Going Down With the Ship: Chapter 3 Part 2

Only two more parts to this story after today! If you missed any of the earlier installments, start at Chapter 1.

Chapter 3 Part 2

Seashore Engineering, the company that was preparing the USS Beauregard for its next tour of duty as a home for fish, was allowing local volunteers to help clean up the ship, but they weren’t actively advertising for them. Allowing local workers with connections, or the staff of local dive shops, to come on board was much simpler and easier to control.

Jackson Pauley showed up at the work site. They were only two days away from the actual sinking, so he really didn’t expect to be given a difficult assignment. All of the heavy lifting and cutting should be done by now. When he told the foreman which dive operation he worked for, and about his previous service on board the ship, he learned his expectation – and Andrea’s intuition – was right on the money. That worked out well for two reasons. One, he really wasn’t in the mood to be hauling buckets of grease and oil. And two, he needed the ability to search throughout the ship.

The foreman asked him to survey the entire ship with a clipboard and prepare a list of everything that wasn’t complete. Jackson was given exactly the duty he needed to figure out if there was anything going on.

As he patrolled around the boat, taking his time and examining nooks and crannies, Jackson recorded everything he saw. He also looked for things that weren’t supposed to be there. He was nearly finished before he found what he was really looking for.

It was an odd experience for Jackson. Walking the decks of the Sumner-class Destroyer again, especially considering what the future held for the mighty ship, gave him an unsettled feeling.

She was 376 feet long and 41 feet wide, with a draft of 14 feet – small by comparison to today’s Spruance and Burke-class destroyers, but big enough to do its job. She carried 5” guns, anti-aircraft guns, depth charge racks and projectors and 10 torpedo tubes.

The full crew would have included 345 men working on board – men because in the Beauregard’s day, there were no women serving on combat ships. Jackson felt the ship seemed eerily quiet as he walked down the corridors. Her high-pressure, super-heated boilers were capable of generating 60,000 horsepower through twin screws, pushing the ship through the water at 34 knots, but now they were silent and incapable of turning a single rotation.

Today, there were only about 20 men and women on board getting her ready to sink. The engines would never turn again and there was no way to restart the boilers. The ammunition for her guns had been removed years earlier.

Jackson was checking out a compartment near the engine room when he discovered a water-tight door that had been dogged down – locked. Everything was supposed to be open and blocked with braces so it couldn’t be locked at all. They didn’t want divers to be able to get inside a compartment and get stuck. Doors had been removed. Holes had been cut in other panels.

But this one door was shut tight. Jackson searched for another access, assuming that this door was welded shut, but another hole was opened up elsewhere. He couldn’t find anything. That didn’t make sense, because they wouldn’t want to sink the ship with a compartment filled with air. It might make the ship unstable as it descended, causing it to roll over.

“What’s going on here,” Jackson said out loud to no one in particular. He leaned against the opposite wall for a minute. The door was latched from inside, but he knew a way to open it anyway. While there were reasons to lock doors from inside in rooms with only one access, there was never a reason to lock one permanently from the inside. Navy safety protocols dictated that there be a way to open the door. Water tight doors are to keep water out in the event of an accident, not people.

Jackson grabbed a screwdriver from his back pocket – he was carrying some basic tools for just such an emergency – and removed a panel from the lock mechanism. From there, it was a simple step to flip the latch and release the door.

As soon as he spun the wheel and released the door, Jackson knew he had found what he was looking for. The large room was filled with crates and barrels of every description. Jackson entered the room and began to inspect them. He wasn’t a scientist and didn’t recognize the names on the panels. But what he did recognize from his days as a firefighter were the bright yellow warning panels designating everything in the room as hazardous material. He wasn’t sure he understood the entire plan, but he had a good idea. A quick count and some educated guesses indicated the room was filled with nearly 2,000 containers. And everything he could see was a dangerous chemical.

Jackson had seen enough. He couldn’t believe even half of this came from the ship in the first place. “They must have brought this on board,” Jackson said as he replaced the panel on the door.

Jackson picked up his clipboard and left. When he made it back topside, he realized it was nearly 4 p.m. He had spent the entire day below decks. He needed to get to Andrea and tell her what he had found.

On his way out, he dropped off his clipboard showing dozens of things that remained to be finished before the ship could be sent to the bottom. It didn’t include the sealed hatch below decks.

*****

Colin Parker, the man behind Seashore Engineering, was determined to get what he wanted and nothing was going to stand in his way.

“Guys, settle down a minute,” Parker said as he called his assistants to order. Every afternoon the men sat down to discuss what else needed to be done. Nothing was off the table in these meetings. They all knew exactly what the plan was for the Beauregard.

“You all know that some environmentalist tree hugger has been snooping around,” Parker began and the room dropped to dead silence. “We’re going to move up the timetable and take care of a couple different problems at one time. I don’t want this to go on another day and give other people a chance to ask questions.”

“We’re going to tow the boat out tonight. We’ll tell Downing that we were ready early and wanted to move it into position to get the ship ready. We’ll make up some story about wanting everything to be right. Then I want the ship to sink. Send it to the bottom tonight. And make sure this environmentalist is on board. Set it up to look like she was snooping around and set off the charges.”

The men quickly got to work. If they were going to move the ship tonight, there were things they needed to set in motion. One of the men went to get some help – he was going to take care of the girl.

*****

“Mrs. Charles,” Glenn Downing, the organizer of the artificial reef project, began. “Tomorrow will be a glorious day. They’ll take the Beauregard out to its place and then everything will be ready. We’re going to have bands, government officials, media. It’ll be amazing. We’ll assemble all the people on the dock for speeches and presentations and then go out for the actual sinking. I can’t believe the day has finally arrived. We’re going to pull this off, and my career will take off. I already have interviews scheduled with newspapers and magazines from all over the state and country.”

“That all sounds great, Mr. Downing,” Mrs. Charles agreed, not really caring about what Downing planned. She moved to the islands 50 years ago. She had seen climbers and schemers come and go. She had seen celebrities and politicians. This was just one more day of big shots, and then hopefully she could return to her little oceanfront home and relax. She liked to work in a little garden by her one-bedroom cottage and swim in the ocean daily.

“I just can’t wait until it all gets started. After we sink the Beauregard, I’ll be in demand all over the country. I’ve always wanted to go to California and I’ve already heard they want someone to come there and put together another artificial reef project. This is my big break,” Downing continued.

“Yes, sir. If there isn’t anything else for today, though, I need to be leaving. I have plans this evening,” Mrs. Charles said.

“What? Oh, yes, of course, Mrs. Charles,” Downing responded without really paying attention to her. “I’ll lock up shortly. Have a good evening and I’ll see you in the morning. Tomorrow will be a busy day for me.”

*****

Women were around. In a place like the Florida Keys, with tourists coming in and out, and the other dive instructors and divemasters on the island being just about evenly split between men and women, Jackson had had his fair share of opportunities for dates. Generally, he had stayed out of the singles scene.

After 9/11, he had split up with his fiancée and hadn’t been in a relationship since. He just didn’t have the heart for it. That and the fact that most of the women he met didn’t challenge him. He wanted – needed – someone as strong-willed and as independent as he was. He was beginning to think he might have found her.

Not wanting to discuss his discoveries onboard the Beauregard over the phone, Jackson called Andrea and invited her to dinner. He told her he had something to discuss with her. In reality, it could have been just a business meeting. But, if that was the case, why was Jackson smiling and whistling to himself as he showered and got dressed. He was excited about the dinner.

Jackson was beginning to fall for Andrea. He had always been a bit of a sucker for underdogs and the people who championed lost causes. Underneath his tough exterior, he was a bit of a bleeding heart himself. It was true that Andrea was physically attractive, but that wasn’t it. He had known beautiful women before. It was the combination of the looks, brains and spunk that got to Jackson. He began to think he could fall hard.

At least, that was the thought on his mind when he left his houseboat to meet Andrea by the dock to tell her what he knew. Jackson realized that as soon as he spilled his information this evening would effectively be over. He knew Andrea would be too excited to set and eat. He was just hoping he would get the opportunity to do it again when this whole thing was done with.

*****

Two miles away, at her hotel, Andrea was having similar thoughts. She could tell by the sound of Jackson’s voice he was excited and wanted to tell her something. She just didn’t know what.

While she got ready, she had a brief conversation in her mind that went in a decidedly different direction then talking about the USS Beauregard. He’s a little gruff, she thought, but I could begin to like this guy.

Andrea stepped to her car and placed the key in the door.

The solid blow to the back of her neck and shoulder caused her to crumple. She literally didn’t know what hit her. Nor did it matter. She was out before she hit the ground.

*****

Andrea was a half an hour late for dinner. Jackson was concerned, but also disappointed. It wasn’t like there was that much traffic – it was only a two-lane road running through the middle of the island – so the possibility of a car wreck was fairly remote. She could be having trouble with her rental car, but it was new. He doubted that.

He called her cell phone, but it went straight to voice mail.

As Jackson stood looking out over the water, he was startled to see two men coming at him. He recognized one from the fight in the parking lot when he met Andrea. He immediately began to brace himself for an attack. At least until he realized the man had a heavy bundle rolled up in a tarp over his shoulder. Neither man gave him a second glance, except to say, “How’ya doing” with a simple nod in the way that men greet each other as they pass on the street.

As they went by, the man carrying the bundle stopped to adjust his load. He shifted it and repositioned the roll on his shoulder, bouncing it down hard. Then he moved on. The two men made their way to a small runabout boat, painted in Seashore Engineering colors. Jackson guessed they were working on the Beauregard and had come to the dock to pick up some supplies. The first man climbed into the boat and the second man tossed the bundle to him. Once they were both onboard, the first man – the one from the fight – started the boat’s motor while the other tossed off the bow and stern lines. They pulled away from the dock – faster than they should have, but not quite fast enough to get themselves fined for violating the No Wake zone.

Jackson waited another hour before he finally decided to go inside and get something to eat.

Sitting at the bar eating a sandwich and drinking a cold beer a few minutes later, Jackson didn’t feel like talking. He was quietly watching the television and reading the closed captioning scrolling across the screen. His mind wasn’t really registering what was on. Jackson overheard bits and pieces of the conversation going on between the only other two patrons sitting at the bar.

“Did’jou hear?” one of the other bar patrons said, with mildly slurred speech. He had been drinking for a couple hours, being sent home early for the day. “They went ahead and towed the Beauregard out to the spot where they’se gonna sink her.”

“Nah. They couldn’t’ve. They was planning a big to do out at the dock tomorrow before they towed her out. They wanted all the big shots in one place,” the second man replied.

“I’m telling ya. That’s why I’m here. All the guys that was working on last-second stuff, they sent home with our final paycheck. The foreman said they wouldn’t need us tomorrow,” the first drunk said.

“Works out good for you then. Wanna go fishin’ tomorrow?”

Jackson tuned back out to his sandwich. Hearing the man mention the Beauregard had perked up his attention, but the conversation didn’t actually register with him.

As he finished his sandwich and paid his tab – not exactly the meal he had planned on – Jackson decided to walk back out on the pier one last time.

“I just don’t get it. What could have caused Andrea to do a complete no-show?” Jackson said out loud to himself as he walked across the wood boards. “I know she wanted to hear what I found out.”

Something shiny caught his eye as he walked. Moving over to pick it up, more out of instinct than interest, he lifted a gold chain and locket off the pier decking. If it had been a quarter of an inch smaller, it would have slipped through the gap between the boards, never to be seen again.

Picking it up, Jackson realized what he was holding. It was Andrea’s dolphin locket from her father. That meant she had been there. And, if she realized she had lost it, she would have moved the entire pier to find the locket. It was that important to her.

As if he was actually seeing it in front of his eyes, Jackson saw the two men carrying a bundle. It was about 6 feet long – just long enough to cover the body of a small woman. The spot where he found the locket was just about where the man had adjusted his load and bounced it up and down. In his mind, he replayed the scene and realized he heard a sound, much like the sound of someone getting the wind knocked out of them – but muffled. He had just thought it was the man making the noise, but now he wasn’t so sure.

Then he heard the two men talking at the bar from a few minutes earlier. “They went ahead and towed the Beauregard out…”

Then Jackson heard the sound of muffled explosions from out on the water. Someone had set off the explosive charges to send the Beauregard to the bottom. And he was certain Andrea was on board.

*****

The feel of the cold metal on her face was somewhat reassuring. Andrea’s world had just shaken violently.It took her mind a moment to clear. As she shook her head to remove some of the fog in front of her eyes, pain shot through her neck and head.

“Where am I?” she asked out loud. There was some dim light coming from the hall, but the room she was in was completely dark. She could only make out the doorframe and the cold gray metal she was lying on.

And what is that noise? she thought. It was the sound of water rushing. It seemed to be getting louder as the sound of the rumbling from the explosion died away.

I’m on board the Beauregard, she realized. “I think it’s about to sink.”

Andrea said the last out loud as she tried to stand and walk to the door. Her head swam. Then the rope on her ankle pulled taught. She nearly fell, but caught herself against the metal wall.

“They’re going to kill me.”

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