Aquaria - 13. Aqu Chapter 13

“Hello sir, I have come to look at the travel itinerary, I understand that we are now heading to St Helena Island” the 1st Officer said to me, “Yes that is correct, the Brazilian government has withdrawn their permission for us to do research on the island, I am having a meeting with the Science team after lunch, and we will be doing some research on St Helena and the Ascension Islands, with 3 day stop overs at each location, so crew can have some R& R.

We are having a few changes, so after that we are heading to Bermuda and onto Halifax in Canada, then to our base in Douglas on the Isle of Man” I replied, “Any idea where we will be going after that?” the 1st officer asked, “yes, but I will leave that for after we have left Bermuda, as we are still finalising the plans” I answered. “Very well sir” the officer replied, as I handed him over the itinerary.

The meeting with the science team went well, and they were all eager to do some more outdoor work, and a timetable would be worked out for each of the 6 different departments, those being Oceanography, Marine Biology, Ecology, Botany, Zoology and Meteorology. “Some information I received just before the meeting, the MD has informed me, that he has developed a Science Cadetship programme, after the success of the one-week cadet trial with the private school students from Western Australia.

I will be leading this programme, as I was the one to develop the school education programme for that school, and I ask the officers to help coordinate its operation, when it starts. The cadets will have graduated from high school, will be aged from 18 to 19 years old, and have graduated with an 86% pass mark in at least two science subjects.

The 42 cadets will be on the vessel for a period of three months, and they will have to successfully completed the deep-water training course that you have all done, before they can join us, which will be in the UK. We will be stopping at St Helena Island and the Ascension Islands, with three days at each location, with the first two days doing research, and we expected to arrive in Douglas in about 36 days’ time.

From there we are heading to Bermuda for a 5 day stop, of which only two days will be spent doing research and the rest is R & R time” I announced, which received cheers, and I smiled at this. “Sir are the cadets going to be all from the UK?” one of the junior science officers asked. “Good question, and no, they will be coming from a variety of Commonwealth countries, I am yet to be informed which countries” I replied.

After the meeting, Jocelyn and I headed back to the office, where there was a fax that had arrived while we were out of the office. “Trenton, this is to let you know, that the cadetship programme is being promoted in 9 Commonwealth countries, those being, Canada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Australia, England, Wales, Scotland and the Isle of Man. So far, I have 34 applications, with just one week left till the application time closes, so that selection can be done, and training can begin. Regards your Father”

A few days later, we arrived at St Helena Island, and all crew were given two days of shore leave, with the science crew having to do some research on the third day, while some supplies were being loaded. I was kept busy supervising the science teams, allocating them work and looking at what data they had collected while on shore in in the ocean around the island.

When the time came to leave at 0800 hours on day 4, there appeared to be no movement, so I just presumed that there was some sort of problem, but I decided to keep away from the bridge. Nearly two hours later, and I received a call from the bridge.

“Sir, we have been delayed because we could not locate the captain, and after some investigation, we have found a note in his office, which reads, ‘Managing Director, Lloyd Corporation, I quit, effective immediately, signed the Captain’, sir what do we do now?” the 1st officer, Dan Atkins asked me. “Well until I speak to the MD, you are now the acting Captain, so lets’ get going to our next destination” I responded, “Very well sir, and thank you for this opportunity” the 1st Officer replied.

Once we were at sea again, and submerged, I sent a fax message to head office. “To the Managing Director, Sir, I wish to inform you that the captain has resigned effective immediately, and that I have placed the 1st officer as Acting Captain, so that we can be on our way to the Ascension Islands, the Captain left the vessel without any crew noticing that he had packed and left, so his whereabouts is unknown. Regards Trenton Blackthorn, Aquaria Project Director”.

Shortly after the telephone rang, “Hello Trent, your father here, I see you are trying to keep things formal and official with correspondence, regarding business matters, I like that, and I will try and do the same. Do you have any idea when he left?” my father said to me, “No sir, Dan Atkins, the 1st officer did a full search before they came across the note on his desk in his office, he must have slipped out sometime last night” I replied.

“I see, well I will start to look for a replacement, but that may not be easy, I will see if your uncle can fill in temporarily, without the rest of the family joining him” my father informed me, “I guess that will be alright, I will let the acting captain know” I said.

The 1 ¼ day journey to the Ascension Islands was uneventful, and I decided to extend the stay by two days, so the crew can have a good look around, as well as so some research work can be done, so I headed up to deck 2 to speak to the acting captain, stopping at the office door and knocking. “Come in” came the response from inside so I entered.

“Sir, Mr Blackthorn has just entered, can I put you on loud speaker” I heard Dan Atkins say when he saw me enter, and he pressed a button and put the receiver down, “Hello Trent, is everything going ok?” I heard my father say through the loud speaker, “Yes sir, very smoothly with the Acting Captain in charge” I responded, and I heard my father chuckle at this comment.

“It will be good to have Captain Burke with us again sir, even if it is for just a short while” Commander Atkins said, and I nodded my head in agreement, “When will he be arriving?” I asked, “When you get to Bermuda, so that gives Commander Atkins here a little more time to get some experience as Captain” my father responded, “Thankyou sir, I have enjoyed the challenge very much” Commander Atkins replied.

“I understand you wish to bring your family onboard Commander Atkins” my dad said, “Yes sir, if it is permitted, my wife Julia is six years younger than myself, and she has a 5 year old son from a previous relationship” Commander Atkin replied, “That sounds fine, what is her full name and date of birth, so I can get the ball rolling for her to join you?” my father asked.

“It is Julia Francis Atkin, born on the 14th of May” the Commander replied, I sat down heavily into the chair behind me, on hearing this information, “Err, excuse me, but is her maiden name Alliston?” I asked feeling a little shocked at hearing this, “Yes, it is, why do you know her?” the Commander asked, “Yes, I do in fact, when was her son born?” I responded.

“16th of October, why do you ask” the Commander replied, as I counted back the months, from that date to when I last saw Julia, and I suddenly felt sick. “Sir, Mr Blackthorn has gone all white and does not look well, I will speak to you again soon, once your son has had some medical attention” Commander Atkin said before terminating the call and called for a medical team to his office.

I was taken to the medical centre in the aft section of deck 6, where the doctor on duty, gave me some tablets to help me to relax, and I soon drifted off to sleep. When I woke up next, I sat up suddenly, which cased my head to spin a little, and a nurse was at my side quickly.

“Mr Blackthorn, it appears that you have had a bit of a shock from some news, you can return to your suite now, but just relax for the rest of the day and you will be fine” the nurse said to me as she assisted me to my feet, and guided me to the door of the medical centre.

Both Travis and Nigel were at the door of my suite, when I arrived, and they assisted me into the suite lounge, where I sat down, before been given a blanket and a glass of iced water. “I will arrange for some lunch for you sir” Nigel said to me, once I was settled, “Just a light salad will be fine thanking you” I responded, just as there was a light knock on the door, which Travis went to answer.

Commander walked in and asked the stewards to leave us for ten minutes, and I let the stewards know that it was fine, and they can go. Once the door had closed, Dan Atkin sat down, and he looked around the room for a moment. “I have spoken to Julia, after you were taken down to medical, and she has confirmed that you are her former boyfriend from her days at university, and that Joshua is indeed your son.

Julia thought that you were still in the Navy on overseas deployment, as she had not heard from you for quite some time. We, that is Julia and I would like you to be part of Joshua’s life, as he already knows that his father is in the navy, and that his mum and dad never married. We hope that this will not be too much of a distraction for you with Julia and Joshua being onboard, and we decided to let you tell your father that he is a grandad, although I think he has already guessed that” Dan said to me.

“I… I would like to get to know Joshua, and I think it would be best if your family moved into one of the family suites on deck 5, so Joshua is close to the other children that are onboard” I eventually said after some silent thought. “Once Captain Burke takes over again, I will happily do that, thank you. I will leave you to rest now, and speak to you later, oh and Julia sends her best wishes” Dan said before leaving the suite.

Once I had rested long enough and was getting bored, I headed into the office to do some work, and I decided to give my father a call. “Hello Dad… yes I am ok now thanks, just a bit of a shock, to know that I am a dad and you are a grandad” I said when my father answered the call. “Hello son how old is my grandson, and what is his name?” dad asked, “His name is Joshua, and he is five years old, I have suggested to Dan that when Captain Burke returns that he and his family move down to the family suites on deck 5” I said.

“Sounds like a good decision, I will be speaking to Julia tomorrow, to start organising them to join you, probably at Gibraltar, if all goes well” Dad said to me, “ok, I look forward to that, will you met them before they join the vessel?” I asked, “Of course I will, and I am very much looking forward to it, take care now son and speak to you soon, bye” Dad said before ending the call.

After 5 days at the Ascension Islands, we set sail once more, with our next destination being Bermuda Island for some crew R & R, which everyone was looking forward to, and all the crew kept busy during the 8 and a bit days’, it took us to get there.

As soon as we had docked, and were cleared by customs and quarantine, all but a skeleton crew were given immediate shore leave. When I stepped out onto the balcony platform of deck 3, I was pleasantly surprised to see my father and uncle Jonah standing on the harbour dock, chatting about something, and when they saw me, they gave a short wave, as I made my way down the stairs.

“Father, Uncle Jonah, good to see you both” I commented to them as I shook their hands. “I hope you have been looking after our expensive toy” Uncle Jonah commented, which made me chuckle a little, “Yes Uncle, she is in ship shape, and ready for the next adventure” I replied.

“Good, to hear, I will be taking over command from here, until we get to Valetta, Malta, then I will re-join you in the Indian Ocean, two weeks later, probably in the Maldives” my uncle informed me.

“Who will take command in the meantime, through the Suez Canal?” I asked, “We will keep Commander Atkins as 1st Officer, but we need someone who is experienced with going through the canal, unfortunately the only experienced captain I can find, is a Container freighter Captain, who has been through the canal twenty-eight times.