Aquaria - 19. Aqu Chapter 19

Two hours later, I walked into the Bridge, after having a shower and change of clothes, and I snapped to attention and saluted to Jonah, “Captain, ready for duty as ordered” I said to my uncle, who smiled, “Very good Lt Commander, take over at the helm please” Jonah replied, “Yes sir” I replied, as the helmsman stood up and stepped away, and I sat down, looked at the screen in front of me, then down at the instruments, giving me my speed and course.

“Slow to half speed and change your course by 10 degrees to the west please Lt Commander” Jonah said to me, “Yes sir, slow to half speed, and course change to ten degrees to the starboard” I replied. Over the next hour, we made two more course changes, so that we were now heading back the way we came, “Slow to one quarter, and surface please Lt Commander” Jonah ordered, as I could now see shallow water ahead, and I slowed the vessel down, and slowly surface the vessel.

“You never got around to making that announcement, did you?” Jonah asked me, “No sir I did not, maybe you can do that for me please, I replied. “Attention all crew, this is the Captain speaking, as you may feel, we are currently surfacing, and for those near windows, you will see that we are approaching an island in the Pacific Ocean, we cannot inform you of the island at this time, but all will be revealed soon.

Deck crew, and security, man your stations on deck 6, for docking at the wharf” the Captain said before ending the announcement, just as we surfaced, and the camera views on the screens showed the island for the first time. At 1604, I very slowly steered the Aquaria into the channel, allowing for the wind direction, the swell, and the tide, and shut the engines down, just moments before we hit a sandbank.

Down 5 levels, on deck six, the deck crew were on the deck platform, the deck crew had brought out the large rubber mats that are used to stop the vessel from having direct contact with the wharf, and once they were in place, the walkway was pulled out from its storage locker and put into place, to stop any chance of anyone falling in.

Once I had finished in the Bridge, I headed down to deck six, and passed through the airlock and onto the platform, where I saw my father standing there, waiting for our arrival. “Welcome to Wake Island, I hope you enjoy it here, as I intend in keeping the Aquaria here for a while” my father said to me, as I stepped onto the island, and shook his hand.

“Well it is definitely tropical here, feels like it is about 30 degrees Celsius at the moment” I replied, “Yes it could be around that temp, it’s a nice and comfortable temperature, especially with this light breeze, whoever did the helm work, bringing her in, did a great job” my father said to me. “Thanks Dad, that was me actually, since I had already studied the islands maps” I replied, as Jonah appeared, along with Natalia, Dan, Julia and Joshua.

“Hello Grandad” Joshua said breaking free from his mother, and racing towards my father, who bent down and picked up Joshua. “Hello Joshua, did you enjoy the boat ride” my father asked, “Yes and my new school is really great too” Joshua said.

“Where are we exactly?” Julia asked, “We are 3,700 kilometres west of Hawaii, 3,200 kilometres east of Japan, and 4,600 kilometres north east of Cairns, Australia” I replied with a big smile, “Oh and what is this island called?” Julia responded, and I chuckled, but I could see Dan was trying to work it out in his head, “Does this island have a very long runway? If so then my guess is that we are on either Midway or Wake Island” Dan said.

“You are right on your second guess, we are indeed on Wake Island” my father said. “What are we doing here?” Julia asked, “Lloyd Family Corporation now owns the island, even though it is still part of USA territory, lets head back inside as I need to make an announcement to all crew” Dad announced, so we returned to the Aquaria, where it was a lot cooler, with the air-conditioning of the vessel.

“Attention all crew, this is Mr Lloyd, Managing Director of Lloyd Family Corporation, speaking. Let me be the first to welcome you to Lloyd Corporations latest purchase, Wake Island. This island is a former battle field from WW2, so please respect anything that is on the island regarding that time in the island’s history.

Although the family corporation owns the island, it is still part of the territory of the United States of America, but as part of the agreement with the purchase of the island, it has been agreed that the corporation is entitled to make its own decisions regarding law and order.

As such, the rules and regulations that you follow onboard the Aquaria, will be the same on Wake Island. The few vehicles that are on the island, will be driving on the left, as per most of the Oceania countries, including Japan, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Tonga, Nauru and Kiribati, to name a few. We have purchase 200 men’s and women’s bicycles, for anyone who wishes to ride around Wake Island, but please be sure to remain on the small road south of the main runway, and do not go beyond the fence and onto that runway at any time.

For now, everyone will remain living onboard the Aquaria, as facilities have not been completed to allow a large group of people to live on the island on a long-term basis. The main town on the island is on the north west end of the V shaped island, but we are at the south west end, we ask that you remain in the south west section of the island for the first few days, until the last of the work has been completed to tidy up the island, thank you” my dad said as he ended the announcement.

“What now dad?” I asked “Can you grab your passport and join me please, we have lots to discuss, and lots to see” my Dad said, and when exited the Aquaria, with my passport and a briefcase in hand, Dad was on the wharf, standing next to a Landrover jeep which I saw has right-hand drive, for driving on the left-hand side of the road, like most of the vehicles in the region, as we climbed into the back, and the driver followed the narrow road, past some huge tanks, then around the small boat harbour, where I noticed three vessels moored at the wharf.

“The two blue boats are Australian made 58-metre, Cape Class patrol boats, our own small Navy you could say, consisting of just 22 crew for each vessel, and an administration staff of twelve, the other boat is a 44-metre power catamaran, for tours around the islands, and for scuba diving.

Like my friend Jasper here, we have a permanent population of 48 Islanders, who accepted jobs and we assisted with their families to move to the island. You may remember in that information that I sent you, that there is a group of ten modern houses on the north side of Wake Island, well they are the homes for the ten islander families.

All of them are from the Marshall Islands which are nearest neighbours, located between 85 and 250nautical miles south of us, they receive a wage equivalent to that received in Australia, with superannuation, and holidays. We have a total of 28 children, and some staff operate a small school, others operate the community store, located at Sandy Point, and a big shed has been turned into a community centre.

Seven other houses located on the inside north bank, are being renovated, as there are more families interested in coming to Wake Island to live and work. The two H shaped living quarters, which have 26 bedrooms and two bathrooms in each building, we are thinking about turning into tourist accommodation. I am not sure what to do with the other 6 large barracks, just yet, something to discuss later” my father said as we pulled up outside a building, with 8 funny shaped solid sheds located behind it.

“This is Wake Island administration, as well as administration for our small Defence Navy. Petty Officer is the Commodore in?” my Dad asked a seaman who was standing just inside the door of the building, “Yes sir, Mr Lloyd” the seaman replied after he has snapped to attention. “This is my son, Lt Commander Trenton Blackthorn, formally from the Royal Australian Navy, he has been serving on the Science Research Vessel Aquaria” Dad said making the introductions, before leading me upstairs.

“All of our Navy are former members of Navies in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, and the 5 officers live in the five houses that are scattered along the eastern side of Wake Island, while the ordinary crew of the two patrol boats, live in the modern officer’s building at the north west end of the island” my father explained.

The meeting with the Commodore lasted for twenty minutes, and in that time, I got to know a little more about the island’s operations. With 48 islanders including their families, 4 aircraft pilots, 2 air stewards, 2 aircraft engineers and 48 Navy personnel, that is all the island’s population, until the Aquaria arrived.

As we stepped outside again, I heard an aircraft, and as we walked between two of the odd shaped buildings, I realised that they are aircraft bunkers, as a twin turbo prop aircraft came into view, which has “Air Wake Island” written on the side, which made me smile.

Dad and I walked up to the aircraft and climbed the stairs to inside the plane, where an air steward directed us to seats near the front and asked that we fasten our seatbelt. Once we were in the air, the stewardess served us some drinks and snacks.

“So, Dad, where on earth are, we are going?” I asked after the stewardess had left, “1345 kilometres south to Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands, we have a meeting to attend with some government officials, call it keeping in good relations with our neighbours, and we will be arriving there in just over two hours.” Dad replied.

When we landed on the Marshall Islands, it was a little cooler than Wake Island, as we headed into the terminal to be processed through customs & quarantine, and once through that, a limo was waiting for us and we were taken to the convention centre, where some of the government offices are located, because the main government building next door is unstable, due to ground movement.

In a conference room with 5 government officials, Dad and I presented our plans for Wake island, mentioning that we already have 48 islanders originally from the Marshall Islands, who have moved to Wake island to live and work. Dad stated that the Lloyd Family Corporation was concentrating on science research in the region, with Wake Island to become the base for this research.

When asked what we wanted from the Marshall Islands, “Sir, all we want it to be good neighbours, and to bring trade to your country, in whatever you can offer, in ways of keeping Wake Island operational. Firstly,we would like to buy 24 locally made outrigger canoes, for our community to use for local fishing and snorkelling.

Through communications from the islanders currently on Wake Island, and their friends and families here in the Marshall Islands, we have learnt that there are many more families that would like to live and work on Wake Island, we are currently restoring seven more existing houses on Wake Island, to allow for another 7 families to join us.

You may have seen in international new reports that there is a giant research submarine that had been travelling around the world’s oceans, well that submarine is currently moored at Wake Island, as that will be its home base from now on.

The plane that we travelled on today, can travel between this home island of yours and Wake Island in just over two hours, and can be used for transporting goods that your people are willing to sell to us. Local clothing, handicrafts, foods, or anything like that, will be most welcome.

Because we are an environmentally conscious organisation, we do not allow any shipping near Wake Island, apart from the research submarine, we have only a few small boats but that is all, so everything will have to be transported via air” my Dad said to the officials. The one-hour long meeting went well, with a verbal agreement, that trade would be permitted between Wake Island and the Marshall Islands.