Deep Seas War 2.2

The Depth

The Sea King measured four hundred feet and sixty across the beam with a draft of twenty feet. It holds a displacement of over seven thousand tons with full speed knots of eighteen knots.  With those dimensions, even the high crest of the waves still towered over it beam. It was one thing to run into a wall of salt water but the lurking danger was what it may hold inside.

“Portside, First Officer.” Captain Arthur called out when he saw the sea serpent that was hiding in the waves. “Steer to port and keep it steady.”

First Officer Stacy pulled at the ship wheel to steer the ship away from the serpent’ path. It was not a hard task for the ship’s wheel was powered by the shifting gears that eased the pressure of the pull but the force of the waves outside was had caused a drag. She struggled with the wheel with her strength while the Captain called on the crews to man the positions needed in such happening. In the crew’s quarter which could house up to sixty crews, they were roused by the siren which told them that the ship was in danger.   

Elise pulled her up from the flooring after she had pushed Arnold off her. She stood up and pulled on her yellow pant suit before she trod off to the kitchen. Arnold meanwhile had sat up with his lower half of the body naked was soon stepped or pushed aside by the storming pace when they rushed to their positions.

“Watch where you…” Arnold could not complete his statement when one of the crews stepped on his left knee. He cried out in pain but no one pays heed to him. During such an emergency, every crew member was concerned on the ship. Arnold was trying to stand up when someone assisted him up. He turned to look and saw it was the Boatswain. He was a short squat man with a body frame dyed with seventy different tattoos. He had then done for every fishing expedition and that had averaged three per year.

“Next time get a room.” Martin Anjon grabbed Arnold by the back of his neck and threw him out alongside with his pantsuit lower half. “Get to your position.”

Arnold ran off with his clothes toward the upper deck. His positon was at the portside to man the crane. He crawled into the crane seat and strapped in. It was then he saw the serpent which swam effortlessly in the waves. It was huge; a hundred and twenty feet in length with a sleek scaled body that breath over eight feet across and the head was a snake head the blue slits for eyes with a wide jaw that could have swallowed a man. Inside the serpent’s jaws were the three rows of sharp teeth that prevent the catch from escaping its bite.

 “It’s a Medusa.” Captain Arthur called out. These serpents are deadly but they are also highly priced for their succulent flesh. “I want her.”

Stacy bit her lower lips on the order. The Captain have a tendency of calling all the sea monster by feminine names although they were all assumed to be eggs carrier. The Medusa was a rare catch for it was known to strike down smaller ships and their crews. The Sea King was bigger than the serpent but the later was known to swim in pairs.

“Keep an eye for her mate. She does not swim alone.” True to the Captain’s warning, the second serpent appeared on the starboard side. She was a beauty too with her open deadly jaws and no bigger than the earlier one at over a hundred feet in length.

“Holy mackerel! That is a huge one.” Stacy called out but the Captain was focussing on the crews which were in their assigned position. He saw Martin had strapped into the harpoon turret.

The Frenchman has then activated the harpoon gun to be brought up. It was laid beneath the turret for secure holding. When the Frenchman pulled at the lever, it will moved the gears into motions which will pulled the hoist that will in turn raised the harpoon gun. These actions were activated from the steam generated turbine which fed the electrical generators. The harpoon gun was a five feet long rotating barrel muzzle loading design with a breech firing trigger. The trigger mounted on the back of the gun. The breech block would be fed with a cartridge that contained gunpowder to create the impact for the propulsion of the harpoon. Once it’s fired the breech lock will be manually opened by rotating its cover to dispense off the spent cartridge casing before a new one is inserted. Then the cover is rotated to seal the breech lock. The harpoons are loaded by the turret loading mechanism which was similar to an overhead beam with the spring released hanging two feet length harpoons over the gun. .

The beam loading mechanism held four harpoons per load. The gun will position to its vertical position for the loading of the harpoon. The harpoon will dropped into the barrel and ready for firing. Each loading and firing will take no more than twenty seconds. When all the four harpoons are fired, the beam will be lowered to the loaders below to reload it. That will take about thirty seconds to reload. The effective range was only five hundred yards. The Sea King held six of these harpoon turrets with three on each sides while on the stern was the heavier double harpoon gun with the double displacement in weight. The extra length barrel extended over twelve feet has an effective range of over five hundred yards.

In addition to that the deep fishing ship held eight machine guns turret armed with the Lewis machine guns. The gun was gas operated with an aluminium barrel-shroud that cools it. The gun held a pan magazine with 97 rounds each. It has an effective range of eight hundred yards. Those were the standard weapons configuration of most deep sea fishing ships. The sea posed more dangers than a normal hunting expedition.

“Serpents alert!” Captain Arthur called out.