Koko finished his hot meal and set about
preparing the sloop to sail.
*
Faith awoke one morning to the excited
chatter of the three US Army nurses. They were huddled around a
cabin porthole and could barely contain their excitement. She
pushed back the covers and hurried over to join them. There, beyond
the porthole, perhaps forty or fifty miles distant, majestic
volcanic mountains towered up out of the ocean into an azure sky
peppered with white wispy clouds. The SS
Chesapeake Bay
was approaching the string of
islands that made up the American Territory of Hawaii.
By late morning, tugs had maneuvered the huge
ship into a berth at the ocean terminal beneath the Aloha Tower in
Honolulu Harbor on the island of Oahu, where she was to remain
until the following afternoon before continuing on to San
Francisco. Apart from the ship’s officers, only passengers,
military officers and senior NCO’s were free to go ashore while
longshoremen worked around the clock refueling and reprovisioning
the vessel.
Faith and the nurses took a taxi into
town. Everyone was glad to leave the confines of the ship and have
firm ground under their feet, if only for a short while. And after
experiencing the wartime shopping restrictions in the South
Pacific, the opportunity to explore Honolulu’s well stocked stores
for the latest in ladies clothes proved irresistible. The American
girls did most of the buying but Faith was more than happy to tag
along as they spent the day going from store to store. It was when
she was sitting waiting in a shop in Waikiki, while the nurses
tried on clothes, that she saw a copy of the
San Francisco Star
in a magazine rack beside her.
When she picked it up she saw the mainland paper was two weeks old
but she thumbed through anyway.
The headlines told of the latest
developments of the war in Europe and the Pacific. Below the main
stories were several smaller items. One in particular caught
Faith’s eye. It stated there were reports of a mass breakout of
prisoners-of-war, possibly Japanese, at a place called Cowra in New
South Wales, but no further details were available because the
Australian government had clamped a total news ban on the incident.
The article also stated the Australian government had branded ‘as
misleading and in contravention of censorship laws’, a report in
the Sydney
Sunday Telegraph
of
August 6
th
of an escape by
prisoners of war. It went on to say that the Australian Prime
Minister, had promised all details of the incident would be made
public just as soon as an official inquiry, which was already
underway, had been completed.
Faith couldn’t get her mind off the
newspaper article all the way back to the ship. She knew well that
wartime Australian newspapers were the most censored of any
published in the English speaking world. The official, glossed over
version of the Japanese attacks on Darwin, Broome and Townsville,
and the suppression of Brisbane Line controversy was proof of that.
The very fact that even a vague and sketchy report of a prison camp
breakout in Australia had made it into the Sydney
Sunday Telegraph
and the
San Francisco Star
meant that
something very major had occurred at Cowra and she couldn’t help
fearing for Koko’s safely.
Some of Faith’s concern left her when
she returned to the
Chesapeake Bay.
Inside her
cabin she was greeted by three huge
bouquets of colorful Hawaiian flowers, all with loving messages
from Lyle. There was also a telegram giving her his office
telephone number at the Pentagon and his private extension number
which he asked her to call before the ship left Honolulu. She
checked the time. It was almost 6pm—almost midnight in Washington
and she decided to call the next morning.
At breakfast, a dining room steward said a
bank of temporary telephones had been set up for use by officers in
what used to be the purser’s office before the vessel became a
troopship.
‘No need for you to go ashore Faith,’ one of
the nurses said when Faith had finished her breakfast. ‘I’ll take
you down to the purser’s office and you can call your Major Hunter
from there.’
The office was located in the main section of
the ship which now housed over ten thousand returning US troops.
Faith had never been in this part of the ship before. Compared to
the officers and passengers quarters it seemed to be bursting at
the seams. Enlisted men were milling around everywhere and Faith
realized that below decks they must be crammed in like
sardines.
Faith and the nurse found all the telephones
were in use and there was a long queue of officers waiting to use
them, so they decided to wait until the congestion eased and
stepped outside onto the deck and stood at the rail in the
sunshine. Below them on the dock, longshoremen were still hard at
work. There was also a steady stream of personnel returning to the
ship. Some of them looked a little the worse for wear, particularly
a group of sergeants who looked like they had been out on the town
all night..
Faith couldn’t help but smile when she saw
the NCO’s trying to walk a straight line as they made their way
onto the ship. The top of the gangplank was only a stone’s throw
from where they were standing. Faith’s smile gradually turned to a
look of amazement when she thought she recognized one of the
sergeants. She couldn’t be sure at first because he was staring
down into the gangplank as he strode up it. But when he stepped
onto the deck of the ship she got a clear look at Gus Welenski’s
face before he disappeared into a sea of soldiers.
*
It was almost two hours after seeing Gus
before Faith finally got through to Lyle.
‘I’m counting the days, Faith,’ he said
softly on the surprisingly clear line. ‘I really can’t wait to see
you.’
‘I miss you too, Lyle.’
‘Now, listen, Faith.’ Lyle’s tone became more
earnest. ‘I’ve made all the arrangements for you in San Francisco.
When the ship berths, there will be a car waiting to take you
downtown to the St. Francis Hotel. My family always uses the St.
Francis in San Francisco and we’re well known to the manager. His
name is Plimpton. He will see to it you’re looked after properly.
I’ve asked him to look after your travel arrangements on to New
York. So don’t you worry about a thing. As soon as you arrive, get
your flight confirmed then call me with the details so I can meet
you at the airport in New York.’
‘All right Lyle, I’ll do that. Anything
else?’
‘Yes. I’ve organized two weeks leave starting
when you get here and my family have made all the arrangements for
the wedding up in Albany. They can’t wait to meet you. And the
apartment I’ve rented for us in Washington is being redecorated.
It’s in Georgetown overlooking the Potomac River. I’m sure you’ll
like it. I haven’t bought any furniture yet. I thought I’d better
leave that up to you. You can do that when we come back from our
honeymoon at Niagara Falls.’
‘As always you’ve thought of everything,
Lyle,’ Faith said happily, ‘even Niagara Falls.’
Faith was about to tell Lyle that she’d
just seen Gus Welenski aboard the
Chesapeake Bay
, when someone announced the phone
lines would be removed shortly because the ship would be sailing
soon. With several people still waiting behind her to make calls,
she quickly told Lyle she would call him just as soon as she
reached the hotel in San Francisco and hung up.
*
The ship was under way and Faith and the
nurses were standing on the foredeck watching Oahu’s famous
landmark of Diamond Head receding in the distance when a young
lieutenant approached them.
‘I’m sorry it took so long ma’am, but I’ve
finally located Staff Sergeant Welenski.’ The lieutenant addressed
the officer who had been with Faith when she saw Gus.’
‘Where is he, Lieutenant?’ the nurse
asked.
‘I told him to wait outside the officers
lounge on B Deck ma’am. Shall I take you to him?’
‘No. Would you bring him up here,
please?’
Faith had moved away from the nursing
officers and was standing alone at the rail when the lieutenant
returned with Gus. She watched as the lieutenant directed him to
where she was standing and smiled when she saw the look of
astonishment on Gus’s face as he hurried over to her.
‘Faith, I can’t believe it’s you.’ He took
both her hands in his and kissed her cheek.
‘Can’t you do any better than that, Sergeant
Welenski?’ she chastised, then hugged him tightly and kissed him
firmly on the mouth. ‘It’s just wonderful to see you, Gus,’ she
said as they drew apart. ‘How long have you been aboard the
ship?’
‘Since she called in at Noumea.’
‘I though you went to Papua New Guinea?’
‘I did, but MacArthur’s admin staff in Port
Moresby isn’t needed now the war is moving north. Everyone’s been
shipped out. I had the chance to go home and took it. They flew me
to New Caledonia and here I am.’ Gus grinned widely. ‘But look,
kiddo. Never mind about old Gus. What are you doing on your way to
the States—twisted Captain Rivers’ arm and got him to marry you,
eh?’
From the look on Faith’s face, Gus knew he’d
said the wrong thing.
‘No Gus. It didn’t work out with Dan. I’m on
my way to New York to marry Lyle Hunter. He was transferred home
and assigned to the Pentagon.’
The grin faded from Gus’s face. ‘Major
Hunter? But what happened with you and Captain Rivers?’
‘I don’t really know Gus. When I saw him in
Melbourne, he said he would come up to spend Christmas with us in
Brisbane at the Sharkey’s. But he never came. He didn’t even
phone.’
‘Maybe he got real sick again.’
‘No, he didn’t. I checked with the hospital.
He was released a few days before Christmas. Instead of coming to
Brisbane he just went straight home. It’s funny, he seemed so
positive about everything when I saw him in Melbourne. He even said
he wanted to stay in Australia after the war and that there may be
a future for us together. And I believed him. That’s the thing that
hurt me the most, Gus.’ Faith tried hard to smile. ‘But I’m over it
all now. It really doesn’t matter. But it’s funny how you think you
know a man well enough to marry him, but you don’t really know him
at all.’
Gus grimaced. ‘You can say that again.’
He looked over to the group of nurses. They
seemed to be a few paces closer than before. He could see that they
were pretending not be paying any attention to him and Faith, but
from their inquisitive glances and guarded whispers, Gus could tell
they were the centre of the nurse’s attention and the subject of
their conversation.
Gus linked his arm in Faith’s and led her
down the deck away from prying eyes. Then he turned to her and
said: ‘Captain Rivers really did want to stay in Australia after
the war, Faith. He wanted to start a construction company. I know
that. I also know that he made application to the Australian
Immigration Department for permanent residency.’
‘He did? How do you know that, Gus?’
‘The day Major Hunter shipped me out to Port
Moresby, he had a visitor at the liaison office in Brisbane. I
think I’d better tell you all about it.’
CHAPTER
THIRTY-THREE
As Koko expected,
Chinook
came under the influence of the
south-east trade wind as she approached the southern extremities of
the Great Barrier Reef. At this point, just north of Bundaberg, the
reef was almost a hundred miles out from the mainland, but as the
days passed and the distance between it and the shore lessened,
it’s calming effect on the sea became more noticeable. Under clear
sunny skies, with a steady twenty-knot breeze blowing over her
stern and an experienced hand on the helm,
Chinook
reveled in the superb sailing conditions.
And for the first time since his incarceration over two years
earlier, Koko felt at peace with himself and the world as he
savored real freedom and relived the joy of sail.
But one morning after leaving a
beautiful island anchorage in the Whitsunday Passage, the real
world came thundering down on him in the form of a huge grey
warship. It was a destroyer and it headed directly for
Chinook
at an astonishing rate of
speed. Koko had only seen two other vessels on the Queensland
coast. Both had been slow-moving southbound oil tankers and far
away on the horizon. But the destroyer, which had been less than a
mile away when he first saw it, bore down on him in less than two
minutes.
Taken completely by surprise Koko
didn’t have enough time to go down into the cabin and grab a
bandage to wrap around his head and cover his eyes. But at the last
moment the warship swung away and he clearly saw the stars and
stripes flying from a halyard amidships. Then a group of sailors
standing on her long sleek foredeck cheered and waved at him as the
great ship roared past. Koko waved back at them, as
Chinook
was left bobbing up and down
like a cork in the warship’s wake. But he was careful to keep his
eyes lowered in case anyone on the destroyer’s bridge was looking
at him through binoculars.
After the encounter with the American
warship, Koko resolved to be more vigilant and not let the idyllic
surrounds blind him to the constant threat of danger, even miles
out to sea. But he sighted no more ships until he was off
Townsville and Cairns, the last settlements of any size on the
northern Queensland coast. Plying between the two ports he saw an
oil tanker and a couple of coastal freighters but got a start when
two RAAF Catalinas roared by low overhead as they came into land at
Cairns. Koko assumed there must be a flying boat squadron based in
the sheltered waters of Trinity Bay and he was glad he was so close
to the town because the aircraft seemed to show no interest in him
at all.