Pirate Mayday

Pirate Mayday

Captain Thomas surveyed the scene around him. Blue skies overhead did little to alleviate the lump that was rising from his gut to his throat. He saw the smaller vessel approaching his ship at a high rate of speed and knew what it meant. Thomas also knew that there was no way his much larger ship could outrun the boat that was quickly coming closer.

He’d gotten the warnings about Somalian pirates taking hostages until they got what they wanted, and then killing them instead of freeing them. With his crew of sixty men and women, he hoped that they had enough firepower to fight the intruders off, but with only handguns, he realized the odds were against them. The Somalians were known to carry rapid-fire machine guns.

“Captain!” Thomas’ Officer of the Deck voice rattled through the handheld radio. “We are prepared as best we can be. Everyone is at their duty stations. Request for immediate assistance has been sent. Do you have any last minute orders?”

“Not at this time, OOD. What’s the reply on the request for assistance?” Thomas took in a deep, ragged breath.

“The US Navy has a fleet of frigates doing exercises two hundred miles due south. Full flank, it will take them about six hours to get here.”

“Damn! We don’t have that long. At absolute tops, we might have forty five minutes. Send an immediate SOS to whoever can get here fast. Tell them we need air support ASAP. Update them on the position. Set your speed to ahead flank for the frigate – two hundred miles due south. In the meantime, we’ll use what firepower we have to. Tell the crew to use the fire hoses to do what they can to hold the pirates off.”

“Aye aye, Captain.” Thomas looked up at a cloudless sky.

God help us, he thought to himself. As he looked out towards the sea, Thomas saw the pirate vessel enough that he could make out its full form – but still a shadow.

Deciding it was time to head to the bridge to take command, Captain Thomas took one last look at the skies before he turned around.

As he entered the bridge, the OOD glanced up. “All orders have been given, Captain. The US Navy is enroute.”

“Good.” Let’s just hope they get here in time.

A sudden noise out on deck shook Captain Thomas from his thoughts. “Don’t go out there!” he ordered. “Stay here. We’ll stand our ground from here.”

“Aye aye, Captain.”

Thomas heard the roar of the fire hoses as the crew sprayed them out towards the pirate vessel. Let’s hope that will hold them off for at least a few minutes.

“OOD – get the view on screen. I wanna see what’s going on out there.” He looked at his watch. Twenty minutes had passed since he had first been alerted to the pirate vessel.

As the picture came onto the screen, Thomas saw two hooks attached to the rails on his ship with a man climbing over the railing from each hook, machine guns slung over their shoulders.

“Get ready, folks.” Here we go.

Captain Thomas had never lost a ship in his twenty years at sea, and he wasn’t going to let a small crew of Somali pirates ruin his perfect record. In fact, this trip on the USNS Pelham 123 was going to be his last before retirement, and he wanted it to go off without a hitch.

Listening for the impending sound of footsteps and voices, he unsnapped the holster at his left hip and slid his Sig Sauer P220 .45 out and with both hands on the handle, lowered it in front of him.

He looked over at his OOD, who had slid his Glock G43 9mm from its holster. The OOD looked at him, and as their eyes met, they both nodded.

Thomas looked back at the screen. He could no longer see the two pirates who had boarded his ship, but the pirate vessel had moved back away from the ship by about two hundred or so feet. He looked around towards the entrance to the bridge. There was no sign of the two pirates. Where the hell are they?

A loud boom and a flash on the screen caught his attention. Before he could look to see what happened, his OOD opened fire with his gun. Thomas could feel a bullet whiz past his head. Spinning around, Thomas opened fire.

As the gunfire ended and the smoke cleared, Captain Thomas saw the two pirates on the floor in the doorway of the bridge. Thank God! He turned to look at the screen where he saw heavy black smoke rising from the pirate vessel. “What the hell happened?”

“I don’t know, Captain! It just blew up!” The OOD yelled out as he went to check the pulses of the men they’d shot. As he approached them, he kicked their weapons out of their reach.

Kneeling down across from the OOD, Thomas checked the pulses of the pirates. There was none. As he stood up, he heard the crackle of the radio.

“USNS Pelham 123, this is Admiral Stoddard on the USS Constitution. Status update.”

Thomas walked over and got on the COMM. “This is Captain Thomas on the USNS Pelham 123. Two pirates on board shot and killed. Pirate vessel two hundred feet out from my ship, blew up – no known reason. No survivors from pirate vessel. Request for assistance still stands.”

The radio crackled again. “USNS Pelham 123, this is Admiral Stoddard on the USS Constitution. Assistance enroute. Set course due south. We will be in radio contact.”

“This is Captain Thomas on the USNS Pelham 123. Course set for due south to meet assistance. Thank you, Sir.” The captain turned to his OOD. “You heard the Admiral. Set course due south. Stay in radio contact with the USS Constitution. And get these bodies out of my damned way!”

“Aye, aye Captain.” The OOD replied as Captain Thomas walked out of the bridge onto the deck, having to step over the dead pirates in his way.

Thank God! It’s over. Twenty years and I still haven’t lost a ship. Time for my days at sea to be over. Thomas looked out to sea as he walked over and threw the pirate hooks off his ship. Now he could finally relax – at least for a few hours.