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It took about ten days to get to the port of San Diego. A slip equipped for hazardous materials handling picked our cargo out of the sea and deposited it in a pair of rail cars. We got paid for our part of the delivery and sat around a bit, looking for another cargo. The University of Hawaii had another nasty batch that they wanted moved. We'd done all right before so we signed for it. We got the ship ready for another 2400 mile journey and headed out to sea.

We were on our sixth day steaming towards Hawaii. The seas had become a bit lively with thirteen to eighteen foot swells. Our pod was getting one hell of a ride, like a kid tubing behind a speedboat. About four thirty in the morning I heard and felt a deep base 'BOOM' that had me sitting straight up in my bunk. It was a good thing I had head room or I would have knocked myself out cold.

I tore out of bed in a flash. The next thing I knew I was looking out past our stern as an enormous fountain of flame and water dropped back to the sea and boiled for a while as we pulled away from it. Holy shit. I guessed that they didn't pack it as well as they thought they did. "Well, that sure screwed up the fishing around here for a while."

I tried phoning the university offices on our sat-phone but got no answer. I'd try again during business hours. We had a hold-harmless clause in our contract and we'd received half payment for the shipment. I doubted that we'd see the other half even though the contract specified full payment irregardless of what happened during transshipment. When it came to money, universities were real weasels.

The ship was slowing down. I dashed for the bridge. Who knew what stew of chemicals was in the water. If it ate through the ship's gel-coat and started in on the hull we were doomed. I tried to remember the last time I'd tested the radio in the orange monster That worried me. "Keep moving! Don't slow down. We don't know what chemicals were involved and a lot of compounds could strip the gel-coat off the hull." George hadn't thought of that.

While waiting for the university offices to open I called the Coast Guard to notify them of an explosion at sea due to a badly packed container of unknown toxic and hazardous feedstocks being transferred to the University of Hawaii. I gave them the GPS coordinates of the chemical release in case any other ship was taking the same route. I gave them the name and number of the party that contracted with us for delivery. Perhaps they would give the Coast Guard a more specific breakdown of what that shipment contained.

By the end of the fifth day after that we made port. I had the hull inspected and luckily found no degradation. I declared a two week stop-over and paid out the crew's salaries to the current week. I issued the crew their Blue Cross medical insurance cards before they debarked and relaxed for a day or so. I worked it out with my first mate to have one of us on board. I gave him first shot at a little R&R while I hit the telephone getting the ship's fuel bunkers refilled and the black water tank emptied. Once the cook was back aboard we'd run up a tentative menu, figure the stocking levels, pull an inventory and talk to a chandler. We were closer to North America than to Australia, but I was in favor of exploring. I had that locker off of engineering converted to a vented battery bay and an armored cable run up to the bridge C&C console.

I checked in with the Coast Guard to find out if there were any high-risk cargoes available for transshipping to Australia or points west. They didn't have any idea, but suggested that I arm up before heading in that direction. The pirates were getting organized and attacked in packs. They looked up my captain's ticket in the Merchant Marine registry and wrote me out a permit for class III weapons. I only had to shell out two hundred and fifty bucks for it. The office boss was a warrant-officer-3. He suggested that I pick up a couple M2HB machine guns, and a few cases of belted rounds in armor piercing or AP-I, then talk to their armorer about a short lesson in maintaining them. He could set up a half-day class for a couple hundred bucks that would teach me all I needed to know, seeing as I already was a machinist. I paid for the class and arranged for a time and place, then picked up my class III arms ticket and headed off to spend more money. I trusted these guys. I had to trust them as they were out there in the thick of things every day. Frankly, I was surprised that I was told as much as I had.

I scheduled a full CG inspection for as soon as the crew came back aboard. With my license in hand I didn't have too much trouble purchasing the machine guns and fifteen cans of ammo for each. I contracted with a maritime welding firm to reinforce the bow and stern deck skirting and weld a reinforced pintle to mount the things on the bow and stern railings. They had helmets and flak vests (I guess they're called type IIIa bullet proof vests, now). All the protective gear went into a deck locker. It cost quite a bit though. The M2HB machine guns cost a bit over twenty five thousand dollars each, and the cans of one hundred linked rounds cost two hundred and ninety each. I bought four cans of ball, sixteen cans of armor piercing and ten cans of armor piercing-incendiary rounds in linked belts for each station. The naval armorer checked me out on the weapons and helped me set the cycle rate to the slowest they could take; about four hundred and seventy rounds per minute. I asked if we could slow them down to about half that, but he said the chances of a mis-feed or lock-up went up fast as they went slower than that. He suggested buying a couple cans of tracer and replacing one round in six with a tracer round for snap aiming at sea. I figured that he knew what he was talking about so off I went back to spend more money. I bought three cans for about a thousand bucks total.

The inspection went pretty well. They said we should have at least three people conversant with the integrated location and navigation system and they said, in writing, we needed a clinic and a medic. They though my orange monster was the tits for a lifeboat I watched them test the EPIRB which summons last chance help. We caught one final gig on our inspection: as a merchant marine registered vessel we were carrying way light on emergency stores. I told myself, "What the hell, it's only money." and went shopping. First, I knocked the connecting wall out from between two of the three spare cabins, had a contractor pull the floor and had it replaced with one that tapered to two floor drains. Then the place got a heavy coat of white epoxy paint. I had a HEPA air filter installed. Then I did my best to sign on a medic. Shit, would you away from Hawaii if you didn't have to?

I bought two hospital beds, two patient monitors, a portable ultrasound unit, an ECG unit with cables and a finger pulse oximeter. The monitors, ultrasound unit and ECG unit had digital recorders built in, so I could upload the results to a doctor somewhere. I bought a surgical lamp, sanitary supplies, a metered oxygen supply with hoses and nasal cannula. There. I had a bunch of the big stuff.

It was pretty brain dead to get a digital BP cuff and a stethoscope, an otoscope (for looking in ears and noses) a field medic kit along with a couple refill kits, cast making supplies, inflatable casts, water-jel burn rescue blankets (expensive!) and a locking refrigerator for meds that needed low temperature storage, such as insulin. Then I hit on telemedicine. There were purpose-built cameras and stethoscopes for use with remote doctors. I bought the console and the attendant peripherals. I also signed a five year response contract. The only other things I could think of to purchase were an automated hematology testing station along with a half-dozen reagent replacement packs for it and a high-quality water purifier. If we needed an anesthesia vaporizer we'd get one under the eye of someone who knew what to look for.

I was a bone-setter and sticher-upper. I could debride a wound, stop a bleeder and catch a baby if things didn't get complicated. I'd learned how to install a wire-frame traction cast in case of a really bad break or a compound fracture where the bone transects the skin. I could easily rig an IV drip. I could calculate dosages and give injections, evaluate a basic metabolic rate, palpitate for swollen glands, draw blood and dial 911.

The Coast Guard would sell me a medical locker designed for use with a physician's input. It came with two keys and was designed to be kept in a refrigerator. It would fit in the fridge I bought with barely enough extra room for a six pack of Pepsi. One key was for the captain and one for the ship's medic.

I then addressed the emergency stores problem. I wondered what was needed in an emergency. Food, water, shelter and warmth. Bug net in insect country. French medical litters made great sleeping bunks. Add military wool blankets, sheets and insect nets and you're pretty well covered. I bought a few thousand dollars worth of survival cookies in various flavors and one hell of a lot of towels. If I were forced to run away from a disaster with nothing but what I could grab what would I appreciate? Maybe an over-the-shoulder bag with eating utensils, some salt, something to start a fire with, a couple pounds of ground grain or oat meal, a canteen, a cooking bowl, a cup, a knife, a poncho, needles and thread and some cordage. Lots of cordage.

Shelter. What to offer for shelter? There were so many practical ideas out there for emergency shelters that they all blended together. I liked the idea of compressed earth block construction the best because it didn't blow away and it wasn't designed to last just a year or two. I wanted to have two sets with motors, hydraulic pumps, frames and hydraulic cylinders.

I filled two lockers with gear tight packed for eighty refugees. The emergency biscuits would feed a hundred people for three weeks. They wouldn't taste like much but they'd keep people from starving. Water. When I had a water maker installed it was done with an eye towards keeping the dishwasher and the hot tub happy. I had an Aqua Whisper DX model 900 installed with a readout at the engineer's console and a remote at the helm. It made about thirty-eight gallons an hour when running full out. The ship had a two hundred gallon fresh water tank as a reserve.

We didn't have any refugee bunk space but we had supplies. In emergencies motorless hulks were often towed into place and anchored down to serve as accommodations.

We got a job. A factory wanted to have a steel casting the size of three railroad boxcars delivered to Sydney. Their agent had gotten it to Hawaii but then backed out. They wanted it shipped slowly, cheaply and efficiently. We got that sucker packed up in a positively enormous buoyant foam-lined crate and had it dumped into the harbor. From there we attached a little sea anchor to one end and a heavy line to the other. The line was fastened to a pair of heavy cleats at our stern. To make sure we didn't lose the thing from the line parting we bought a 'bug', a signaling transmitter, and fastened it securely to the crate. After replenishing our consumables and fuel we steamed out of the harbor with that thing fighting behind us like a cat on a leash. We figured about three weeks to Fiji, then nearly two more weeks to Sydney. Our fuel reserves should, repeat should, take us to Fiji with a twenty percent margin.

It was a pretty boring trip to tell the truth. We made fresh hamburger from stew meat and grilled outside a lot. The crew spent their on-shift hours cleaning, including engineering. I kept an eye on our fuel consumption by watching the gauges on the tanks. It made me nervous not to have a flow-meter installed on the fuel lines. I resolved to have them installed and to buy a few fuel bladders that we could keep on the rear deck. It made me more aware of my lack of education. I didn't know much about the predominant ocean currents except in general.

We refueled at Fiji and took off a week to acclimate to life on land. In about ten days we made it to Sydney harbor where we dropped off that steel casting. Next time we had something that big and massive I'd get the crew to rig a cone to the prow of whatever it was we were hauling to decrease its drag.

I wanted to explore. I told the crew to take a six week paid vacation. First I put out an advertisement to hire a naval-trained medic. I got flow meters installed in the fuel lines and calibrated. Then I bought two 500-gallon synthetic rubber fuel bladders and some big tarps to cover them when in use. With one in the orange monster we'd still have room to get everyone off the ship in case of disaster, so I bought another 400-gallon bladder and a transfer pump to get it filled in case of an emergency. I wandered around town, sometimes taking a taxi, sometimes using the bus service. I did the tourist thing and hit some book stores too. I bought a few 'coffee table' books on how sailing ships ran their sheets and lines, how the global wind and current patterns changed throughout the year and a few standards, like a large format Gray's Anatomy.

I bought a few things for baking and other than that, screwed off for a few weeks. I got a couple hits on the ad I'd placed. I heard from two men and a woman. When I specified that they'd have to take a drug test one of the guys faded. The other young man was just that--a young man. He'd gotten his certs as an LPN but we needed somebody with more practical knowledge. It worked out nicely that we hired a female medical officer as it made sanitation simpler. We only had a unisex head at that end of the ship. Kim was in her early forties. She'd been a shipboard medical officer on cargo ships for years. Kim wanted to go back to sea but had a little problem. You see, she was married, and married berths were hard to come by. When I found out that Kevin had an engineer's ticket I hired the both of them on the spot. The engineer's cabin had an attached head so that evened up the loading on the main crew facilities. I hired 'em at forty-five thousand a year, American. I gave Kevin a tour of the engineer's space while gently probing what he knew. He seemed to know his stuff. I left him with my notes on PM schedules, certification expirations and engine rebuild clocks.

Kim was a lot harder to satisfy. There were a hell of a lot of little things that I hadn't known enough to stock. I left her with a key to the drug locker, a ship's credit card and the phone book. I left her alternately chortling and groaning over my selections. She was busily pounding in some sort of inventory into her laptop as I closed the door.

Australia was known for its wines and citrus. I had a taxi driver take me to a butcher where I bought four quarters of prime beef broken down into primal cuts. Then we hit a large liquor shop where I button-holed a manager. I described my mission upon which he intercommed for one of his salesmen. I bought four cases of middle-of-the-road merlot, a case of not-too-chewy red wine, a case of rum, a big case of vermouth and a few bottles of orange liqueur. My next stop was to a grocery store where I bought cheese, Danish butter, fruit and preserved fruit. I had a taste for ribs. I bought a dozen slabs and a couple gallons of sauce that someone told me was worth buying. Add a few loaves of French bread and you've got a good summer meal on your hands.

Back on board I used a cart to bring everything down to the galley. I peeled the ribs, cut them in half and set them to simmering in a big kettle while I put away everything else. I tasted the sauce and gave it a thumbs up. I'd have to go back for more. I had a smoking box for wood chips that fit into the grill. I filled that with soaked chips before the ribs finished parboiling. I cooked two slabs at a time in the smoke for a half hour, then I coated them in sauce and wrapped them in foil. They went into a medium oven to finish. Meanwhile I made up a pot of beans and a gallon of Sangria. When everything was done I called Kim and Kevin to dinner. By the noises they made it was the best meal that they'd had in a while. While they relaxed at the table with some more sangria I headed in to write out a couple of checks. I presented them with a ten percent sign-on bonus which they happily accepted. I told them to get lost for a couple of days to get their gear together and close up their affairs on land. I hadn't told the rest of the crew but I intended to circumnavigate the globe which meant it would be a while before we returned to the 'scene of the crime'.

The ladies came back to the ship, laden with packages and smiles. George, my first mate, came back happy and calm. I made ribs again that night. Linda watched, and judged. After we loaded the dishwasher I raised my eyebrow at her. Her only comment was, "It takes a lot of prep, but the results are worth it."

Once Kim got the clinic and dispensary firmly in hand she wanted us to exercise a bit more. I bought a couple rowing machines and two reclining elliptical for the exercise room. After trying them out she gave the machines her blessing and started tracking the crew's weight and blood pressure.

Every four months I pulled an accounting of all my finances. This time I got a surprise. A bad one. My investment account had been drawn down by fifty percent to two million dollars. I called the bank and got an analyst on the phone. The withdrawal had been made in my personal banker's name about five weeks before to a personal account in Indonesia. I tried to call my banker and got a not-in-service message. I was getting angry. I contacted a detective agency that did skip-tracing. After digging through my files for all the information I had on the guy I turned them loose. Then I used the receiving account number in the bank's transaction journal to find out what bank owned the routing code. I placed a call to them. I contacted their fraud department. On the strength of my knowing the party, the date and time of the transaction and the amount to the penny they agreed to freeze the account. My working account still had almost three million in it. He couldn't touch that, but he could move up to half the investment account to take advantage of the market or a lucrative deal, but I was supposed to be notified within forty-eight hours of the transfer. As soon as my skip-tracer found him I'd be off on a big bird to pay the man a call. If he was in Indonesia he was less than fourteen hundred miles away. I could take the ship there!

While this business ground itself to a conclusion I wondered to myself what two million dollars worth of retribution would look like. I decided that I'd rather have the money than sell his body for medical replacements.

We caught a credit card expenditure. He'd signed into the PanAsian hotel, Jakarta. It was one of the pricier commercial hotels in the city. I immediately packed a briefcase with my identification papers and all my accounting data, then took a plane for Jakarta. I took a cheap hotel for the night and made an appointment with the United States embassy. I asked them to contact the Indonesian government international crimes bureau. That got my appointment moved up to the next day. At that time the Indonesian government was hell on monetary fraud and baksheesh.

I produced my bona fides, the data I had on my personal banker, my account activity history for the past two years, the inter-bank transfer log, the record of his local credit card purchases and a certified copy of my contract with him. Two forensic accountants gave everything a careful scan to make sure that I wasn't running some sort of reverse play on them. They concluded that I was in the right. We all proceeded to the bank where, it being the head branch, a partner came to assist us. Once again, his accountants went over the paperwork and cross-verified all that they could. I provided the transfer codes and got my money back. We then proceeded to wait for my oh-so-personal banker to show up and insist that his money be released.

Upon his arrest his room was searched. His financial trail revealed over thirty million on account. That certainly wouldn't be there by the time he got out of prison.

I had various department heads that reported to me on a regular basis. Irene started taking piloting shifts. Linda bought for the mess and kept the inventory fresh. Kevin scheduled down-time for the engine, generators and water maker as well as checked the fire suppressant systems. Janice took care of housekeeping and laundry. Kim was our medic and did a bit of engineering maintenance to keep in touch with her husband. Pam helped Jamie do housekeeping and laundry, and when the kitchen needed a good working over she pitched in there too. George took care of navigation and regular drills.

I worked a pilot shift, was the ship's baker, purser, captain, machinist and arms master. If anyone was overloaded I was. I shifted arms master duties over to George.

I assembled the monthly reports and filled in our accounting registers. After giving our T. O. an evaluation I figured that we needed another Ordinary Seaman aboard for cleaning and maintenance support. Irene's shift up the ladder to second mate left us unbalanced. I sent the women out to look for someone that they could work with. They knew that I'd have to approve anybody they selected so it wasn't a hog-wild selection process.

I was getting antsy. They finally came back with someone. She was a slim Asian girl that was taller than I expected a native to be. Her name was Akma Raweng. She'd come from a large family in Phuket but the drug traders took advantage of their having a trading boat. She knew enough English to get by, both written and spoken. Most of her family was gone, dead. She promised to work hard and be faithful. That was all I could ask for. I told her all debts were broken and gave her a check for four thousand bucks, a ten-percent hiring bonus. I sent Pam along with her to make sure she'd be okay getting back. I got the ship refuel led and provisioned while they were out shopping. I was surprised that it took as long as it did. The next morning Pam dragged Aka aboard and called for a fast departure. Things started happening. Soon we were on shipboard power, all lines were coiled and we were steaming out of the harbor. I called for an explanation. "Thanks, cap. We ran into her clan, or guys that said they were from her clan, and demanded everything she had. I, um, objected. I didn't want to stick around and help sort out the parts, so here we are."

I thought for a moment. "Good job. When dealing with a government it's better to seek forgiveness later than to ask for permission before hand, if you want to get anything done." I hunkered down into her face. "Just remember, your captain needs to know before hand. Your loyalty is to your captain as his is to you. Understand?" She nodded quick. "Yup. The crew is family."

I grinned, nodded and patted her back. Well done, crew. Now, we need all the normal paperwork filled out for Akma, including a full medical history. We'll probably have to get her shot record up to snuff which means she'll be feeling under the weather for a while. Make her understand. We'll probably all need immunization updates as we're going into India and the plague countries. Get your new friend kitted out and show her around her new digs, would you?" I got a spunky salute. "You got it, cap."

I made sure that our doc was on the ball to get the serum media ordered for our immunizations.

I ordered the books to instruct an Ordinary Seaman and an Able-Bodied Seaman. I had a suspicion that they'd be well-thumbed before long.

I turned forty-seven. There's nothing magical about being forty-seven. I wanted to hit some of the big cities of the Asian basin. I headed us for Manila. When Akma scowled and said 'they were greedy' I translated that to mean we were about to be skint. Instead I headed north for Shanghai, China. I had no trouble getting visas as a hazardous shipping vessel. I suggested that we all stay together as Shanghai was a very mercenary city. Their reputation was that anything could be had, including you!

The pace was so fast, the markets were so intense that we felt out of synch--lost. We headed down the coast to Guangdong. They catered to country cousins like us.

Kevin remarked that we were down to two water maker spares and the manufacturer was local. I found out how many we could store and ordered four more.

The city had an odd feeling about it, kind of like New York in a different language. I felt that it was time to move on. I elected to go to Singapore. It was a quick cruise of just a couple days. I paid a premium to tie off to a dock connected to land and ordered services such as electricity and Internet.

I felt that it was time to find another money manager. I dressed in my captain's uniform and took a brief case full of documentation with me. I took a cab for the Bank of Singapore's main office.

Once there I described our business and the problem we'd had with our money manager from the U.S. I wanted the same level of service without the theft, please. They were willing to take us on as a customer, providing investment, corporate, trust and legal services for us as a world-wide corporation. Granted, I only had interests in Oregon in the U.S. and the ship, but that wasn't to say we wouldn't expand our holdings.

Several of our ship's action items came due close enough to lump them together into a minor refit. Once back on board I contacted a high-end ship's chandler and established an account, then threw Linda at the problem. It was time to turn over our supplies and clean out the refrigerators, both the walk-ins and reach-ins. Spills constantly happened in the galley at sea, and some didn't get detected until later. Thus the cleaning party. We cleaned out the various holds one by one, then steam-cleaned' em with soapy water and bleach. Once dry they were re-stocked. It took most of a week as we didn't have any reason to kill ourselves. Once we were done neither Linda nor myself had any worries about passing a full galley inspection. Next we tackled the engineering space. A fine layer of oil covers everything around working diesels. It's a constant battle to keep things clean. That's why they call apprentice engineers 'wipers', because that's about all they do! Housekeeping stores got taken apart and put back together. I bought new vacuum cleaners. I ran a full recalibration of the bridge C&C system which took over thirty hours of babysitting.

The ship's air filters got upgraded to HEPA standards and the carpets in the passageways were steam-cleaned. The salon was cleaned from edge to edge and the walls were repainted. Then the cabins were repainted. I bought enough helmets with full faceplates and digital radios for all the crew. That reminded me to buy everyone a pistol, holster, belt and bulletproof vest. I bought 10mm ammo in case lots. All the fire extinguishers were inspected and signed off. I had a server installed and wiring run to each workstation to make messaging and coordinated calendars something other than a nightmare. Once we were finished I treated the crew to a tourist's overview of the city by chartered bus, followed by a little shopping. Once back on board I singed George's hair for not running regular firearms skill challenges. I was the only one on board that had tried out a .50 cal. That was unacceptable.

The vessel's management was becoming easier as tasks were handed off. I signed checks, arranged for contracts and income, declared our course and ran general oversight. Oh, and I baked breads and pastry.

I secured an emergency shipment of big Rolls Royce turbojet engines to Chittagong where a flock of ducks had taken out a big commercial transport. The visas were arranged, the engines secured on a sea-going barge and we steamed away into the night. It took less than seven hours to make the journey at 10 knots. We steamed all night and got there in time for the morning shift to unpack and install the engines. I don't think that jet was down but eighteen hours. It didn't look as if we were going to find any other cargo there. I took a good long look at the map. There was Muslim unrest almost everywhere I looked. I didn't want to get caught up in any of it.

The next large non-Muslim port seemed to be Cape Town, South Africa. It was roughly 5100 miles away. I had the crew haul out the extra fuel bladders, connect them and tie them down. While I was watching the operation I parked one hip on the picnic table. Damn! I almost caught a splinter the size of a steak knife in my ass. The table had degraded pretty badly. I ordered six heavy recycled plastic planks, eight feet long and fourteen inches wide, one inch thick. We had the bar stock on board to make a new table and bolt it down. I all had the fuel tanks filled and off we went. That night at mess I described the situation as I saw it and my reasons for avoiding any dealings with predominantly Muslim countries. I received disinterested approval. They really didn't care. I gave Kevin and whoever he could co-opt the job of replacing the table during our transit. It would take nearly a month. Upon reflection I called my banker and requested them to redirect any of my investments that were predominantly influenced by Muslims or any other relatively unsteady governments, such as Argentina, Greece, Israel or Cuba ... I was live-and-let-live, and all that, but when it came down to my money let 'em find their own marbles.