CHAPTER SEVEN: The Hurricane Gale Force 12.

     Next morning I felt as if I had been steam rolled. I took a taxi from my hotel to the pier in Ramsey to catch the tender back to the ship. What a night that had been. The concert was a party but the after-concert was a bigger party. A smorgasbord of delightful girls, a feast of sensual surprises and a feeling that nothing would ever stop this fun from rolling on. But that morning the sky was dark, a wind was blowing and beating with squalls of rain. I staggered out to the tender and the skipper, in yellow rain wear, was waving to me. “Come quick!”
I ran the best I could. “What's happening?” I asked.
“There's a storm coming” he answered. “The report is it's a hurricane. Quick!”
     I jumped onto the tender and immediately we headed out to sea. The wind was peeling off the tops of the water, throwing it into our faces. The waves were beginning to build. Our little boat pushed on, bouncing on the waves, out to Caroline. Alongside the ship I shouted “goodbye” to the skipper and jumped across the swirling heaving mass of water to the deck of Caroline. Mike Ahern was there to greet me. “It's good you made it” he said. “We're battening down the hatches. We're in for a storm.”
     After dumping my things in my cabin, I headed up to the bridge to see what was happening. Captain Hangerfelt pulled me close. “There's a hurricane warning. We have to pull up anchor and start the engines.”

M.V Fredericia

“How bad is it?” I asked.
“We have to head into the wind. Our tall mast could cause us to capsize if we become broadside to the oncoming waves.”
“What can I do?” I asked.
“Everything must be secured. Any loose objects will be thrown around and broken. Nothing can be left loose.”
The ship was hit by a wave. A book and a mug were thrown off the bench and went crashing into the bulkhead.
“That is something else!” I shouted. “These sure are big waves coming in. I'm going to check out the studio.”
     Holding onto the rail, I pulled myself along the deck to reach the door of the cabin. A wave crashed over the ship. Just in time I made it through the door. In the broadcast studio, Mike was taping pennies to the turntable pickup heads to keep them in the groove. Even though the ship was rolling, this extra weight seemed to work.
“It's good you're here” said Mike. “It's been a long morning. I need a break.”
     I sat down at the microphone and as the record ended I said “That was She's Not There by the Zombies”. The microphone was suspended from the ceiling so that it would not pick up the vibrations of the ship's engines. But, because of that, the microphone was swinging back and forth with the rolling of the ship. So, as I spoke, I too had to follow the mic back and forth. But I loved it! I was having fun. “Hey ” I continued on the air “we are having some storm here. We are trying to keep the needle in the groove but bear with us if the rolling ship sends the needle crashing across the record. Just send us good thoughts and we'll keep sending you good music.”

The Zombies

     The next record started. There was the sound of an organ playing and over the music I said “Here's the song that made Ronan launch Radio Caroline. It's Georgie Fame and Yeh Yeh”
     The music moved, the needle stayed in the groove and the ship rocked and rolled.
     Within half an hour the storm was full on, with waves crashing over the ship. Whenever a wave hit the ship's bow, the bow would plunge deep down into the wave, lifting the stern out of the water, freeing the propellers from the sea's resistance and sending the engines racing with a roar. Each wave was a wall of water. And before each wall was a deep trough into which we fell. This was the rollercoaster ride extraordinaire! The waves would crash right over the bridge. This 763-ton ship was thrown up and down like a toy, even though we had 300 tons of concrete in the hold as ballast. The captain was holding us steady into the waves. If we got knocked sideways, because of our 168 foot mast, we would have capsized. But straight into the wind we went, straight into the waves and still we stayed afloat.
     The storm lasted all day and all night. When the rolling of the ship was too much to keep the needle in the groove, we switched to playing tapes. But the music kept going and we took turns being on the air. When it was my break I went down to my cabin to try and get some sleep. This was difficult. I jammed myself in the bunk but I was rolled and tossed. Eventually, exhausted, I fell asleep. I know I fell into a deep sleep because, when I awoke, I had no idea where I was. The storm was over. The sun was shining through the port-hole. I looked out. The sun was sparkling on the water and the ocean was gently rolling. I looked around my cabin. It was in a big mess. Time to clean up. As I was tidying up, Mike came down and said “Hey, Tom, there's a whole pile of new releases that we haven't looked through yet. Have we got some time to do that now?”
“Sure” I said and went up to the lounge.

©Tom Lodge 2002