Land of the Setting Sun
5/19/2007 - Anarchical Pirates
The inexperienced crew of the Jai Li made up for it in one, explosive way: enthusiasm. I woke up to an entirely empty cabin, the entire crew was already gone? And without waking me up? Everyone except for Dr. Blythe was still asleep from my crew, but I wasn't about to wait for their slow asses. I emerged from the cabin to the sounds of progress.
The ship was already up and operational, and a lot of the crew rested against the rails, or below the overhang of the upper deck. The crew still working were either up in the observation deck with the captain, or down on the deck, cleaning and chipping. One deckhand was maintaining the steel cables and winches used to drag barges around. A salty smell hit you, the scent of the ocean, brimming with possibilities. The Jai Li had definitely already left the shore, and according to Dr. Blythe, it had left hours ago.
"Check this out James, we could learn much from their teamwork. Perhaps I was mistaken to have been so upset. Our captain's crew seems to buck normal stereotypes about being thrown into the fire as a new seaman."
"Let's just hope they know what they're doing. I'm not trying to get shipwrecked and miss finals."
----------
For five days and four nights the crew of the Jai Li struggled against the rocky East China sea. Despite it not being typhoon season, the seas were still rough, and nice tugboat or not, it wasn't built for the deep seas. But it managed. On the fourth morning however, danger found me in the hold, talking with some of the crew. We'd sprawled all over the hold, chatting and playing Big Two, a popular game with the sailors, that they told me was similar to crazy eights. I'd become good friends with the guy that had translated the sea shanty for us; his name was Bo, which meant "wave-like", but he told me in confidentiality that he hated sailing.
The ship's bell began to sound, and everyone froze for a moment, looking at each other. Then, the crew jumped into action, scrambling to the upper deck, some of them already prepared, others strapping on their boots and grabbing their pistols. Bo slapped the back of my shoulder and ran over to his pack.
"On your feet, American! Pirates!" Pirates? We weren't near Somalia, so what gives?
"Bo! Is this normal?" I shouted over the commotion. He turned and started to shake his head, but stopped.
"It has gotten worse... I will say last year or so? New anarchists in Korea!" There's a peppered knocking sound against the ship's hull, like its been hit with bullets. The radiation from Japan's destruction has reached the Korean peninsula, making that area inhabitable as well, but about ten years ago, it was declared as within the green zone for habitability. The chance of getting radiation poisoning living there was still astronomically higher than living in China, so it had remained uninhabited, or so I had thought.
I strapped on my own boots, and grabbed my camera, unwilling to wait out the skirmish. Above the deck, our crew was strewn about in chaos. The tugboat provided very little cover against the gunfire from the enemy ship, so I knelt behind the ship's upper deck, snapping a few pictures of the pirates. Their ship's size was difficult to determine, but I guessed about twice the size of our puny tugboat, but far far slower. It was approaching from the left side at a crawl, and it was pretty evident that we were set to out-speed the ship, but we were still taking heavy fire. I spotted Bo, crouched behind one of the bulwarks, firing back. He grinned at me wildly, and I snapped a photo of him, making a mental note to get it to him somehow.
Captain Li Qiang was attracting all the attention, posting up behind lookout, his uniform shining in the midday sun. He had a fiercely determined look carved on his face, firing down the line with a semi-auto rifle. Nearly every time he fired, one of the black blobs on the pirate ship disappeared. Or it could have been Aubrey, who, sensing action, had shredded his third Hawaiian shirt for a bullet-proof vest, and another, more discreet rifle. They were responsible for almost all of the retaliation, the weak pistols of the crew sadly ineffective.
Under Li Qiang’s orders, the Jai Li proceeded to full speed, and we began to pull away from the larger ship. He smiled, hanging off the side of the observation deck with one hand gripping the ship, and one thrusting the rifle in the air. The crew cheered, and then someone screamed.
It was Qara, who'd just emerged from below the deck holding both her hands to her mouth, and you followed her eyes up to the observation deck. Captain Li Qiang hung off the rails by his fingertips; then they slipped, sending him crashing into the deck below. His shoulder slammed against the ground and you could see red blossoming on his collar like poppies. Cries for revenge spark from the sailors, and some of them begin trying to steer back towards the ship. You catch Dr. Blythe's worried eye from across the ship, and he shouts at you to get some of the crew under control.
"Bo!" His head snaps in your direction. "Tell your men we can't fight them right now! We don't stand a chance if we get too close!" He gave me a little mock salute, and ran across the deck to stop a few men from manually adjusting the rudder. I made my way to the observation deck and blocked off the controls from anyone else, locking the door.
Gradually, the pirates fade from view, and were left to check on Captain Li Qiang. I came downstairs and pushed through the crowd to find his body on the deck, bloody and broken, but still shining like a fallen angel. He’d been shot through the neck, a large chunk ripped off brutally. The blood had soaked through to his blue uniform, and into the floorboards, staining the wood black. I turned away, unwilling to look at him any longer.
—————
The next few hours passed by somberly, as the crew became very reserved. Some of them I thought, resented our group for even existing. It was natural of course, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit ostracized. Bo was the only one who’d talk to me, and even he spoke in small sentences. However, we ran into an issue quickly. All of the research and charting Captain Li Qiang has done was completely foreign to his crew’s limited experience, and even the combination of Dr. Blythe’s seafaring and Ogasawara’s Chinese knowledge made little headway. About all they could tell us is, we were due for a 30 to 40 degree turn west, but when? That was more unclear.
Ogasawara and Dr. Blythe's interpretations of the charts and maps differed slightly. Ogasawara claimed that per the map's instructions, in order to dock alongside Tokyo, Captain Li Qiang planned to make the turn west in about eight or nine hours, while Dr. Blythe's analyzation of the map itself seemed to indicate the turn west was supposed to take place an hour ago.
The inexperienced crew of the Jai Li made up for it in one, explosive way: enthusiasm. I woke up to an entirely empty cabin, the entire crew was already gone? And without waking me up? Everyone except for Dr. Blythe was still asleep from my crew, but I wasn't about to wait for their slow asses. I emerged from the cabin to the sounds of progress.
The ship was already up and operational, and a lot of the crew rested against the rails, or below the overhang of the upper deck. The crew still working were either up in the observation deck with the captain, or down on the deck, cleaning and chipping. One deckhand was maintaining the steel cables and winches used to drag barges around. A salty smell hit you, the scent of the ocean, brimming with possibilities. The Jai Li had definitely already left the shore, and according to Dr. Blythe, it had left hours ago.
"Check this out James, we could learn much from their teamwork. Perhaps I was mistaken to have been so upset. Our captain's crew seems to buck normal stereotypes about being thrown into the fire as a new seaman."
"Let's just hope they know what they're doing. I'm not trying to get shipwrecked and miss finals."
----------
For five days and four nights the crew of the Jai Li struggled against the rocky East China sea. Despite it not being typhoon season, the seas were still rough, and nice tugboat or not, it wasn't built for the deep seas. But it managed. On the fourth morning however, danger found me in the hold, talking with some of the crew. We'd sprawled all over the hold, chatting and playing Big Two, a popular game with the sailors, that they told me was similar to crazy eights. I'd become good friends with the guy that had translated the sea shanty for us; his name was Bo, which meant "wave-like", but he told me in confidentiality that he hated sailing.
The ship's bell began to sound, and everyone froze for a moment, looking at each other. Then, the crew jumped into action, scrambling to the upper deck, some of them already prepared, others strapping on their boots and grabbing their pistols. Bo slapped the back of my shoulder and ran over to his pack.
"On your feet, American! Pirates!" Pirates? We weren't near Somalia, so what gives?
"Bo! Is this normal?" I shouted over the commotion. He turned and started to shake his head, but stopped.
"It has gotten worse... I will say last year or so? New anarchists in Korea!" There's a peppered knocking sound against the ship's hull, like its been hit with bullets. The radiation from Japan's destruction has reached the Korean peninsula, making that area inhabitable as well, but about ten years ago, it was declared as within the green zone for habitability. The chance of getting radiation poisoning living there was still astronomically higher than living in China, so it had remained uninhabited, or so I had thought.
I strapped on my own boots, and grabbed my camera, unwilling to wait out the skirmish. Above the deck, our crew was strewn about in chaos. The tugboat provided very little cover against the gunfire from the enemy ship, so I knelt behind the ship's upper deck, snapping a few pictures of the pirates. Their ship's size was difficult to determine, but I guessed about twice the size of our puny tugboat, but far far slower. It was approaching from the left side at a crawl, and it was pretty evident that we were set to out-speed the ship, but we were still taking heavy fire. I spotted Bo, crouched behind one of the bulwarks, firing back. He grinned at me wildly, and I snapped a photo of him, making a mental note to get it to him somehow.
Captain Li Qiang was attracting all the attention, posting up behind lookout, his uniform shining in the midday sun. He had a fiercely determined look carved on his face, firing down the line with a semi-auto rifle. Nearly every time he fired, one of the black blobs on the pirate ship disappeared. Or it could have been Aubrey, who, sensing action, had shredded his third Hawaiian shirt for a bullet-proof vest, and another, more discreet rifle. They were responsible for almost all of the retaliation, the weak pistols of the crew sadly ineffective.
Under Li Qiang’s orders, the Jai Li proceeded to full speed, and we began to pull away from the larger ship. He smiled, hanging off the side of the observation deck with one hand gripping the ship, and one thrusting the rifle in the air. The crew cheered, and then someone screamed.
It was Qara, who'd just emerged from below the deck holding both her hands to her mouth, and you followed her eyes up to the observation deck. Captain Li Qiang hung off the rails by his fingertips; then they slipped, sending him crashing into the deck below. His shoulder slammed against the ground and you could see red blossoming on his collar like poppies. Cries for revenge spark from the sailors, and some of them begin trying to steer back towards the ship. You catch Dr. Blythe's worried eye from across the ship, and he shouts at you to get some of the crew under control.
"Bo!" His head snaps in your direction. "Tell your men we can't fight them right now! We don't stand a chance if we get too close!" He gave me a little mock salute, and ran across the deck to stop a few men from manually adjusting the rudder. I made my way to the observation deck and blocked off the controls from anyone else, locking the door.
Gradually, the pirates fade from view, and were left to check on Captain Li Qiang. I came downstairs and pushed through the crowd to find his body on the deck, bloody and broken, but still shining like a fallen angel. He’d been shot through the neck, a large chunk ripped off brutally. The blood had soaked through to his blue uniform, and into the floorboards, staining the wood black. I turned away, unwilling to look at him any longer.
—————
The next few hours passed by somberly, as the crew became very reserved. Some of them I thought, resented our group for even existing. It was natural of course, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit ostracized. Bo was the only one who’d talk to me, and even he spoke in small sentences. However, we ran into an issue quickly. All of the research and charting Captain Li Qiang has done was completely foreign to his crew’s limited experience, and even the combination of Dr. Blythe’s seafaring and Ogasawara’s Chinese knowledge made little headway. About all they could tell us is, we were due for a 30 to 40 degree turn west, but when? That was more unclear.
Ogasawara and Dr. Blythe's interpretations of the charts and maps differed slightly. Ogasawara claimed that per the map's instructions, in order to dock alongside Tokyo, Captain Li Qiang planned to make the turn west in about eight or nine hours, while Dr. Blythe's analyzation of the map itself seemed to indicate the turn west was supposed to take place an hour ago.