Indian Ocean Invasion - 26. IOI Chapter 26

When it came to the matter of permitting the project to go ahead, one of the councillors expressed concern about it being forced to go ahead, without all the required checks.

“Commander Shaw, I see you in the back of the room, would you mind coming forward, so we can ask some questions” the shire president asked.

“Certainly sir, I would be happy to do that” I replied, as I moved forward and stepped up to the podium, and for the next fifteen minutes, I was asked plenty of questions about the project, the Corporation funding the project, the tall ship and the owners of the corporation, by the shire councillors.

When it came to the vote on whether the shire accepts the proposal, it was 7 for and 1 against, meaning that the approval was given, and this brought a round of applause from the crowd. The shire president called for a fifteen -minute recess, to allow those in the crowd who wanted to leave, and for the councillors to have a short break.

When the meeting resumed, only a dozen ratepayers had stayed, and I had decided to stay a bit longer, to get an idea of what is happening within the shire. By 6pm, I had enough, and waiting for the shire president to glance in my direction, I gave a short bow, and left the room, “Now that is a man who shows respect” I heard the shire president say just before the door closed behind me, and I smiled.

Two days later a building team were preparing, for the lifting of the tall ship, with the water level in the creek now a trickle, two trenches were dug under the ship, to allow large straps to get under it. The next day, a heavy crane arrived in town, and from the carpark beside the creek, the crane lifted the tall ship by the two straps, and backed down the gravel carpark towards the water, stopping on the edge of the beach, where the sand was getting a little too soft to cope with the heavy load.

Still twenty metres short of the water, the crane would only be able to lower the ship into very shallow water, not deep enough to get the ship to float, and with power lines in the way, it was not possible to truck the ship to another location. I had already managed to employ two fishing boat skippers and two crew to assist with motoring the tall ship up to the river, but we still needed to get the ship into dep water first.

One of the skippers made a few calls to some locals, and about an hour later, we had a truck load of old railway sleepers, and a front-end loader, plus we had two fishing boats just off the beach, ready to pull the ship into deeper water.

With two tracks of railway sleepers laid down on the beach, the crane was now able to get within 5 metres of the water, which would allow the ship to be almost able to float, and hopefully the fishing boats would be able to do the rest, to get it into deeper water.

The project ended up attracting a large group of locals, some came to just watch, while others pitched in to help, and we soon had the crane and the tall ship near the water’s edge, and once the crane was stabilised, it extended its lifting arm, to take the tall ship back to the water where it belongs, with heavy ropes used to pull the tall ship into deeper water, with the help of the two fishing boats.

Everyone cheered as the ship was finally floating on its own, and the crew of four plus myself, as I didn’t want to miss the chance to be on the ship when it was afloat, the ships engine was started and began to make its way up the coast, once the towing ropes had been disconnected and pulled in.

I wish we could take her out for a sail, I said to one of the boat skippers, who was at the wheel of the ship, “That would be a grand thing to do, if only we had the experienced crew to do it” the skipper replied, with a smile, and the short 4 kilometre long journey neared its end, as the ship came about and entered the mouth of the Murchison River, with crew on each side, fore and aft of the ship, to make sure it didn’t hit any rocks or sandbars.

Large crowds of people were lined along the river banks watching as we came into the river, and headed 2 kilometres upstream to the first main jetty in just deep enough waters, as I could feel the drag on occasions, when the ship was touching the bottom of the river, but the skipper kept the speed up, to stop us from getting stuck, luckily it is nearly high tide, which was assisting in a small way.

I had checked the tides and the river depths a day before moving the ship, and I knew that it would be a close call to get it up that far the river, and I was not sure about when the tide drops down, leaving the ship in lower waters.

Very carefully the skipper steered the ship into position and headed straight in towards the south side of the service jetty, gently rubbing against the side of the jetty as we reached it, and the skipper stopped the engines, to allow the ship to drift the rest of the way, coming to a sudden stop, when the front hit shallow waters.

The crew and some of the helpers from before, got to work to properly secure the ship to the concrete jetty, with the end of the ship being 10 metres in from the end of the jetty, and the bowsprit being a further 15 metres past the bow of the ship, looming over the riverbank, by about 5 metres, but about 6 metres above the ground, so it can’t be reached, if anyone tried.

By the time the ship was secured, there was a huge crowd gathered to have a look at the ship up close, I asked the two skippers and two crew members if they would mind staying for a bit longer, and coming back after lunch time, and they happily agreed, and with that sorted I went to the forecastle of the ship.

“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I will be happy to allow ship tours commencing from 1pm this afternoon, with a cold coin donation, which will go to a local charity, so please come back in just over three hours’ time at 2pm, and we will be able to commence the tours at that time” I announced loudly to the crowd.

A lot of the crowd moved away, while some decided to remain and watch for a while, as I made my way back to the main deck. “Right Mick and Jack, and your two crew, how about having a one afternoon job conducting ship tours, I am happy to pay for your troubles, lets’ say $35 an hour for the skippers and $25 an hour for the crew, which will come out of my pocket and not the donations, does that sound reasonable?” I asked the four men, and they all happily agreed.

“I know you have your own fishing boats and livelihoods to look after, so I will just make it this one afternoon for now, until the Wagner twins return with some assistance. By the way, can you also make a list of the people who assisted down at the creek and here with tying up the ship, and what machinery was used, so I can compensate them for their time and machinery costs” I mentioned as we headed inside.

Once in the Captain’s cabin we all sat down, “Ok, now I need to organise some ladders, or better still if there is a scaffolding company, where we can build stairs from the jetty up to the main deck that would be good, to make access easier” I commented, “Yes, there is one company that I know of that has scaffolding, I will get onto it right away” one of the skippers – Jack said.

Good, once you have called them, we need to make up a plan for the tours, I will write out a bit of a history of this replica tall ship, and the history of the original ship, so you have something to say to the visitors, and I suggest that we make each tour group no more than 8 people, with 15 minute intervals between each group, and the tour should take no more than 40 minutes to complete, have a look around this section of the ship, while Jack makes that call” I said to everyone gathered.

When Jack had finished the call, we headed back inside, “The scaffolding will be on its way in half an hour, and should be up before 2pm” Jack announced, “Good, now let’s try a dummy run for the tours, we may need to have two people down on the jetty to collect the donations, and count the number coming up the stairs, so it’s not to overcrowded on the main deck.

“How about I organise some of my colleagues at the Lions Club, they will be happy to assist” Mick said, “Good, can you organise that once we have finished up here?” I asked, and Mick agreed. “Right, let’s go back out onto the main deck, which is where the first group will arrive, whoever is going first, will make sure that they all remain together, and not wonder around the main deck.

Once you are ready to start, take them up onto the Helm Deck, so let them see where the ship is steered from, then down the other stairs and into the stern section, I will have the two officer’s cabins unlocked, as well as the Captain’s cabin, so the visitors can have a look inside, but don’t let them touch anything.

Then after a walk around the captain’s cabin, we will come down these stairs, to the next deck down, and enter the guest lounge room, for a quick look, don’t forget, you will have some facts and information with you to ramble off as you are moving around. Most of the ship on this deck, consists of guest cabins, and I will have two of them unlocked, so the guests can have a peek inside.

Moving further forward, we will enter the galley, which is the kitchen, we will then go down to the bottom deck, where I will have two more crew cabins open for looking into, and we will move back to the cargo hold in the centre of the ship. Here you might want to point out the roof of the hold can be opened, with the small lounge above being its location, allowing access to the main deck, where the hatch is located.

From the Cargo hold, we will move forward again to the stairs, and go up two decks, to the Dining room and forward lounge, and out the door, back onto the main deck, where you can allow the visitors to check out the forecastle deck, before they leave the ship, and there should have five minutes, before the third group begins, with the second group on the centre deck by this stage” I said as we walked through the ship, as if it was part of the tour.

“The parts of the ship that we didn’t see on the bottom deck, what is there?” Ben, one of the deck crew members asked, “A good question,one that the visitors may also ask, if we had continued on further back, we would have passed store rooms, a crew lounge and mess area, 4 more crew cabins and the engine room” I replied.

“That sounds easy enough” Mark the other deck hand said, and I chuckled, “Wait till you have done it half a dozen times and you might change your mind, I have worked on charter yachts both on the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean, and it’s not as easy as you think” I said to them.

“A man of many talents, Commander” Mick said to me, “Yes, I guess you could say that, now go and rest, and I will see you all at 1.45 this afternoon, thanks again for all of your help” I responded, and the four men climbed down the ladder, that was secured to the side of the ship.

With just two security guards remaining in town, at my request, one was on the jetty, keeping everyone off the jetty, and I climbed down the ladder, after locking the two doors that provide the only access inside, with the cargo hatch being locked from the inside.

“A scaffolding team will be arriving soon, to install scaffolding and steps up to the main deck, they are the only people authorised to be close to the ship, they are not to be onboard. I will be back at 1.30” I said to the security guard, before walking back to the apartment, realising only then, that my vehicle was still down at the creek, and Ben arrived in his vehicle. “Do you want a ride to retrieve your vehicle?” Ben asked me as he came to a stop.

“I had only just now realised where it was, thanks, that would be a great help” I said as I climbed into his ute, and we made the 4 km drive down to the carpark at the creek. “You know, I did a 14-day sail on the STS Leeuwin, a few years back when I was still in high school, it was the best two weeks I had ever had, something I will never forget, and being on your ship today, brought fond memories back of that time” Ben commented.

“Maybe if it can be arranged, we could have sails on this tall ship, after I have returned from Christmas Island” I responded, “Yes, that would be awesome” Ben said, as he slowed down and turned down the gravel road, where my vehicle stood on its own.

Once I was back at the apartment, I changed and headed to the restaurant for an early lunch, and taking my laptop with me, I did all the research on the original tall ship and its replica.

I had reception print out five copies of what I had typed up, and after lunch, I walked back to the service jetty, where a crowd was waiting. I looked at my watch, and it was just past 1pm, so I knew I had a little bit of extra time, as I stepped on to the jetty, where a completed scaffolding with steps stood, with the security guard standing at base, chatting to a man, I didn’t know.

“Commander Shaw, my name is Giles Patterson, owner of the scaffolding here” the man said to me as I approached,
“Hello Giles, I thank you for your prompt service to get it here and put together” I responded, “No problems at all, since you are doing so much for our little town” Giles said. “Well give me an invoice of the costs for what you have done today, and the hire of it for a period of say two weeks, actually, how much is it to replace a setup like this brand new?” I asked.

“Well, it would be about 7.5 thousand dollars for a rough guess” Giles replied sounding a little surprised, “Then how about I give you that much to buy this lot from you, and you can buy some new scaffolding to replace it” I offered.

“Well that is quite generous of you Commander, let me get a more accurate quote of what a new one costs, and I will get back to you” Giles said, and I agreed to this and shook his hand, before heading up the stairs.