Authors: Murdo Morrison
Within hours of setting out, the ships were enveloped in fog. Forced to reduce speed, and unable to maintain contact, the ships spread apart. When the fog lifted hours later they were widely dispersed. No sooner had they joined up, it seemed, than the ships plunged into fog again. Early on the morning of their second day out from Matochkin Strait, Hugh peered anxiously out into the gray murky blanket that surrounded the
Izmir
and sent thick swirling wisps around the bridge.
From ahead came the sudden blast of a ship’s siren. Hugh felt his body twitch in a spasm of fear. He sprang into action, almost before his conscious mind recognized the signal as the ice ahead warning. He was in the act of moving the telegraph handle to STOP ENGINE when the Izmir slipped out from its shroud of fog. What he saw ahead changed Hugh’s mind. He brought the indicator immediately to FULL ASTERN.
Llewelyn, sensitive to every move of the ship, appeared on the bridge. He quickly took in the situation. Ahead lay a barrier of packed ice floes. Coming out of the fog first, the
Grimsby
had set in motion a desperate series of maneuvers. She had veered to port, blasting out the shrill warning that had galvanized Hugh into action. This maneuver brought her across the bow of the
Ocean Voyager.
The
Grimsby
had pulled out of her path at the last moment, leaving the lookout on the bow of the
Ocean Voyager
open mouthed with apprehension. The ship cleared the trawler’s stern by a hairsbreadth.
“That was a bit too close for comfort,” Llewelyn said, as close to being rattled as Hugh had ever seen him.
Even he is showing signs of strain
, Hugh thought. “I know.
A few more moments in fog and we would have piled up on the ice.”
Slowly, much too slowly for Llewelyn’s taste, the group reorganized. They set off westward, looking for a southward path through the ice. Four hours later, the ice barrier remained a relentlessly solid line ahead. Llewelyn was scanning the pack ice looking for a break when a lookout up forward called out to him that he had sighted something in the ice ahead. Llewelyn could not immediately see anything. He wiped the lenses of the binoculars and tried again. It was the motion that drew his attention, a scrap of red pulsating against the blue-white sheen of the ice. He called out a course change that would bring the
Izmir
closer to the ice.
As they closed on the object’s location, Llewelyn identified the object as a ship’s lifeboat. It held several indistinct dark shapes that he thought might be survivors. If they were, they were ominously still.
He brought the
Izmir
to a halt some fifty yards off the ice. There were no signs of life in the boat.
“Try hailing her,” he ordered a crewman. This produced no response from the boat. If those were men in the boat they were either dead or so incapacitated that they could not respond. Llewelyn ordered a boat away to verify their condition.
Allan Ballantyne carefully scanned the approach to the lifeboat, searching for evidence of snags or obstacles beneath the surface. The lifeboat was wedged in a crevice between two floes. The dark shapes could now be positively identified as the bodies of four men.
“What do we do now?” Davy Jones asked Allan.
“The captain wants us to verify their condition and that looks pretty clear. Let’s see if we can find anything that tells us who they were.”
“And recover their bodies?” Davy asked.
Allan hesitated a moment. Davy pressed home his point. “Sir, I know we don’t usually pick up bodies. But somehow, it just doesn’t seem right to leave them here like this. How would you feel if it was you?”
Allan, who had no religious faith of any kind, thought privately that he personally wouldn’t give a damn what happened to his body when he was done using it.
He also knew from experience to keep this to himself. Aloud, he said, “Let’s see if we can get some personal identification and find out what state they’re in.”
They were able to come alongside the boat at its stern. Davy tethered the launch. He climbed over the gunwales of the joined boats and stopped at the first body. It lay in the bottom of the boat near the tiller. The hood of the foul weather gear covered the corpse’s face. Davy pulled it back.
“He’s frozen solid,” he called out.
He checked the other bodies and found them all to be in the same condition.
The condition of the corpses decided the issue.
Davy was right
, Allan thought.
Somehow it is different from finding bodies in the water where the sea would take care of them
. He decided to bring them back to the ship and take a chance on the captain’s reaction.
The lack of corruption made the task of removing the men from the lifeboat easier on the launch’s crew.
They pulled the hoods over the dead men’s faces and covered them with a tarpaulin. Coming aboard the
Izmir
, Allan caught Hugh’s eye and shook his head.
Hugh refrained from commenting. “Bring them on board as quickly as you can,” Hugh told him. “We’ll bury them at sea later today.”
Allan handed him the documents they had found on the men. Hugh stuffed the papers in his pocket before returning to the bridge.
They resumed their search for a southward passage through the ice. Six hours later, a signal from
Grimsby
reported a broad expanse of water and an end to the ice. They turned to a south-southwestward course and picked up speed. For two uneventful days they kept on, wondering how long the lack of attention from the Germans would last. The respite ended when
Hengist
reported a possible sighting of a U-boat trailing their small convoy. The report seemed more credible when a few hours later a German reconnaissance aircraft appeared and began to circle the ships.
“Well, that would appear to settle it,” said Hugh, who had been skeptical of the submarine report. “We better get ready for company.”
As the most heavily armed ships, the
Hengist
,
Strathcairn
and
Izmir
formed a V-shaped formation at the van of the group, with the
Grimsby
at its point. The first attack came from astern and was announced by the Bofors gun of the
Strathcairn
. Llewelyn ordered an observer to watch the movements of the attacking aircraft and call them out. The trick was to estimate accurately the point at which the aircraft was likely to release its bombs and maneuver away in time to thwart the pilot’s aim. Llewelyn was worried that a concerted attack by many aircraft at the same time might overwhelm them.
During the first few German attacks, the Izmir’s luck held. Llewelyn seemed to have an uncanny knack of keeping his ship out of harm’s way. The Germans, however, adopted the strategy of sending in new waves of aircraft immediately after the previous flight’s departure. Hugh trained his binoculars on the next group of attacking aircraft. Two were approaching the
Izmir
from astern. Llewelyn successfully dodged the bombs from the leading airplane.
The second pilot was determined not to fail. Llewelyn ordered the helm thrown hard over.
He held his breath as the
Izmir
responded. “Too late, too late,” he muttered, before diving to the deck. All over the
Izmir
, men were heading for cover. The bombs plunged down into the spot where the
Izmir
had been only moments before, exploding a scant twenty feet from the hull of the ship.
Below decks there was instant chaos. Any object not secured was thrown across the compartment. In the hospital, light bulbs shattered and debris littered the floor. Washbasins cracked into pieces. The Izmir was shaken from stem to stern. Crewmen on the
Hengist
suffered ridicule from their mates when they swore that they had seen daylight beneath the
Izmir
in the instant the bombs struck the sea. In the engine room, Tom Wilkinson was thrown to the deck plates. McAllister landed heavily on his backside. He rose slowly to his feet, swearing loudly. He stopped when he saw the damage that the bombs had caused.
“Quick, move yersel’,” he shouted at Tom. “We need tae shut her doon.”
As Tom spun the main steam regulator valve to slow the engine, McAllister limped around turning valves to control the flow of oil that was leaking from a broken pipe.
On the bridge, Llewelyn and Hugh rose to their feet. Hugh said, “I’ll get the damage reports.” As he left the bridge he stopped and turned back to Llewelyn. “We’re slowing down.”
The
Izmir
lost forward momentum and began to wallow in the swell. McAllister appeared on the bridge.
“How bad is it, Chief?” Llewelyn asked.
“Bad enough, Captain. There’s a broken fuel pipe tae start wi’. The generator was torn aff its mounting. No’ tae mention aw the steam fittings and other stuff. She’ll no’ be gaun anywhere in a hurry.”
Llewelyn was pondering this, when the sound of men shouting arose from the deck below. The captain looked over the bridge rail. A number of his men were holding back a crowd of survivors who were pressing towards the lifeboats.
“What’s going on down there?” he bellowed.
Everyone froze and turned to look up at him. One of the survivors called out to him. “Launch the boats and take us off to one of the other ships. We’re sitting ducks here.”
In that instant Llewelyn’s innate stubbornness made him realize that he was not prepared to give up the
Izmir
. He called back to the assembled men. “We will not abandon this ship until I am ready to do so. And anyone who tries to disrupt the operation of this ship will answer for it.”
There was a muted chorus of grumbling but the men backed away from the boat.
“Do you think we’ll have any more trouble?” Hugh asked. “Perhaps we should arm ourselves.”
Llewelyn shook his head. “I don’t think there’s any need for that yet, Hugh. It would risk inflaming the men. They’re just rattled. It’s understandable I suppose.” He thought a moment. “But let’s keep a close eye on the situation. We better be on our guard.”
Hugh nodded.
Llewelyn turned back to McAllister. “Well, Chief, what do you think our chances are of getting her moving again?”
McAllister shrugged. “There’s a lot of damage, Captain.”
“But is it possible?” Llewelyn insisted.
McAllister rubbed his chin. “It might be, but there’s only masel’ and Wilkinson and McIntyre.”
“Mr. McAllister, what if I could find you some help?” He turned to Hugh. “We’re crowded with survivors. There has to be some with engineering room experience among them. Find them and get them up here on the double.”
Hugh was able to round up four men, including two chief engineers.
“Well, what do you say now Mr. McAllister?”
McAllister looked at Llewelyn. “Well, Captain, ah think now we have a fighting chance.” He nodded to the captain and led the men below to start work.
When the
Izmir
had come to a halt, the other ships had sailed on. It was not long before her plight was noticed and Macfarlane was on the RT. Llewelyn gave his friend a quick briefing on the ship’s condition.
“Whit aboot yer survivors?” Macfarlane asked. “Ah don’t have much spare room masel’. Maybe the
Hengist
could take some aboard.”
Llewelyn quickly dismissed the notion of transferring any of his passengers. “I don’t see the point in putting another ship at risk while she’s stopped. And to be honest they wouldn’t be that much safer on another ship in these waters. There aren’t too many good choices out here given the circumstances.”
Macfarlane was reluctant to leave his friend behind, but Llewelyn was firm on this point.
“Your responsibility is to your ship and your services may well be needed by the others. We will just have to take our chances.”
This didn’t sit well with Macfarlane but at last Llewelyn heard Macfarlane’s gruff voice give his acquiescence over the RT. “Aye well, ye’re right enough, Dick. Good luck tae ye.”
Below, McAllister’s expanded engine room crew was assessing the full extent of the damage. While they were doing this a number of men came down into the engine room. As word about the situation below had spread among the survivors a number of others had come forward to volunteer. McAllister divided them up into work parties and assigned them to the major tasks that would need to be completed if the
Izmir
was to become again a living ship.
On the bridge Hugh was wondering aloud about the lull in the German attacks.
“My guess is that they are more likely to follow the larger target of a group of ships than waste time with us,” Llewelyn speculated. “Being left alone might work to our advantage.”
Hugh was skeptical about this but said nothing. There was still the very real risk of a U-boat finding them. They decided to keep the men out of mischief by assigning as many of the able bodied as possible to cleaning up the damage below decks. There was plenty to do in the debris-strewn compartments below.