Echo's Beneath the Waves

By Bruce Pinkos

The Neiare departed the Ecuadorian port on a scheduled exercise along a bearing closely straddling the equator. The ships working crew plus a technical staff of horticulturists were soon to be pulled violently from their normal monotonous daily routines. They would be cast into a myriad of horrific, life threatening situations that had to be overcome in order to survive.
As the ships situation turns grave the staff fight to maintain their fragile life support systems. Gerald Gross and his covert "Sustain" group must deftly manage the remaining crew to battle on in order to stay alive. The odds are increasingly against their survival with each passing minute of indecision.
Unknown to the bulk of Horticulturist, the work that they dedicated their careers to was about to about to become much more vital. This was a fact that other major nations in the world had been well aware of. Now their determined efforts to acquire the cargo that the Neiare berthed on board were intensified to a degree of terrifying desperation. The fate of hundreds of millions may now rest in "Sustains" hands.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jan 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9781667822112

Book preview

Chapter 1

Ships log of the Neiare sailing out of Balao’s port off the coast of Ecuador.

Written by Gerald Gross:

Estimated log starting date July 23 /1994. 9.00 AM

I have been nominated by the remaining surviving crew listed below to pass on these messages. Too any persons who should find this log, and therefore we will assume none of the ship’s crew is still alive, please relay these words to our loved ones. To our families and friends, we have clung to our lives and embraced it. We have come to understand the true value of life. We all hope that you are able to live your lives in happiness and good health for as long as God allows. God bless you; we will miss you, and we love you all.

Gerald Gross

John and Tanya Miller

Brenda Lockmeyer

Roberto Canasta

Michelle Ameda

Emilo Varass

Nina Castillo

Marisa Rodriguez

Dr. Nicolas Martin

I am beginning this log two days after the breakup and subsequent sinking of this giant ship. We had used it as a glass domed test garden for plant life now but in its first years of duty it was a liquid natural gas transporter otherwise known as an LNG ship. We retained its originally christened name Neiare. Many of our family and friends are not aware of the work that we have been involved in. Most of you only know that we work in South America farming on land and going to sea for the other part of our jobs. I hope to give you some small scope of understanding for our last days alive and our surroundings before our deaths.

We are all still feeling some remnants of disbelief and shock that the ship has gone down and left us trapped under the sea. The Neiare could have been a replica of a small oil tanker.  It appeared so immense to us all that the thought of it sinking had never dawned on any of the crew that were not experienced sailors.

To the best of our knowledge, we are the only remaining people alive from the original 28-member listed ship’s crew and Agricultural staff that left port on July 3rd.

It appears now that we have some small chance of surviving another day. I am writing this log for our loved ones who no doubt will be reading it one day after our deaths. It’s our hope that learning some facts about our accident and final days alive may bring you some comfort and closure to your grieving.

One more day to hope for a miracle rescue is all we beg and pray for at this time. We all know that the water could explode in upon us at any time without warning or conscience. As of this writing all of the remaining crew is relatively healthy minus a few broken bones and scratches that have kept Dr. Martin busy. We all realize at this point how lucky we have been to last this long. That sad reminder is clear because Dr. Martin right now has the unenviable task of trying to figure out what to do with two of our dead shipmates that remain on board with us. Most likely they had their lives cut short only a few days earlier than ours will eventually be. 

We lost Karen Murchison and Marta Floria during the storms assault that vicious day when the ship tore apart. Once separated we slowly began to sink. Paranoia and hysteria gripped us all for the last 2 days while we careened around battered by heavy seas. All the while we watched the water line rise up the glass bubble sides of the ship with no clear way to escape. A transformation of emotion to numb hopelessness came only due to the lengthening passage of time and exhaustion. The Neiare broke up and began sinking on July 19th and ran aground on this undersea shelf where you will I assume eventually find us.

During the first day after we had run aground Chris Montlay made our first attempt to escape. We found an air lock that had formed at the end of pod # 5 in the aft corridor. It had proven to be a lethal mistake for Chris and all of our combined morals.

God rest his soul. The memory of that gruesome scene unfolding right in front of us above the glass in pod # 3 was enough to put to rest any more desperate unplanned attempts to escape.  Most of us started to realize at that time getting out was not going to be as simple as swimming to the surface in a life jacket. We had to come up with a better thought out plan for escape and pray for someone to find us in the mean time. Until my next entry whenever time may allow me to, I am determined to end each and hopefully all of my future log entries with the phrase.

We will survive.

Let’s hope for all of our sakes there are more than a few new entries to follow in the logbook.

What happened that gloomy dark afternoon just 16 days into our rotation? The Captain, Mr. Pretenn announced that we had rough weather ahead but there was no panic in his voice. No batten down the hatches order for the crew to react to with any sense of urgency. On the contrary the crew seemed to be in complete control and slightly annoyed that another low-level tropical depression was coming toward us like so many had before. It seemed that it was only going to make the trip more uncomfortable than they hoped it would be. The seaman on the deck went about their business casually as the heavy weather that they had seen hundreds of times before pressed aggressively towards the ship.

The long-standing command from the bridge was that the ships course was not to vary from this latitude bearing 8 degrees N. The sunlight angle or lack of it on this gloomy day was to be kept as constant as possible through our entire 4 month stint at sea. The captain had mentioned that we would not weather the storm as comfortably or on the exact tack he would have preferred but this would be a minor inconvenience. Captain Preteen had assured us that the storm was reported to be just a good blow in his own words.

The truth was that Captain Pretenn had sailing orders to follow that he would not deviate from under any circumstances. He had been hired by a company called Genetic Agricultural Products Inc. to pilot this vessel and he was very happy to have the position.  It was a plumb job and he knew it. A big multi national company like GAP paid very well compared to some of the fly by night employers he had worked for over his long career. After years at sea with sketchy employment and unemployment just as often, a 60-year-old captain knew a good gig when he saw it. He was part of a 3-crew rotating staff. Basically 8 months on, 4 months off cruising through the tropics.

His crew would be on the sea for 4 months straight and then be off for two months twice a year. Another crew had the identical shift of her sister ship, the Aquarius, sailing off the Atlantic coast. The third crew worked the split shift of two-month intervals four times a year on both ships as required.

With great pay and a nice pension at the end of his working days it was a great job for an old grizzled sailor.  In just five more years he could relax and sail if he still desired when and where he wanted. All he had to do was follow GAP’s orders to the letter and that was easy. Leave port and set his course at the companies ordered pre-described latitude and stick to it no matter what situation arose.

As the tropical storm stiffened and the winds increased, the First Lieutenant Charlie Upshaw reported to Captain Pretenn that the US meteorology weather service had issued an updated report.

  Upshaw relayed that we were now expecting the storms winds to reach speeds in excess of 135 kilometers per hour.

The captain could read the rising level of concern on Upshaw’s face rather easily. They had been together on at least 7 of these excursions over the past five years. Upshaw was the most senior first lieutenant out of the three that the company had on payroll and had aspirations of being promoted. He had written his exams for the license of Master Mariner and the title of Captain would be added to his rank if the result was an expected passing grade. That would make him almost the equal of Captain Pretenn. Preteen held the highest rank of all commercial sea Captains that of Master Mariner. He could command ships of unlimited tonnage, size or power on any ocean or waterway in the world. 

The Lieutenant logically felt as soon as one of the three existing Captains retired, he was going to be next in line for a command of his own. Conversely if one of the captains was let go for some other reason it made no difference to him.

The company was very tough on the ships crews and expected everything done by their book, not just the book. Officers had been let go before based on the companies own stringent analyzes of their performance. That precedent by itself told him that likely it would happen again in the not to distant future. This kind of stressful situation today often brought on fast sloppy decisions. Weeks or months from now in a boardroom far away, the choices Pretenn made today might be seen as a reason for his termination.

Upshaw knew that he had positioned himself well for either method of employment vacancy the company might create should they open up.

‘Damn that forecaster’ He reported peak winds of no more than 104 kilometers per hour.’ An increasingly agitated Pretenn cursed loudly.

He knew that if the winds reached into the upper 115 kilometers or over 70 miles per hour, they were into a potential category 1 hurricane. But could that ever happen at this latitude? The idea of the joint typhoon-warning center or JTWC in Hawaii being wrong with this updated information was basically unheard of. The U.S. National weather service utilized information from JTWC’s tropical storm data to help correlate their own forecasts. This was the weather report that the U.S. department of defense and other U.S. departments where able to access. It was only available to Pretenn because of the ship’s military connections. What exactly those connections were Pretenn had no idea, but at a time like this they were welcome if it could get his ship and crew out of this storms dangerous path.

The system used for determining the intensity of a tropical storm was called the DVORAK method. The data provided by DVORAK provided reports that were used to help chart safe ship movements, aircraft flight routes and operational planning by other government agencies. The JTWC used many data sources including satellite systems to predict the weather patterns in this territory of the Pacific.

Nevertheless, the complexity of these weather patterns always made it difficult to predict the speed and direction of a potential hurricane. This one was a particular devil in that it stalled first and then backtracked on its course. It then gathered momentum back up and turned directly south. From this point on the weather system could do almost anything imaginable. It might follow a straight line or loop and wobble following a winding unpredictable path. No forecaster could know for sure what to expect next from the storm at this point.

The signs had been building for a storm of high intensity all day long. It had seemed like a matter of time before it was upgraded beyond a tropical storm category. The normal ingredients were present to create this kind of weather phenomenon. The first one is that naturally a storm condition must be present to begin the process. Then a hurricane requires water of 80 degrees Fahrenheit or warmer, moist air and light winds. These conditions assure that hurricanes can only be spawned in tropical climates. The combination in the right mixture is capable at its worst of producing violent winds, incredible waves and torrential rains. This often causes major flooding of coastal and some inland areas that we all see on the nightly TV news during these storms.

Out on the open ocean we seldom hear or see the dangers unfolding until the news cast tells us it has been formed out at sea. Even then few people ever pay any significant attention to it. The one group of people that really do pay close attention is those that sail the oceans of the world. They are the ones that can be trapped by mother- nature during one of her huge temper tantrums that can be whipped up quickly to Hurricane proportions. These storms are large systems that cover immense wide areas that are hard to avoid entirely. A large buffer zone is usually made away from the perimeter of the storm by any ship or airplane traffic.

The reports about these storms would normally be updated every six hours but this had been a special amended warning.  It came under the title relocated tropical cyclone warning. What this meant was that a significant change in the tropical cyclones initial warning position had taken place or the intensity has changed significantly. The problem was that this system was forming a short distance from them at this very instant. The only thing one of the crew from the Midwest could compare it to was a tornado dropping down from the sky on top of their ship at sea instead of a barn on land.

The report from Upshaw wasn’t any surprise to Preteen after what he was seeing with his own eyes now. That was an ugly bit of weather rapidly approaching his ship on a direct collision course.

But still he doubted what his own eyes were witnessing. It would be extremely rare anywhere between 15 degrees north or south of the equator to have sustained winds at that speed. He knew that to be a proven statistical fact of storms of this intensity, and as of now they were down to 9 degrees N latitude. Yes, it was true that the hurricane season was just beginning but the odds were so against a storm of this magnitude in their area that Pretenn just couldn’t accept it based on his vast experience. The captain knew that the JTWC’s wind estimates were often higher than other weather forecasting stations most times but what about this time. How could he be sure? The southeast pacific was not known to be an area that allowed for the development of hurricane systems, or at the very least they were extremely rare.

Lieutenant Upshaw had his opinion and was determined to go on record in front of all the gathered crew in the bridge. Captain we have to change course immediately. The storm is strengthening every minute that goes by. We can’t hold her on this heading safely anymore.

Pretenn knew this of course but was trying to juggle the lesser of two evils. One, follow the set course and put the ship and crew in possibly serious danger if the winds did not subside or set a course 2 points to port. The port heading would take them south and closer to the equator. The winds would certainly have to be lighter with every fraction of a degree he took the ship further south he thought.

That is not an option I will entertain right now Mr. Upshaw thank you was the captain’s terse reply.

Upshaw had a slight feeling of amusement for a brief moment at Captain Pretenn’s predicament despite the increasing danger to his own personnel situation. A two-degree deviation in Latitude might be enough for a dismissal or a serious reprimand. Certainly, he would have to fly back to the states for an explanation of his decisions that had to be coming very soon now. The captain’s absence of course would mean that Upshaw would assume at least temporary command for the rest of this or another future trip. It would also mean a nice bonus in rate of pay for a part of the ships cruise at least. That brought a smirk to his face. After all any time logged in as a Captain looked good on a pay stub or a resume.

As the storm stiffened the winds were quickly increasing to gale force. The ocean rose up and was whipped into a fury not too many of the more grizzled experienced sailors on board the ship had ever witnessed.  The thunder was rumbling at the offing of the horizon which was the sight point where the water and sky met in the distance. Pretenn knew this distance from his years of experience on the oceans to be 12 to13 miles away. This distance would vary depending on his eye height above sea level. He was now standing 30 meters high off the water inside the bridge of the ship at his normal post on board. He knew from years on the sea that his distance calculation was correct.

Time passed by so quickly now that it seemed like only seconds later that coal black clouds were bellowing towards the ship at an ever- increasing speed. They layered and rolled over themselves like gas vapors escaping a mad scientist’s test tubes in a lab experiment. A hot blast of tropical wind tore through the main deck surface that only a few of the crew still remaining out in the open were present to feel.  Then it began with all its pent-up fury. Almost as though a starter’s pistol had been raised and the trigger pulled it seemed to surprise us all. The lightning scythed through the black clouds in every direction.  The crash of thunder that shortly followed was signaling the fact that the epicenter of the storm was closing towards the ship very fast. The crewmembers evacuated the weather deck in an undisciplined scramble for shelter.

Pretenn caved in and gave the order that had to be eventually given ‘take her two points to port helm’ he bellowed looking directly at the man at the wheel to make sure his order had been heard, understood and obeyed.

Aye, Aye Captain two points to port.

Under the icy stare of his captain, he made the course correction adjustment immediately following his tensely delivered orders.

A shrieking and now rapidly cooling wind brought with it unexpected hail that pounded the ships glass pods and the long steel decks. The hail that struck on the bridge window ledges appeared to be the size of grapes but jaggedly edged. They had been tumbled up many times inside the cold air of the very high-altitude clouds. The storms swirling winds now pushed them down to earth with such anger and force that the warm air of the tropics didn’t have time to soften let alone melt the frozen water. So hard was the hail hammering on the deck that the crew could have easily felt that the ship was its lone target out in the vast empty ocean.

The planting staff was now watching anxiously inside the plexy-glass pods looking up at the noise and lightning flashing all around the darkening skies. Many of the planters were frightened that the pods plexy glass would crack under the hammering the clear glass was beginning to take. There was no need to worry about that though. The shipyard had made sure that the integrity of the glass would stand much more than this punishment level. This was a design made to withstand tremendous torque and pressures from all forces of nature. There had been no expense spared in this massive retro fit. The original 5 spherical aluminum tanks that had previously sat on the deck had been replaced by 5 one piece super plexy glass shells. All five pods strung inline along the deck were built to be totally independent of each other. They were sealed against air and water contamination with double portal doorway entries down below decks. Each was accessible by two long corridors. They ran down each side of the ship from bow to stern. Yes, the pods would be safe from the storms anger under the current conditions or almost any extreme conditions for that matter.

The pounding racket of the hail continued to send a resounding noise throughout each of the five clear glass covered bubble pods. The glass seemed to magnify the intensity of the sound ten fold. This was the first time any of the ships crew had experienced hail inside one of the domes. A young child incessantly banging on a new set of drums would have been the only annoying equivalent. The only difference between the two was that there was no pause, no respite to be had from the din that little tired arms would have eventually supplied.

In many cases the noise was driving crewmembers right down to a fetal position on the Bridge floor. All of the staff covered both ears with their hands to get some kind of break from the incessant racket the hail brought down on them. The agony continued on for ten solid minutes of pure torture of the senses for each of us inside the pods. The deck crew that quickly holed up on the bridge dodged a bullet this time for sure. Slowly it began to ease off and a torrent of rain took up the task to punish us some more albeit in a more commonly civilized way.

The ocean was now frothy with white golf ball sized hail. The hissing noise of tens of thousands of them melting in the warm ocean water filled the surrounding air. Any poor soul that had not gotten under some form of cover before the downfall would have been pelted to death or to its edge at the very least. The white balls racked up against the side of the ship in such numbers that they were clearly visible from the bridge against the backdrop of the oceans normally clear blue water.

Almost without warning but certainly to fast for the ship’s captain to plan a response with a ship of this enormous size the wind whipped around and the seas dipped, flinging the Neiare on a twisting plunge. Captain Pretenn was taken completely by surprise by the fury of the category 2 Hurricane with 100 mph winds that was before him now. He and the crew struggled to get the ship’s bow back to fronting the waves as they crashed the ship from the vulnerable starboard side. The ships steady heading course was now quickly abandoned due to the severity of the incoming swells. Water and a build up of mini icebergs were streaming off the bulwarks freeing ports liberally now. Through it all the continuous unrelenting 40-50 ft waves crashed into the ships aft side viciously opposed to its presence in there way.

Captain Pretenn knew his ship had its limitations as all ocean going craft do. The ships architects and engineers had balanced it well for the original cargo of liquid natural gas. However, the new heavy modifications that had taken place recently robbed the ship of some of its original freeboard buoyancy. As a result, she road lower in the ocean than the original design had intended her too.

Pretenn knew that the ship would be slow to recover from being slammed by these huge, regularly pounding jackhammer waves. He also knew there could be even greater unforeseen danger to come. That was the possible formation of a rogue wave. Some mariners called them fairy tales and there was very little proof to show they really existed. Pretenn believed in them though and that’s what counted now. How else he thought could you explain some of the stories he had heard of lost ships over the years.

Just a few years ago in 1975 he had heard that on Lake Superior 3 waves together that they called the 3 sisters had ganged up to sink the big freighter, Edmond Fitzgerald. That was on a lake. A big lake for sure, but just the same he was on the big wide open angry ocean now.

These unpredictable events caused hundreds of ships to go down though out history causing heavy loss of life.  That type of wave action wouldn’t follow the same rhythm of these 40 to 50 foot monsters. It could combine with one of these big waves to form a higher crest or create a different lower swell depth at the bottom of the wave. This was what they recently now started calling the hole in the sea. It also could add another wave to the cycle making it harder for the ship to recover from a deep trough. Any additional flex of muscle from mother- nature raising or lowering the ship would cause an even more dangerous condition for the crew. The captain knew that even without one of the potential rogue’s added in these waves were giving the ship all she could handle right now on their own merits.

Captain Pretenn knew his ship well having put her though numerous rough sea conditions in the past few years but she had some peculiarities unique to herself. The main one adding to the unworthiness of the enormous ship was the 100,000 gallons of fresh water she also carried. It had been loaded into the holds while still in port as it was before every trip. It was also being constantly added to by the desalination system on board during the voyage when required. It was a very complicated hi-tech machine system with control functions set to maintain water levels at a minimum level of 50,000 gallons of fresh water at all times. Multiple check values on all pipeline feeds to block any leakage of salt water into the sealed system maintained water purity. Salinity was monitored twice daily and recorded by 2 members of the crew on input and output from the tanks. On this trip Nina and Roberto had that vitally important job.

Those damn plants that they ferried around the ocean had to have their fresh water at all times. It was company policy to have the holds full when they left port in case the desalination system went down at any time during the trip. It was of course critical to have the plants on board sufficiently watered during the entire trip. The captain had often said to any of the planting crew who would listen if you people are so damn smart with these plants why can’t you just teach them to drink sea water. After all Kelp and other ocean plants lived with it, he simply pointed out.

It was a shame that 99% of our earth’s water was locked up in the polar ice caps or our salt laden oceans the captain had often thought. Throwing a hose overboard with a pump to bring it up would have been much simpler than the Neiare’s state of the art water system. This process of desalinization had been on board ships since the time steamers started sailing. Those old ships had needed fresh water for their boilers to run efficiently and produce clean steam. During the Second World War hundreds of larger ships that remained at sea for extended times had employed the systems.

Now instead of being used to preserve life or power a boiler, the fresh water was a noose around the ships neck in rough seas. It became a silent weapon from below decks that was now loaded and ready to be used with deadly force. It was a potentially huge counter weight pendulum that added to any unwanted movement.

Part of the below decks hold on the ship was where the big fresh water tank was located underneath pod # 3 mid-ship. It was welded and supported under the Pod like a big travel suitcase. The rest of the lower hold beneath it had sideways baffles running the ships length bow to stern but not totally isolating the hold into separate containment areas. The engineers designed in angled shock absorbers into the hold during the refit. They were inserted for structural strength and to stop any trapped sea water in the lower hold from surging to freely bow to stern in a rough sea.

The hold and bilge pumping system were designed to never allow this water build up to happen. The double bottom construction of the ship was fairly reliable and the bilge pump system had always kept up with any previous demand. Except this time, she took on water too fast and the ice blocked the gunnels from allowing water to freely spill off the bow decks and side bullocks as it normally would have. Each gallon of water held on deck for any length of extra time added to the weight pushing down on the ship. The longer the water stayed on board the more of it found its way below decks into the ships hold area. This was just one complication leading to other problems growing the danger level as each minute passed. The ship’s sea worthiness was being tested to its upper limits.

More likely than any engineering over sight however was that the force of the huge pounding waves weakened baffles below and eventually they began to give way. Adding in metal fatigue and some water buildup movement back and forth over the storm’s fury some of the partially rusted baffles likely had broken free of there welds completely.

These could have become projectiles of huge heavy beams sloshing back and forth given the right conditions. Improper port inspection was the likely culprit. This in turn allowed the water more travel distance when the ship went up and down the long rolling waves. It was this distance that allowed the water to build speed and hammer the remaining baffles breaking more of them loose on this trip. Having gone undetected in port the danger may have been growing more and more over time. The swells the ship was riding in now would provide the momentum to do the job of disrupting the holds framework even more.

The captain could sense through the feel of his ship that she was handling differently now while taking on the angry sea. This was something Pretenn would have to insist was inspected and if need be, fixed once back in port before the next trip. He had made a note of his concerns in the ships log along with the general bad handling characteristics before.  He always made sure they were written down in the log. Telling the dockyard verbally never seemed to get anything done but when it was in the logbook it usually got some attention at least. Once in port when the holds had been pumped completely dry a proper visual inspection could be done then he thought to himself. With the ship not being under a complete US Navy title in theory the issue of repairs were generally contracted out to local parties which at times left something to be desired. Many ships under different flags and ownership sailed regularly for years without proper maintenance. His ship seemed to be given decent treatment he had noticed compared to others though, which made him raise an eyebrow from time to time. Still, he had to convince the contractors to do it on his say so. This had proven to be easier said than done. Over the years he had learnt unfortunately dockyard workers could slack off with the best of them.

This ship had its secrets that even the captain that commanded her wasn’t completely privy to. He had remembered a story about an old ship called the Andrea Doria. She had sunk in 1956 with what seemed like similar ballast issues. He remembered that story vaguely. The Neiare already had its own water hazard locked in the ships holds. The fact that the Andrea Doria didn’t have the proper ballast turned a survivable tilt into the ship capsizing. Pretenn had seen the link between these two ships ballast problems in his mind before. Even though his ship was not listing to the starboard or portside its weight was being transferred uncontrolled beneath him and he could sense it worsening.

Most grey bearded sea Captains had an ingrained memory for these horrible sea tragedies that they keep mental records of.  Part of being in the union of maritime officers he had thought to himself. There was always an age-old story to be told in every port. Often by sailors or a dock laborer about ships that had been lost at sea. The how, why, where and when they went down was all a part of sea lore’s history. Most often the real truth behind the story involved bad seamanship by the officers in command of the vessel at the time she went down. Every ship’s Captain had knowingly taken his vessel into dangerous seas many times in their careers and this was just another bad one coming up he had reasoned.

During the last voyage they had hit some reasonably rough seas and the ship had behaved unruly at that time, sluggishly coming out of the rollers. This time she was being slammed by 50 foot high waves moving at 40-50 miles per hour. The wind gauge had now topped 97 miles per hour.  The waves they were regularly facing now could exert over 1 million-foot pounds of pressure on any deck hatch. If any of the front nose area hatches popped open, combined with the fresh water in the holds slamming forward on a downward trough the Neiare would be very slow to recover and rise up. They might as well point the large end of a funnel into the oncoming waves.

Quite frankly she just wasn’t that stable a vessel to sail in any sort of a decent blow. The naval architects had placed a very high premium on the pods five watertight compartments providing the back up ballast the ship might require. These watertight compartments running most of the length of the ship would completely contain any flooding into them. To simplify it, the top deck carried what amounted to 5 large air filled super unbreakable balloons that would be very hard to sink indeed.

This was thought to be one of the best shipwreck proof tricks the engineers had to offer. It would be damn hard to keep these pods underwater. The other highly regarded method of keeping the ship afloat was a captain that obeyed the rules of good seamanship. No ship could be deemed 100 percent safe in rough seas if improperly handled and this one had started out being treated that way. Many a ship had been lost at sea by falling prey to the all too common storm factors of wind, current, treacherous waves and bad command of the vessel.

The streaming design on the deck level had all 5 of the pods lined up in a row, 1 behind the other, in a straight line bow to stern. They were isolated from each other by double access portal doors on each pods port and starboard sides. The enclosure doors had to be latched tightly closed within a two-minute period of opening or the door open sirens went off all over the ship and that was something you didn’t want to be personally responsible for. The annoyance to all onboard made you very unpopular the first time and downright hated each time after. In general, it only happened once per new crew member.

Access to the pods was normally down the sides of the ship through either the long port or starboard side corridors. They fortunately had only one door to enter at each end. Once in the corridor you could then walk to any pod you wanted and open the 2 doors to enter inside. The other more time consuming method was to walk the chain up the middle of the ship. This involved opening the 2 doors leading out of pod 1 stepping into a short steel lined hallway closing the doors behind you and then opening the 2 doors into pod 2 and closing them behind you. Repeat as needed to go to the next in line pod. This was rarely if ever used and was more of a backup emergency exit system if the corridor doors had been damaged or were out of service for any reason.

In reality any route that you took, the doors into each pod made for an enormously time consuming cumbersome journey every time any of the crew came and went from them. The doors were heavy, clumsy and hard to handle if you were a person of slight build. Many of the crew had to struggle to get them closed in the 2 minute period and there was certainly no extra time to waste. The crew despised this feature and many of them used excuses to remain in individual pods for most of their work shift until mealtime or bathroom breaks forced them to exit. These doors were of similar spin locking design to that of a submarine with its many compartmented watertight zones. Each area was able to be sealed off from the rest of the ship in order to stem a leak. They were the exact specifications as found on a sub. In this case it was to maintain plant breed integrity between pods.

The doors did however have the effect of keeping any nosy regular sailors on the ships crew out of the area. There were no do not enter, signs on the ship so as to not raise the level of suspicion about what was inside. Instead, they simply read GAP staff only to symbolize agriculture staff. Every member of the ships non GAP crew was grateful each time when they left port that this was not their work area. There were other more easily accessible social areas around the ship to gather and socialize anyway. If they were found in a pod for any reason they would stick out like a sore thumb and questions would then have to be asked. Reassignment followed quickly for that crew member next rotation it seemed.

GAP set the procedural rules for the experiments in each pod. They had to be kept isolated from each other to keep the results from being tainted or contaminated in any way. This was a huge mobile floating laboratory after all. It was not designed or expected to be as tightly sealed as a germ containment or Semi conductor manufacturing clean room area. That would have required special suits and personnel breathing units for all staff coming and going into the area. Never the less the suppression design was stringent enough that seeds should never be passed from one pod to the next. Directly outside the Pod area the two side corridors were mated to the 5 Pod exteriors and separate from the ships outside hull area. This was the labs secondary clean area. It had been meticulously sealed and inspected for any possible air or water leaks. The combined area had to be tested to air pressure specs before each trip out.

The ships non GAP crew didn’t know very much about the cargo and frankly the plants didn’t appear to be to different or dangerous so it was of little concern or interest to them. What was of interest right now was the storm that clutched their ship in her grasp and wasn’t letting go.

It had seemed to Pretenn right from his first initial trip out that the keel below the ship should have been weighted more when the design changes had taken place. At an over all length of 242.00 meters and breadth of 41.40 meters she was quite capable of being very stubborn to handle in rough seas. Any ship the length of two football fields once out of control was very hard to bring back into steerage even without these dangerous adverse conditions hampering your best efforts.

The original ships design with a full cargo of liquid natural gas distributed evenly the length and breath of the ship’s pods would have been calculated into the sea worthiness of the craft. That’s what the original Chinese structural designers of the ship in 1964 did. A lot had been learnt since that first ship carried this demanding cargo back in 1964 however.

This ship had been bought at auction 5 years ago at the Guangzhou Maritime Court when the leaser of the vessel had defaulted on his loan and interest payments. At a selling price of 21 million Yuan or (US 2.6 million) it had cost US ¾ of a million more to buy now than the original cost to build her back in 1970 but it was a steal of a deal at today’s prices just the same. She had been a prototype back then in a fast developing market transporting out of market gas. The Lloyd’s register had forecast even when her hull was still being laid that by the year 2001 the fleet of LNG ships would total 130 ships of which 10 % would be only one year old at that time. The LNG market was expanding so fast they couldn’t build the new class of ships fast enough to meet demand.

So after only 9 years of service the ship had become too small a vessel to economically provide the volume of gas transfers the Chinese government required from the Middle East’s gas fields. Advancements and technological changes in the transportation of LNG had caught up to her original design and engineered capabilities. With a capacity of 87,800 cubic meters in five 33-meter diameter cargo spheres the transporter had once played an important role in delivering the fuel to southern China’s expanding energy hungry markets. But now they needed newer, larger and safer ships that meet all the stringent laws that were now in place. The port authorities in all loading and unloading countries would not allow any ship not adhering to these new updated regulations to enter their harbors due to the extreme safety hazards. Even though the LNG ships had a proven safety record so far, the public was still not convinced of their owner’s claim that they could be trusted in their own ports close to home.

The inherent danger of altering the gases state from a gas to liquid when loading and thereby shrinking its volume to 1/600 of its original gas volume for transportation was very economically attractive. Realistically pipelines could not be laid across the ocean floor between the continents. The ships were the only cost efficient way to deliver the product to emerging Asian markets thousands of miles away from the producing countries.

Countering this benefit was once landed in port the transformation back to re-gasification for transfer into the pipeline system left the ships open to theoretical terrorist attacks. The public was right to be concerned of the dangers involved, as any accident would be devastating. In a rare case of uniformity most of the safety changes were adopted quickly worldwide and were being instituted around the entire globe.

Thus, having out grown its original purpose to its owner and not particularly suited for any other cargo this had made the ship quite a bargain to the new owners. The original construction was absolutely perfect for retrofit to the specific project that the US Military and GAP had planned. It was then no surprise that when her sister ship was made available at auction that she was also purchased at the same highly motivated to sell price by the same buyer. The Chinese debt holders were very happy to sell the 2 ships at a substantial premium over the existing low scrap steel prices.

Both ships were now to be registered under the names Neiare and Aquarius with zero fanfare to the outside world. They then both began their rebirth of sorts. 

They both were given two extreme modifications to their original designs. One changed the engine power plant and the other was to the domes on the main deck. After one year in port the huge pre-built 600-ton cargo domed spheres made in General Dynamics Charleston South Carolina’s Quincy shipyards were counter sunk and welded onto the 3rd level decks of the two ships. Being two decks below the weather or top deck gave the ship much more stability. As with everything on board a ship proper descriptive names were shortened and slanged out. The spheres were nicknamed the pods at the shipyard and the name stuck. Each of the pods was 22 meters high from its floor to the top of the glass. The height above the weather deck was only 9 meters in total at the peak of the sloped top. Total diameter around the bottom of the base of each pod was 30 meters slightly smaller than the original ships containers design.

Installation of naval reactors that would power the ships coincided with the pod installations. They were inserted at the opposite stern end of the two ships. The design and safety of the naval nuclear propulsion system that was installed had come a long way from the first nuclear powered ship, the Russian icebreaker Lenin back in 1957.

These Naval reactors were unlike commercial nuclear power plants in that they had to be able to withstand the constant motion of being at sea. They are rugged units that are able to handle the harsh environment of a ship’s pitching rolling movements and changing power requirements. The fact that the crew is always in such close proximity to the reactor means that there are exceptionally high standards for component manufacturing and quality assurance built in. The internal components of a naval reactor remain inaccessible for inspection or replacement throughout the long core life. A typical commercial nuclear reactor is opened for refueling roughly every eighteen months. The nuclear components are all housed in a section of the ship called the reactor compartment. On board a military ship like a cruiser they would