Road to Recovery

Chapter 18

  President Malcolm Mugubutu came to power on the back of a rocket propelled grenade, and even before his immediate predecessor had been safely tucked up in his coffin he had started making his plans - to find somewhere safe for all that money that he intended to make, but he had an aversion to flying; three of his predecessors had aircraft related accidents, if you can call one heat seeking ground to air missile, and two suitcase bombs – accidents, so it would have to be by other means.

  After completing his education at a private school Malcolm joined his Countries small Navy and was promptly sent away to England to train as an Officer Cadet at the Britannia Royal Naval College at Dartmouth. He did his sea training on a Destroyer and instantly took a liking to that class of ship, but upon returning to his strife torn Country he transferred from the Navy, with its three un-seaworthy frigates, into the GFU, not so much a Secret Police Force, more a wanabe President’s training ground. He was a natural, and after placing the first suitcase device himself (he hated the word bomb, it was so uncouth), transporting the Stinger Missile and its launcher from a neighbouring country in the boot of his car (for someone else to use), and designing the second suitcase device (it was actually in a laptop computer but who’s complaining), he rose through the ranks, not surprisingly in three stages. His predecessor was well aware of Malcolm’s talents, after all he had availed himself of them just prior to becoming President himself, so he kept a close eye on Malcolm, especially where aircraft were concerned, but unfortunately whilst he had one eye on the sky, and the other one on the virtually non-existent skirt of his new Minister of Cultural Affairs sat beside him, the soon to be ‘late’ President didn’t notice the ‘next’ Vice President pointing at him, with a bog standard dime a dozen RPG.

  President Mugubutu quickly became known to his loyal subjects (on pain of death) as ‘President 10%’, as any financial transaction anywhere in the Country attracted a 10% Presidential tariff. It didn’t do much for the Countries failing economy, but it certainly filled his coffers quite quickly. But how was he going to get those by now very heavy coffers to a nice secluded island, if the need for a quick exit ever arose? His natural distrust of aircraft meant that the only means left open to him was by sea, utilising his rag tag navy, but there was a slight problem, one of the frigates had just sunk at its mooring, the second ones engine had blown up when the crew tried to start it, and a witch doctor had just put a hex on the third frigate – although the witch doctor concerned also just happened to be the third frigates Chief Stoker, perhaps there was a tad of self-preservation in his incantations, definitely time to think about modernising his maritime force, so through an intermediary (who was later to become his successor) Malcolm contacted a shipyard in Germany, and they dispatched a team of Naval Architects post haste to design him his new floating ‘bank vault’, which, so as not to look too suspicious, would look like a Destroyer, but that was where the similarity would end.

  1.One hundred and fifty(ish) metres in length.

  2.About six or seven thousand tonnes in weight.

  3.Something like twenty metres wide.

  4.Approximately seven metres draught.

  5.Two Rolls Royce/Northrop Grumman DCN WR-21 gas turbines, with 2 Converteam electric motors.

  He wasn’t too fussy about the unimportant things, but he did require the vessel to go from 0 – 30 (knots) in the blink of an eye (in a worst case scenario). It also had to have a range of about seven thousand nautical miles; that should get him well clear of any suitcases. Among the multitudinous other specifications that were on his wish list was that his ship should have a large helicopter hangar, and a reinforced flight deck, so that it would be able to accommodate heavy lift helicopters, all that money wouldn’t be easy to transport. Bow and stern thrusters were an obvious necessity, where he intended to keep the ship there weren’t too many tugs, but zero speed stabilisers were a pure indulgence, he had hated all that bobbing about when HMS Battleaxe had been riding at anchor. He then thought about who was going to man it (he was definitely not into equal opportunities) or more to the point who could he trust, and that turned out to be not a lot of people, so everything must be automated wherever possible, reducing to an absolute minimum the number of crew. Now, as it was ostensibly going to be a warship then there had better be some bits and pieces on it that went bang. A modulated five inch multipurpose rapid fire gun, suitable for anti-aircraft, anti-ship and shore bombardment was an absolute must, as were some surface to air missiles, and perhaps a few torpedo tubes, plus a 20mm Phalanx close support weapons system (or two), and of course loads of saluting cannons for when he came on board. The Naval Architects couldn’t believe their ears, but as long as President Mugubutu put down a hefty deposit, and paid his stage payments on time they would design and build him a world class warship, even though it was extremely doubtful that any sane Government would ever provide the weapons systems that were on his wish list, well perhaps the saluting cannons might not be too much of a problem, but they would cross those bridges when they came to them, and their final design was spectacular, beautiful flared bows, sleek superstructure, and a nice hefty flight deck, so after drawing up a watertight contract and receiving the initial deposit (sorry sir, no discount for cash) they started constructing ‘Yard Number 246’ with a vengeance, after all there was no telling how long the President’s presidency was going to last. By the time the ship yard had got to the main deck level, the main propulsion system had already been installed, and most of the interior shell had been completed, although virtually no military paraphernalia had been supplied for fitting. There was a large hole on the fore deck where a five inch gun module could slip in, and they just left flat the areas for the missile system and other associated weaponry, covering them with boxes and tarpaulins, just in case the yard was Googled by the President. They had just completed the flight deck and were starting on the aircraft hangar and bridge superstructures when they came across a small problem, the money stopped, or more precisely, President Mugubutu stopped – breathing. He had been superseded, and unfortunately the only person in his Country who knew anything about YN 246 was the new President, and he hated boats, he had much better things to spend all his new found wealth on, so the engines and machinery were mothballed, the hull and superstructure was cocooned and the whole thing was left to quietly gather dust, but the dockyard had no problem with that, they had half expected it to happen. In the contract (in very small print) it stated that if stage payments ceased, then after two years YN 246 would become the property of the ship yard, for them to do with as they pleased, and although it was a beautifully constructed ship they doubted that they would ever be able to find a buyer for it, it was just so impractical, so it would most likely go to the breakers yard.

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