High Seas Series: The Wilson O'Toole

The children's hotel absorbed the nearly three hundred children without a burp! Many of the new boys were already plotting on how they could become members of the crew of the Wilson or the Patrick or the Joseph. It didn't matter just so long as they could help others as they had been helped.

Patrick was sitting in the shade of the bamboo grove that bordered the lawn, he had spent all morning with his wife, Alice, working on possible names for their baby. It wasn't an urgent matter yet, the baby was not due for another three months.

They had decided on a boy's name, it was a girl's that had them stumped. If the baby was a boy, he would be named William Patrick O'Toole and he favored Marie Alice O'Toole for a girl, but Alice put her foot down on that!

He looked up to see Ben Ickes coming across the lawn in his direction with an unhappy look on his face. Pat put his empty coffee cup down and waited for Ben, as he got closer, the man looked more agitated than angry, so he didn't think trouble was brewing.

As soon as Ben got close, he said to Pat, "Do you know where Puerto Caldera is?" Pat chuckled as he replied, "Yeah, it is a touristy place on the west coast of Costa Rica. Lots of cruise ships pull in there."

Ben said, "Yeah that's what their Minister of Public Safety told me. Senor Rodrigo Ferguson called me a bit ago about a problem they are having and asking if we could help."

Lots of Europeans had emigrated to Costa Rica when times started to get hard in Europe, so the name did not surprise Pat; it was the news that they were having a problem was surprising.

He had heard that Costa Rica was a model state in Central America, making it a popular tourist destination. Lots of cruise ships called at Puerto Caldera.

Ben continued, "He told me that kids are disappearing, not only their own folks, but children of Cruise Ship passengers are also turning up missing and they can find no trace of them. I invited the man to come speak with us, he will be here tomorrow."

Pat didn't like the possibilities any more than did Ben and he began running over in his mind what they would need to take the Wilson and the Patrick and make a run over to Puerto Caldera.

Ben could see the "wheels" turning in Pat's mind, so he waited until Pat had worked it out. Pat suddenly picked up his handheld radio and asked Dr. Ben and Pedro to join them out at the Bamboo Grove, ASAP.

Pedro arrived first with both Jowto and Trong right behind him and Go was seen coming down the stairs and heading in their direction. He was surprised to spot Andy Bennagan also headed in their direction with Tin Li on his tail.

He had not known that Li was in town, his security business kept him pretty busy. When the last two men got seated around the table, Pat told them all he knew and that Minister Ferguson was flying in the next day.

Pat asked the question, "How long would it take us to get ready and head the Wilson and the Patrick over to Puerto Caldera to have a look-see?"

Go replied, "The Patrick could leave tonight if we had to!" By that time, Min Tangimora had noticed the confab and he ambled over just in time to hear Pat's question. He said, "I would like to have two days to get ready, but ya' know Boss, if kids are hurt, we could leave in two hours!"

Pat turned to Ben Ickes and said, "Well, Ben, how about you call, Senor Ferguson back and tell him we will meet him in Puerto Caldera the end of next week or so. Tell him to look for the Patrick and the Wilson."

Somehow, the "word" was already out and the regular ships' crew was packing their kits and boys were drooling, wanting to go along.

When Pat and Min headed in the house for lunch, they were met with a group of anxious boys, all wanted to go hunting with them. It was going to be a tough decision as they were taking only the Patrick and the Wilson.

He didn't mind taking a few extra boys, but there were just so many bunks and some had to be reserved for any boys or girls they rescued. It was the boys who seemed to predominate as slaves.

Their own boys didn't care if they had to sleep on the deck plates; they just wanted to get their own revenge against those people who had hurt them.

Ben caught Senor Ferguson before he had made plane reservations and the man was overjoyed that they were coming. He had been afraid the O'Tooles would not think their problem was important enough for them. He had no idea that ANY child was important enough for them to protect!

By supper time, the whole Island of Kauai knew the O'Tooles were going slaver hunting again! It never ceased to amaze Pat on just how efficient the "Bamboo Telegraph" was. Their friends on Kauai knew they were going BEFORE he had even decided!

After lunch, they filled the fresh water tanks and topped off the fuel tanks. They had recently installed a 250,000 gallon fuel farm on the property so that they could fuel any time they needed to go.

They had a contract with Hawaiian Refinery to keep the tank full. The refinery was on Oahu, and their employees "sticked" the tank once a week.

That night, as they lay in bed, Pat told Julie what he hoped to accomplish. She was just beginning to "show" her pregnancy, so she was in no danger of giving birth before he got back.

He fell asleep with his arm curled protectively around his new baby and its Mother and Julie shivered in delight that "her man" loved both herself AND their baby.

The next morning was a whirlwind of activity, between the two ships, they decided they could take fifty extra boys, so Andrew made up some lottery cards and passed them out to the boys who wanted to go.

At lunch time, he held the lottery and the fifty lucky boys were throwing undershorts and socks into their duffle bags in frantic haste, before someone changed their mind about them going!

Pat was thinking that they were going to have to make some provisions for the girls soon. Right now, none of the girls were in any condition to go so soon after their injuries. Unfortunately, three of the girls they had rescued on their last trip were pregnant, after having been raped repeatedly by the slavers.

The boys all loaded their duffels in the john boat and ferried them out to their assigned ship. Most of them spent the night on board, as they were scheduled to sail first thing the next morning and they were determined not to be left behind.

Some of them had tucked sandwiches in their duffels thinking the galley would not be open until after they had sailed. They were wrong! A full meal was served that night and breakfast on both ships was buffet style.

Being typical boys, a few of them over ate and were seen gulping furiously as the ships hit the first Pacific Long Rollers.

Pat took the Wilson up to full ahead and she peaked out at just under thirteen knots. Nate Fong followed on the Patrick, it was going to a long voyage to Costa Rica.

Nate had been rescued early on in the adventures of the O'Toole Family, even before they had moved to Hawaii. He had followed his friend, Trong Robbins to the Merchant Marine Academy and had sailed on tankers for a few years before he earned his Master's Papers. As soon as he had his License, he hot footed it back to Lihue and Wil hired him in a heartbeat.

Now that Wil had passed away, Pat was "Bossman". He considered Pat to be his brother and Nate figured he would die of old age serving the O'Tooles.

The two ships sailed sedately across the Pacific on a south east course, day after day. The huge Nordberg engine in the Wilson could be hear a mile away, pounding each of its six cylinders. At ninety rpm, one could hear each cylinder fire.

Ben Ickes was able to pick up voice communication with Senor Ferguson on the SSB radio and he kept the man apprised of their progress.

Go had his mechanics service the three inch gun up on the bow. He was happy and content in being the Chief Engineer of the Wilson, he was near his beloved brother and he had been dating a Sikh girl he had discovered living in Lihue.

Trong was delighted for him, he really liked the girl himself, her name was Aliah and she had been rescued by the O'Tooles several years earlier. She was now an artist and her watercolors were commanding premium prices among the tourists.

Go had met her at the small Sikh Temple on the Island and he had asked her to marry him just before he sailed on the current trip. He had come back to the small apartment that the O'Tooles had provided for him, in a dream and the first person he told was his brother, Trong.

He had asked Trong to stand as his witness before the Elder and God when they returned from this voyage.

It was thirteen days before the lookout spotted the mountains of Costa Rica. Pat was on the bridge as he deftly swung the Wilson around Cabo Blanco and into the Gulf of Nicoya.

Both ships were assigned berths along the seawall and everyone heaved a sigh of relief when the main engine ceased its rhythm of thumping. For a short period, the silence was deafening!

Senor Ferguson was on the pier to meet them, he was a small, short man, given to quick gestures and a temper that matched his bright red hair.

He had two Polici  National Sergeants with him, both were loaded down with maps and charts. He told them that he thought the slavers were holed up near Playa de San Lorenzo, down in Estado Chiriqui.

He said that they used fast boats, like the "PT" Boats he had seen on television. Pat suspected that it was more likely they were "Cigarette Boats" like the drug runners used.

Señor Ferguson said the Policia had a helicopter that could be used for surveillance. The older of the two Policia Sergeants nodded his head and told them that he was the pilot for the helicopter.

They all agreed that, if there was any chasing to be done, it would have to be the Patrick, as she could get up to thirty knots, if they were careful and she could turn on a "dime".

It was decided that Señor Ferguson would ride the Wilson with them as Pat did NOT want the man exposed to gunfire and it was more likely that the Patrick would be shot at than the Wilson, however, it was the Wilson that carried the three-inch gun.

Unfortunately, future events would show him to be mistaken, but that would be on a future trip.

They topped off the water tanks and the Patrick refueled from the Wilson's fuel storage tanks.

Pat had the cargo booms swung out so that any casual observer would think they were working cargo as they made ready for a preliminary cruise along the coast to get a feeling for the area and the coastline.

The next morning, the Wilson sailed alone and headed out to sea, beyond the horizon. Then the Patrick got underway alone and headed out to sea, sailing north along the coast for a few hours before heading south and joining the Wilson.

When they got far enough south that nobody would suspect a shabby old freighter and a small coastal cargo ship, both ships headed south and back towards the coast.

The United States Navy had furnished the Wilson with the latest model military radar, far in excess of what would be on such a ship normally, the radar was a high definition, extreme range unit with the antenna as high up on the ship as possible. They could reach out a hundred miles on a good day.

They had purposely left the Wilson with a peeling, rusty paint job that made her look like a junker tramp freighter down on her luck.

Pedro and Go had rigged a couple of loud speakers up on the upper deck and they placed a sound pickup on the number three cylinder head, so that a banging and hammering sound was broadcast off the ship. It added to the realism that the ship was on its last legs.

They cruised down the coast as far as Los Santos in Panama before heading back north again. The Patrick hung out to sea, just over the horizon and followed them north.

It was off the coast of Golfo Burica in Panama that they spotted three small boats moving at high speed towards a group of islands that their charts said were uninhabited, Las Islas Ladrones.

The high speed of the small boats attracted Pat's curiosity, after letting Nate Fong know, Pat turned the Wilson towards the small island group and powered up the new speakers.

The noise was awful, it sounded like the poor old Wilson was going to fly apart at any minute. He slowed down to seven knots and told the helmsman to steer an erratic course.

He called down to the Engine Room and told Go to set off a CO-2 fire extinguisher near the sound pickup when he rang down "STOP ENGINE" Go laughed to himself and said to his Oiler, "Capt'n Pat is gonna make anyone think we is dead in the water!"

The Oiler, Pete Nariyama, was an old hand with the O'Tooles and just grinned. He had known Patrick O'Toole since Pat was a young boy and figured he was just a "chip off the old block"

The Wilson waddled her way up to just offshore of the islands when Pat rang down "STOP ENGINE". The CO-2 Extinguisher sounded like an explosion over the sound system and then Pete Nariyama pounded on the deckplates with a large hammer every-so-often with enough clatter to wake the dead.

Just as it was getting dark, the bridge lookout spotted three fast boats leaving the shadows of the trees on the island, heading towards the Wilson. Pat grinned an "evil grin and shouted, "GOTCHA"

He called down to the engine room and let Go know what was going on and that he wanted both fire pumps put on-line. Pat then got six sailors to man two fire hoses and to watch for boarders.

He then instructed everyone to keep their heads down and to turn off all the lighting. The only thing running was the generator and the fire pumps. Pete began beating on the deck plates again, near the sound pickup and making a terrible clatter as the power boats came closer.

The people in the power boats were either not well trained or they were just plain stupid, all three boats came alongside the Wilson at the same place.

They were too close for the 3" gun to depress, but it didn't matter, the sailors had two 2-1/2" fire hoses charged at 120 pounds pressure and, as soon as the boats had stopped and they saw a hook come flying up to catch on the rails, the sailor began flooding the power boats with sea water.

In a matter of minutes, twenty very wet men were swimming in the ocean and their power boats had sunk!

Pat sent Boats McKee out in the launch to retrieve the wet sailors, Boats was a six foot-eight inch man who weighed in at over three hundred pound, with absolutely no fat. His son, who was on his very first trip with his Daddy, was a willowy six foot teen, who had earned his Black Belt in Karate!

As Boats lifted each man out of the ocean, Little Boats relieved them of their guns and knives, tossing them into the ocean!

Their own boat crew just watched the two of them, each vowing they were NOT get on the bad side of either man!

The captured men were paraded before Captain Patrick O'Toole, they were a scurvy bunch of desperadoes and Pat had just the cage for them down on the main deck.

They were in for a wet, cold ride back to the mainland! That is, AFTER they had investigated what was so interesting to these brigands over under the trees of those "uninhabited" islands.

Pat sent the Patrick over to check out the island. Nate was on the horn almost immediately, and he was nearly frantic, "Cap'n Cap'n, come quick, we gots troubles here, LOTS of troubles!"

With an alarm that intense, Pat had the main engine restarted and they headed for the islands at AHEAD EMERGENCY! Pat guided the Wilson in beside the already anchored Patrick and dropped the hook.

Boats already had the launch swing over the side and he sent his son, Jim McKee (Little Boats) as Coxswain. Pat sent Go in charge and Pedro to take care of any medical emergencies. There were eight sailors, all armed "to the teeth" to protect them.

Nate was already ashore and he showed Pedro what they had, Pedro's reaction was instantaneous, he shouted into the handheld radio to send Dr. Ben and the Emergency Medical kit, along with LOTS of bandages!

That sent Patrick almost "around the bend" and he had one of the life boats lowered and took six sailors to row. What met him on that shore staggered him to his knees!

There was a pile of dead bodies, all young boys, and another group of young boys tied together with a rope noose around each boy's neck. Every boy was bleeding profusely and some of them had already had a hand or foot chopped off. The bleeding had been stopped by a hot piece of steel that was still in the fire!

There was about twenty girls all tied together like the boys and it looked like they had all been sexually abused and had blood running down their legs. The stared dully at Pat and his sailors, their eyes showed no intelligence at all.

Pedro and Ben did all they could right there, before they started sending the children out to the Wilson, Pedro went with the first boat so he could continue treating them in the hospital.

The two doctors worked the Emergency Room well into the next day and both men were in tears each time one of the children died. Pedro and Ben were hollow-eyed and numb after the last surviving child left the operating room.

They had four Nurses and they were wrung out, this was their first voyage and they all felt like they had been visiting Dante's Hell!

At final count, they had saved eighteen of the girls and thirty-five of the boys and they had nearly emptied the supply locker of wound dressings.

Pat was pretty sure there were more of the slavers hiding in the trees of the several small islands, so he ordered that all the fast boats be sunk, irreparably damaged.

They backed the Wilson and the Patrick away from the islands and headed back to Porto Caldera.

The Costa Rican Government Official, Senor Ferguson, spent two hours on the SSB, trying to arrange hospital space for the wounded children.

He was in tears when he told Patrick that he had failed, nobody would accept the children and care for them! They either had no open beds, or they did not have the skills necessary to treat them was their excuse.

Only by force of will power did Pat keep his temper under control. He told the man, "We will care for these children and they shall go home with us!"

Senor Ferguson stood, shamefaced and told Pat that he would sign the papers releasing the children to the Americans.

Pat brought the Wilson into port, but refused to tie up at their assigned pier. Rather, he anchored out, in the middle of the harbor while Pedro and Ben did all they could to care for the injured children.

The boys who had lesser injuries, he transferred over to the Patrick and poor Nate Fong nearly had a revolution on his hands when his crew saw how horribly the boys had been abused.

As soon as the children had begun to recover a bit, Pat refueled the Patrick from the Wilson's storage tanks and they headed out once more. Senor Ferguson remained with them as did his two Sergeants.

They cruised down the coast, searching each bay. Over the next thirty days, they rescued an additional one hundred boys and forty more girls. Every hospital bed was occupied!

When they returned to Puerto Caldera, the Policia National attempted to remove the children from the Wilson, Nate Fong had wisely stayed off-shore while Pat checked out the situation.

Three Police boats attempted to prevent the Wilson from leaving port, Boats and Little Boats were manning the three inch gun, as they swung the muzzle to point at the boats, they suddenly decided that the Americanos could have the children!

Pat was on the horn to ONI in Washington as this was taking place and the New Navy Captain in the office was worried that they might start an "international incident" His staff advised him to support the O'Tooles with the new administration, they were too damned valuable to lose!

Pat asked Senor Ferguson if he and his Policia Sergeants wanted to be put ashore and their reply was not only, "NO, but HELL NO" They were ashamed of the way their government had reacted and they had no family ties to hold them there, so, if it would be allowed, they would like to join the Americans in their effort to save children.

Both ships were full up, there was not a single bunk available on either ship. There were children even sleeping in the Recovery Ward!

Pat decided that it was time to go back home and unload their "cargo", so they headed northwest, to return to Lihue. It was November and the traditional time for winter storms.

They sailed up the coast as far as Acapulco before heading directly for Lihue. Crossing the Golfo de Tehuantepec, they were met with high seas and hurricane-force winds, not at all unusual for that time of year. The two ships battled the high seas for a week before they could get free of the tempest.

By the time they passed by Isla Socorro, they began to run out of the storm and they opened up the engines on both ships in a race for home.

They were sure there was going to be diplomatic repercussions over their actions in Porto Caldera, but not a word was said and they received a lengthy radiogram thanking them for stamping out the slaver station in Golfo Burica. The Costa Rican Officials said that the slavers were from Panama and had intended to sell their slaves in Los Estados Unitos!

Senor Ferguson had a huge smile on his face and told them that he thought there were those in the government who were entangled with the slavers. He asked if he could come with them to Lihue, he already had a permanent Visa to enter the United States.

He sat, one evening, about two days out from Lihue, and told Pat that his government would assist and help fund anti-slavery expeditions to Central America and would welcome any assistance in rooting out the slavers' accomplices' in their government.

He stated, "We are a law abiding nation with a long history of peace. These people come from other countries and use our small nation as a base to steal, rob, murder and enslave our people, as well as those in neighboring lands."

He presented Pat with an official letter signed by the President of Costa Rica, naming Senor Rodrigo Adolfo Ferguson as State Minister at Large for the Protection of Children! Pat felt very much better about the man and told him they would work with him in stamping out all slavery, not just that of children.

At last, the Hawaiian Chain came into view and they sailed past Diamond Head on Oahu and stayed west of Oahu as they headed into the Kauai Channel, heading directly for Nawiliwili Harbor.

It was early morning as Pat nosed the Wilson into the harbor, passing Nanini Light. As he made the turn, he began his usual ritual of blowing the ship's horn.

The wailing air horn reverberated against Mount Waialeale and was heard all over the island.

The Coast Guard had already notified those at O'Toole House that their two ships were nearing port. There was standing room only along the shore as people watched their heroes come sailing home.

By the time Pat ordered the anchor released, the compressed air tank was empty.

The crows stood quietly in front of The Prince Tahulie Welcome Center as the first children were carried ashore. Andrew had a room for every child who did not need to remain in the hospital a little longer.

There was shocked silence when the deliberately maimed boys were carried ashore, grown men wept without shame as they saw those pitiful little boys. Teen boys made up their minds that they were going to take care of those boys themselves and more than a hundred local youths stepped forward and offered to carry the injured children up to the Clinic.

Not a single new child was without a local friend by late afternoon.

Mothers screamed in horror as the girl children were brought off the Wilson and high school girls raced down the pier to be with the injured girls.

Many of those same girls and boys had been rescued themselves and they knew what these new children were going through. No new child spent that night alone!

Ben and Pedro came ashore, both had lost weight and were hollow-eyed in exhaustion. They had spent days on end without sleep or even rest, trying to save every child.

In that, they had not been completely successful, there were twenty corpses to be buried. Those twenty corpses weighed on both Pedro's and Ben's souls something awful, it would be many days before either of them could smile again.

It was the small children who they HAD saved who came to their rescue and saved their souls. A simple kiss and a thank you expressed by a child who otherwise would have been a slave or dead was all it took.

South America and Central America had been relatively free of slavers in the past. Now, these fiends were moving in where slave prospects were plentiful and the law enforcement had no expertise in combatting them.