Chapter 5 Day 10 on Darsah
Bluenose III arrived not long after the sun had come up. The SF team had gone on full alert, when the tall sails caught the first rays of the sun before the water and hull received those golden beams. The only thing that the team knew, was that it was another sailboat which might or might not be armed. All they could do was watch, as the vessel got closer. Weapons were pulled into cheeks, when the sails were reefed, and the vessel visibly slowed down.
They only relaxed when the radio speaker gave a set of codes, which only the Captain on the reinforcements would know. While the sailboat was tied up to the stern of the warship. Wilkes and X walked down the sand dune. The rest of the team and guests would stay under cover. They were acting as lookouts in case the small ship was followed by a threat. Plus, there was going to be a lot of hot work getting the 15-man team off the sailboat, with all their equipment. Wilkes knew that his team was running low on energy, after being out on the pointy end of the stick for over a week. It took a lot out of the ten men team, which had to keep 4 people awake at all times.
Wilkes took the ex-pirate launch out to the sailboat, with the star and stripes flying from her stern. They would have to row out to the two ships in the small cove. The tide was high, and Wilks was not the best at the oars. It did give him time to see SF troopers starting to move on the top deck of the old Russian destroyer. Seeing members of 3 Batt made him put his back into the oars.
The SSG had needed some help getting up from the almost water level launch, to the deck of the large sailboat. When he came up on deck, he was nose to nose with the barrel of a cannon. It was a heavy weapon that his people had not noticed, when the boat had come in. He quickly looked around the boat. Rowing down the 390-foot length of the warship, had taken a lot of energy out of him. He noticed that the sailboat crew had somehow rigged up a lift system on their aft mast. They were using it to move cargo and people to the destroyer’s stern, which was over hanging the sailboat’s deck by at least a dozen feet.
Wilkes’s eyes just looked back around in time to see a man in an army uniform coming his way. He had two dark lines running down the sides of his k-pot. When they were closer, the SSG put out his hand. SF did not do sniper checks in the field. “Captain Black, It’s good to see you. I heard about that little job your team did last month in the Northern territory.”
The other man gave a sly smile. “And I have heard good things about you, SSG. I understand that you turned down a promotion to LT, after your last little dance with the bad guys.”
The older man felt a little heat come to his face. “Sir, I’m an NCO. I like being one. We don’t have to deal with so much dog and pony. Now, if you don’t mind. You’re late, but we were not expecting you until tonight from our last update from Mombasa.”
Captain Black gave a soft chuckle. “You know that sailboats are faster under sail, than they are under power by diesel engines. We had an almost head wind, and the captain got tired of doing something called “tacking”. He dropped all the sails and powered up the diesel engines. We were making about 8mphs until the winds shifted late yesterday, and we were able to get back up to full speed. Now give me a sitrep.”
SSG Wilkes gave a more detailed report. He covered about the pirate attack, and the recovered Frenchmen. That had caused the Captain to ask about captured pirates. When he was told that there were none. The Captain had given the NCO a dark look. This caused the NCO to take the gloves off, and he went into detail about the crabs. He did not spare the details, and the Captain went pale. He shot a few looks over the side of the boat at the blue water. The SSG got the Captain back on track, when he covered the two heavy weapons on the Warship his team had been able to get “operational”.
The new team would be staying on the two boats. The three Frenchmen were brought down and would also spend the rest of the time waiting for the fleet to arrive at that location. He had more people to keep an eye on the possible French Intel agents. Wilkes team would be able to rotate a pair of the detachment members to the newly arrived sailboat. That was to have a saltwater shower, and a real meal. Everyone was going to get one saltwater shower and a hot meal a day.
The rest of the day was spent with the sailboat crew helping the new SF detachment and HQ team get set up on the warship. The rest of the day was busy as two different detachments of SF and the boat crew had a lot to do. All the while someone was keeping an eye out for any threats. The only issue had been when Captain Black saw a small group of boat crew take their meal on the beach. The SF Captain at first wanted to yell a warning, at the last second, he closed his mouth and went to talk to Richard and Norwell.
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Richard shot a look towards the still slack jaw Norwell. “Well, that explains the bodies we found, on the first trip. I bet they got weak from lack of water and food, and the little monsters came out for a free meal. I think we will need to put out rat guards on the lines, before we go to night shift.” He gave himself a visible shake at the mental image of a line of hungry crabs coming up the anchor lines in the middle of the night.
Richard had been looking forward to going over and checking out the half burnt out pirate boat grounded on the other side of the warship. It would have been near or after dark, which just happened to be the time when crabs were most active…normally. That plan had just been flushed down the old ship’s head. Richard did another shudder, when he thanked the SF Captain. Then he went towards the bow to do a little yelling, and to let some rumors start running.
The night was dark. Not one light was visible from any of the three key locations on the island. The hide site on the ridge, the three section teams on the warship, and the small sailing boat that had been moved from the stern to the amidships near the bridge. Light discipline was ingrained almost to the genetic level, for most of the SF personnel. The sailboat crew had learned a few things, or they would have all been dead by now.
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Suti Ali Harut looked up and found the star he was looking for. He had been sent out by his commander Arai Mahomed. They had two of the group’s ships turn up missing in the last few weeks. The first one was a major asset. Even if it was on its last legs. The second vessel had been carrying four French infidels. The group leader had plans for those Frenchmen. A powerful group inland of his units had offered a very large ransom for the French nationals. Suti did not know what was going to be traded, but it was rumored to be big…. very big.
That was why Suti was out here. He was going to follow the planned and normal routes his group had been known to use. He had been ordered to find out what had happened to the payday. So far, he had not seen any sign of his group member. It was not unheard of, that one of the group’s ships would have a problem. Suti decided that he was going to start checking the smaller islands. Another set of two different search teams were going to check out the “normal” stop over points.
He trusted his crew. He would come off shift in a few hours, so that he could get some sleep. His back up captain would have the rest of the night shift. He had even spent time training some of them himself to be better at their jobs. He had plans to grow into his own taxing group. To do that? He needed trained and trusted boat skippers and heavy weapons experts. He didn’t know how long it would be, before he could split off. It would heavily depend, on how good he was at collecting any “extra” taxes. If he could get a cut of this rumored ransom? That would speed up his timeline, into getting his own group set up. He even had his own little harbor that he was going to take over, when the time was right.
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Thanks to the hide site near the top of the ridge. The sailboat and the two teams on the Smotryaschy, had only had about a half hour warning. The sailing boat had pulled down her sails and had only her thin masts to catch the first rays of light. Still that short of notice, was enough to get everyone ready for the visitors.
Suti Ali Harut looked at the island highlighted by the rising sun. He was coming in from the east with the sun at his back. His man was lashed to the top of the mast looking around the water. This had been his punishment for being found sleeping while on a previous night shift. He had been the first of his crew to see the ship grounded. This had gotten the whole ship’s crew moving. Suti had shifted his boat to come in, with the sun more at his back. He had a bad feeling about this. He had orders, but finding a grounded warship was too much to not take a few hours to spend checking it out.
Jake was on one of the 57mm anti-aircraft guns. As it just happened, the sailboat was coming up on the side that was opposite of where the Bluenose had been tied to all night. Part of the HQ team was also the detachments heavy weapons experts. He had never used a 57mm gun, much less any AAA weapons. That didn’t mean that he couldn’t figure it out. The first team had oiled the gears and had done a few checks, to see if the weapon worked. Jake had spent most of the first night checking out and working the different gears to swing the weapon around. Saltwater and steal were well known not to mix very well, and it was worse when you added time to the mix.
He had not been able to fire the weapon, but he had 2 of the four round clips on the loading tray. He had the other two members of the heavy weapons team holding more of the clips. These were clips, not magazines. And they were not light, with each of the 4 rounds weighing over 6 pounds. When he had taken his seat. He had slowly moved the barrel to point towards the possible threat. As the sailboat moved toward them. He would only make slight movements and never in two dimensions at the same time. He did not have his finger on the heavy trigger, but it was close. He had an ear bud plugged into a small push to talk radio; Captain Black had a matching one. If or when the word was given? He could put a round down range, very quickly.
Captain Black was getting updates every few minutes from the SSG. With the sails down, the over watching team could see the twin light MG on the nose of the approaching boat. There was no way to see if the weapons were loaded, but there were two people standing behind the improvised gun shield. That did not mean that it was a pirate, but Captain Black was leaning more and more that way. They were not flying a flag, but with the fall of so many governments. Was that really that important anymore?
Then he gets the report, from the ridge. That the rest of the crew was armed, and they were eating handfuls of leaves. It did not take long for the Captain to know what he needed to do. There was only one reason that people in this area would be eating what he thought was Khat and packing automatic weapons. He was looking through the heavy duty and dirty binoculars mounted on the side of the bridge.
“Sergeant. You may fire into the pirates.” The Captain’s voice was steady. It was his call, but he had made harder calls in his life.
A quick set of booms sounded from that center of the ship. The Captain watched as three water fountains erupted off the bow of the approaching boat. Only one round hit the boat, and the last round overshot the narrow vessel. The reply was a long burst from the homemade twin mount 7.62 machineguns. A few of the rounds did hit the warship. It was a large and nonmoving target, but the metal hull shrugged off a few light rounds with contemptuous ease.
Suti ducked when he had seen, not heard, but seen the gun flash from the midship’s deck house of the warship. He had started the twin powerful motors under his helm, with a flip of the switch while he was still ducking for cover. He was just about to start spinning the wheel when one of the rounds hit his ship. The round blew up on contact, and it blew at least four of his crew over the sides. This was not a wreck. It was a live warship, and he did not want to take on one with his limited crew and weapons. He had a grin on his face. There was no way that a grounded warship would catch him. When he returned? He would be leading every ship and shooter the group had or could call up on short notice. Suti was thinking that maybe, he would be able to take over this group and let the current leader start a new group somewhere else.
Suti was focused on thinking about how his world was about to change. His vessel was the fastest one in his group of pirates. It did not matter if it was under sail or engine power. The only ships that were faster, were all of the prewar military vessels. But those were wearing out and the fuel from the tanker that had run aground, was also running out. His vessel used the power of wind and alcohol. He never noticed the sailboat coming out from behind the grounded warship.
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Norwell had an evil smile on his face. The wind was blowing in the right direction, if the other boat started to flee the way it had come. When it had been fired on, and then fled on inboard engines? He was moving with the wind behind him, but he had not yet deployed his sails. Captain Black had already talked to the boat commanders, about what he was going to need them to do, if they ran into any pirates at different stages in the plan. He had modified those plans when the twin leaders of the Bluenose had made a few pointed suggestions. The twin salvaged truck diesels came to life, and his ship started to move. The crew was quickly getting the sails raised, and soon they would be moving at a faster pace than the engines could push alone. It would only be a matter of time, for the newer ship to catch the fleeing pirate vessel.
Richard and Norwell had orders to try to take any fleeing ship, which were not known to be a pirate. If they turned out to be a Pirate? Then they were to take whatever measures, they felt was needed to stop any future pirate attacks. The Bluenose did not know why the SF team had fired at the other boat, but the Bluenose would try to get them to stop. If they could? Great! If not? Then they had a plan for that also.
Suti was still dreaming about the riches he was about to receive. His distraction might have also been because of the light smoke coming from the hit near the bow of his ship, or it could have been that he was thinking about having to deal with a crew that was freshly hopped up on Khat and no place to vent it off. It really did not matter. He and his crew did not “notice” the other sailboat quickly catching up on them.
That is until he noticed the great billowing sail he had never seen before, was seen out of his peripheral vision. He started yelling orders to those that were near him. He could not believe that another vessel was not only staying up with his vessel. It was starting to pass him!!! Then he noticed the dreaded red, white, and blue flag on the stern. That was all most of the crew needed to see. 7.62mm rounds started to fly from the pirate craft towards the hated American flagged ship. It was wild firing, and it might not have been the best idea on the pirate’s part.
The gun fire coming from over a dozen shooters on the other ship. That was enough proof that the other ship was a pirate, and they still wanted to fight. Richard was thankful that the twin light machineguns, on the bow were not in action. He had noticed the torn-up deck near the weapon, before they had started to pull alongside the other vessel. Then his aft mounted twin 20mm turret open fire in retaliation for the AKs. The heavy RCL was not that great at hitting a moving and maneuvering target on the open ocean. It was call catenary, and it was a level one bitch to have to deal with it. The TCM-20 had two 20mm autocannons, which is to say that they were just a really big machine gun. It was not a single shot weapon, like the 105mm RCL. It could afford to miss with a few dozen rounds to get one or three solid hits.
As soon as the other vessel had started to fire at the Bluenose. Norwell started to open the distance between the two sailboats. It was more of a reaction, than to any real plan of action. It took four bursts of fire from the aft turret, before it scored its first hit. Some of the Bluenose’s crew had already started to return fire with lighter 5.56 and 303 caliber rounds. They were not hitting that much, but it was getting close enough. Richard could see that some of the other crew were ducking, but too many were standing back up and firing back at the Bluenose.
There seemed to be a slowly growing number of shooters in one group, about were the ship’s wheel should be. Richard was about to direct the heavy automatic weapons to fire into that area. That was when a long twin line of 20mm shells stitched a line from the water line to and threw the group, and then they went higher into the rigging. Richard could “see” the tracer rounds as they crossed his field of view. That was when Richard and the crew of the Bluenose found out that alcohol and 20mm tracers do not mix.
The 500L fuel tank was only about half full today. That meant that it was half full of oxygen. That was enough to have an active reaction, between the 20mm burning tracer round lodged in the fuel tank and the fuel within the thin metal tub. Another round had caused a leak in the fuel, before the fuel air mix was right. The ship was blown in half by the reaction. One second the twin turret was about to put another long burst into the fleeing ship. Then things…. Changed.
Then there was a flash, which blinded the crew of the Bluenose for a few seconds. When their eyesight returned? All they saw was a shower of burning wood, sails, and parts of bodies flying through the air. The vessel had been separated from below the water line. Even that part of the hull had been crushed. There would not be any Intel or salvage taken from this pirate. That was both good and bad. At least now they did not have to worry about keeping an eye on captured pirates, to go along with the three Frenchmen. It also meant that if there had been anything of interest, like the motors and weapons. It was all going to the bottom of the ocean.
It took almost an hour, and more fuel burned by the Bluenose, to make it back to the almost full cove. Norwell was starting to get a little concerned about the fuel, he knew that the old warship had dry tanks. They already were under half a tank. The rest of it would go quickly, if they ran into many head winds and/or they needed to make a quick rundown south. Getting weather reports had not been a thing for over a year. Who knew when they would be getting anything like a weather radar report again? It was like sailing the waters in a crazy mix of 1800 and the 1990s.
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4 days later
The team on the south ridge of the island, of course, were the first ones to see the relief force approaching the island. Without a tall mast to support a great expanse of light colored sails? The ships were not seen, until the ships were only five miles from the island. The Alexander Bonnyman was the first ship to “land”. The captured vessel closed to within 900m of the island, before its great doors on the bow started to open. Soon a ramp was extended a few meters into the water of the now drifting Polish made ship.
This was a first for the SF team. On all of the other missions they had been on? They had worked with locals, Kenya military, British and American army units. But mostly they had worked with what little remained of the United States Airforce. They were amazed as the 4 AAVPs came charging out of the dark tunnel and flew into the water. The four “APC” s popped up to the surface, and the low freeboard tracks slowly made their way towards the beach.
The 4 AAVPs fanned out in front of the LST. When the bridge could “see” the amphibians that had been launched out of the bow doors. It started to slowly advance towards the island again. The four floating heavily armored APC’s were clearing the way for the LST. When one of the tracks started to rise out of the water, the LST’s Captain picked one of the tracks to follow almost at random. He revved up the massive engines and the 5,000ton ship and cargo started sliding up the soft sand. The ship did not even make it high enough for the bow to fully clear the waves. A second metal grate of the loading ramp was lowered and as soon as the ship had stopped moving, two LAV’s rolled through the shallow water and small waves onto the dry beach.
Captain Black used the one surviving pirate long boat, to leave the grounded warship to go to the now crowded beach. As soon as all of the AAVPs made it fully onto the beach. Two of the four tracks stopped, and marines came rushing out of the back. They would search the local area, while the four tracks made their way towards the target of this little operation. The ground teams would set up visible defensive points near the warship. It was very hot to stay on the Smotryaschy, but at least they did not have to worry about sand getting into any fold of skin or piece of clothing. The time for hiding from any passerby’s was over.
The rest of the fleet made their way towards the cove. The small salvage tug slowly made its way to the stern of the warship. The escorting Forrest Sherman class vessel, armed with her 3 single 5inch cannons, 2 twin turrets with 3inch cannons, and some anti-submarine weapons would stay off the island. That was very heavy firepower, for this part of the world. It would be a very bold, heavily armed, or very dumb pirate group that would now challenge the maybe new owners of the old Russian destroyer. She would not spend all of her time doing loops around the 7km long island. The US Navy just did not have enough fuel to keep up with games like that.
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2 Days later
SSG Wilkes, Captain Black, and Major Strain were walking along the beach on the north and east side of the island. As they walked, they could see the odd skull or rib cage spread out on the sand. This area had been found the day after the battle with the pirates. The SSG had already found what he thought was a Russian uniform. It was assumed that this was the area that most of the crew of the Russian ship had died.
Major Strain looked around at the bodies. He had a sour look on his face as he took it all in. “That explains the crabs. They got use to looking higher on the beach for food. I’m glad that I have all of my people bunking on the LST, with a duty QRF team sleeping in the four AAVP’s. They are to support the awake team in the trenches.”
There was a 4-man team walking around the area not far away from the leaders. One was walking around the area with an odd-looking large PVC pipe box, which was hanging off of a large Marine’s shoulders. It looked like a frame for a huge hoop skirt of some kind. Periodically he would stop walking and point to the ground. Then some of his 3-escorts would pull out small shovels and they would start digging into the sand. The SSG could not figure out what they were doing, but there were three other teams just like this one currently walking around the island.
Captain Black beat the SSG to the punch. “Sir? What are they doing?” He was pointing to the group nearest to the water line.
The Major looked away from the bones, and towards were the SF Captain was looking. “It’s something we picked up, when we took over that island off Kenya. The pirates had buried some nice things, before we paid them a visit. One of my boys was doing some extra duty. As punishment, he had been given an old handheld mine detector. I was told about the corrective action, on the second day of his punishment.
That was after he had found the fourth TM-46 and the third case of 7.62x39. Now it’s something we do anytime. That we are going to be still for any length of time, which might have been held by an enemy combat group. I looked up as much information about this class of vessel, on the way out here. She can carry 60 mines or 52 depth charges. The area that should be holding them, is completely empty. The crew might have decided that it was a good idea to hide somethings, after they ran aground. At worst they will find old brass, which we can take back for reloading.”
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The Captain of the Solstar was looking towards the grounded warship. He absently minded rubbed his uniform shirt with his left hand. He was not in full uniform, finding pants that fit him had been an issue. Besides he was not “regular” navy, in any shape or form. While he might not have been navy, but he knew how to salvage. He looked over to his fellow expat Brit. “So, Norwell? What do you have for firefighting gear?”
Norwell did not know how to take the question. Fire was not a good thing on a mostly wooden boat full of cloth, ammunition, and about 500l of fuel. So, he knew exactly what firefighting gear he had on hand. It was a lot more, than what was normal for a vessel of her size and mission set to have on hand.
Later that afternoon. Richard and Norwell were looking over the side of their vessel. A 10hp motor was running at full power. It was pulling water from one side of their vessel going up a hose, that lay across the boat’s deck and going into a water monitor mounted on the other side. The water nozzle was pointed down at the water. The sea was only about a meter deep at this location. The firefighting hose was pumping out water through its tightest nozzle setting. The jet of water was blasting the sand, which was holding the bow of the ship. It was not moving that much sand, but every little bit moved was thankful by the Solstar.
Aft of the Bluenose, there were lines being run out of the salvage ship. The modified tugboat had started almost touching the aft part of the grounded 2,300ton ship. The tug had dropped a large elbow pipe below the water line. It would direct about half of the thrust water down into the sand below the vessel. Slowly it would move away from the warship, blasting an underwater trench as three lines were played out from the aft of the Tug. It would keep going until the depth of water was reading that it was 6 meters deep, without the trench.
They would be doing this all night. Both ships would be moving toward and or away from the grounded ship. It would not take that much electrical power, so they would keep going while the rest of the crew on the two ships got some sleep. The largest population of people awake in the area, were the SF detachments and the Marines. The team on the ridge could see further, but the night vision devices on the LAV’s and AAVP could see better, from their lower position. Still even with the work and additional personnel, there was not any light leaking to give away their locations.
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Arai Mahomed, no Admiral Arai Mahomed as he liked to be called was not happy. He had now three missing ships. At least that son of a dog Suti’s radioman had been able to get out some information, before he had been cut off. Another one of “his” ships had been close enough to see smoke in the sky a few hours later. They were too far away to know what was causing the smoke, but it was in a part of the ocean that it should not be.
It had taken him some time, to get most of his fleet ready for combat. Now he was on his way. He didn’t know what might have happened, but finding a battleship on the beach? That was something to good for him not to risk sending every ship and man that he could. According to the one report and hoping that Suti had stuck to his search pattern. That left only one island, which this “battleship” could be grounded on. He checked his charts and the clock swaying on the wall. He should be on the north side of that island, by noon.
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