatch?' I explained quickly.

'We could blow it with a light charge, then?' said Malherbe.

'And kill her in the process,' retorted Matthews. 'My frogmen couldn't get her out in time before the water rushed in.'

'The hatch isn't the real problem,' interjected Lee-Aston. 'We've known for days that she was under it. We didn't know what sort of compartment lay underneath.'

Malherbe said, 'We thought maybe there was a whole watertight compartment. That's why we delayed. You can't mount a salvage operation to lift a 10,000-ton ship in a couple of days. It would take months, even if it were possible.'

'She's right within our grasp, as it were,' said Lee-Aston. The voice was cool, controlled, but I saw his right fist contract until the knuckles were white against the bone. I knew then what was going on inwardly with him.

'The problems are enormous,' he added. 'I've no doubt that the frogmen could lever open that hatch, even without having to use explosive. But, before we can get her out, the chute will fill with water. We simply can't get her clear quick enough. She'd drown in sixty feet of water. She must be terribly weak into the bargain.'

Jansen, Search and Rescue, said, 'My boys will pick her out of the water the moment she surfaces. I'll put a ring of rubber dinghies in the sea immediately over the hatch, with frogmen at the ready in every one of them. There won't be any delay.'.

Lee-Aston leaned back. He said crisply, ‘I think you know, Captain Fairlie, that I was one of a court of inquiry which sat to investigate a collision between one of our new subs and a Frenchman at the entrance to the Mediterranean.'

'I don't want to know about subs. Let's get on with saving her,' I broke in.

Lee-Aston was unruffled. There was even a slight grin on his face. He looked round the conference table.

'Subs mean rescue.'

'What are you driving at, commander?' snapped Malherbe.

'You've got the perfect escape route in that chute, perfect for the buoyant ascent method of escape they use in modern subs! It's very simple: a man climbs into what we call a trunk, and seawater is let in until the compressed air pressure inside equals that of the sea pressure outside. Then he opens the hatch and simply steps out. You don't need a mask — or any breathing apparatus at all. The man in the trunk breathes air which has been compressed by partially flooding the escape trunk from the sea. Once he's outside the hatch and moves towards the surface, sea pressure decreases and the compressed air in his lungs starts to expand. He can't suck in water if he wanted to. He can't drown. It takes less than ten seconds to come up from 100 feet down. At sixty feet, it's perfectly safe.'

Malherbe thumped the table. 'Just pump in more and more air until it's compressed inside the chute!'

Matthews jumped to his feet. ‘I’ll get my team down there right away. They can lever open the hatch as the air inside equals the sea pressure outside.'

'Not so quick!' snapped Lee-Aston. He looked at his watch. 'How long before you can raise the air pressure in the chute to equal the sea's, Malherbe? We can't afford to fluff it now. It's a matter of very delicate checks and balances. Your frogmen will have to open the hatch at exactly the right moment, or else the chute will flood, or there won't be enough pressure to eject her. If the frogmen can't open the hatch, you'll have to stop pumping compressed air or you'll burst her lungs inside the tunnel. Jansen, get your men spread in a circle round the probable area of ascent. You'll have to pluck her out of the water smartly — she's very weak.' He spoke to an aide. Tell Major Bates I want him overhead in a helicopter — ' he looked inquiringly round the tight circle of faces ‘ — fifteen, twenty, minutes?'