Read Online The Last Airship by Christopher Cartwright - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Christopher Cartwright
Tags: thriller, Suspense, Literature & Fiction, Action & Adventure, Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, Thrillers & Suspense, Thriller & Suspense, Sea Adventures
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side.
In
the end, that repair took under an hour, but he then spent the next two days
draining the bilge to protect the inner hull from salt water corrosion.
On
the third day, Sam set the autopilot on a northerly heading, trimmed the sails,
and commenced his long journey home to Sydney, where more serious repairs to
his flooded yacht could be made.
Two
hours later, well on his way north, and with the weather relatively calm, Sam
took one last look at the horizon, checked his instruments, and climbed into
the bunk he normally used when he was offshore.
Sam’s
eyes closed, and comforted by the direction of the compass at the end of the
bunk, he slept.
*
Tom
watched as his beloved Sea King helicopter disappeared into the sea.
The
wind was too strong and the landing space too poor to ever manage to keep her
on the deck of the Hayward Bulk. Flying her back to the Maria Helena wasn’t
even an option. She crashed into the sea a mere twenty seconds later, floating
for a couple of minutes, and then swamped by a large wave.
Its
sinking was enough to bring Tom back to the problem at hand.
The
four scientists, who had been aboard the Sea King, along with a number of other
crewmen from the Hayward Bulk, made their way down into the bowels of the ship,
with the gigantic impeller.
Tom
followed them to the entrance of the hull.
A stupid
smile crossed his lips as he considered the ridiculousness of the situation,
and his inability to now have any effect on its outcome.
The
impeller, designed to bring in cold sea water to actively cool the engine, had
split. Consequently, the engine wasn’t being cooled, and left unrepaired, would
ultimately cause the engine to seize, turning a $20,000 repair job into a
$1,000,000 need for a new engine. To avoid this, Global Shipping’s chief
engineer had ordered a built-in safety system for each of his engines, to
automatically shut down the engine should the impeller cease to draw in water.
The
result of such a simple system was that everyone on board the Hayward Bulk, and
potentially another three hundred thousand people, living in and around Cairns,
were going to die, despite the engine being fully operational.
The
irony of the system’s theoretical safe guard almost made Tom laugh as he
watched the four engineers struggle to maneuver the massive impeller deep into
the hull, where it could be fitted to the enormous super tanker’s engine.
Tom
was just about to follow them, when he noticed that the man in the Armani suit,
who appeared unsettlingly confident about the situation, was following the rest
of the engineers to the door, but just before entering it, he looked around and
then continued to walk toward the front of the ship.
What’s
he up to? Tom wondered.
Following
him, Tom didn’t even attempt to hide. The wind was gusting so strongly, and
there was so much sea spray in the air, Tom feared that he might likely be
blown overboard before the man even realized that he was being followed.
The
closer the man came to approaching the bow, the more Tom worried about what he
was up to. There were no working engines at the Hayward Bulk’s bow, so why was
he headed there? Tom fully intended to find out.
The
man was carrying a work bag, but for what purpose, Tom didn’t know.
Ahead,
the man opened one of the hatchways into the hull, looked from right to left,
and then disappeared below.
Tom
ran ahead, trying to catch up.
He
opened the hatchway and listened. The soft background lights, that allowed the
crew to see the inner workings of the ship’s bowels, allowed him to see only a
short distance ahead. Down below, he could hear the sound of someone moving
fast, skipping a number of steps as they descended; not that Tom could hear
very much over the sounds of the storm.
The
man may have had a valid reason for being there. It seemed reasonable to assume
that if he were an engineer with a purpose, he would be running down the
stairs.
Tom
followed the stairs to the
In
the end, that repair took under an hour, but he then spent the next two days
draining the bilge to protect the inner hull from salt water corrosion.
On
the third day, Sam set the autopilot on a northerly heading, trimmed the sails,
and commenced his long journey home to Sydney, where more serious repairs to
his flooded yacht could be made.
Two
hours later, well on his way north, and with the weather relatively calm, Sam
took one last look at the horizon, checked his instruments, and climbed into
the bunk he normally used when he was offshore.
Sam’s
eyes closed, and comforted by the direction of the compass at the end of the
bunk, he slept.
*
Tom
watched as his beloved Sea King helicopter disappeared into the sea.
The
wind was too strong and the landing space too poor to ever manage to keep her
on the deck of the Hayward Bulk. Flying her back to the Maria Helena wasn’t
even an option. She crashed into the sea a mere twenty seconds later, floating
for a couple of minutes, and then swamped by a large wave.
Its
sinking was enough to bring Tom back to the problem at hand.
The
four scientists, who had been aboard the Sea King, along with a number of other
crewmen from the Hayward Bulk, made their way down into the bowels of the ship,
with the gigantic impeller.
Tom
followed them to the entrance of the hull.
A stupid
smile crossed his lips as he considered the ridiculousness of the situation,
and his inability to now have any effect on its outcome.
The
impeller, designed to bring in cold sea water to actively cool the engine, had
split. Consequently, the engine wasn’t being cooled, and left unrepaired, would
ultimately cause the engine to seize, turning a $20,000 repair job into a
$1,000,000 need for a new engine. To avoid this, Global Shipping’s chief
engineer had ordered a built-in safety system for each of his engines, to
automatically shut down the engine should the impeller cease to draw in water.
The
result of such a simple system was that everyone on board the Hayward Bulk, and
potentially another three hundred thousand people, living in and around Cairns,
were going to die, despite the engine being fully operational.
The
irony of the system’s theoretical safe guard almost made Tom laugh as he
watched the four engineers struggle to maneuver the massive impeller deep into
the hull, where it could be fitted to the enormous super tanker’s engine.
Tom
was just about to follow them, when he noticed that the man in the Armani suit,
who appeared unsettlingly confident about the situation, was following the rest
of the engineers to the door, but just before entering it, he looked around and
then continued to walk toward the front of the ship.
What’s
he up to? Tom wondered.
Following
him, Tom didn’t even attempt to hide. The wind was gusting so strongly, and
there was so much sea spray in the air, Tom feared that he might likely be
blown overboard before the man even realized that he was being followed.
The
closer the man came to approaching the bow, the more Tom worried about what he
was up to. There were no working engines at the Hayward Bulk’s bow, so why was
he headed there? Tom fully intended to find out.
The
man was carrying a work bag, but for what purpose, Tom didn’t know.
Ahead,
the man opened one of the hatchways into the hull, looked from right to left,
and then disappeared below.
Tom
ran ahead, trying to catch up.
He
opened the hatchway and listened. The soft background lights, that allowed the
crew to see the inner workings of the ship’s bowels, allowed him to see only a
short distance ahead. Down below, he could hear the sound of someone moving
fast, skipping a number of steps as they descended; not that Tom could hear
very much over the sounds of the storm.
The
man may have had a valid reason for being there. It seemed reasonable to assume
that if he were an engineer with a purpose, he would be running down the
stairs.
Tom
followed the stairs to the
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