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Cuttlefish -> RE: Small Ship, Big War (7/31/2007 2:28:54 AM)
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February 9, 1943
Location: 60 miles southeast of Makassar
Course: Holding position
Attached to: TF 72
Mission: Air Combat
System Damage: 2
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 334
Orders: Protect reinforcement convoys approaching Timor.
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“Petty Officer, there is something in the water over there, about 175 meters off,” a sailor says to Taiki, pointing. They are standing on the port rail, near the center torpedo mount. Taiki takes the glasses from him and raises them to his eyes. After a moment he sees it, an ominous dark shape riding low in the waves.
“Is it a mine?” asks the sailor.
“It could be,” says Taiki. “Go and advise the bridge, please.” The sailor departs quickly, and Taiki continues to scrutinize the object until Ensign Handa and Chief Petty Officer Shun arrive a moment later. Shun is carrying a rifle. Hibiki slows and begins to circle the object at a respectful distance while Handa studies it through his binoculars.
“What do you think, sir?” asks Taiki. Handa lowers the binoculars and frowns.
“It looks like metal,” he says. “What do you think, Chief?” Shun takes the binoculars and looks at the object. After a moment he hands them back to Handa and hefts the rifle.
“It is possible,” he says. “There is one way to make sure.” He raises the rifle to his shoulder and sights along it. He waits until Hibiki hangs poised for a second at the top of a roll and then fires. Taiki sees a spurt of water in a wave just behind the object. Shun says nothing, but works the bolt and waits. At the right moment he fires again. The watchers hear a faint metallic “spang” but there is no other result.
Shun shoots it several more times. No explosion results, so a boat is dispatched to examine the item more closely. Handa is in charge of the small expedition. The boat goes out, and those watching on deck can see Handa carefully look the thing over. After a moment the item is hauled into the boat, which comes about and returns to Hibiki. Handa has the object hoisted up on deck.
Taiki and the others gather around it when it is aboard. It looks like a short torpedo with stubby wings. Its cylindrical body is partly wrapped in a net to which several cork floats are attached. The thing is studded with barnacles and has several bullet holes in it from Shun’s rifle. Most of the onlookers quickly identify it as a paravane, though of a strange configuration.
“From a British or Australian ship,” says Shun. He points at the net. “That’s native make. The paravane probably had some buoyancy. It was drifting along the bottom and some fisherman snagged it, brought it up, and thought it was a torpedo. They cut the net free.”
“I can’t blame them,” murmurs Taiki. He kneels down to examine it and see if he can figure out what ship it came from, but except for a manufacturer’s plate, which no one can read, it is free of markings.
“Well, it should stay sunk now that it is full of holes,” comments Ensign Handa. “Let’s return it to the sea.” He gestures at several of the nearby sailors, and the paravane is cut free of the net and tossed back over the rail. It hits the water with a splash, bobs once, and then slowly submerges as it falls astern of the destroyer. The remains of the net follow it into the water.
“Don’t worry about the false alarm,” Handa tells Taiki. “Continue to keep a sharp watch. There’s a lot of stuff left over from the fighting here last year, and not all of it is that harmless. The Captain says the Dutch left a lot of mines scattered here and there, and some of them may be adrift.”
“Yes sir,” says Taiki. Handa and the others leave, and Taiki goes back to supervising the port side lookouts. Far behind Hibiki the paravane, which once rode on the bow of HMS Repulse, settles into the mud on the bottom, there to remain.
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