Chapter 49

"We're going to be late." Andrea was talking to the Naval Authority in Darwin. Just like the last time the reception was spotty. 1945 and 1988 ... Darwin in '88 and the Pretty Penny in the late summer of 1945.

"Do you need assistance Pretty Penny?"

"No ... we ran afoul of Murphy, Darwin," she explained.

"Ah ... the best laid plans..." The radioman knew the term. Murphy strikes the best of us at times.

"Exactly," Andrea agreed.

"Everything takes longer than you plan."

"That's it ... see you tomorrow, Darwin. Pretty Penny out."

"Darwin, out."

There wasn't really anything wrong ... true, it was a late start. But tomorrow it was supposed to rain. Nothing serious ... just a nice day long downpour. Perfect weather for an under the radar sneak. The intention was to do an end around with Company carrying the Penny to about 25 or so miles off shore of Darwin Harbor. Then she would pop back to the seaplane base and bring the Elco PT boat on.

The rain would help the guise of leaky boat needing a tow. David had done a 'farmer fix' by plumbing the three inch diesel powered auxiliary bilge to the cooling water intake on one of the Packard engines. The on deck pump was taking water directly out of the ocean and pumping it right back in. The setup was rather ingenious and David was proud of it.

Connie and Junior were going to be ships crew for the 88 foot WW2 patrol torpedo boat. They should be able to have a harrowing tale ready for the Darwin station. "Terrible storm ... fraught with danger ... nearly sunk ... lifejackets the whole way ... jury rigging the pump ... thought we'd drown." Oh yes ... drama queens at their finest.

A 'Found' war trophy ... they were presenting it to the Australian Navy to be repaired and put in some godforsaken museum somewhere. The American Navy would likely want it back because ... in their infinite wisdom most of the Pacific fleet of Elco boats were stripped of their engines and burned.

Now they'd love to have one of the boats as a fitting memorial to John Fitzgerald Kennedy. 'Jack' had commanded one of those boats during the war and survived the kind and loving caresses of a Japanese Destroyer that rammed and sunk their boat. Not that it happened here ... but it did happen.

It was one frog gagger of a rain. Not a storm ... just a forever and Amen north coast rain ... the kind the desert gets once in a thousand years. North Oz has two seasons ... wet ... god awful wet ... and dry ... I wish it would rain dry. North Australia gets an average fifty to fifty-five inches in three months and the rest of the year gets about 13 ... with most of that in December. January through March is the 'WET'.

When the Penny rounded the turn into the harbor, the girls fired up the middle engine, cast off and headed to the crane while Andrea radioed that they really did have a surprise and where did they want it? But they had better hurry up because the boat was in terrible shape and in danger of sinking.

And, indeed, the boat Looked awful ... the deck was chewed up from the Jap float plane's strafing attack and the Packard engine was smoking something fierce. One of the torpedoes was missing and the boat just plain looked on its last legs.

Connie was steering while Junior was kneeling on the rear deck looking in the engine room hatch.

There was a man in a rain slicker standing on the Mole and waving. Connie guided the boat close and the man jumped on the foredeck and ran back to the bridge.

"Lieutenant Sanderson, ma'am. D'yah see that dock off to the right?"

Connie nodded ... and let go the wheel. "You do it ... the pump's stopped," she said and ran back to Junior. And yes ... Murphy was very prompt ... the pump HAD stopped and Junior was climbing down the ladder to see if the jury rigged pump intake had come off.

The water intake for the auxiliary pump was from the engine that was running and the high-pressure engine cooling pump was busily filling the stern with massive amounts of water. Not really ... but that was the story that Junior told.

"Junior!! Get out of there." Connie screamed.

"No ... I can fix it!" shouted Junior.