Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1941-09-06
The TANKER BY C. S. Forester

this is much too ticklish a business
to take chances"
He walked hurriedly to the door and
jerked it open and looked out of the
window; he was genuinely worried un-
til his personal examination had as
I slIred him that the conversation had
not been overheard When his shore
boat took him back TO his ship and
he was met on the deck by one Of
! the hands after running up the gang
way, a spy, If one had been in ear
shetland there could not possibly
have been one there-might have heard
! him say to the hand, snappiShly,
Don't be so damned disciplined, john
son"
And then one morning all these elab-
crate arrangements for secrecy fell to
pieces. The misty dawn revealed the
tanker far up that channel through
the mine field which led TO the Pa
cific. She lay there anchored and
helpless, with her ultimate destination
revealed to all the world; the harbor
authorities had to send a couple Of
tugs out to bring her in again-two
tugs. because the business of maneu-
vering a helpless ship through the
tortuous channel with destruction on
either hand was too tricky for single
tug. They brought her back ignom-
inously, while the harbor master raved
and while broad smiles circulated
along the waterfront. The pilot who
was taking her out did not mind talk
ing freely about his experiences when
he got to the club, for obviously there
was no need for secrecy in the face
of such revelation.
He laughed as he told about it, for
the lubberly crew of the tanker as
sisted by the first mates mismanage-
ment, had managed to get a cable
caught round the ships propeller, re-
ducing her to helplessness, so that 1t |
was only in the nick of time that she
had been able to drop another anchor
and save herself from drifting on to
disaster. No wonder the harbor au-
thorities raved; no wonder the water
front smiled so broadly.
The harbor diver had to come out
in the end and clear the screw, while
the captain scourged his men with a |
rough cockney tongue and told his
first mate that his ticket would be
definitely dirtied when the Board of
Trade came to see the ships log. 1t
was the end of all hope of secrecy,
for everyone could tell now that the
tanker was going to head into the
Pacific, and it would not require
master mind-always provided that it
received a sufficiency of reports from
waterfront Malays and Chinese club
deduce what course she
would take once she was In the Pa
cific.
The possibility of secrecy was gone,
and the tanker was 10 hours behind
ler schedule. The captain cursed In
MS rasping cockney; the naval author
ties washed their hands of him like
plate, and the next morning the poor
I'D tanker had disappeared again.
Somebody crossed a frontier by jun
lie path. Somebody delivered a mes
age far up in the sweltering interior.
Somebody transmitted a brief message
through the ether in a complicated
ode from a secret station in neutral
territory.
Eight knots was what that tanker
lid, and no more. Crawling slowly over
predetermined course, she was
likely victim for raider hard pushed
or especially if the raider had
eceived that code message sent from
he transmitting station in neutral ter
.itory. The tanker wallowed along
,ver the blue Pacific under the trop-
cal sun-and a tanker in the tropics
s a most uncomfortable ship.
The cockney crew agreed that it
would be easy to fry eggs on the vast
lrea of iron deck that rooted her
anks; on the bridge, far aft, one could
eel the dreadful heat rising from
he iron. The chart room was like
IN oven-the captains white suit when
he emerged was gray with sweat. He
walked to the wing of the bridge and
yazed round him over the Lmitless
pacific as though he we're looking for
which he expected to find
He had looked frequently enough
yer since he cleared the mine field,
,ut he had seen nothing. Only the
onely Pacific, and his own ship crawl
ng through the blue, and the Royal
Naval rating roasting uncomfortably
" the defensive gun.
1t did not come about quite IN the
vay the captain had anticipated. 1t
vas not a question of a formidable
iilhouette looming suddenly over the
lorizon. Instead, their first warning