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Edward M Hochsmann
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Indies Inferno
Literature & Fiction
Author Insight
Boat on Fire
Fire at sea is a nightmare for any mariner and can be much worse when dealing with dozens of untrained passengers. Like any other emergency, for Coast Guard crews the challenge is to get the survivors out of danger as quickly as possible while maintaining order, because once panic sets in, things can quickly spiral out of control. Lieutenant Ben Wyporek has dispatched his towering boatswain's mate John Bondurant to help the Conch Rounder's crew keep the passengers calm until they can be rescued. But time is running out as the fire engulfing the boat has been blazing for half an hour before Kauai can even get in position and Ben and his crew must take calculated risks to complete the rescue.
Book Excerpt
Indies Inferno
ConflagrationUSCG Cutter Kauai, North Atlantic Ocean, two nautical miles west of Grand Turk Lighthouse
03:05 EDT, 23 JuneBenThe burning boat was clearly visible from the foredeck as Kauai approached at high speed. Hopkins was at the conn on the bridge and was a specialist at the quick stop, the goal being to cut the time to contact as short as possible without overshooting or, God forbid, colliding violently with the other boat. Ben had been with Hopkins for over two years now and was supremely confident in her ability to pull it off. This was his first shipboard fire, and Ben had plenty of fears right now, but the approach maneuver was not among these. He could see the shadow of the boat’s foredeck now, silhouetted in the bright yellow flames billowing high from the stern. Although he couldn’t make them out yet, Lee had reported there were dozens of people crowded onto the foredeck.Lee had quickly closed the distance in the speedy RHIB and now held a position twenty feet off the Conch Rounder’s port beam. Chen and Machinery Technician Second Class Brown were directing a stream of water from the P1B portable pump to hold back the flames and keep them from spreading forward to where the survivors had gathered. The P1B, designed to pump water out of damaged vessels to keep them from sinking, put out 140 gallons of water per minute and Lee had to use her considerable skill with helm and engine control to keep the boat in position against the thrust from the hose. She and Ben had agreed that as soon as the fire could be reached by the hose teams on Kauai, he would call out “clear” three times on the radio. Lee would immediately maneuver the RHIB clear while Brown and Chen shut down the pump.Ben did another check of his deck crew, all fitted with helmets, ballistic vests, and white anti-flash hoods and gloves, to protect them from the fire. Hebert was the lead on the first hose with two junior seamen backing him up, and Deffler, Marcus, and Lincoln manned the second hose. While they held off the fire from aft, Ben and his rescue party on the foredeck, Bondurant, Boatswain’s Mate Third Class Brian Jenkins, and Seaman Mitchell Pickins, would handle lines and help the survivors aboard. Kauai’s medical expert, Health Services Technician Second Class Michael “Doc” Bryant, was standing by with oxygen and his medical kit to render first aid.There was no time to research the Conch Rounder’s layout or dimensions, so this rendezvous was a veritable blind date. It would have been too good to be true that the dive boat’s foredeck would be the same height as Kauai’s and when the spotlight above the bridge came on and illuminated the other boat, Ben was not surprised to see it was about six feet higher. As they slowed down to start the approach, he called his team together. “Boats, I think one guy on the dive boat supervising lines and handing the survivors down to the rest of us,” Ben said to Bondurant. “Boats” was a traditional nickname for a boatswain’s mate and by Kauai tradition was the moniker used for the senior of that rating aboard Kauai.“Roger that, XO. I’m the one for that job,” Bondurant said.“Yes, I had you in mind,” Ben replied. With his size and strength, Bondurant was the obvious choice. “Pickins, I need someone on the fender, but it will be tricky. Think you can handle it?” The fender was a large elastomer cylinder that would serve as a bumper, preventing Conch Rounder’s bow from contacting and possibly damaging Kauai’s hull. It was a difficult and hazardous job, particularly under these circumstances.“No problem, XO,” the big seaman said with a smile.“Good. Jenkins, you’ll handle the line. I don’t quite know how this is going to work yet. We’re kind of playing it by ear.”“Yes, sir,” Jenkins replied.Ben nodded and then scanned their faces. “OK, guys. It’s dark. We don’t know exactly what we are dealing with on this boat and we’re going to be face-to-face with twenty-nine desperate people. What I’m saying is take nothing for granted and if you see something going wrong, shout it out. Questions?”“No, sir,” they all replied.“Right,” Ben said, then he picked up an electric megaphone and stepped up to the rail. Putting it to his mouth, he broadcasted to the burning vessel, “Ahoy! On the Conch Rounder, can you hear me?”A man stepped from the mass of people on the bow, waved, and shouted back faintly, “Yes! I hear you!”“Are you the captain?”“Aye, yes, I am!”“Sir, we are going to come under your bows and will pass over a line! One of us will follow to help transfer your survivors to our foredeck! Do you understand?”“Aye!”“OK! Please tell your passengers to stand away from the bow! We will take them one at a time and it’s vital they not try to board until our man calls them over! I know it’s scary, but we will hold back the fire until they are all on board! Clear?”“Yes, clear!”Kauai was now about one hundred yards away and had already lined up on a perpendicular with the stricken vessel’s bow. Ben knew Hopkins was using both differential thrust and rudder to keep their orientation and eventually slow the cutter to a stop. He glanced at the RHIB, where Lee was doing the same to keep the boat in position as the stream of water reached out onto the deck just ahead of the flames. “Hose teams ready?” Ben shouted.“Team One ready!” Hebert replied.“Team Two ready!” Deffler followed immediately.Ben keyed his radio transmit button and said, “Kauai One, clear, clear, clear!”“Kauai One, roger!” came Lee’s reply. The crewman handling the hose immediately directed it toward the water while the pump ran down and the RHIB sheared off to the right.“Hose teams engage!” Ben shouted. Within three seconds, two powerful streams of water had converged on the Conch Rounder’s deck at the head of the flames. Knowing they required no more attention from him, Ben turned back to the situation on the bow. Bondurant was standing by with a heaving line, a thin rope with a weighted end that tied to the larger and heavier mooring line laid out on the deck. Ben put the megaphone to his mouth again. “On the Conch Rounder, stand by to receive the heaving line!”“We’re ready!” the captain shouted back.Ben turned to Bondurant. “OK, Boats. Show us how it’s done!”Bondurant nodded, swung his arm holding the rope back and forth three times, then hurled it upward toward the other vessel. The end landed there with an audible clang and was immediately seized by two men, who began pulling up the rope and then the mooring line. Ben, Bondurant, and Jenkins tended the line as Pickins rushed forward with the fender, lowering it just slightly over the side. The two vessels pressed together with a shrill squeak from the fender and Ben shouted, “Hold the line!”With the line acting as a pivot while Hopkins held the two vessels together, Bondurant grabbed hold of Conch Rounder’s bow and pulled himself up and over the rail. After disappearing for a few seconds, he reappeared at the rail and shouted over the roar of the flames and the two fire hoses, “Ready, XO!”Ben nodded and said, “Jenkins and Pickins, tend your lines! Doc, come up here and help me out!”“Yes, sir!” Bryant said as he trotted alongside.The first survivor, a young woman in shorts and an oversized tee-shirt, was already sitting on the bow. Bondurant grasped her under the armpits and lowered her until Ben and Bryant had a grip, then released her as they took her down to the deck.“Are you alright?” Ben asked. The woman did not answer, just nodded furiously. “OK, please stand over there,” Ben said, pointing to the empty deck between the superstructure and the gun. After she stumbled off, Ben turned up to see Bondurant was already in position with another woman.And so it went for the first dozen survivors, with Bondurant passing them down to the other two men. The thirteenth, a shirtless man in shorts, was coughing non-stop and was not able to stand on his own. “Smoke inhalation, sir,” Bryant said. “I need to attend to him.”“Right. Take him,” Ben said. As Bryant put the man’s arm around his shoulders and half-carried him to his medical station, Ben turned to Pickins. “That’s good enough, Pickins. Come here and help me out!”“Yes, sir!” The seaman dropped the rope he was holding and trotted over. Once he was in position, the process resumed with Bondurant handing down survivors to the two men on Kauai’s foredeck.Ben kept a count as the people came aboard. All twenty-three passengers and two of the boat’s crew had come aboard when a loud boom sounded from Conch Rounder’s aft section. A large fireball shot into the sky and Kauai’s foredeck was showered with fragments. Ben ducked instinctively, then gazed in alarm as the boat’s bow rose quickly into the air away from Kauai as the mooring line started moaning with the heavy strain.“Ease the line! Ease the line!” Ben shouted, and Jenkins threw off the loop he had on the bit and frantically fed slack overboard. The explosion had blown open Conch Rounder’s hull somewhere aft. She was sinking fast by the stern with the rotation lifting the boat’s bow. The blast had apparently ruptured the boat’s fuel tanks as fire spreading over the water added to the conflagration. The distance was already too great for any further ship-to-ship transfers and there was no way Kauai’s hose teams could continue to hold back the fire. Ben shouted at Bondurant, “Boats! Cast off and abandon ship! We’ll have the RHIB pick you up!”
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