The next morning on the bridge, I was fascinated by how the entire structure shook and vibrated. Everything had to be secured; even a simple pencil would dance off the table and roll around the floor. I began sorting through all the documentation that a Third Officer is responsible for managing.
Captain Stormbreaker walked in with a coffee cup in his hand and said, “Everything OK, Jack?”
I said, “Yes, Captain.”
Captain Stormbreaker nodded his head and sat on the bar stool near the helm's wheel.
I said, “If I may ask, why is the bridge shaking?”
Captain Stormbreaker said, “For some reason, they installed a bigger engine, and the vibration from that engine just manifests all over the ship, but on the bridge, it's the worst.”
I said, “I saw these pillars on the bridge. Are they to dampen the vibrations?”
Captain Stormbreaker said, “Yes. These third-world countries can’t do anything right. The engine has reduced power; otherwise, it would probably crash through the hull. Our right-side double bottom tanks are full of cement. You probably wonder why. Well, it’s because the shipyard, full of drunk workers, produced a ship with poor stability. They discovered this when it was put to sea.”
Captain Stormbreaker breathed deeply a few times before continuing, “So, what did they do? They filled the right side with cement. It’s a no-brainer, just like them. Now, sometimes we have to use the fuel tanks to correct the ship's tilt.” He coughed, quickly jumped from the bar stool, looked at the radar, and shouted, “I’m in command.”
I said, “Ok, Captain.” I walked to the radar and saw four ships on the radar moving in formation.
Captain Stormbreaker said, “This is a military formation.” He adjusted our course to pass near them and said, “Prepare the port searchlight.”
I said, “Yes, Captain.”
I removed the tarp from the port searchlight. The Captain arrived, flipped the power switch on, and tested the signaling button. Then he said, “This will be fun.”
We waited for some time until the military convoy of ships appeared in our line of sight.
I said, “Won’t they say we are too close and demand for us to change course?”
Captain Stormbreaker said, “No, this is the local military. Don’t worry; I know these guys and how they operate.”
As the ships drew closer, it became clear they were naval military destroyers. When the last ship approached, Captain Stormbreaker quickly signaled it with Morse code. I could hear the searchlight clicking in Morse code. When the last ship passed by, Captain Stormbreaker looked at it and laughed. Shortly after, he coughed.
I asked, “May I ask, what did you do, Captain?”
Captain Stormbreaker smiled and replied, “I just told the last ship to turn 90 degrees port after 10 miles.” He laughed again, coughed, and finally passed gas. Tapping my shoulder, he said, “You’re in command.” Captain Stormbreaker left the bridge with a cough, leaving me to fend for my life in the toxic fumes.
Later that day, after sorting most of the paperwork and creating new safety lists and documents, I checked the entire ship for safety equipment. Many labels were missing, and fire extinguishers were unmarked. A 50kg fire extinguisher on wheels from the engine room didn’t have any record and had expired two years ago, despite recent servicing of other extinguishers. Near the extinguisher was a box with foam liquid containers—some of them were damaged and leaking halfway. Everything was in bad shape..
An engineer passed by. He looked like an old, washed-up version of Charles ‘Lucky’ Luciano the gangster. He extended his and said, “Hi there, Third. I’m Lucky, the motorman.”
We shook hands.
I said, “Hi, Lucky. I’m Jack.”
Lucky the motorman said, “Well, whatchya doing?”
I leaned in and said, “Sorry?”
Lucky the motorman said, “Whatchya doing?”
I said, “I didn’t hear you well with all this engine noise.”
Lucky the motorman shouted, “What you do??”
I realized that in fact, the before he tried to ask, ‘What are you doing?’, I replied, “Looking at this mess. The fire extinguisher is expired, and these foam tanks are useless. In the event of a major engine fire, the ship would burn, and anyone stuck here would be a pile of ashes.”
Lucky the motorman just looked at me in silence.
I said, “Well, I’ll go notify the Chief so we can fix this up in the next port. Until then, stay safe.”
Lucky the motorman looked confused and worried. He said, “Huh?”
A young person approached us in 3rd Engineer’s overalls. He had fuzzy hair dyed in three colors: green, purple, and yellow, and his ears were full of small earrings. He had a sharp and angular face with heavily arched thin eyebrows. 3rd Engineer came close and said in my ear, “Hey man. What’s up?”
I explained the whole situation to him.
3rd Engineer said, “Cool man.”
I said in his ear, “If you say so. If I may ask, you came through the boarding office?”
3rd Engineer said in my ear, “Yeah man. Why?”
I said in his ear, “I just heard a lot of stories. They would kick anyone from the office if they weren’t properly dressed. Pants and shoes are a minimum. They kicked a few guys in thongs and shorts or even with a bag of groceries. You have colorful hair and earrings. I was just wondering how you passed them.”
3rd Engineer smiled and said in my ear, “Man, for the interview, I dyed my hair in one color and removed all earrings.”
I said in his ear, “Smart move. Anyway, what style is that—punk or…?”
3rd Engineer said in my ear, “No man. I’m a DJ. Made a few tapes.”
I said in his ear, “Cool. What kind of music?”
3rd Engineer DJ said in my ear, “Man, I prefer techno, but I sometimes work on trance or dance music. I have a wall of CDs back home, man.”
I said in his ear, “So many. Do you have some onboard? If I could hear some samples?”
3rd Engineer DJ said in my ear, “Man, all my CDs here are damaged. I had a CD changer, and the laser got busted. It played the music and burned all my CDs, man. When it passed all CDs, it couldn’t read. When I opened the CD drawer, man, it was too late. I threw everything overboard, man.”
I said in his ear, “Wow… so you are stranded now.”
3rd Engineer DJ said in my ear, “Man, I still have my laptop and subwoofer. I use it as a chair, and sometimes man, Lucky goes nuts because his cabin is below me.”
I looked at Lucky the motorman and smiled.
Lucky the motorman shouted, “Whatchya smiling at?”
I shouted, “How do you sleep with a subwoofer in the cabin above?”
Lucky the motorman shouted, “He’s a maniac.”
I looked at my watch and shouted, “I must go.”
3rd Engineer DJ said in my ear, “Sometimes we have rave parties in the cargo hold, man. You should check it out.”
I tapped 3rd Engineer DJ on the shoulder and left the engine room to visit Chief Officer Robert, who was on duty at the bridge.
I walked into the bridge and saw Chief Officer Robert, who was looking at a chart on the chartroom table.
I said, “Chief, I need a service for one extinguisher and two tanks of foam liquid in the next port.”
Chief Officer Robert, with chewing gum in his mouth, looked at me and said, “But we just had a service recently.”
I said, “I know, but there is a 50kg extinguisher on wheels that expired two years ago, and the foam system tanks are all damaged.”
Chief Officer Robert nervously chewed his gum and said, “You must be mistaken. You don’t know what you are talking about, Jack.” Chief Officer Robert used a portable VHF radio and said, “Second. Second come in.”
Second Officer replied on the portable VHF radio, “Yes, go ahead.”
Chief Officer Robert said on the portable VHF radio, “Come relieve me for a few minutes. I need to check something in the engine room.”
Second Officer replied on the portable VHF radio, “OK.”
I placed my notes of missing signs and deficiencies on the chartroom table and said, “Here, you can check these out.”
Chief Officer Robert took my stack of notes and glanced through them. His jaw tightened, and he spat his gum into the trash bin. He mumbled, “This looks bad on me.”
Second Officer walked in. He looked ordinary, like an average person with short black hair. In a small way, he reminded me of the actor Wil Wheaton.
Chief Officer Robert ran out of the bridge and shouted, “Jack, let’s go.” I waved to the Second Officer, who smiled and waved back. I followed Chief Officer Robert to the engine room. We didn’t speak a word; he was probably angry as he looked over my notes along the way.
We arrived in the engine room, and a barefoot, slim, pale-skinned person with a disheveled beard and hair stopped us His unkempt beard and hair were a mix of white and gray, giving him a wild and rugged appearance. His eyes were tired and weary. The barefoot person said, “Chief! Is this true? We were sailing without fire suppressants all this time.”
Chief Officer Robert just waved his hand and walked over to the foam liquid tanks. He inspected the expired fire extinguisher and the foam tanks, then shook his head and leaned his right palm on his forehead.
The barefoot person with a disheveled beard and hair walked to the engine control room and used a stationary telephone.
Chief Officer Robert came back to me and said, “We will get this in order in the next port. Can you fix everything in these notes until the next port?”
I said, “I will try.”
Chief Officer Robert said, “Ok. Please do and keep me updated.”
I nodded and asked, “Who was that person before?”
Chief Officer Robert said, “That’s the Chief Engineer. Come on, let’s get back to work.” I followed Chief Officer Robert back to the bridge.
Second Officer and Captain Stormbeard were on the bridge.
Captain Stormbeard said, “Chief, is this true?”
Chief Officer Robert said, “Yes.”
Captain Stormbeard said, “Good job, Jack. Now excuse us.” I left the bridge, and in the background, I could hear Captain Stormbeard's deep voice. He was probably shouting at Chief Officer Robert.
As I walked down, I passed by my father’s cabin, and the door was open. I glanced inside and saw my father behind his desk, crafting a ship model. I knocked on the door.
My father looked at me and said, “Hi, son. Come on in.”
I went inside and saw a wooden model with many small parts. My father was soaking thin wooden slots in a plastic ice cream container filled with water.
I asked, “Why are you soaking this in water?”
My father replied, “It’s the hull. I need to soak it so it becomes flexible. Then I will apply it to this skeleton of the ship and leave it to dry. After it dries up, it will stay bent like it is an original part.”
I looked at the box, and it was some medieval sailing ship with cannons. On the desk, there was a small hammer, tweezers, and small nails.
I said, “I’ve never seen nails this small. You use tweezers to handle them?”
My father said, “Yes, and this magnifying glass to see them.”
My father chuckled and said, “What brings you here, Jack?”
I said, “I just found a 50kg extinguisher that is out of date and busted foam tanks. Half of the liquid is missing.”
My father just nodded and said, “Can’t believe that last Third Officer. Told you he’s no good. But it isn’t just his fault; the Chief Officer is responsible for all this in the end. Chief is just too busy plotting against any other Captain.”
I asked, “What do you mean?”
My father said, “He’s reporting both true and false mistakes of every other Captain to Captain Stormbeard, trying to get promoted. This company only promotes Captains of their nationality, and the Chief can never become one here. But he's set a goal in his head to be the first in history. All he's doing is ruining the reputations of other Captains and eventually ours too. We'll be marked as some untrustworthy, scamming nation.”
I asked, “How do you know this?”
My father said, “He bragged about it a couple of times. Don’t know if you heard. That last Third Officer you replaced called the Captain and the office. The driver was tired and stopped for two hours. The man took a quick nap halfway.”
I said, “Allen stopped to sleep. I don’t know if two hours were enough for him. At least they made it back in one piece.”
My father said, “Yes, but now they canceled all transport by vehicles. Next time anyone goes home, it will be by plane.”
I said, “Ok, I guess, bad for Allen and others, but at least we go home as people, not cattle.”
My father said, “Yes, but this will increase our costs for the company, and eventually they will replace us with cheaper crew. You will see.” My father continued working on the model ship.
I said, “See you later, old man.”
My father said, “Bye, son.”
I left and continued to my cabin.
Over the next few days, I worked almost around the clock to fix all the deficiencies on the ship: documents, safety labels, and equipment. During that time, Captain Stormbeard stayed in the shadows, and I could feel his eyes on my back. Sometimes I felt like a cat. I even marked the extinguishers with paint for easy visual recognition, indicating whether they were water, powder, CO2, or foam, as each one had a different application.
I finished marking the last fire extinguisher on the bridge. Captain Stormbeard watched me while Chief Officer Robert stood near the radar as the watchkeeper.
Captain Stormbeard said, “Good work, Jack. I’m rarely impressed, but you—you are your father’s son.”
I said, “Thanks, Captain.”
Chief Officer Robert said, “Well, Jack, since you’re in the motion, you could paint the deck.”
Captain Stormbeard glanced at Chief Officer Robert and said, “Ignore our envious children, Jack.”
I just smiled. Captain Stormbeard winked at me and said, “Well, carry on, Jack.”
I said, “Yes, beard. Sorry, I mean Captain.”
Captain pulled his beard with his right hand and said, “Beard, huh. Hmm. I like it. Well, carry on.”
I left the bridge, confused about why I had said "beard." Perhaps it was due to the lack of sleep from trying to finish everything before the next port.
The following day, we arrived at the port, and I managed to get some rest as the cargo was discharged slowly over the next few days. The 50kg extinguisher was serviced, and the foam tank was replaced and refilled.
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