Ecuperating - Chapter 10

The captain of the Sea Princess was an able man, but took to drinking quite regularly. More and more of the responsibility for navigation and loading fell to me and on the third crossing he disappeared in a storm in the North Atlantic. Evidently he fell overboard. The ship was mine. And I was 15. And I was scared shitless.

I retired to the captain’s cabin and broke out his store of liquor. He had a lot of it. I took a straight shot of scotch, shuddered and almost puked. It wasn’t something I was used to doing. I stood in the middle of the cabin, looking around. Trying to see if I fit in.

I checked the glass only because it was something I could do.

I had noticed a graying in the northeast at dawn and the glass alarmed me. It was falling. Fast. I headed for the bridge to check the charts. The sea was still relatively calm.

I had a feeling this was going to be a big one. It was coming in fast. By the next morning, if we kept this course, we would be in the middle of it.

I decided to run. I flagged the other ships in the convoy as to our decision to run south. None of the other four came with us. We ran due south at full speed for 14 hours. The storm hit, but we only caught the southern edge. The seas never got above 10 feet. I came about to a westerly heading and headed for the East Coast of the States. We arrived 2 days late into Newark. We were alone.

The other four ships in our convoy were lost. When the crew heard about it, they cheered me on for an hour. I was truly their captain, and could do no wrong.

Butch decided to keep me on as captain even though he was aware of my youthfulness.

“There’s just no one else around who could do the job as well as you, Eric.” he told me when he came east.

“I’m comfortable with it if you are.”

I was more than comfortable with it. I felt I had found my niche. I belonged. And the crew agreed with it. I made an Englishman, Cecil Hardwick, my first mate and he chose the second mate.

We left in a week for England. It took that long to look over the vessel to make sure it was mechanically sound, fueled and loaded up with cargo. We were the last ship in a convoy of 17. We were the fastest vessel in the convoy and the practice of ‘fastest-latest’ put us in the rear. We could make 12 knots in a pinch.

The slowest vessel made a bare 9 knots. It would take us 12 days to cross. It was not prudent for us to outrun the rest of the convoy. Our luck seemed to be flowing badly. One day out we ran into another Nor’easter. The convoy of 17 vessels broke up in the storm and by dawn we were running 15 ft seas and were the only vessel in sight.

“Vessel off the starboard bow!” the morning watch shouted. All looked where he was pointing.

“It’s a German Sub! Sure it is!”

He was excited. Smoke was pouring out of the conning tower and both forward and aft hatches. Men were on deck. We were close enough to see they all had life vests on. Some were in the water.

The sea was quickly calming. It was already below ten feet. I ordered a boat away to pick up the crew. “Make sure they are not armed!” I ordered.

We drew closer as the longboat picked off the crew. The sub was floundering. As the last man was dragged aboard the longboat, the sub gave up the ghost and sank. In a few moments we had the 18 members of the German sub crew aboard, wet and cold as they were. I ordered them to the crew quarters to be given hot coffee or soup and given clothing if it was available. I left an order to have the captain and mate of the sub report to my cabin as soon as they were taken care of.

The two men came into my cabin some 30 minutes later. Both came to attention and made a small bow to me. I waved them to chairs.

“I am Captain Hans Gruber. This is my first mate, Lieutenant Henrik Bond. We are thankful for your timely rescue of our crew.” Captain Gruber stated formally.

“You are entirely welcome, sir,” I told him.

“I’m Captain Eric Tanner. This is the freighter Sea Princess. What vessel sank there?”

“I am commander of the U-234. Or was. Shortly before dawn we experienced a fire that started in the galley and quickly spread. We had to surface, of course, and the high seas soon had us at their mercy. Water poured into the open hatches faster than the pumps could handle it. It became apparent that we must abandon the ship as you appeared on the horizon. Again, we thank you for your quick thinking in sending a boat.”

Gruber’s first mate said something in German to him. “Captain Tanner. Mr. Bond informs me he should be with the crew, sir. And I completely agree with him. Would it be possible for him to retire there?”

I called for my mate, Cecil Hardwick, to escort the lieutenant and his crew to the hold. Hardwick must have been standing near the door to my cabin, for he popped in immediately, snapped to attention with a click of his heels that would do well to the most serious of Prussian generals. “Sir!” he all but screamed.

“Bring Lieutenant Bond back to his crew, Hardwick. He feels he can do more good there.”

“Yes, sir!” Hardwick led the man out of the cabin. Captain Hans Gruber could hardly hold in his laughter. I didn’t even try. Soon we were both howling with laughter at the antics of both my mate and his.

“War will often create strange behavior in men, Mr. Tanner, on both sides.” he said, still chuckling.

“Call me Eric,” I told him. “I’m tired of formality of any kind from anyone. Here, let’s have a drink.”

We drank and talked for many hours as the Sea Princess steamed toward Liverpool, England. By mid- afternoon we were both a bit tipsy, and his crew and mine were getting along well. Laughter and singing came from the hold.