Chapter 5: Preparing for the Worst

I had been appalled at what my instructors had said about vessel security. Upon commissioning the ship to be built I applied for a "marine, class 3" firearms license, as the ship's captain. I had no problem getting the paperwork through though it did take three months. I wanted something dependable that would deter any and all intruders/boarders. My time in the military had opened my eyes to the capabilities of SQLs (squad level weapons). If it was good enough for the Marines then it was good enough for me!

I purchased a Browning .50 caliber heavy machine gun, a maintenance kit, two extra barrels, six cans of M33 ball ammo and two cans of M903 Sabot-Armor Piercing. I also bought an M3 tripod for it rather than having a pintle welded to the railing. I also bought a pair of nice, dependable select-grade Garand M1 rifles in 30.06 and six 12-gauge street sweepers, along with 600 rounds for each.

I looked into pistols and eventually bought into a couple Glocks in .357magnum. I bought a couple cross-draw holsters, and scheduled range time to shoot until I was proficient. I learned how to tear down and clean the M1s and Glocks so I wouldn't have to depend on an armorer. I found fourteen used Smith and Wesson .357 revolvers with four inch barrels. A gunsmith gave them the okay. I had aiming lasers added to the revolvers and the shotguns. Then the pistols were bench tested and sighted in so they would hit where the little dot shined and the iron sights agreed with the laser.

The revolvers went into baggies with dehydration packs. I placed one near each bunk, one beside the seat cushion of the captain's chair, one near the big bath tub, one in the galley next to the sink and one in the mechanical room at the engineer's station. I carried one and the rest went into the arms locker.

Does all this seem like overkill? Nope. Remember, I'd just been through an extended class on maritime security. I considered these measures 'adequate'.

All external 'doors' were replaced with watertight steel hatches that could be dogged down from the inside. All external walls and the hull above the waterline were sheathed in 3/8 inch hardened sheet steel with a white baked-on Powdercoat finish on both sides. All windows and port-holes including the wheelhouse windshield were replaced with 4-layer bullet-proof glass. A 3/8" steel sliding door (with a bullet-proof glass insert) was on rollers and could be opened to give easy access between the salon and the rear deck.

Since the machine gun was awkwardly heavy we figured out a locking capsule like a radome that was mounted just above the wheelhouse. A pair of snorkels fed dry air into the chamber and pulled out the excess. A synthetic rubber gasket sealed around the bottom of the blister. If we got in trouble someone could climb the ladder, pop the lock, push the blister sideways three inches to pull it off its pins and kick it aside. An ammo can was right there and two flips would raise the front shield. Then it was cock, lock and fire. If a bogey could shrug off a burst from a .50 cal we were screwed anyway.

When I saw the size of the engines going into the engineering space I snorted and called them "cute". The guy overseeing the installation started to get all red-faced and huffy on me until I described my last berth and the power plant that I'd been responsible for. When you're running a tugboat powered by a Fairbanks-Morse 38 8 1/8 anything short of a 727's jet engine looks "cute". To give you an idea a Fairbanks-Morse 12-cylinder runs at about 900 RPM, is about 25 feet long, nine feet wide and sixteen feet tall ... if you're pressed for space. They build tug boats around the engines!

Instead of a spiffy French-style modern side-by-side refrigerator freezer I found an ugly top-loading chest refrigerator and top-loading chest freezer, both with several removable wire trays. Both were super-insulated. The designer got a bit crabby until I asked why not put a half-sized front-loading washer and dryer over each of 'em. That worked! It simplified constructing the plumbing stack too.

I asked for and got a small reach-in refrigerator under the breakfast bar for juice, milk, soda, beer, taco stuffing, omelet stuffing, you know, quick-and-dirty. This would keep the opening of the chest coolers to a minimum.

They'd incorporated forced-air air-conditioning into the master plans. I asked for heating to be included. They simply replaced the refrigeration pump with a reversible pump, added a bit to the thermostat wiring and replaced the controllers. It didn't cost much as part of the original build-out.

I had wiring added throughout the ship for a speaker system and small high-efficiency Bose speakers were mounted everywhere. A 42" flat screen was mounted on the wall in the lounge. Below it I had a sub-woofer, center channel speaker, a DVD player and a carousel CD changer installed. I left it to the designer to build in a pull-out bay for movie storage.

The electric stove and oven were replaced by propane units. There was plenty of room for a couple of fifty-pound tanks in the workspace once the breakfast nook was eliminated. (It was functionally replaced by a small island with the afore-mentioned reach-in reefer mounted below.) The wide-open dance-floor feeling was gone, but who the hell would want that at sea anyway? You'd feel like a marble being shaken about in a tin can!

There was still plenty of space for a comfortable overstuffed chair and a very nice couch. I had a couple long bookshelves installed in the main lounge and one in each bedroom. I also talked the guy into running a gas fitting to the stern and reinforcing the deck so that I could mount a gas grill there to char dinner once in a while. (I'd never get away with charcoal aboard ship but a little smoker box of wood chips would help with the flavor.)

Instead of halide cans recessed into the ceilings I had little ultra-bright LEDs put in everywhere. They ran on 12 volts instead of 110 so there was less power consumed by them. Voltage inverters aren't as efficient as you'd think. All in all it was shaping up to be a comfortable and efficient little ship.

It was coming up on October and she was due to be launched in about a month. It was time to get serious and start looking for a first mate. This wasn't a little cat-boat that I could put-in anywhere I felt like knocking off. I couldn't see operating this ship with a crew of less than myself plus two.

I was dealing with the project manager, clearing the tick list when I mentioned wanting to hire a first mate. He gave me a really strange stare for a few minutes. It kind of spooked me out. He said "Wait here. There's someone I want you to talk to." About twenty minutes later a young woman came through the door. She was Beautiful! Her black curly hair framed a heart-shaped face. Her high cheekbones enhanced her dark slanted eyes and set off her beautiful dusky complexion. A pair of sensuous lips rode below a tiny up-turned nose. Altogether she was a striking-yet plainly terrified-young lady.

The manager came into the room closing the door behind the both of them. She reached out for his arm and held on for dear life while watching me like a mouse watches a cat.

"Angie, this is Tony Santorini. We're finishing the final list on his ship, the Italian Dream. I thought you might want to talk to him."

We sat down around his work table. I started.

"I just got my captain's papers almost three years ago out of Newport, Rhode Island. I was spending some time as a tug jockey in New York harbor getting in my hours when I found something that made my day."

It was sheer chance that I had a couple papers of diamonds in my shirt pocket. I liked to look at 'em occasionally. I cleared a place on the blotter and spilled out two stones, one weighing over 33 carats, the other was an emerald cut of over 43 carats Both were flawless white stones. They both inhaled.

"I found a briefcase in the harbor that a DeBeers courier lost. I figure he got killed for it and the case hit the water in the confusion. I filed for salvage and made a tidy little nest egg."

I flipped one of the gems with a finger making it sparkle in the light. "I kept a few out because they're pretty and I'll have a retirement kitty if it all goes to shit."