1275psi
Posts: 7979
Joined: 4/17/2005
Status: offline
|
It is, again, well after midnight.
Its how these things go, it seems. You begin pulling the broken piece of machinery apart, promising yourself that come 2200, 2230 at the latest, you will quit, get some sleep. After all, you have been at action stations all day, and dawn action stations is due at 0430 , today, heavens, today.
But, as you strip the bitch down, curiosity, and that drive you have, lets just fix it, leads you on.
But now , you must quit……….for today any way.
There is a spare con rod, and a piston onboard, for this pump, but the stores people have yet to drag it up from whatever dark hole they live in.
So, tomorrow, for them
Most of the other bits, you have too.
The cylinder is , by a miracle, not scored. The failure was a valve dropping, slamming into the head of the piston.
But two rings are snapped. And thanks to the vagrancies of the stores system, none onboard.
They are going to be a right barsted to machine…………
Still, that’s the fun, isn’t it?
But now other things call. There are other defects, and boiler chemistry, and the rest.
And tomorrow, another at sea refueling.
And, of course, the war …………..
Charge makes the call. ‘ok, secure all this crap. It will have to wait until we finish whatever action we are doing. “
He pats the steamer on the back. “Double check everything tonight, if Kato asks for full speed, lets show him what we can do”
Charge, and his small team depart. Some to sleep for the three hours available, him, to work.
Bloody war, getting in the way of work…………..
Dawn
8/11/42
Zuiho, and he r companions, mark time. 120 miles due North of Kwaljien, awaiting the tankers that are now hoving into view.
The seas remain grey, horrid. The white caps are now solid rollers, and she pitches heavily now with every one.
Bridge screen wipers beat steadily, and are needed.
Hidaka, wet to the bone, enters the bridge, shakes himself like a dog.
‘Some body did tell me its winter at home, who the hell bought it with us?’
There are few smiles. It has been an anxious night, it is no easy task navigating these waters, waters filled with a 100 atolls, and how many un charted reefs?
Hidaka turns to the communications officer ‘Any word?”
All twelve of Zuiho’s Kates are out today, fanning in a great search arc to the east.
It will be a hazardous day.
Rain, heavy seas, low cloud, a moving airfield………..
Shoho will lose a Kate today
Her observer, a young man indeed, will glimpse something below the clouds.
All eyes onboard will swivel that way
There will be cries of excitement, and the pilot will wheel the bomber over, dive through the clouds…………
And there will be a wake, many wakes, three at least, driving into that rain bank, grey , indiscernible shapes.
Her radio operator will flash…….’many ships, moving north west”
And they will zoom around that rain bank, that cloud, seeking a better, second look.
And they will fly into cloud, and heavy rain, and low hours, poor training, and inexperience will kill them
No one will see the inverted bomber, pilot hopelessly disorientated, plunge into the ocean
They will be wasted lives.
The message, so important, will be ignored, lost in the days chatter of a hundred similar reports.
9/11/42
(system damage to 5!)
0900
There was no refueling yesterday.
The tanker fails to arrive
Well, it arrived OK, but no fuel was pumped, something, somewhere on that rusty hulk did not work.
Today, today it must.
Too many ships are “in the red”
Now, Kato holds Zuiho 100 yards astern of the tanker, the fuelling hose slowly snaking its way towards his bow.
A silent curse crosses his lips, as that same bow buries itself into the swell, and it breaks across it, great cascades of white water flooding it.
Three men go sprawling.
Coldly….”Drop us 10 revolutions “
Revolutions 080 sir!
Another swell, creaming, creaming, but not quite breaking across………
OK. So, some will, some wont.
He steps outside, and yells to the men below.
‘This is the best I can do Lt Tan!, good luck, and keep an eye out!”
Tan nods. He is, to be frank, completely terrified. The pitching of the deck, the way the wind whips all words away, the freezing cold, and those great green monsters, curling up so high before them, how do they slide past?
In front of him, a dozen men, under a crusty Chiefs eye( and this is no joke –his jacket literally is crusted in salt, some years old) is cursing the seamen.
‘Pull you barsted!, pull!
H e winks at Tan………
And the CPO Chippee leans in, yells into his ear….’Leave this to us Sir, you just smile and wave at Kato, we will get the crude onboard for you”
And so it does happen……..the great hose slides onboard, and soon the fuel flows
They are all soaked, and wet, and miserable by fuel lings end. But get it they do.
The fuel hose has just disconnected, and Tan is looking up towards Kato above him on the bridge, when it happens.
First. Katos face, looking down, animated, looks up………..and freezes
Beside him, the Chippee freezes too……….”OH < OH TRUK”
There is a sensation of the world dropping away under Zuiho’s bow..as if it is taking off……..
Tan turns,
The ocean has disappeared before them, replaced by a canyon.
The other side of the canyon………….a mountain of water, a literal mountain
A vague thought…. The term, rogue wave……….
The Bosuns chief unfreezes them
‘RUN FOR YOUR TRUKING LIFE!”
They do, fleeing before death itself
Tan takes all of fifteen steps, and then it swallows him, a great crushing blow, and his worls is swallowed in a tumbling, swirling smash of sea water, a thudding blow to the ribs, limbs askew, and sputtering he comes up hard against a gun tub.
Stunned………he has been washed twenty metres, at least.
He is lucky………three men are gone over the side.
For Kato, it is like nothing ever seen before. Oh, heard about. Talked about. But he would never have believed it…………
This wall of water simply washes over the bow as if it never existed, and slams full body into the bridge front.
Every bridge window shatters instantly, and the white torrent floods in, flinging men and equipment every way.
As if stunned physically, Zuiho lurches to starboard, water pouring out of her.
Shoho will signal…”Are you OK?”
And she will not answer.
It will take twenty minutes before she truly is under control again,
Her missing men, are, thank the heavens, found, recovered by the chase destroyer
A great deal of kit will never be seen again.
For the remainder of this trip, they will be calling her, the flying carrier.
(Based on a RL that happened to me. I have a photo at home, of my ship, with me running for my life abreast of the bridge with the rest of the fuelling party
From the midship funnel, the entire ship is clear of the water, the bow easily 30 feet clear
The next photo, you cannot see the bridge…….)
Kato stands , the wind whipping into him. The bridge, the focastle, remains a shambles.
‘Do we have any glass at all Chippee?”
The shipwright shakes his head. “No sir, but I am thinking we can jury rig some Perspex we have for the bombers……We will have to make some frames.”
‘And the Capstan?”
‘Busted good sir”
Not that they need it, the anchor is gone anyway………
‘Signal from Hiyo sir”
‘Come due east, speed 20 knots. Zuiho to set 100 % naval strike. Arm with bombs.”
Ahh, so we continue. Good. Convoy hunting it is then.
But we know of course, they will find a lot more than that……….
.
< Message edited by 1275psi -- 9/25/2011 8:42:56 AM >
|
Printable Version
RE: ouch - 
) 
two immovable objects meeting........ - 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread