High Seas Series : The Mary Joyce

There were lawyers and magistrates holding court on the pier to award custody of the rescued boys to their Daddies! Even the notorious State of California backed off under pressure from public opinion, they were not willing to risk open revolution! It took several days to quiet things down, Wil and Oscar spent their time getting their new sons ready for school and Patrick spent all his time becoming a brother to Pedro and Jesus O'Toole. When he introduced his brothers at school, one look at Pat's face warned anyone not to make a comment about two Philippine boys with Spanish/Irish names. Patrick had already bloodied a few noses and he knew just how to do it now!

They spent the next several weeks repairing The Mary Joyce and having her bottom sandblasted and repainted after so many months in tropical waters. The weed garden attached to the hull looked like a fern grotto and would slow the vessel down.

Wil kept the entire crew on and Jess Trower showed up saying that he was on permanent now. He was still with ONI, but his assignment on the Mary Joyce was permanent, or, until they stopped working for ONI.

He brought a large lock box with him and several cases for film, all done up in tropic packs. That told Wil that, at least where they were headed would be warm. The remainder of the month was spent checking all the shipboard machinery and the enginemen installed a new, updated water distiller down in the engine room.

They had topped off the fuel oil tank and a stores truck pulled up on the dock to fill all the lockers and the freezer the day before they were to sail. Wil, Oscar and Jess were all over at the Machinery and Freight Office in Oakland, so Gene Stallings, the new Second Mate signed for all the goods, he had reported on board when his predecessor had come down with appendicitis and complications were going to keep him laid up for several months.

As it turned out, the Second Mate was never able to return to sea again.

Joe had allowed the boys to miss school those last several days. Oscar's son, Jose was nearly beside himself and Wil's Pedro and Jesus were practically basket cases. Patrick was trying to be strong for his younger brothers, but Uncle Joe was no fool, he saw how the teen's lower lip was trembling, so he made sure that Pat was kept busy until Wil returned from Oakland.

All the boys were doing well in school and their end-of-semester report cards held glowing reports from their teachers, so their staying out of class for a couple of days was not a problem.

Joe and Wil had discussed the possibility that, in a year or two, that the boys could ride out as far as Honolulu and fly back home. They both thought it was a good idea and Oscar was all for it, too.

Wil and Oscar were becoming very close, Joe was pretty sure they were closer than brothers, it didn't bother him, he loved the both of them as if they were the sons he had never had anyway.

The meeting in Oakland went on longer than any of them had expected, the workup that ONI had built was dangerous as hell and would take them into the claimed territorial waters of Communist China.

Both Oscar and Wil were as jumpy as field rats as they left the conference and Jess was a little better. None of them said anything as they drove back to Daly City, the tension in the car was thick enough to carve with a dull spoon. Joe could see they were all wound up like eight-day clocks the minute they stepped in the door.

The oldest of their boys was Patrick and Pat sensed that his Daddy was upset so, right after supper he said, "Dad, lets you and me take a walk." The other boys wanted to come also, but Patrick discretely shook his head, "No" and whispered to them, "Later guys, there's some trouble here."

Pat led his Dad out the front door and they started walking down the sidewalk. They got to the end of the block and Pat turned to his Father and said, "Dad, there's some problem that has you tied up in knots, tell me about it, please."

Wil smiled and said, "When did you get so smart son?"

Pat replied, "I'm my father's son, remember?"

Wil shook his head and said, "Yeah, I remember! OK, but ya' gotta keep this to yourself, ya' can't even tell your brothers or Jose or Uncle Joe. We are headed to China, the communist one. We are to go inside the waters they claim as their territory and take pictures of their Naval installations and anything else we can see, their ships, cargoes, building ways, anything that might tell the experts what kind of ships they are building."

Patrick walked alongside his Father for a ways before replying, finally, he said, "Dad, I want you to promise me that you will try to stay safe, but, if you ever get in trouble, you somehow get the word, "DUMBO" to me and I will find a way to get to you! Don't you just laugh this off, I MEAN IT, DAD. THE WORD, "DUMBO"!"

Wil just shook his head, he couldn't imagine how Pat could ever get to him if they got caught, but damn, that boy is downright scary when he gets serious!

Joe knew his grandson was upset when the two returned, but he said nothing, whatever it was, Patrick would tell him when it became necessary.

They sailed the next day, all the boys had been allowed to take a half day off school to see them off, they all noticed that Pat had a grim look on his face and his hands were clenched tight into fists.

The teen knew the sailing speeds of the Mary Joyce and he knew their first port would be Honolulu, so he had pinned a chart to his bedroom wall and started plotting the course and daily position of the Joyce.

He sat down and wrote down every name that he could remember his father mentioning that had a connection with the job he was doing. He knew the name of the Navy Officer he had gone to see just before they sailed, a Captain Edward Johnston and he was somewhere over at the Navy Annex in Oakland.

He got his brothers together and also Jesus Rollins, Uncle Oscar's son, and told them there might be trouble on this trip of the Joyce, "I promised my Dad that I wouldn't tell you guys some stuff, but I am gonna tell ya' they might have to call for help. Dad and I set up a notification code word and you guys need to know what it is. If ANYTHING comes from the Mary Joyce that has the word DUMBO in it, ya' gotta let me know immediately!"

Pedro helped keep little Jose from panicking and the boys solemnly swore they would keep mum and help Pat any way they could.

The Mary Joyce made good time to Honolulu and they tied up at the Honolulu Yacht Harbor. They put on a pretty good show as wealthy playboys on a world cruise and even threw a party on the afterdeck.

They arranged a meeting place up at the Punchbowl, The National Cemetery, with the folks from ONI and they took over a maintenance shop for their conference. Captain Ed Johnston flew in from Oakland to attend and brought the latest Intel Updates on the huge shipbuilding installation the Chinese were building at Hai'anzhen.

They were to stay completely away from Taiwan as the place was crawling with spies from every country on the planet.

Their last port of call could be only Manila and, when they were done, they were to exit south through the South China Sea and make for Darwin, Australia. Wil made arrangements to top off their fuel tank and ordered a food delivery that would carry them as far as Manila.

For some reason, Pat's words keep coming back to him, so, after they departed Honolulu, he sat down with their radio operator, Mark Billings, and told him that should anything happen, he was to get off a radio message to Mr. Patrick Wilson O'Toole, 110 Bayshore Drive, Daly City, California, Radio Station Number KCT 112 and he was to put as much information in the message as he could, but it MUST have the word DUMBO somewhere in the message.

For some reason even he could not explain, he knew that if help was possible, it would be led by his son Patrick!

They departed Honolulu the next day, and headed west for Manila. It would be a four-week sail that time of year, the trade winds were flighty and uncertain.

The heat was awful and they were forced to run the generator to keep the air conditioning and the refrigerators running. The generator did not consume very much oil, so Wil was not overly concerned.

He met with Oscar and Jess daily and he had confided in them his arrangements with the Radio Operator and his son, Patrick, back in California. Oscar had known Pat since he been a small boy, hardly beyond the toddler stage. He had no trouble believing that the boy would come to their aid, if they were in trouble.

He told the others, "That boy is downright scary, if he told me the moon was blue, I would go outside to watch the event!" He continued, "If Patrick O'Toole wants the word DUMBO in any emergency message, he will damned well be reading DUMBO for all of me!"

The others had watched Wil's son in action before and they all agreed with Oscar, the word DUMBO was on their minds 24/7.

They plodded across the Pacific Ocean, well away from the normal shipping lanes. They had been in the Far East just a year earlier and they had no knowledge whether they had been "made" by the Communist Chinese or not, so it was better they had no foreknowledge that the Mary Joyce was headed their way again.

As they approached the Philippine Island chain, the winds picked up a bit and their speed increased accordingly. They made Cape Engano light on the northern tip of Luzon Island as day broke and followed the coast around to come down the Western side of the island.

It was another three days before they spotted Corregidor Island at the mouth of Manila Bay. Their objective was the small and relatively obscure boat harbor at Malabon City. It was a small, commercial harbor that catered to small ships, fishing boats and a few yachts whose owners could not or did not want to afford the high priced fancy Manila Yacht Harbor.

Wil believed they would be subjected to a bit less scrutiny hidden away among the commercial ships.

They were to wait for their contact with the latest intelligence for them as well as to top off their fuel oil and water tanks. Wil had ordered provisions to be delivered, along with their mail. Their supplies were delivered the next day, Wil had delved pretty deeply into his bag of one hundred dollar bills, he hoped the Navy was bringing him some more.

They were relaxing in the shade of canvas they had rigged on the afterdeck when a large black man, dressed in fishermen's clothes asked to come on board, he said that Uncle Sammy had sent him.

He had fishing poles tied to his belt loops and two canvas bait bags in his hand. He even smelled of old fish parts!

He smiled as he sat down on a bollard and said, "Pretty good disguise, huh?" He introduced himself as Commander Bill Davis, US Navy.

Wil replied, "Good Lord, you even smell the part!"

Commander Davis laughed, "I will shower after we get underway, I'm goin' with ya'" He then said, very quietly, "I'm your local DUMBO agent!"

Wil groaned, "My God, he has gotten to you too!"

Commander Davis laughed, "Captain, that boy of yours is one helluva kid! Even the Admiral was impressed with him!" Anyway, we need to drop the Commander bit, I am just ol' Bill Davis, fisherman and, oh, I also speak Filipino (Tagalog), just to be on the safe side."

From one of his bait bags, Bill withdrew a wrapped package of hundred dollar bills that he handed to Wil and a bundle of mail for everyone. The second bag contained charts of where they were to go and aerial photographs of what they were looking for. The photos had obviously been taken by satellite and were not very clear.

Bill continued, "I am an old Radioman in my enlisted days, and they refreshed me before I headed out, just so I could back up your regular radioman. This trip has the highest level of interest in La La Land, even the President is interested in what we find!"

Wil replied, "Well, let's hope the Chinese are not so interested in us!"

They rounded up bed sheets and towels for their new passenger and put him in the empty stateroom next to Wil. That gave him easy access to the radio room and the chart desk behind the wheelhouse.

They made everything ready to sail the next morning and they eased the Mary Joyce out of the harbor in the half-light of early dawn and a light mist. If anyone had observed them, there was nothing they could do about it.

They dropped the harbor pilot off at the mouth of the bay, he was not the same pilot as they had when they arrived and Bill Davis couldn't just put his finger on it, but there was something about the man that set Bill's teeth on edge.

As soon as they hit the open sea, Wil turned the ship north to pass between the mainland of China and Taiwan. He was uneasy about traveling along the sea ridge between Taiwan and Okinawa, so the best thing for them was to stick to the deep water just off the coast of the mainland.

Nine days later saw them within sight of the mainland of China and they were dodging a multitude of small fishing boats. He dodged the small island of Penghu, just off the southwest coast of Taiwan and the crowd of fishing boats became thicker the closer to Fujian they got.

Wil was flying the Filipino flag on the courtesy halyard and they would have to rely on Bill if they were challenged. Wil had changed a bunch of the American hundred dollar bills back in Malabon City for Filipino currency, he had wads of well worn Filipino pesos of various denominations.

As they got closer to their destination, they swung the net boom out and ran the gill net.

The enginemen had started up the reefer plant and ice was beginning to form in the hold for any fish they might catch. As they rounded Nanji Shan Island, the net began to fill, so they stopped to swing the net over the fish chute and they were dumping the fish as a Chinese Patrol boat came by.

Bill jumped up and made it plain he was in charge of the net and was inspecting the fish as they slushed down the chute. Wil could see the glint of several sets of binoculars trained on them as the patrol boat passed. The patrol boat never changed course or slowed down and everyone sighed a breath of relief as the boat continued on course to the south.

They got as far as Dongtou Island before they had to reverse course. Wil was making sure they remained in international waters, China claimed waters out to five miles offshore.

They spent a week taking pictures and generally looking over the huge shipyard at Hai'anzhen, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China. Their hold was getting full and Wil held conference with his crew. They decided that, despite the danger, they would pull into Taiwan and sell the fish, then come back for a second look.

They pulled into Taipei and let Bill do all the talking. With lots of shouting and screaming, they unloaded their catch and collected a significant amount of Taiwan Yen.

They got away from Taipei as soon as they could, they went as far north as Shanghai and began streaming their net as they slowly made their way south. They could tell that something was going on at the shipyard at Hai'anzhen, there were patrol boats zipping around, but they did not seem to be paying any attention to the Joyce.

They had just raised the boom on the net so they could make a turn and reverse course when three patrol boats began speeding in their direction. The boats were filled with soldiers and they were all pointing their rifles at the Joyce.

Wil screamed at Bill, "DUMBO" and the large man ran up to the radio room and began pounding on the key. He knew who to send it to, but he also included Patrick's address in the header. He finished just as the soldiers were boarding the Joyce, so he shut the radio down and sat in the mess, drinking a cup of coffee.

When the Chinese Officer burst into the compartment, Bill spoke to him in Tagalog. He assured the officer that he was just a hired fisherman from Manila. Bill was a consummate actor and he did smell strongly of fish. The fact that he had stuffed a couple of fish in his hip pocket was never discovered.

The Chinese are more prejudiced against black people than Americans ever thought of being, so the Chinese officer considered Bill just a servant or someone hired to do the dirty work on the fish nets. It never dawned on them that Bill was a seasoned intelligence officer.

The Joyce was towed to the Naval Shipyard and tied up to a pier. They left Bill on board as they marched the crew off to the brig. Bill made himself useful by cleaning up the ship and putting the nets away.

He began selling a few of the fish to workers who seemed to be hanging around the pier, unfortunately, none of them spoke any dialect that Bill could understand.

He was able to sneak up to the radio room in the middle of the night and get a quick message off to his superiors. He also, sent a message off to Patrick telling him that, so far, everyone was still unharmed. He signed the message, "DUMBO-2"

Each night, he got two or three messages out, he didn't want to push his good fortune too hard.

They had been in Chinese hands for ten days and that night, as Bill powered up the radio, the set began to clatter, a message was coming through, Bill was an old timer at the key, going all the way back when he had been a youngster, just enlisted in the Navy. He was able to translate the message directly from the clicks, "DUMBO, be prepared, 22 hundred hours march 5 we have sat pix of Mary Joyce. Tell Papa DUMBO comes end message.

Bill looked at the calendar on the bulkhead, the fifth was two days away! The next day, Bill took a bucket of fish over to the brig and made signs that he was bringing the fish for his masters to eat.

The Chinese soldiers didn't think that a stupid black man, who could not even speak properly was any danger to them, so they let him in and Bill jabbered a bunch of nonsense as he was led to the cells where the Captain and his crew were being held.

As he was handing out the fish, he kept jabbering nonsense, but he slipped in the words "DUMBO COMES TWO NIGHTS FROM NOW, BE READY AT 22 HUNDRED HOURS."

He carried his empty bucket out of the cell block and the guards dutifully inspected the empty bucket to make sure the idiot was not stealing something.

He returned each of the next two days with a bucket of fish, just to make sure Captain Wil and his guys were ready.

They were more than ready, they had not been mistreated, but they knew it was only a matter of time before the Chinese Authorities were going to want some answers, answers they were not willing to give voluntarily.

On the appointed night, Bill got the weapons out of the hidden arms locker and stored them in the baker's oven in the galley. He went into his cabin and sat a while before he turned the light out.

He crawled out of his cabin, keeping low so there would no glint of movement in the port holes that anyone could see. He piled the weapons in the cleaning gear locker and hunkered down on the deck to wait.

At a little past 10 PM, he heard a rustling of footsteps on the afterdeck of the ship, he stuck his head out the porthole and whispered, "DUMBO". Suddenly a teenaged face, topped with a sheaf of bright red hair held back with a black bandana grinned at him.

Bill was shocked, "My God, its Cap'n Wil's boy! He's only seventeen!

Right behind the boy were seven Navy Seals, armed to the teeth! Bill shook his head to clear it and said, "OK, you Seals, here is where the Cap'n is and all his men. There are guards at the front door, but at this time of night, all the rest are asleep. Try and get them all out of the building without waking the entire damned Chinese Marching Army, huh." The Team Leader smiled and drew his finger across his own neck and said, "They won't hear a thing, Commander!"

As the strike team started to leave, Bill grabbed Pat and said, "Son, you best leave this part to the experts, I know you are damned good to have gotten this far, but I need some help ta' get this here boat ready to scoot."

Pat didn't look surprised nor upset, he said, "Sure thing Commander, let's start takin' in the mooring lines right now."

About twenty minutes later, although it seemed like hours to both Bill and Pat, men came creeping over the side of the small ship. Patrick watched intently for the first sign of his father's red hair and when he spotted that flaming shock of hair, so much like his own, come up and over the railing, he was right there to haul his father on board the Joyce.

Bill sent the enginemen down below to start the diesels and Patrick led his Father up to the bridge. He said, "Dad, you are Captain, Command and I'll steer!"

Wil looked in amazement at his teenage son and wondered when he had become so grown up!"

As soon as the engines stabilized and all the men were accounted for, between the two of them, they backed the Mary Joyce away from the pier and headed out the Wenzhou River towards the ocean. When they had gotten out, into mid-channel, Wil crammed the bridge throttles all the way against their stops. The poor engines were screaming in protest and they raced down river.

As they flew past the breakwater, Wil saw a large dark shape looming up out of the dark. Suddenly, a spotlight was blinked on, shining on the American Flag of a heavy cruiser!

The huge ship gave them a blast from its steam horn and got underway, headed for Okinawa and the heavy land guns at Uruma!

Six hours later, a red-headed teenage boy deftly steered the Mary Joyce alongside the pier at Uruma, while the cruiser anchored in the middle of the harbor, her guns all pointed at the harbor entrance!

There was no response from the Chinese, it was not until later that day when it came out that the strike team had slit the throats of the entire garrison at the prison.

The Chinese authorities would not learn of their prisoners' escape until nearly mid-day!

After Wil had gone through the shower and washed the stink of Chinese Prison off of himself, he sat down in the small mess and asked his son, "How did you do all this, what did you do?"

Pat grinned and told his father that he had spoken to the Admiral and suggested that he knew how to run the Mary Joyce and if the men had been hurt, he could drive the boat out of there."

It would not be for several weeks that Wil would learn the Admiral would have a very different tale to tell him! That his son had out argued a three star Admiral and damned near ended up owning the Admiral's hat to boot!

Pat told his father that school was about out and he had graduated anyway, so he would just stay on the Mary Joyce and come home with him.

Wil did some counting on his fingers and said, "But, you are only a Junior!"

Pat grinned and replied, "Nope, I tested out, I am a full-fledged High School Graduate now!"

As they were plowing across the Pacific Ocean, Wil came upon the Squad Leader of the Seal Team sitting in the sun on the foredeck. Wil sat on a nearby bollard and began a conversation with the younger man. They were talking about what the team had to do to get them out of the prison and the young man said, "Cap'n we ain't nothing compared to that there boy of yourin'. He's pure Hell on Wheels! You know, he backed Captain Jenkins into a corner and 'toll him he WAS commin' on this here jaunt, that he were DUMBO and' iffin he didn't like it, he would get the Air Force ta' spring ya'!"

He concluded, "That young man is scary, I tell ya, pure scary!"

When they finally got home and tied up to their own pier, there were three Filipino/Irish/American boys latching onto their Daddies and their Daddies were told that they would NEVER be allowed to go off like that again, unless they were with them! The boys meant every word of it too, and the next intelligence mission would have all four of them standing watch over their fathers to make sure they didn't get in trouble again!