High Seas Series: The Wilson O'Toole

Pat and Min spent three days, along with Señor Ferguson in discussions with the El Salvador government. Pat got the distinct impression that some of the bureaucrats were working for the drug smugglers and slavers. Later, Rodolfo Ferguson said the same thing to him. They finally got permission to "work" the El Salvador coast and several of the assemblymen demanded they be notified of when and where the rescue operations were going to take place. Pat agreed, but he and Min decided that no actual area or time would be given them. Pat knew a rat when he smelled one!

Anxious to get away from any prying eyes sent by the suspect legislators, the small fleet sailed immediately. They bypassed the tourist area of Costa del Sol and headed south for the delta of Rio Lampa. Pat figured that area would be prime smuggler territory.

The whole area, all the way down to San Juan del Gozo was swamp and a myriad of small, shallow waterways. The river was navigable as far as La Canoa, which was a shanty town built along the river. The whole area was mosquito-laden and the humidity approached 100%!

As they scouted the area, they spotted numerous campfires, but they all appeared innocent and held only fishermen and their families.

Min pushed the Mary Jane further upstream than either the Joseph or The Wilson could go. Both vessels anchored out in mid-stream and waited for the Mary Joyce to return.

Two days later, the emergency alarm went off on all their handhelds and the heard Min screaming into his own handheld that he needed help. The Joseph required less water than the Wilson, so Nate Fong was nominated and he headed the Joseph upstream to rescue Min Tangimora and the Mary Joyce with his engines protesting at being run at maximum throttle while still cold!

All the next day, all they could get was bleeps and squawks on the handhelds and no connection could be made with the main radio. Pat was nearly beside himself with worry, when, finally, they got a clear transmission from Nate. He had the Mary Joyce under tow and everyone was on board. Pat noted that Nate did NOT say everyone was OK!

He called out his Away Team and armed them with the machine guns. The rest of the boys began hauling rockets up to the top of the Bridge House and they set up the launchers without Pat telling them to do so.

As the Joseph came around the bend in the river, everyone on the Wilson looked in horror, there were shot holes in the Joe's stack and smoke was pouring out the engine room air ventilation exhausts. The ship was steering an erratic course and the Mary Joyce was being towed behind the Joe!

They could hear gunfire and everyone on the Wilson was loaded and locked without being told. The Joseph was flying the O'Toole House flag upside down, letting them know that they were in trouble!

Pat ordered the three inch gun loaded and pointed upstream. Right behind the Mary Joyce were several power boats and they could all see the flash of gun powder as they were shooting at the Mary Joyce.

Boats McKee aimed the big three incher himself and pulled the lanyard. There was a burst of fire was seen on the pursuing boat and the next round was an explosive load. The boat exploded in a sheet of flame and the two boats behind it turned and ran upstream!

Min brought the Mary Joyce up alongside the Wilson and Nate held the Joseph in guard position, protecting the sailing vessel. Pat looked down from the Wilson's bridge wing and saw bodies bundled in sheets on the deck of the Mary Joyce. He prayed to God it was not dead crewmen or rescued children!

Boats kept the three inch gun pointed upstream and loaded. He kept the firing lanyard in his hand to be able to shoot instantly. The gun was old, but the Naval Gun Factory had dug up a brand new barrel for them, and he had sighted the gun in himself, he knew he could hit anything larger that a crow between the bend in the river and the water the Wilson was sitting on!

Min's crew remained on the alert, their rifles all pointed upstream. A powerboat with no markings on it came roaring around the bend and Boats yanked the lanyard on the three inch gun. It fired with an awful roar and the well deck of the power boat exploded in a wall of fire. Boats McKee was obviously shooting explosive rounds!

His second shot completely obliterated the powerboat; nothing was left except floating wreckage. Pat had the launch lowered and sent a crew out, looking for survivors. All they found were dead bodies.

Min and his crew had snatched sixteen boys, eight girls and twelve adults from the powerboat. All of them were in poor shape and all the girls had been molested as well as the two adult women and three little boys!

To say that Jerry was furious would have been like saying fire was hot! He and the other doctors worked around the clock repairing the damage.

As Pat was walking through the recovery ward, he heard English being spoken. He looked questioningly at Jerry and Jerry whispered, "There is an older brother to those three little boys and I am pretty sure they are Americans. They are pretty closed mouthed, maybe you can get them to tell us what happened. The older brother is the teen boy with the bright red hair in the bed next to the bulkhead."

Pat and Jerry made the rounds of all the beds, Jerry spoke Spanish like a native and Pat could make himself understood in that language, so they both stopped at every bed and spoke a few minutes with its occupant.

There were lots of tears, the slavers had raided a nature safari camp and had killed most of the adults before snatching the young folks.

Pat and Jerry finally came to the last bed, the one that held the red headed teen boy. Pat sat on the edge of the bed and said nothing as he just laid his hands on the blanket beside the boy in an invitation.

The boy was obviously very frightened, but he realized these folks were not going to hurt him or his little brothers. He looked away, straight at the bulkhead as he began to speak, "Theys killed em, Mum and Pops. Theys just shot them for no reason! I tried ta' get Bobby, Jason and Kenny away, I did sir, HONEST! One of the men clubbed me out cold n' I woked up with ropes on my feet and hands."

The boy began to cry and Pat put his arm around the boy's back and held him close until his sobs has subsided. Jerry went over and picked up the three brothers and brought them over to Pat and the older brother.

The three little boys hugged and held their older brother until he got his composure back. He looked at Pat, who still also had the bright red hair of his own youth, and the boy gave a little giggle and said, "Us could be bros, our hair is the same color!"

Pat smiled at the boy and asked, "Would you like that?"

So it was that Pat sat on the edge of that hospital bed with four red-headed boys hanging on him. He wondered what his wife, Alice would say, their own baby was due in another two months.

Jerry looked at his old friend and whispered, "Yup, you is Cap'n Wil's son alright, ya got the kid disease!"

Pat would find out later that all Alice would say was, "When did they eat last?" Both Pat and Alice were redheads and, when little Wilson Patrick came along, he joined the redhair crowd too!

Pat was hooked and happy as a clam at high tide! The O'Toole rumor mill was working at overtime, before Pat left the Recovery Ward, the entire fleet knew that he had just "acquired" four sons!

Alex, the teen was up and about the next day and Jerry released him to the General Ward, two of his brothers, Carl and Robbie, followed him the next day, but the youngest brother, Paul, had a torn rectum from where he had been forcibly raped, and Jerry was fighting infection in the boy with everything he had in the cabinet!

The little boy was a very sick lad and, for a couple of days, Jerry was not sure he could save the boy's life. Pat sat with him day and night, the only time he left was when his duties as Captain demanded his attention.

Whenever Pat had to be on the bridge, he would return and find Boats McKee sitting beside the little boy and comforting him. Little Kee was with them, Little Kee was a real genius and he was just turning thirteen and blessed with bright red hair!

Pat spotted it right away, Little Kee was attracted to Bobby Andrews, the second oldest brother! The two boys were about the same age and, when Pat spoke to Boats about the matter, Boats McKee just grinned and replied, "Yup!"

While Bobby was not quite the intellect that Kee was, he was no slouch in the brain department and he had already been doing college level math in his school back in America. The two boys just "clicked" and, as soon as Jerry released Bobby, the two boys were seen everywhere together!

Both boys, however, made sure that they paid plenty of attention to the youngest brother, Paul, who was so sick. Slowly, the little child began to respond to the medicines Jerry was using and after two weeks of "touch and go", Paul began to perk up.

Pat had been on the SSB almost daily with Alice and she already loved those boys, sight unseen! She told Pat that she had purchased beds for them and, if he would send her their clothing sizes, she would get clothing for all of them and have it ready when they got back home. He did and so also did Alice O'Toole.

The small fleet continued its voyage southwards and they called at El Cuco in San Salvador to take on supplies that they had ordered. It was a very small town, but it served a larger farming district. Besides the supplies they had ordered, Cookie took on fresh vegetables and fruits.

Señor Ferguson was on the teletype machine at the Telegráfico for hours on end. The news he brought back was not encouraging. His government in Costa Rica had raided a building in the port city of Limón and had discovered paperwork indicating that there was a coordinated gang of slavers working the west coast of Central America.

Costa Rica had no Naval Forces, only a few harbor policiá. They had instructed him to ask for assistance from Capitán O'Toole.

Many children and young adults were already missing. They had information that one of the slavers' main lair was somewhere in the Golfo de Fonseca in El Salvador. Pat consulted his charts and saw that the Golfo was only a day and a half sailing from where they were right then. It would not mattered had the Golfo been halfway around the world, tempers were running pretty hard against these slavers and their deeds already.

They set sail as soon as the supplies had been loaded and headed south to the Golfo de Fonseca. The weather was mild and no storms were predicted in the area. The charts showed a number of small islands, bays and swamps, all perfect hiding places for the slavers.

Pat decided the ships should spread out and sail independently in search of the slaver base. Early the next afternoon, the small fleet entered the Golfo de Fonseca and spread out, each headed for their assigned search sector. The Mary Joyce, however, was so badly damaged, she was assigned to guard the harbor entrance and use her radio if any suspicious ship showed up.

The Wilson was assigned to the deep waters of a large arm on the southern flank of the gulf and Pat sat on the bridge, glued to the radar. He was joined by Little Kee and Bobby and the two boys set up a grid pattern and asked Pat to put the rotator on manual.

The two boys walked the radar beam into every nook and cranny they could detect, running it back and forth over questionable returns. They soon had created a map overlay for the navigation chart, showing the bright returns that indicated that there was something made of metal or was of significant size.

What they found intrigued Pat and the next he decided to make a "look-see" trip deep into the Bahia de Chismuyo in Honduras. It would prove to be a profitable side trip! Hidden behind Punta del Condega Guapinol they discovered three small ships at anchor.

There was no port in the area and it made Pat wonder, "What the hell they were doing there".

As he guided the Wilson around the point, they saw men on all the ships frantically trying to get the sails up. Pat told Boats to see if he could take down their main masts.

He could and he did!

The range was practically dead ahead of them and Boats said later that a blind man could have brought those masts down! Pat just laughed, he knew that was not true, Boats was the best gunner he had ever seen, civilian OR Navy!

'Go asked to lead the away team, he said that he was getting tired of pushing this "water buffalo" through the water and that he needed a little exercise. Pat knew Go's history and also that of his younger brother, Trong, and he was sure that any pirate had only a tiny chance of even surviving Singh 'Go OR his younger brother, let alone escaping!

None of the sailing ships looked like they were in any danger of sinking, although none of the three were able to raise their sails, their masts were completely gone! They could see the sailors frantically trying to clear the wreckage, but it looked to be a hopeless task.

The first ship was the largest of the three, so that is where 'Go led his party first. He stepped aboard and he thought he was on a garbage scow. The ship stank and he could almost feel the vermin crawling on his skin.

The crew had jumped overboard and they were seen trying to swim to shore. He could see small shark fins swimming rapidly towards the swimming men. They were small sharks, so probably they would not be able to eat much! As it turned out, they were sand sharks and the fleeing crew members only lost a few fingers and toes!

When 'Go climbed down into the single hold, he lost everything he had eaten in the last week! The smell would have turned a carrion eater away!

There were men and older teen boys chained to wooden posts set into the hold. 'Go explained who he was and that his men were coming to smash the locks on their chains. He explained in very rough Spanish that they would be set free or they could come with them back to their ship, where there was a hospital and doctors to care for them.

A young adult hollered, "¡Nos Vamanos!"

His squad released eight adult men and thirty young boys who looked to range from about five years old to their late teens. None of them spoke English, more than just a few words, but each one came over to 'Go and hugged him as soon as they had been released. Despite their awful smell, 'Go hugged them all tightly to his chest.

The scene was repeated on the other two ships, except there were young girls on the last ship. In all, 'Go's Away Team released ninety captives, of which ten were young girls and the rest were men and boys. They were all Spanish-speaking local people and they had been brutally served.

When asked, none wanted to be set ashore, they all wanted to go out to the Wilson, to the hospital and the doctors. The scene was repeated on the other two ships, although there were fewer captives on those ships.

One team headed for the shore and collected the crew men as they crawled out of the water. Every one of them was bleeding from shark bites, nobody had much sympathy for them. The small brig on the Wilson was going to be jampacked! The closest Naval authority was the Naval Station at Pochomil in Nicaragua.

The Hospital was now full and those with lesser injuries were ferried over to the Joseph, where there was a small clinic. They had rescued over four hundred people, all headed into slavery!

Teniente de la Mariña Hernandez was aghast that there were slavers working nearby, he had not had a clue of such activity, or, so he said. Pat was not so sure and he asked Señor Ferguson to inquire about the matter through diplomatic channels.

When Señor Ferguson got off the ship to shore, he told Pat to NOT release any of the rescued people to the authorities at Pochomil, but to bring them directly to Puerto Caldera in Costa Rica. He said the slavers would probably be released before the Wilson was even out of the harbor! Captain Patrick Wilson O'Toole was not a happy man!

As the O'Toole Fleet stood out to sea, Pat went into Radio Conference with the other ship Captains. All the Captains reported they were full up and even the little Mary Joyce, despite the damage done to her, was hosting fifteen youngsters they had plucked out of the water and some of the crew were back to sleeping on the decks so the kids could have their bunks.

The decision was made to return to Lihue. There was no medical emergency that decided them, it was mere the fact that they were just out of room. They did all agree to take a swing by Clipperton Island again on the off chance that some more slavers had moved in. The last trip they had cleared the small island out and they had rescued a number of boys.

They made pretty good time, they had a following wind all the way to Clipperton Island, so even the Mary Joyce was making a good sixteen knots good through the water. They had fair weather all the way and the children they had rescued took advantage of the cool breeze and warm sunshine. The decks of all three ships were littered with recovering children soaking up the warm sunshine, while members of the crew did all they could to repair the damage recent attacks had inflicted upon their ships.

On the Wilson, some of the older teens convinced 'Go to speak with them, they seemed to have an affinity for the man, whether it was his brown skin or his warm personality, it didn't matter. Between 'Go telling them how he had come to be with the O'Tooles and his stories of life at Lihue, he would sit for hours when he was off watch, with a crowd of children sitting with him and listening to his every word. They were especially interested in his story of how his younger brother, Trong had been rescued by the O'Tooles.

With 'Go's bad Spanish and his attempts to describe what was in store for them, his listeners were improving their own English. Some of what they told 'Go would have made a dead man cry and 'Go was far from being dead.

Each evening, 'Go would relate to Pat what the children had told him and Pat would have to hold the man until he had recovered his equilibrium.

Years earlier, 'Go and his brother, 'Trong, had each been gifted a million US Dollars by old Indonesian Admiral Vashi and neither brother had ever spent even a dime of it. 'Go had already spoken with his brother about his idea, so he sounded out the teens from among the rescued children. Without exception, they were all hot for the idea!

When Pat discovered a "Song and Dance" troop practicing on the hatch cover, he suspected a Singh 'Go rat! When he asked 'Go, the Chief Engineer grinned and said, "We are gonna put O'Toole House on the American Map!"

Pat wisely did not press 'Go for more information, he could see the man's delight in working with the kids. Pat thought to himself, "That man should have a whole houseful of kids to surround him. Neither man knew right then that 'Go's wife had been to the Doctor and she had been told they were expecting twins!

Sahia was a beautiful woman and Pat knew that 'Go loved her without reservation. That set him to thinking about his own wife, Alice and the forthcoming birth of their own first child. He went and took a look at the PitLog, wondering if he could juice up their speed a little bit.

As they came up on Clipperton Island, the radar reported several blips moving around to the northwest side of the old volcano.

Clipperton Island was the top of an ancient volcano that had sunk into the sea long ago. That there was a little freshwater spring on the island was unusual and, back in the old sailing ship days, ships had stopped there regularly to refill their water barrels.

Now, it was only a speck in the sea and few ships visited the place, so the moving blips attracted their attention immediately. They hung back so as to approach the island after dark and 'Trong asked to lead the Away Party this time. He told his brother that it was his turn to earn some glory!

As they stood into the north coast of the island, they spotted several fast boats and a larger vessel that looked like a large yacht, although, they did not spot any people, so they assumed they were all inside the crater.

After the sun had set and before the moon made its appearance, 'Trong led thirty sailors ashore. They smashed the fast boats' hulls and trashed the engine on the yacht. There was going to be no escape for, what they were sure were narcotics smugglers. In that, they were very wrong and they realized it when they heard the first scream coming from the crater!

As they peeked over the rocky rim and looked down into the crater floor, they were horrified! They saw a group of men around a small fire and they were using a branding iron of a group of teen boys! They were branding them like cattle!

'Trong did not even try to hold his men back, it would have been impossible in any case, even if he had wanted to! The thirty-one men raced down the inside slope with their machine guns blasting away at the slavers!

In less time than the telling, not a single slaver remained alive, only a very fat man, who appeared to be their leader. He was loaded with fancy gold chains and "bling" and was attempting to negotiate the loose sand to reach his beached yacht.

'Trong did not bother chasing him, the yacht was thoroughly disabled and, if he attempted to commandeer the launch, the two crewmen he had left to guard the launch were crack shots!

'Trong's Spanish was only marginally better that that of his older brother, 'Go, so he called out, "Do any of you speak English here?"

An older teen and a very young teen called out together, "WE DO, we are Americans!"

'Trong shouted, "I was not born an American, but I surely am one now!" He continued, as he walked carefully towards the boys, so as to not frighten them, "I am 'Trong Oscar Robbins and I am the Chief Engineer on an O'Toole Family Rescue Ship, The Joseph O'Toole."

The first voice in the dark shouted, "Is you guys the ones what rescues kids?" 'Trong turned on his flashlight and shone it on his own face as he replied, "Yep an' we gonna get you all out to our Hospital Ship, The Wilson O'Toole and get Doc Ben to check you all out, if you speak any Spanish, how about telling these other boys what I said."

All the boys were struggling against their ropes, trying to get loose and come to these boys who had rescued them.

As soon as they got loose, the two American boys came up to 'Trong and said, "Sir, the man who leads this bunch is a big fat man and he killed both our Mother and our Father and stole our yacht. Uuhh"

'Trong interrupted him and asked, "Is he a big guy with lots of gold chains?" The older teen replied, "Yeah, he killed our folks by chopping their heads off and he stole our boat." 'Trong put his arm around both boys and said, "Don't you worry none about him, he is up there trying to start an engine that we smashed on our way in here. He's not goin' anywhere except to jail!"

Both brothers then broke down crying and struggled to tell 'Trong who they were. They were Paul and Bobby Carter and they were from San Diego.

'Trong's first though was, "Good Lord, what will My Jowto say to two new sons?" He knew that Jow would love those two boys just as much as he was becoming to love them, it was "love at first sight", in much the way Poppa Oscar had loved him at first sight so long ago!

'Trong and his crew got the teens rounded up and they headed back to the launch, where they found the two crew members he had left to guard the launch standing over a quivering mound of fat who was blubbering about night raiders stealing his property!

They put the fat man in the launch, face down in the bilge and then loaded the teens on top of him. Most made a special effort of standing on the man and his tender parts!

They returned to The Joseph and proceeded to treat the teens in the small dispensary. None of their injuries were life threatening, one teen had a burn, where one of the slavers attempted to brand him, but he had kicked the man in the crotch and had squirmed away in time to prevent his branding.

'Trong made a special trip down to the brig and his two crewmen threw the fat men into the cell, face down on the steel deck. He landed on the cold steel deck with a solid "thunk".

'Trong told him that they would make him a special delivery present to the United States Coast Guard as soon as they got back to Hawaii and then he would personally file a lawsuit on behalf of the Carter Brothers, who were American Citizens, for kidnapping, torture and enslavement!

Nine days later, the Wilson led a parade of ships into Nawiliwili Harbor, blasting their air horns in salute and letting everyone know they had guests aboard!

The rescued boys were led ashore by two triumphant brothers, 'Go Wilson O'Toole and 'Trong Oscar Robbins. Pat hung back, watching the Brothers bring the teens ashore and show each one that they were welcome home.

He also spotted the two American brothers sticking to 'Go like glue and he had already radioed Andy Causey to have custody papers ready for 'Go to sign and he told Andy about the brothers' tragic loss of their parents by beheading!

The new boys just stared at the mounds of food on the tables and it was Paul and Bobby Carter, soon to be Robbins, who led the new boys to the table. They all were like a plague of locusts, the kitchen crew was kept busy for more than an hour, rushing platters of food out to the table. They were all teen boys and like all teen boys, they had appetites that would shame an elephant!

The rest of the rescuees came at a more sedate pace, many were injured and moved with difficulty. When the teens saw them, they jumped up from the table and assisted the hurt children to sit in the places they had been occupying and then, they sat beside a hurt child and helped him or her in eating what they wanted, even cutting it up so the child could eat it comfortably. It would not be long before they were being called, "The Band of Big Brothers"! The Band of Big Brothers would be around O'Toole House for many years into the future!

We will continue this story and watch as The Band of Big Brothers becomes an important part of O'Toole House and all its works and the "Song and Dance" group will become the O'Toole House Ambassadors to all of America!