Geoffrey Jenkins - A bridge of Magpies

I grabbed the jumping-wire on sudden impulse, heaved forward with my weight on it, twisted the loop tight, and then dropped back into the conning-tower and made the cable fast.

I'd flayed the skin off my fingers and palms: I descended the conning-tower ladder like a man in a dream and crunched back across the shells and marine growths to Gaok. The world started to come slowly back into focus and I became conscious of the gaJe again. Out there on the exposed casing it felt as if the whole world would disappear in one great blowing cloud. The U-boat's buoyancy had a curious dead feel and walking across her deck like that made one want to grope uncertalnly with one's feet, like an astronaut on a spacewalk.

`Safe-conduct's fixed? I told Denny when I got aboard Gaok.

`Struan. darling… 1' The rest of Jutta's welcome was blocked in her throat.

`Now's our time!' replied Kaptein Denny. Not a mention of the thing which hung there-safe now.

I was still suffering from a carry-over of tension but I brushed it aside. 'Right!' I said. 'Let's get on with the job. But look how she's down at the head.'

You didn't need good night vision, in the almost moonlight conditions-to make an assessment that U-160 would never be classed Al at Lloyd's. The seas surged across the deck, which was half awash most of its length and fully awash in the bows. Even the railings and stanchions for'ard of the main torpedo loading hatch were half under water. If it hadn't been for what she carrled inside I would have dismissed her as a load of old iron only fit to cover with a blanket-and caJl the padre. The luminescence made a bright border about a foot wide amidships round the casing, where it rode clear of the water; but in the bows-where the seas were shredded, it was like flame rippling on a burning log.

Kaptein Denny said, `Tonight's the night. It's been this way too many times before. This is the last attempt. Now let's get that rope cradled under her.'

That had been the plan. It was simple-as a plan. It called for a double length of four-inch manila hawser attached to both cutters' bow and stern winches, and looped under U-160's hull. We'd first let go enough slack to let the hawsers sink 199 deeper than the U-boat-then dose on her from both flanks, astern; stop when we came abreast the conning-tower, and then winch the cradle in tight. The cutters would act as lifting pontoons while we got busy on the main hatch with the cutting torch.

The theory was fine, the practice different. It was as if we were cowpunchers riding herd and trying to rope the most bloody-minded maverick that ever cut loose on the plains of Texas. The Ancient Mariner's undersea spirit couldn't have jinked, yawed and shoved that sodden hull in more random, chaotic and unpredictable directions than the upwell cell current did. Perhaps that was why she'd escaped being piled up on the reefs in all the years before.

The, operation was also continually hamstrung by Denny's refusal to move more than a few hundred feet from the Uboat, for fear of losing her from under his spotlight. This meant I was at the perimeter in Ichabo, dragging two heavy lopsided cables whlle Gaok and U-160 remained close to the operations centre. This made it almost impossible for the cables to reach deep enough to encircle the hull. Once when we nearly succeeded it was spoilt by the cradle snagging on something-possibly a propeller or hydroplane belonging to the U-boat-and before we could do anything about it she gave one of her sudden yaws and we had to go hard astern to prevent the boats being crushed. We lost her and started all over again.

This went on for about an hour. And it seemed like sending out a new invitation to Sang A to join the party, every time we gunned our engines full ahead or full astern-on average once every five minutes-and swung the spotlight to every point of the compass to keep it homed on the conning-tower. When I heard through the murk the heavy crash of breakers coming from close at hand, I'd had enough. We were in the middle of yet another manoeuvre-which meant I was doing the manoeuvring while Gaok hugged U-160. I didn't cast off my end of the cradle, but cut my engine and set the winches going. This had the effect of dragging Ichabo bodily broadside across the gap separating the two boats. U-160 got in the way like an unwanted third at a fete-a-tate, but I couldn't help that: This time Gaok did the manoeuvring, I jumped aboard her and told Kaptein Denny. 'This is for the birds. Every one of the hundred million birds in the islands?

'Go on.'

'I hear breakers. Lots of breakers. I'd say it was Penguins Turning.'

'It is Penguins Turning.'

'I'm glad someone knows where we are because J don't. And if it's the skietrots, we've come less than a mile in a straight line since we began. Straight being the operative word.'

'So what? Distance isn't important. What is important.?

'Distance is time and time is Sang A,' I retorted. 'Any time is Sang A time and I don't fancy going on with this caper round Penguins Turning. Especially in the whirlpool behind it. 'Are you saying you intend to throw in the towel?'

°The only towel I want is one to dry myself with when I come up on the other side of U-160.'

'Meaning?' asked Kaptein Denny. From his tone-I was glad for my own sake that I was still thinking positively about U-160.

I started to pull off my shirt. 'I'm diving and taking a light line down under the U-boat's hull. Bring Gaok round on her starboard beam but stop her screw, for God's sake-as soon as you can. I don't want my head cut in half by my own side as I surface.'

'If she jinks while you're diving?'

I'd got down to my underpants. 'I'll take my chance. We've lost an hour already. It's a lot of time when a gale, a salinity level and a bunch of kamikazes are treading on your heels.'

Jutta's face was closed and strained. I couldn't find the right words to say to her. I felt she would gladly have traded in U-160 for anything else on the seven seas. I returned to Ichabo and awaited my moment. Both cutters were lying slightly astern of the U-boat on her port quarter, and I was accordingly awkwardly placed for a dive. But we judged, both Denny and I-that her next swing would be in. my direction; so he'd broken away in anticipation of it, with his damned spotlight full on the connlng-tower while Ichabo lay dead in the water. I'd been sweating in my clothes but 201 now as I stood poised I noticed that the fiery breath of the gale which I'd got used lo wasn't fiery any more. Maybe it was because I was nearer the cold water. Maybe it was because I was down to my skin

… maybe.

The U-boat veered. This was the moment I'd been waiting for. I went up on my toes and took the deepest breath I could. There wasn't time to realize that there was less dust in the air than before. I repeated the lung-filled exercise as the casing came sluggishly my way. Two. Three.

I dived.

The shock of the icy water nearly caused me to burp out all my nicely accumulated oxygen. It was cold, cold, cold. I went down, down, down. How deep was a U-boat's keep-about sixteen feet. Then I knew I was under her because the phosphorescence dimmed when her black shadow came between me and the surface. I turned on my back: I wished I hadn't. The hulk was trailing weed, rust and underwater filth. I was too deep, so I bubbled out a little air, turned right side up and stroked strongly forward. Either J misjudged, or the U-boat didn't complete the turn she'd started, because when I kicked myself surfacewards my back scraped painfully against the rough barnacles and at the same lime my head cracked against a projection. I ducked automatically and threw out my hands to fend it off. I'd emptied my lungs as I gave that final kick.' My fingers encountered something smooth and round-with an object (it felt like a small propeller) sticking out of its snub nose. It wasn't a deadly sting ray but I let go quicker than if it had been, kicked as hard as I could-bumped my back again-and shot to the surface. I grabbed hold of the U-boat's half-awash rail and gasped in lungfuls of air. They were as much from fear as from need.