Road to Recovery

Chapter 22

  As she looked down on YN 246 for the first time, it looked so very small and insignificant tucked away in its huge dry dock. This was after all the place where mighty Battleships had been born; a mere Destroyer would not have even warranted a footnote in the shipyards glory days, but this was not its glory days; a rowing boat would make today’s front page news.

  Carol was met at the airport by Donald and Marta, and were all sedately transported in Herr Flik’s private car (a vintage Rolls Royce, he appreciated good engineering) directly to the Shipyard, but the chauffer paused momentarily at a vantage point that overlooked the yard; to give Carol her first glimpse of what they all hoped would become a lifebelt for them, and then, as they continued on, and approached the dockyard gate, the traffic was stopped, to make way for them. She assumed that it was for the car, just in case Herr Flik was on board, but as she approached the main admin building she began to realise that it was for her, everyone but the night watchman was there to greet her. Herr Flik welcomed her and whisked her inside into her office (all she had expected was a Portacabin, was this luxury, or what), and Helmut, ‘please you call me Helmut’, explained that it had once been his brother’s office, but his services were now no longer required, and so they all, well as many as could fit into it had a welcoming drink, that tried to take the lining off her throat, and burn a hole in her stomach wall, she quite liked it. After what seemed like a hundred introductions things started to quieten down, until finally there was just Herr Flik (sorry Helmut), Donald and Marta and a mound of drawings left in the room. After another application of tonsil lubricant, this time not quite so destructive to her vital organs, even Helmut left, to let her get down to business, no rest for the wicked. First Donald explained that her bags would be taken by the chauffer to her hotel suite, and then he would return with the keys to a dockyard car, which she could use for the duration of her stay, she hoped it hadn’t been used by Helmut’s brother prior to her arrival, it might be booby-trapped, and then it was really down to business. Both of them could speak passable English, but Marta’s was fractionally better so she took the lead, and as Carol was escorted out of the office, and climbed into a waiting Jeep, she explained that she should expect to be treated as a celebrity for the next few days; a lot was riding on this order. That was good news to Carol; she would pass it on to the negotiating team, if things got that far, it might save them a few million. As they neared YN 246 her first impression was quickly washed aside, it was big, it was beautiful, and hopefully it was going to be hers, maybe not as the owner but as Captain, that was much more to her liking: all the fun – none of the expense. All the cocooning had been removed, as well as a substantial amount of the mothballing, and the whole vessel had been given a spring clean, for a ship under construction she looked pretty neat and tidy, and as Carol looked down on it in the dry dock, she felt an affinity starting to grow inside her, ‘Andrew just had to buy this beauty’. It felt strange calling her new employer by his first name but that was what he wanted, and if that back there was the reception that she got, she dreaded to think what it would be like for him. Donning a hard hat, which had Kapitan printed on the front, and gold braid felt-tipped on the peak (who said that Germans don’t have a sense of humour), they walked over the gangplank, and as her foot touched the steel deck for that first time it was as though she had received an electric shock, which was impossible, the dock side electricity supply had yet to be switched on. It was as if the ship was communicating with her; and that was another good sign. After they had walked the main deck and the flight deck above it, she had a look around the partially completed bridge. It definitely felt as though she had come home; the signs were getting better all the time; there was nobody as superstitious as a mariner. After someone had found the electrics switch they ventured below decks, and she was verily surprised - with the installation of the floor covering and a coat or two of paint most areas would be finished, and the engine room looked as though it was ready to respond to the bridge’s commands. They finally found daylight and exiting YN 246, and gingerly made their way down several flights of well-worn stone steps to the bottom of the dock. It was just awesome to stand under the keel and look up at all those thousands of tonnes poised just above her head, but she felt safe, she knew that this ship, her ship, would not hurt her, although as they returned to her office she vowed to wear something more practical the following day, then the three of them quickly went through some preliminary drawings. Carol liked Donald’s exterior work, but again it was Marta’s interior designs that she preferred, and she was definitely the computer wiz-kid of the pair, but they seemed to work well together, and that was the main thing. It was certainly going to be a long hard couple of weeks.

  After five days the three of them flew down to El Campo for a working weekend. They went through reams of new drawings, and talked through loads of ideas with Andrew, and then it was back to the drawing board early Monday morning for more fine-tuning, but what was becoming clear though was the direction in which they were all heading; they were definitely all singing from the same hymn sheet:-

  YN 246 will at all costs keep her seaworthiness; her capabilities would not be degraded just for the sake of looking aesthetically pleasing (pretty).

  All her weather decks will be sheathed in two inch thick teak planking, although the flight deck would remain as it was - steel, and capable of taking any helicopter up to the size of a large Chinook.

  The superstructure, with the exception of the flight deck will be constructed of aluminium alloys, instead of steel, to reduce top weight (as hopefully there wouldn’t be to many exocets’ arriving unannounced), and the open space between the bridge and the flight deck/hangar will be filled in (there is no real requirement for torpedo tubes on a civilian ship), and the owner/guest accommodation located in it.

  The flush main (or upper deck) already extended unbroken from stem to stern, and the outside ‘weather’ deck (as the name suggests it will be open to the elements), will eventually run continuously around the entire superstructure, surrounding the owners and guests cabins, the owners harbour suit taking up the entire aft end of it. All cabins will have large toughened windows overlooking the weather deck, but they will be protected from inclement weather by large metal screens which will hinge down from the deck-head above when needed.

  The deck above the sleeping quarters will be where the guests living areas will be situated. The lounge, dining room and other facilities; and when there are no helicopters on board the guests will also be able to walk aft through heavy duty fire doors into the hangar, and then out onto the flight deck, perhaps for a cockers ‘P’ (cocktail party) or two. The weather decks outside this area will also lead around the outsides of the hangar and back to the flight deck.

  Above the living areas deck will be the bridge deck, and this will be the operational heart of the ship. Aft of the bridge, the superstructure will lead back as far as the hangar, and it will be where all the navigation, radio and monitoring equipment for the engines and other machinery will be situated. It will also be where the owners’ and the Captains’ sea cabins will be located.

  The open flying bridge, will be above that, and the sleek low funnel, which will be situated just aft of it, will be home to the two huge RR/Northrop Grumman engines exhausts.

  Up about the flying bridge will be a huge array of aerials, antennas and other bits of hi-tec-ery; she was going to be that sort of ship.

  Down below the main deck, the almost complete crew deck already ran from the bow, right back to the stern (with corridors leading around the engine room space), and it will be home to the galley, the crew’s living quarters; which will of course all be upgraded to a standard befitting a luxury yacht. The ship’s sick bay/hospital will also be situated on this level along with a few other communal services.

  As 246 will have quite a few empty spaces within its hull (no requirement for all the military bits and pieces of the previous would-be owner) there will also be emergency accommo
dation for any survivors or evacuees that she might encounter on her travels. Aft of the engine room, that bit of the deck will be reserved for the Officers and Senior Rates accommodation.

  The services deck, below the crews deck, will be where the offices, laundry, store rooms, cold stores, and other assorted service compartments will be situated, although the part of the deck that was below the Officers accommodation at the stern would be left empty for the time being – or perhaps not – David had had a quiet word with her.

  Below the service deck the remaining decks are where the bulky machinery, fuel tanks and the rest of the gubbins that makes a ship tick, are, but for now, the area forward of the bridge was causing a bit of a problem - Andrew had specifically stated that he had absolutely no requirement for an anti-aircraft missile system, or even a quick fire multi-purpose gun, so there was now just a big flat area in front of the bridge, where the missiles should have gone, and a hole in the fore deck where the big gun would have slotted in. The hole wasn’t much of a problem; paint its insides blue, fill it with water and call it a swimming pool. It might be a strange place to have a pool, but when the nearest piece of land might be a thousand miles away, who was going to notice, but what to do with the redundant missile launching area was not so easy to resolve. If it was left empty the superstructure looked like a box on top of the hull. Put a king size open air Jacuzzi there (as Donald had suggested) and there would be no end of problems trying to protect it from the elements, but then Marta put in her two penn’th; how about an observation area. Her idea was to extend the superstructure of the accommodation deck level forward x amount of meters and put a bit of a sloping roof on it, just until the ship’s silhouette looked about right (she was very precise), install armoured windows in the forward end (with very BIG windscreen wipers on them) and voila; in a storm it would become the best stomach churning roller coaster ride in the world, especially if the stabilisers were switched off. Now that definitely had possibilities.

  By the end of week two, and two further flying visits to El Campo, the general layout had been agreed with Andrew, and then the drawings, by this time quiet numerous and detailed, were handed over to the rest of the design team (and the number crunching department) to carry out the detail work. As the two years would not be up for a few weeks, and with the initial stage out of the way, perhaps she could squeeze in a quick break with her Scott. She was certainly not regretting her job change so far, especially as she hadn’t ended up being fired from the Borne Line, but first she had to introduce Andrew to YN 246.

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