High Seas Series : The Mary Joyce

From Book 1

The mood in the mess deck was anything but friendly towards the Russians. Wil hoped there were no bottles of Russian salad dressing on any of the tables! Paul Waters, the Third Mate called down to Wil, asking permission to start the auxiliary engines, he was battling a rising headwind and they were losing speed. Wil gave him permission and then finished his supper before heading back to the bridge. It was a race against time, the Joyce was beginning to pound as the seas started to pick up, and Wil figured he was in for a night on the bridge. It was not his first by any means, but it was his first on board the Joyce. Even with the engines running, the sails were pulling hard, they were running before a quartering wind. He looked at the pit-log and saw that they were doing sixteen knots and rising! He settled down in his bridge chair and watched for a while, but it seemed that the Third Mate was competent and had everything under control. Paul Waters was a young man, only a year out of the Merchant Marine Academy, but he was well-liked by the crew and it seemed to Wil that he was doing everything right, so, at midnight, Wil decided to pack it in and he headed for his bunk. They met up with the Indonesian Navy on the fourth day and they steamed in a loose formation towards Sundra Strait and the Russian fishing fleet.

They finally caught up to the Russian Fishing Fleet and factory ship. While Wil stood the Joyce off, they watched as an Indonesian Light Cruiser and her flock of destroyers descended on the Russians.

The Indonesians made it clear that they meant business, Wil could see the huge guns on the cruiser's deck rotating to hold aim on the factory ship. Wil thought to himself, "The Indonesians might be a small-statured people, but a warship is a great equalizer!"

Carl Ivers, their own photographer was busy filming the event as was Jess Trower, the man from ONI.

Wil had one of the seamen run the American flag up on the courtesy lanyard, he didn't want anyone mistaking them for one of the combatants. He ordered the sails loosened and the auxiliary engines shut down as they idled nearby, watching all the action.

Oscar came up to the bridge and stood beside Wil saying, "Sure is nice watching someone else doing all the work for a change!"

Wil chuckled and replied, "Yeah, just so long as we don't get caught in the crossfire!"

The Indonesians seemed to be quite competent, they had their own officers on the factory ship and the fishing ships in less than a half hour and they all headed towards the big naval base at Jakarta.

Wil waited until the ships had disappeared over the horizon before he got the Joyce underway for the Karimata Strait and on to Singapore, their next scheduled port.

That night he sent on a message to the "Machinery and Freight Forwarding Office" that they had been delayed, but the problem appeared to have been resolved. They got a reply that they were to pick up a cargo assignment at Pasir Tanjang Terminal in Singapore Harbor.

Singapore was four day's sailing from where they were, Wil set their course before coming down for supper. As he sat down at the mess table, Jess told him that he suspected he was going to be with them for a while.

He said, "Cap'n I been on larger ships than yours, but never one that fed as good as yours! You are gonna make me fat if'n I don't do some exercise."

Wil laughed and said, "Well, I guess you can get out some oars and row for a while."

Jess, replied with a snicker, "Ah, eerr, damn, me and my big mouth!"

They all got a laugh out of the exchange and then the discussion turned serious. Jess said, "These slave ships are not the only problems with the Russians around here. They are hijacking valuable timber off these isolated islands and they have been stealing casiterite, the ore for tin. They will run an old LST up on the beach of an isolated island and strip mine the deposit, leaving an awful gash in the land and stealing the ore that belongs to Indonesia."

Wil replied, "Well, we will keep an eye out for such activity as we pass through the islands, maybe when we get to Singapore, there will be some information waiting for us."

They threaded their way through the island filled waters of the Java Sea, dodging fishing boats and small, inter-island freighters. The congestion became greater the closer they got to Singapore and the last day and a half, Wil gave up on the sails and had them furled, running on the two auxiliary engines instead. They would have to refuel in Singapore anyway, and he was working the small crew to death dodging sea traffic on the sails.

Oscar got him an inventory of supplies on hand, they needed fuel, water, food and housekeeping supplies. They had been out now for ninety days and, while they did have a small boiler and distiller to make water, it was a nightmare to operate and he had only the two enginemen available to fuss with the damned thing!

As they approached Singapore Harbor, the sea traffic greatly increased and Wil spent all his time on the bridge. They arrived at 0900 at the mouth of the harbor and had to wait a bit for the harbor pilot.

When the pilot finally showed up, he was a tiny little man, he stood hardly taller than Wil's beltline! He was very polite and bowed to Sir Captain and, in very good English, he said, "Sir Captain, I am Pilot Joss, your ship is assigned Pier 3-A at Pasir Panjang Terminal. The schedule says that you will be here four days, the food service people and the water barge will service your ship just before you sail, do you require additional fuel, sir?"

Wil replied equally as polite, "Harbor Pilot Joss, sir, Yes, I require the fuel barge and our freight service will be making some deliveries to us."

The Pilot acknowledged Wil and then went about threading the Joyce through the crowded harbor and docked her at the appointed pier.

Oscar took the mail sack and caught a taxi cab to the main Post Office. He picked up all the mail they had been holding for the Joyce to arrive.

He was nearly mobbed by the crew as he returned, so he held "Mail Call" right there on the foredeck. There was a large envelope for the Captain, addressed in a child's handwriting. Oscar knew that had to be from Wil's son, Patrick, so he ran it up to him immediately.

Will held the envelope in his hands, tears were leaking from his eyes as he sat down. Inside he found several pictures that Pat had drawn and a letter. Patrick told his Daddy that he missed him and wanted him to come home soon and safe. His big news was that he had been promoted to the Fifth Grade and he had Mr. Elliott for his teacher. That was the first time the boy had ever had a man teacher!

Oscar was surprised, when he got down to the bottom of the mail bag, there was a letter for him from Patrick, also! Oscar was stunned, he ripped open the letter and read the boy's somewhat childish handwriting. He told him to please keep his Daddy safe and that he was looking forward to having them both home again soon.

Oscar had to sit down, he headed for the closest bollard and sat there staring at the letter, tears were running down his face like a river. Never before had he ever received a letter telling him that someone cared about him and hoped he would come home soon. In fact, he had never even had a place he could call home.

Oscar buried his face in his hands and sobbed, his hands were trembling and he couldn't stop crying.

Wil noticed that something was wrong with his friend and he went over to him. He saw the letter and he gently took it from Oscar's hands and read it. He knelt beside his long-time friend and put his arm over the trembling man's shoulder, "Osc, we are friends, MAYBE even more than just friends, only time will tell. But, I tell you this, you will always have a home with me and you will always be welcome, whatever the future brings us. You DO have a place where you belong, not just a place where you can hang up your hat."

He then led the trembling man to the Chief Mate's cabin and laid him on the bunk before turning out the light and closing the door quietly.

Jess was standing in the passageway and whispered, "Bad, huh?"

Wil just said, "Yeah," and returned to his work topside.

Jess shook his head and said to himself, "Those two guys deserve each other an' I'm gonna see to it that they each realize it." Jess walked off humming a little jingle, "Little Ol'Matchmaker me"

Late the night before they were to sail, Wil had visitors from the ONI. They replaced all the film that had been exposed and collected the exposed film packs. Their leader sat down with Wil and Jess and told them that there were pirates operating around the islands of the Southern Philippines and they were to head to the Mindoro Strait and have a "look around". He told them to be especially on the lookout for a Russian Submarine that had been reported in the area and that he thought it was the submarine that was controlling the pirates' activities.

They made ready to sail the next day, the food service people had filled the freezer and food lockers and had taken off the last outgoing mail for them. The Enginemen topped off the fresh water tank as the Pilot was climbing onboard and were ready to answer bells on the auxiliary engines.

They departed Singapore Harbor and sailed out into the South China Sea. They had no set schedule, so Wil ordered the sails set and to secure the auxiliary engines.

They were coasting along at about nine knots, headed for the south coast of Cambodia. Oscar had recovered and thanked Wil for his consideration. Wil hugged his friends and whispered in his ear, "We will explore this more when we get home, YOUR home and mine."

Oscar had to wipe his eyes again and he squeezed Wil's hand, he was too choked up to reply.

Chapter 2 - TUNGSTEN AND SUBMARINES

As darkness began to fall, Wil set the running lights and went below for their evening meal.

Jess came to Wil's stateroom after supper, bringing Oscar with him. He said, "Its time for a briefing, guys." He continued after they had all sat down, "There is a big trade in stolen mahogany logs and wolframite."

Oscar asked, "What's that?"

Jess said, "That's one of the ores for tungsten. It is very valuable and it can be picked up off the ground where it occurs. It is usually hunted at night with a ultra-violet light, the stuff glows the same color as a scorpion."

Oscar shuddered and said, "Good grief!"

They set up a rotation for the cameramen and Wil got the charts out that they had been given in Singapore. They were detailed marine survey maps of the Philippine Islands south of Manila.

Jess said, "They think the pirate headquarters is at Clara Rancho on Ponson Island, they park their boats at a deserted beach just north of the little village of San Isidro on the east coast of the island. All the people there are part of the gang and they seem to be getting assistance from someone who has a submarine. It is probably the Ruskies or the Chinamen."

Wil finally found Ponson Island, it was a tiny speck of land west of Leyte, in an unnamed gulf. It looked to have a couple of tiny villages on it and the notation on the chart said "seasonal habitation", suggesting it was not inhabited the year around.

Wil didn't relish waltzing the Joyce around those little mounds of sandy soil that some joker had called islands! He decided to approach from the south through the Bohol Sea, rather than navigate through the Cebu Strait.

As they passed the east coast of Bohol Island, Wil ordered the sails furled and he would take the Joyce in under the auxiliary engines. He dropped their speed to five knots and they crawled past the eastern tip of Bohol Island and crossed a sand bar that looked almost too shallow for them to pass, but they were over it before he had time to stop.

Nothing dragged, so he figured they were alright.

Ponson Island was the eastern most island of a small chain of four low laying islands at the mouth of a wide bay on the east coast of Leyte Island. They stood off the island a ways, as darkness had fallen and several binoculars were brought up so they could give the place the "once over".

They spotted a few dim lights on the island, one light was quite high up, so they figured it had a small mountain or an old volcano in the center of the island. There wasn't much they could do further that night, so they all hit their bunks until the next morning.

In the daylight the next morning, the whole island seemed to be deserted, there was nothing moving, no animals nor people, no smoke from cooking fires and no fishing boats pulled up on the beaches.

They spotted the village their notes had spoken of and a tiny beach just to the north that had a black smudge next to the beach. They couldn't tell whether it was a small submarine sitting there or a huge rock sticking up through the sand.

They started slowly cruising by the island, their net booms out as if they were trawling. As they passed by the beach, a sudden movement caught Wil's eye, it was a man climbing up on the dark spot and, suddenly, he disappeared, as if he had dropped down a hole.

They finally determined it was a small submarine, covered with a camouflage net.

Jess put the telescopic lens on the still camera and took several shots of the object as they passed by. They were on the engines, so Will made sure they did not change speed, the sound of the engines would tell anyone whether they had slowed down or not, especially a submarine that would have underwater listening gear on board.

That night, they reported their findings to the Machinery and Freight Forwarding Company in Oakland by sending a message that they were leaving a package for them to pick up at Leyte. The several numbers after the pickup point were, supposedly, machinery identification numbers but were actually location points from the City of Leyte to where they spotted the submarine.

They heard later that the Philippine Navy raided the place and found a pile of wolframite stored there that was worth over a million dollars!

They decided to go further into the bay and call at Ormoc City and give everyone a chance to walk on some stable land for a couple of days.

They found Ormoc City to be a fairly good sized town and the City Pier was substantial, with Fastcraft Ferry service to the outside world.

They docked at Ormoc City Pier and, before dark of that same day, two Philippine Navy Patrol Craft moored one ahead and one behind them. Senior Ensign Frash Balar asked to come aboard the Joyce and he delivered a letter to Captain Wilson O'Toole from the Machinery and Forwarding Company of Oakland, California, telling him to await arrival of a shipment of parts due in from Manila.

Senior Ensign Balar said that his boats and crews would standby until Captain O'Toole decided to sail.

Wil thanked the young officer and invited him and the skipper of the other boat to join them for supper that night. While they were eating, Wil casually mentioned the huge mound of black rock they had seen on Ponson Island that looked amazingly like a pile of wolframite and the large black rock on the beach that looked amazingly like the same shape as a small submarine.

The young Senior Ensign asked to be excused for a few moments and Wil peeked out the porthole to see the young man hurrying to the radio center at the Express Ferry Terminal.

When Senior Ensign Balar returned, Wil smiled at him and the man got a little red in the face and coughed to clear his throat. He whispered to Wil, "Thank you, sir, we have been looking for those pirates for many months, sir. You sure did make me look good. Thank you!"

They spent three days tied up to the pier, the crew got used to walking on solid ground again and the cook made a lobster run to the local fish market. They had a cook out on the main deck and invited the sailors from the two patrol boats to join them.

Senior Ensign Balar and his partner skipper, Ensign Maguyalu were both delighted to be invited. Their crews joined with the crew of the Joyce and everyone had a good time. A little San Miguel (Philippine Beer) went a long way to cementing a close friendship between the Philippine Navy and the Americans.

The next morning, a couple of men, trundling several large packages arrived on the morning ferry and it was time for Wil and Oscar to go to work.

They had their reports ready and the marked up charts of what they had seen. Wil told them that he had slipped Senior Ensign Balar the information about the small submarine and the pile of ore on Ponson Island and the senior member of the tag team, Navy Captain Giles Falk, laughed, "We wondered why the Philippine Navy went shooting out with three destroyers and a couple patrol craft the other day. Thanks, it just makes us all look good and these guys need all the help they can get!"

The service team checked all their cameras and gave them a special camera for long distance work and Captain Falk handed Wil a sealed envelope and a large canvass bag. The bag contained hundred dollar bills in American currency and the envelope was a request that they wander up through the Philippine Islands northward towards Taiwan and call at Taipei for further instructions.

Wil smiled and said, "Aye, Aye, sir!"

As the men from ONI were walking back on the pier towards the Ferry Landing, they heard the preparations to get underway begin on the Joyce.

The old Captain muttered to his second in command, "Damn, I wish we had a dozen like them!"

The other officer replied, "Hell, I just wish I was goin' with them!"

Chapter 3 - BOXES N' BOYS

They got the Joyce underway just after lunchtime and headed out of the bay. They meandered among the islands south of Luzon, nothing seemed to catch their attention.

They put in at Manila to replenish their food supplies, take on a bit more fuel and top off the water tanks. Wil paid for everything in cash, the idea was that there would be no paper trail that the Joyce had ever been there.

They received their regular freight notice from Oakland and they were asked to take a look at Sabtang Island in the Luzon Strait just north of Mindinao.

Wil looked the island up and discovered it was several days' sailing from where they were, so they headed out of Manila Harbor and headed north.

There was just something in the message that made him uneasy. He spoke with Oscar about it and Oscar said that something was troubling him also, but he just couldn't put his "finger on it".

He and Oscar were becoming very close, they each found the other watching him and one would finish sentences for the other.

Jess Trower watched them both with a smile on his face, he figured he had done his good work for this trip. He could not know just how wrong he was, it had all begun long before he came on the scene, off the coasts of Cambodia and Viet Nam!

They came up on Sabtang Island, it was hardly more than a sand spit with a few trees on it and several small fishing villages.

Neither Wil nor Oscar could quite name what was bothering them about that island, but their intuition told them to check the place out, damned carefully. When they arrived, they first made a circumference of the whole island, both men had their binoculars glued to the shoreline.

Nothing seemed to jump out at them, but the urge to find something was now screaming in their unconscious thoughts and they were both greatly disturbed, they were both jumpy as a cat at a dog fight!

They anchored off the small village of Chevayan and the two men went ashore in the launch. They were told about an old fortress at Idjang and a ruined village at Savidug, where there were some ruined stone houses. Somehow, that direction seemed right, so they sailed further up the coast and spotted the ruins at Idjang. They found stones had been formed into an arrow pointing northward and they had not been there very long!

The next place on their charts was Savidug, it had to be there! They had made no secret of their thoughts and intuition with the crew, they were as hyped up as Wil and Oscar were, especially after they had been told about the arrow!

As they neared the ruined village of Savidug, all off-watch men were lining the rail with their binoculars trained on the shore. There was a narrow reef just offshore and Wil was able to edge the Joyce inside the reef and find a good anchorage.

They asked for volunteers to go with them to the abandoned village and the entire crew volunteered. So they had to draw names so that there would be at least five men left on board the Joyce.

That left fifteen men to go with them, they took two small boats to get them all ashore and they started to hike inland, where they could see the tops of stone buildings sticking up above the trees.

The little cluster of buildings were in good repair and certainly not tumbled down, they were just empty. They didn't know what to make of it, somehow, they just knew this was where they were supposed to be and they knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was "something" very wrong!

They sat down in the shade and sipped at their canteens as they were trying to decide what to do. Suddenly, Oscar said, 'Shhhhhh, I hear something!" It was the murmured crying of a young person. Both sets of ears twitched like an antenna!

Wil and Oscar got up, motioning for the rest to remain where they were. They walked quietly around the end of the building and peeked in the glassless window of a small house, inside, they spotted two older boys and four smaller boys among a stack of boxes in the center of the room.

Wil walked slowly into the room, holding out his hands to show they were empty. He quietly said, "Boys, I am Wil and I will try to help you." He could see that the boys were afraid of him, so he said, "Guys, I don't know why you are here, but this isn't a good place for you to be here all alone like this."

One of the older boys took a couple of steps towards him and said, "Me Pedro Baguya, not spek Onglis gut. Bads bot mens us put this plice und peples us kill."

Wil asked him, Where is your village?"

The boy replied, "Live us Sabatang, tower light next. Bads bot mens kill us papa y us mama all ded."

Oscar heard all that was said and he let out a shriek, calling the men to come quick.

The men all came running and the boys cowered in a corner of the old building, Wil held them back and said slowly and carefully to the children, "Us Americans, Us help you, food you and protect you from bad mens."

The smaller children began to edge toward the men and a couple of them had put a chocolate bar in their pocket to munch on while they explored. Jess was the first to remember his chocolate bar and he pulled it out of his shirt pocket had opened it, holding it out towards the children. The children all knew what chocolate was and they could smell it, Jess was mobbed by crying young boys.

Several shirts were torn as the other men tried pulling out their own candy bars as fast as they could.

Wil felt pulled to the first boy, Pedro Baguya and he walked up beside the frightened teen and sat down on the stone floor. He put his arm around the boy and held out the chocolate bar to him.

Pedro Baguya broke the candy bar into two pieces and held out one piece to the other boy. Pedro Baguya said, "He brother me, Jesus Baguya."

Wil reached out for Jesus and both boys crashed into him and snuggled under his arms as they gobbled the candy bars.

One of the men started looking into the boxes that had been stacked in the room. The boxes were full of radio equipment with Russian writing on them! They knew they had to get the hell out of there before the Russians came back!

It took a while, but they were finally able to herd the boys out of the stone buildings and back to where they left their boats. Wil and Oscar carefully told the children that they were Americans and they would take them out to their ship and get them away from the bads mens.

It took several trips to get seventeen men and nine frightened children back to the Joyce.

As Wil was climbing over the hand rails with two children in is arms, the enginemen were starting the engines on the Joyce. Oscar ran up to the bridge and started steering the Joyce back through the break in the reef. By the time darkness fell, they were well out to sea and they were trying to decide what to do, go back or head for Taiwan. Wil voted for Taiwan and he was asked why not back to the Philippines.

Wil said, "Well, I have a need for two brothers as sons for me, my Patrick NEEDS two older brothers. I think the Chinese on Taiwan would not fight us to keep them."

Several other voices spoke up and said, "ME TOO!"

Oscar stuck his head down the stairwell from the bridge and said, "Count me in for Taiwan, I need Jose Dufuyli as my son and he is standing right here with me already!"

Before they had turned the ship north towards Taiwan, every boy had a new Papa, who was ready to set the world on fire to make sure that their boys would get to stay with them!

A determined sailor can be a frightful thing to behold, when they docked in Gwandu, part of the port that served Taipei, the port authorities feared that World War III was about to start! One port officer came close to being thrown overboard until a higher ranking port official figured that the men WERE going to keep the boys, or there was going to be war!

The duty officer at the American Consulate gave up trying to mediate the crisis and called the Secretary of State in Washington. Wil threatened to go back out to sea and marry the boys to their new daddies, his own included! He said, "I am a Captain of my own ship, an American Flagged Merchant Marine vessel. I will go out to international waters and marry these boys to their new Daddies!"

Finally, The Secretary of State's Office and the Attorney General worked out a treaty, whereby the boys and their new Daddies would be allowed ashore in Taipei and not cause anarchy and the Taiwan Government would do nothing to remove the boys from their new Daddies!

Somehow, the American Newspapers (Uncle Joe?) got hold of the story and headlines across the nation told of the BOY CRISIS IN TAIWAN! It was an even heat, the Fundies wanted the boys incarcerated in a locked-down orphanage and the young people wanted the boys BROUGHT HOME, NOW! The radio traffic between Daley City and The Joyce reached new heights. Patrick made it very plain, he wanted his Daddy and his new brothers home NOW! He had recently gotten his Radioman's Ticket and Uncle Joe had set the boy up with a Marine Radio in the spare bedroom. The boy sent with a distinctive key, the folks on the Mary Joyce recognized the boy's hand the minute he signed on.

Eight weeks later, the Mary Joyce entered San Francisco Bay and headed for her pier in Daley City. Traffic was stalled a hundred miles in both directions, north and south of the small suburb in San Francisco. There were young people standing two miles deep around the town and anyone who even LOOKED like a policeman was given the bum's rush toward the nearest puddle on the bay! (again, Uncle Joe?)

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!

The Mary Joyce has more work to do, the first voyage had been so successful that intelligence officials were asking for more.