A Ravel of Waters

'Even the electronic experts recognize that the human element is the final judge,' said Tideman. 'We've got a couple of small mobile hand-held terminals which operate in the crow's nest. The idea behind them is to have manual input – that is, what the look-out himself is spotting – to supplement what the electronics are recording. The skipper can use this information in conjunction with the computer or by itself. The method is especially valuable when you're conning the ship in confined waters where there are frequent and rapid changes of course. We found it worked splendidly when we brought Jetwind into Montevideo through the mass of shoals and shallows of the River Plate estuary.'

Confirmed waters; shallows; frequent and rapid changes of course – it added up to the Port Stanley Narrows.

'What about navigation?' I asked. 'Apparently Jetwind has everything that opens and shuts.'

'Come here, I'll show you,' said Tideman. He led Brockton and me to an office abaft the bridge. On the way he paused at a bulkhead clustered with switches and readout lights.

'Control for the ship's fire-alarms, automatic extinguishers and cross-flooding controls,' he explained. 'There are five doors throughout the accommodation as well as watertight bulkheads. All emergency doors are held open magnetically until they are released from here. It's a super-safety system and it's backed up by monitors in case of ice damage to the hull.'

The navigation room itself was like a space-shot control centre. Focal instrument was a JRC satellite navigator which, Tideman explained, could plot Jetwind's position to within half a kilometre. The instrument, he added, was automatic and gave highly accurate and continuous position fixes while the ship was under way. There was also a Nippon Electric deep-sea echo sounder, a weather chart repeater from a bridge master instrument, repeat read-outs of the mast-head anenometers, relative wind speed and direction recorders.

In the adjoining radio room we surprised a fair-haired young man who seemed to be engaged in some esoteric ritual with a hand-held electric radio and direction finder held over a chart. Tideman introduced him as Arno, a Swede. Arno's enthusiasm for the equipment was unbounded – it had been installed by Marconi – and he rattled off names like Apollo main and reserve receivers, Seminal crystal unit, two Conqueror main transmitters, Seacall selective receiver, Siemens teleprinter with world-wide range. There was, of course, radar in addition, an exact twin of the Decca set on the bridge.

I surveyed the instrumented room; I realized what was bugging me, as it had done on the bridge and in the navigation office. All these superb instruments were dead. Not one of them was functioning because Jetwind herself was not alive. She was fast asleep in a god-forsaken port at the backside-end of the world. They needed a Prince Charming to light up their sophisticated faces.

Not a Prince Charming, I corrected myself. The kiss of a Force Nine gale and a free-wheeling sea. That kiss I meant to give Jetwind. Tonight.

Chapter 10

Back on the bridge with Tideman – we had left Brockton involved in technical conversation with Arno – I said, 'You've demonstrated push-pull levers and toggle switches until my mind boggles. What I really want to see now is the power plant – the sails.'

He consulted a bank of dials before answering. 'It would be too risky while at anchor to set even a royal to demonstrate for you. You've no idea how powerful even Jetwind's small sails are, given a light breeze only.'

'I'm not asking you to set any sails. I want to go aloft and see for myself,' I added. 'I would also like to inspect the place where Captain Mortensen met his accident.'

For the first time since our introduction I felt a shadow of reserve onTideman's part.

He nodded at the mast towering through the roof of the bridge. 'Up there, in Tuesday – Number Two mast. Tops'l yard service bay.' 'Let's go.'

He seemed unwilling to take me aloft. He said, 'You can't see much while the sails are furled. Is there any particular point you'd like explained?' 'The whole works. Everything is new to me.'

'I think the best person to do that is the sail-maker. The aerodynamics are above my head.'

'Fine,' I replied. 'I'm in a hurry. I have to go ashore soon. Give him a call.'

Tideman picked up an intercom phone and said to me, 'Not him, sir – her.' 'Her? What do you mean?' 'Jetwind's Number One sail-maker is a woman – Kay Fenton.' 'A woman?'

He held the phone poised. 'Why not? Mr Thomsen discovered her when she was taking a sail and mast course at the Stahlform yard in Germany – the world's master mast-makers. He enlisted her as a junior member of the Schiffbau Institutes design team. She's been intimately concerned with the wind-tunnel testing of Jetwind’

I looked at him questioningly. 'So have you, from the sound of it. I thought you'd joined the ship after she'd been built.' 'No,' he replied. 'I was involved at the design stage as well'