The merchanman

It a voyage on a small coaster in dead winter.

The Merchantman

On November In the port of Gevle, the Northwest blew with light snowflakes; there was a smell in it, it was a cold flavour of winter.

Just a couple days ago the ground had been naked and the weather mild, now all the signs indicated that the weather above sixty degrees latitude was starting its definitely change towards the winter.

On looking around I saw a ship, berthed at the wharf of Andradite. She laid there in the chilly dawn like an up laying vessel giving an impression as if she has been abandoned, and the frozen motionless environment breathed out such coldness that it made me shiver. The only sound to be heard in this cold air - was a slow hum from her funnel.

The hull of the freighter was coloured with a patch of rust and her upper work was white and I could see that the painting work wasn't new, it seemed to be done long time ago. She was true enough, not a top model vessel and hardly more than two hundred foot in her length, and her capacity - about one thousand and six hundred cross-tonnage, I judge, by type as of coasters, evidently built somewhere in Holland for bulk and general cargo. On her stern, she bore the name, and her port of registry: Que. Vadis. Malta the white letters read.

You can take a journey and travel to Germany by the ship, the Agent had told me.

”There may occur some postponement, but anyway, it's the cheapest way to travel, Don't worry. I know you have a lot a time. Perhaps you can give a hand helping for some small jobs aboard."

I promised to do so and after we had shaken hand I went down to Harbour.

The deck was deserted. I couldn't see anyone, no seaman anywhere; there was not a single living soul in sight. The time was early morning and I came to a conclusion that certainly not even those bloody sailors stand all the time on deck. When embarked I made noise by stamping my feet before a red oak door making all to know my boarding.

A buff of indoor air with an odour of cooking oil blew through the open doorway and there was a narrow alleyway and from here opened a space into a small room, which I could recognize at once belonging to the ship's galley.

There was a man in this small galley, a busy young man wearing a multicoloured shirt and pair of blue dungarees.

The busy fellow didn't pay any attention to me and my arrival just gave me a quick glance.

Where can I find the captain? I asked.

With his left hand, the man pointed across the short corridor. "Over there. I think".

I laid my luggage on the bench, then went to the door and knocked on it. An answer from behind the door was a low-voiced. "Yeez. Come in!"

I pushed the door open and entered the captain's salon. It was a spacious, low-ceilinged ship’s salon, furnished with typical ship’s interior things. A partition divided the sleeping quarters from the main salon. I saw a man in this saloon, he sat under the square shaped windows; the man on the red sofa was smoking his cigarette, bearded strongly built man in his fifties. When I came in he stood up and greeted me with a firm handshake and I heard his name `Orlov.`

After shifting some papers on the table, this master and commander gestured me to sit down.

" I heard, you are going to travel to Germany with us, the captain said."

"That’s my idea," I answered.

" Didn't you find an easier way to travel? You have chosen a bad season for the journey".

"Actually I wish to see a little bit of the sea life", I said.

"Oh. I see", the master said and lit his next cigarette, then he picked up a bag of cigarettes from the carton lying on the table, and offered it to me.

"Wholly one?" I asked.

”Yes. Keep it.We have a lot that sort of stuff". the master said, then added,

"I do not know about a passenger aboard" he straightened his back. "There is a mutiny in progress among the Polish crew. Well, the cook will still prepare some food, but the others crew members, they don't want to get up from their cabins anymore. The Polish crew has formulated some sort of solidarity group and the Chief engineer want to be some sort of Leach Valeca, leader, you know. They don't want work anymore aboard this vessel, with the only exception an able seaman named Janock, but in the last few days, he had begun to avoid me as well. This situation has been ongoing since we left England. But it has now come into its final state. Well. If you still are ready to stay here. Welcome aboard. We've got a life jacket for one extra person. You can take lodgings in the pilot's cabin. The mate will show it to you.

The door opened and a tall young man entered the captain's salon.

"My name is Apo," the man said and stretched his hand.

Apo, the Chief Mate of the Qua Vadis was a tall blond fellow and he led me by an interior ladder up to the upper deck, behind the Command Bridge, where the pilot's cabin was located. I saw him being a gregarious, extroverted young man with his nature open and ingenuous who smelled whisky.

"Here life can be a bit restless, but from this stage, you will have good opportunity to study the sea life," he taunted. "Anyway, we haven't any other cabins.

This is good enough, I said.

For supper, men gathered in a small mess-room. One by one, and by pairs they came. There was eater around the oval-shaped table the captain and his wholly crew; seven men, all told, and the cook. The meal was served on the table; there were beef, apricots and beans.

They eat with no talk, everyone but the captain and the chief mate was staring down at their plates. I could feel the tense atmosphere and there was feeling like in a funeral procession.

Immediately after the meal, I went to the captain's cabin, where the Chief engineer already stood in the middle of the floor. I came just in time to hear the Chief engineer saying in a voice that everyone could hear.

"Captain," the chief engineer exclaimed. "We are not your enemy, but you must understand, we'll not go anywhere with this ship anymore. It is the crew's decision. We are now secured at the harbour of this neutral country. We don't want to postpone this matter any longer. We only need our wages paid and travel tickets home. To be paid off. That’s all we want."

Captain Orlov said nothing for a moment, then he turned and picked up a blue file from the shelf.

"Have to look to what the law says about this case," he said and pulled out a sheet from the blue file and then pointed the paper.

"If an employee leaves the ship before ending the contract, he will lose one month’s salary and will lose the prospect of a free passage home, as well. Every one of you has been here for only four months, except the able seamen, who has served longer. All of you have the responsibility of having signed and accepted this contract. When I took it upon myself to act as the master of this ship, I also undertook the responsibility to defend the interests of the ship."

The chief changed his legs and his temper rose.

"This ship is not seaworthy anymore!" the chief exclaimed angrily. "This ship has only one generator functional. Captain, you don't know everything. When you were on holiday and this person was a substitute for you," he pointed towards the mate. "We were all in danger of sinking. The Russian mate, who was aboard at the time couldn't sleep for a week because he

was worried for the ship's safety. Then we got blacked out at the Gulf of Bizkaia in such horrible weather. On the same night, there was a ship, the "Dustman." It sank and we were nearly sinking as well. When we then finally arrived at Rotterdam, the Russian mate was so weak and emaciated that we could see the bones of his face and it was necessary to send him to hospital. After Rotterdam, we sailed to Denmark without the Mate on the bridge. The able seaman was then acting as mate without a ticket. Say what you like, it is wrong. We're all lucky to be alive. I am not any street boy. We don't want to remain aboard this ship any longer. What I will do, I m going to make a protest against this case."

After this saying the chief turned around and rushed away, I saw him disappearing into the passage of the crew quarters. He had gone down to taken Job’s post to his shipmates below.

By the afternoon the Agent brought a fax message sent by the chartered company. Orlov showed the telegram to me. There was a sharp order; the ship must put to sea, the destination being Estonia. Actually, that telex contained an order for the ship to be in the loading dock by the next afternoon. There the ship would be supplied with a fresh crew, and anything else it would need.

Orlov rolled up the telegram paper and put it into an empty glass. "The master’s next to the God," he said. Then he took a pencil and after writing something with it, he gave the paper to the Agent.

-Please send this to the charter company; We cannot leave without the crew. The Polish crew will run away, and the ship needs money and new hands.

By five a clock in the evening Captain Orlov summoned all the crew into the captain's salon. I went along to see what it was all about.

Orlov sat on his sofa; his mate Apo sat beside him on his right side and the Agent on his left. There were papers on the table, and little apart from them could be seen four travels tickets. The crew crowded the room. The captain spoke and there was a sharp sound in his tone.

"You all will have the travel tickets from here to home. The A/B will get all of his wages paid up until this day, and, I have bonder about this and I will offer five hundred dollars to each of you. Moreover, I want everybody to know that there is not any obligation to pay even five hundred dollars to your; this is a kindness of my own, which I may still regret. The captain paused and opened a metal box which from he piled out four piles of banknotes and placed in a row on the table.

" Five hundred dollars for each one", he said and closed the box.

I saw how the face of the chief engineer became red. You are crazy! he exclaimed, and with an excited mind, he looked at the Agent then turned toward me. "I want the ITF men here. Right now. Do you know where I can find them?" he asked. I said that I do not know the whereabouts of the ITF people.

With an agitated mind the chief engineer turned around and marched away, his shipmates following at heels, I could hear an angry murmur went they went down on the gangway..

"They now go ashore to make a telephone call," Orlov said. "They should have accepted the money when they had the chance. Now they will have nothing."

"It's the worst thing to the East Europeans, whatever could happen; They lose their American dollars, poor devils. Moreover, they have enough money; I have seen all the contraband business they have done," Apo said.

 Captain Orlov lit a cigarette again (he seemed to smoke constantly), then rose and brought four bottles beer from the side locker and offered them to us and said. "Do you know, What's worst, in this case, could be" he opened a bottle and answered himself to the question.

" I well understand them. Even I could feel compassion for them. But I’m not in a position to show any sympathy. At the same time, I could give whistle over the game. Well, perhaps it is a bit unfair, but it could hit every single man onboard this kind of vessel. We could have had �" every one of us - the same destiny. It may happen tomorrow. I have no illusions about what will happen here. The only thing we can to do is try to save the skin of our own to be able to defend ourselves against the green beast, against the charters, the owners and any sort of inspectors."

Next morning I began voluntarily working in the abandoned galley. At first, I had to make an inspection of the supplies. There was a lot of frozen chicken and also various other stuff in the cold storage. The dry food store couldn't be said to be at all well provided with food; I found it provided mainly with macaroons and various sorts of hulled grain, tins of corned beef, and coffee.

Spending much time in the galley, doing the best of my ability, I managed to prepare a meal from the ingredients I had gathered together. I used escalope of canned foods baked in Argentina. All the time I strongly felt the peculiar aroma of the ship’s interior as it surrounded me.

It was seven o'clock in the evening I was washing the cutlery in the galley as I heard a door slamming and a fair-haired man’s head appeared in the doorway; the head with a pair blue eyes looked into the galley.

"Did I come to the right place?" the head asked.

"It depends on what you mean by that."

"Is the ship’s name Quer Varis? Or however, it's pronounced?"

"You have come aboard a right ship," I said.

Now the whole man came into sight and said, "I´m the Engineer, The Chief Engineer. Ulla Tomp is the name - an Estonian."

In spite of the bitter coldness of winter, the engineer was dressed in just a light blouse.

"They sent me by a plane to Stockholm, then I took a taxi here. ´Kurat! Perkrle!” With upset mind, he nervously cursed at the doorway. "I am without any money in my pocket and there is the taxi man waiting for his payment on the quay."

"Please. Speak to the captain,"

But he didn't need; the captain and Apo were already there. The Mate got the order to pay off the taxi and Orlov began to examine the newcomer. He made some inquiry of the new engineer’s previous vessel and was obviously pleased getting known that the newcomer had serviced before as Chief Engineer on board fishing vessels.

When Ula Tomp had found his cabin and was taking his breath as a seaman aboard, he then came up into the mess room where I had brought a full can of coffee. He told been out in the Arctic Ocean working in the Russian fishing fleet; many of the vessels were no more than cramped, rusting coffins with interminable mechanical breakdowns, he said

" There were a lot of different machines there, heavy ones and light ones and all the time there was trouble with them. Our technique didn't quite work out very well."

On the same evening two more men arrived aboard, they were Finnish, sent by the charter agent. One of them was tall and fat and the other one was slim and short; both of them were sullen, like two peasants; they didn't even answer my greeting.

I didn't know what the time was when I woke out of my sleep in the bunk of the pilot’s cabin. A cold light from the pylon fell through the window a pale glare lighted the small cabin. A terrible noise cut through the night it came from below, an eerie noise carried through the ship and made its way into my cabin. It sounded just like a howl of a dying dog. I got up, then pulled on some clothes and swung my legs over the bunk’s edge then sat listening for a moment. Sure enough, there was something wrong down below in the engine room.

When I reached to turn on the bunk light, the lamp above the bed flashed with the sound of a sharp bang and went out. From down below came a sharp slam of iron doors and there were excited human voices, and a whiff of burning electrical equipment, suddenly the ears tearing noise ceased and a deep silence descened. Several pairs of feet ran in the hallway and Alpo rushed up into sight with an extinguisher; the captain was behind him carrying another extinguisher.

When the air was clear of the dust of extinguisher powder, I asked,

"What happened?"

"The generator," Orlov said. "The generator has run-over and burnt itself out. The over-voltage-protector? Why the didn't work? Could they been sabotaged ?"

There was no answer to such question.

"How is the gyrocompass?"

"It's gone," Apo said.

"VHF radio?"

"It was off; it’s okay now."

"There is a curse following this ship."

The next two days the repairs r carried out; there were two the electricians from shore and they went up and down by ladders. All the days along men were searching up the damages; finally, the lights in the passages came on, yet half of the ship was blacked out and the work went on.

By the afternoon of the last day, there were numerous damaged couplers changed. It delayed us three days and on the last day, the captain with a gloomy mind wanted to make for the sea the next morning.

Next day at noon we went to sea. It was December and the most darkness season at the northern latitude. The chilly winter day was dim and the surface of the water in the harbour was already frozen.

After three brief manoeuvres, Qua Vadis made off, swinging her bow towards the open sea.

The first part of the voyage had begun.

The gyrocompass and autopilot were out of order. The compass that still operated was situated on the roof of the wheelhouse, atop of the monkey island, from where the periscope’s tube led through the ceiling of the wheelhouse. A high wooden chair was placed behind the wheel and Apo was sitting on it, glancing at the periscope at regular intervals.

The grey dull expanse of the sea spread around us; the gloomy overcast sky overhead continued far over the horizon. Remote from us, barely distinguishable on the horizon, the sky and the sea were merged into the same grey and gloomy inseparable element; grey was the common colour in this frozen landscape. Further out southward, in the dusky horizon, there could be seen a grey promontories looming out there; they were blotched with white snow caps, it formed the outermost corner of the western coast of Finland.

This almost unsalted sea region is one of the roughest seas in the world. During winter you could encounter three inevitable interconnected elements: darkness, storms, and the ice., you could also get into a dismal icy-cold gale which could last for days, or a blind blizzard drove by a gale and pushing the drifting ice and the ships out of the tracks and pressing them against the ragged seaboard.

I saw a bright point, finking like a flashing light, dead ahead it was seen. It appeared to be a lighthouse standing on an outer rock.

We were out now at the Sea of Botnia making good progress through the water; the bow waves sighted and our wake trained away and lost. The coastline of the mainland behind us was still visible. now very low and hazy loom in the distant hills.

Suddenly the VHF radio in the corner of the wheelhouse burst into life, it announced the forecast with a gale warning. According to the weather report, there would be local showers to come, and the visibility may be limited to four miles.

I heard the captain swearing. "Damn the wind and dam this ship also. The wind will be against us. It means we can't make headway. This is an empty ship. The weather may be not all that bad, but it will be too bad for making way and there is no point in battering this light ship against the sea to no purpose."

"Punishment after hardness but the Lord will not forsake his children," Apo announced behind the wheel.

Orlov didn't see any comedy in this situation.

"We must take this vessel to shelter in the archipelago," he said and leaned over the chart table. Having checked the navigation chart he straightened his body. "There, we will find it," he tapped his finger on a spot on the chart. "Six hours, and we will enter into the archipelago where we will find an easy place to drop the anchor."

I went below, under the main deck and made my way along the lowest alleyway farther down where the cabins of sailors were situated, and finally came to the door of the engine room. There the noise of engines ran between the iron walls and along of the corridor. Carefully I took to look through the doorway looking to the engine room as a man look down over the edge of a well, and I saw there below down there Ula Tomp, he was sitting there aside from the huge main engine studying some papers in his hands, which looked being some kind of mechanical plans.

I remain for a moment on the upper platform atop the engine room looking down; it was useless to try to arrest Ulna’s attention to such noise.

I returned to the bridge, and after a brief moment, Ula joined me. “What’s the score below down there?” asked Orlov.

"Problem we not have," said Ula by his peculiar way of speak. "I found the valves, which could steer the warm water into radiators.”

"Good," said Orlov; he stood at the wheelhouse window, his nose close to the glass.

"What is our hurry?" asked Ula.

"Hurry? Ah, you mean the speed. She makes eight and a half now."

Shivering in his thin clothes for a while, Ula turned and went back below into the engine room, where it was warm and everything more familiar to him.

After the short dim daylight and the lean coloured sea, there was long dark evening and black sea under. Various floating lights were seen upon the dark sea, the lights of ships, and there were several bright flashes of beacons from the shore as well.

Orlov ordered a radio phone call from the Stockholm coastal station he wanted to speak the charter.

Through the loudspeaker, we could overhear how the receiver was lifted far away from us, somewhere in the warm an

Reviews

[alanwgraham]

This a good story Ukko and it feels you are talking from experience. You have lots of well described details that sound accurate th. Also your pacing is good and your dialogue is true to life. I guess because English is not your first language there are plenty of spelling mistakes along with punctuation. I always use the spell checker build in which works well. It is worth going over!
Well done for this.
Alan

[ukko]

thanks for your reviews. That story I wrote 15 year ago. There are plenty of spelling mistakes, as you said, To tell a story is no problem but the - grama Thanks very much, I appreciate your opinion