Chapter 17

About the sunk sub. The Catalina PBY that dropped the bombs reported the location. A Coast Guard motor lifrboat was sent to check but there was no debris at the spot ... and no oilslick. If there wasn’t an oil slick just after it sank ... then ... knowing how metal and saltwater interact ... there would be an oil slick soon. I mean, the covers covering the mines the sub carried were rusting through. She was laying on her side ... mines were spilling out and popping up all over the beaches of coastal Texas.

Mostly, a mine or two washed ashore after sever weather events.

These mines bore the German designation SMA. They were moored influence mines for laying from the vertical mine tubes of Type VIID and XB U-boats. Introduced in 1942, they were made of an aluminum alloy shell to reduce detection. They could be moored either 219 fathoms (400 m) or 328 fathoms (600 m) deep and had a 772 lbs. (350 kg) charge. That they were dangerous was evidenced by the violence of the blast when ordnance demolition crews blew them up.

BIG BANG!

One wonders how many of the myriad of missing boats were the result of the mines primary mission.

Sink Ships.

How many pleasure cruisers made direct contact?

“Oh, look ... a turtle.”

From the surface the mine looks like a sleeping turtle. A little more round ... but how many pleasure cruising retirees know turtles?

“Let’s go see.”

Yup. Exactly like you’re thinking.

Now ... supposing that ... bang ... just happened to the CEO of a multi million dollar corporation and he, his wife, the heir and number two in the will were all on board. Yup ... either bankrupt or an executive swindle.

So ... heading back to Galveston ... I decided to see what had been done about the German minelaying submersible. I knew where ... my graphic printer stores a copy ... what? You think I’d let the government take my electronics.

If they knew what ... for sure they’d have confiscated the whole damn thing. I GAVE them the paperwork ... good enough. I didn’t lie about it ... if they’d asked ... they would have stripped the Lagoon naked. I didn’t volunteer. A sin of omission.

The sub was still there ... the seabed was rife with spilled mines. I was in luck ... The hull was deeper than my certificate allowed. Had I been in charge there would have been a gawd awful hole and scattered metal ... but I wasn’t in charge. I sailed on. I did discover the location of two torpedoed tankers and a shipload of tanks.

War ... really wasteful.

Seadrift, Texas is closer to Austin than Galveston. Seadrift doesn’t have a marina ... What they have is a Redroofed bar and a bunch of trawlers, shrimpers and fishingboats.

I sailed and motored right up to the bar and asked, “I need a place to store my boat. Why not here?”

Remember ... Five feet ten inches tall and I look ‘freshly fucked.’

(Thanks Sultry.)

Walking in the place almost caused a riot.

The bar owner and I came to an agreement. I’m sure the two unbuttoned buttons had something to do with the deal.

The deal was pull the boat, store it on the hard and relaunch it when I called ... for five grand. The five grand included the bar owner’s wife’s car.

She wasn’t happy. I slipped her five hundred. She was happy.

Why did I buy a car?

Sixteen years old. No Rental Agency will rent a car to a 16 year old.