Damned Voyage. В. Волмир

you for your work – pilot.

      – Pilot boat to the board! – Captain.

      All. This means that the pilot leaves the ship. Then increase the engine from «small» to «medium» and wait for the cancellation of readiness. The engine increases to «full», but the readiness continues. Forty minutes later we hear the captain's request to the command of the aircraft carrier to pass such a course. It was well received and in twenty minutes the cancellation of readiness was announced.

      Then I was told that it was forbidden to approach a US warship closer than four miles – they could fire. I go out on deck to look at the squadron. The impression is strong. I have never seen an American aircraft carrier before.

      After supper, I again examined the mechanisms and meet in the central post with both engineer. Talking about the plan for the works which necessary to do. So ended my first day aboard the ship. The ship at the sea and heading to the Greeks port Kalamata. The port of Kalamata located on one of the great South islands of Greece in the arc of calm bays, even the ideal round shape. The depth in the bay more than a hundred meters and the ship is not stay an anchor, but wrecked at the drift. At port of Calamata all ships of the Greek shipowners call that are in Mediterranean pestilence, to get supply and spare parts. To encourage shipowners, the Greek government has introduced tax breaks for those who use goods made in Greece.

      We also have to get provisions and spare parts. They drifted around four in the morning. Receive command to prepare a stern crane to receive cargo. I go to the deck and by the way pay attention to the fact that not all floodlights are on. It is necessary to deal with it urgently.

      In Kalamata stood twelve hours. While accepting the cargo, the captain's wife came to the captain – a woman of medium height with gray hair and brought with her two barrels of wine.

      Later I learned that the captain comes from this island and has a lot of land here where he grows grapes and olives.

      On the ship, the usual hustle and bustle – acceptance of cargo, reconciliation with invoices, quantity, signing of invoices and returning them with a thin rope down to the boat. I noticed a very unpleasant picture: down on the boat, one of the two people who brought provisions, leaned over a stack of boxes and greedily stuffed peaches in his mouth. Several dozen apples lay side by side in an empty cardboard box.

      Further course to Gibraltar. There's bunkering and on to the States. The next day, I agree on a plan for my work with Serg and receive a «good» for all four days left in Gibraltar to do deck lighting. I decided to start from the top – from the bridge. I am made himself a donkey so that he could get to the lamp freely, gathered the tool in a bag and started working.

      As is done on all ships in the world, behind the wheelhouse was a radio cabin to which adjoined the cabin of the radio officer.

      Because light armature not serviced for a long time, then I had to dismantle all the middle from the armature, bring everything to workshop and them mount everything on a regular basis.

      After lunch, when I began to dismantle the lamp armature that was directly above the porthole of Oleg's cabin, I stood on a bench and involuntarily looked over the curtain window into the cabin.

      In addition to the owner, the senior and third navigators and a sailor doctor sat at the table. On the table was a liter bottle of vodka and some snacks. They drank.

      Only then did I realize that in the afternoon until three o'clock the Greeks had a siesta – they were asleep – and at this time they could quietly drink. The appearance of my face on top of the curtain in the porthole shocked them. First, someone grabbed the bottle from the table, and then the shock passed and they continued. I also continued my work. If I only knew what it would lead to!

      But I did not attach importance to it. I have already met this many times. Night call: urgently on the bridge, electrical equipment does not work. I quickly get dressed and hurry to the bridge. The third navigator is on watch.

      – What happened?

      – Where?

      – Why did you call me?»

      – There is no light on the navigator's table.

      I try the switch – there is no light. I feverishly check the shields on the bridge – everything is on. I unscrew the light bulb from the lamp above the navigator's table – it burned out. I immediately take a light bulb from the shelf and screw it into the lamp armature.

      – Was it difficult to do it yourself?

      – This is your job. You talk a lot. Leave.

      The answer of a twenty-two-year-old boy to a fifty-year-old man. Very unpleasant residue in the soul. The next night the same challenge. This time the senior navigator Yan is on watch. I change the light bulb again.

      – Have you decided to teach how to love the Motherland?

      – Keep track of equipment. This is your job. You don't have to sit in the office here.

      So that's it! Now I understand what I am talking about. Oleg. This freak told them what he heard from the director of crewing before sending that I worked in the office. But it was still flowers.

      It was bad that there were two people on duty in the bridge: the navigator and the sailor were Filipinos, and in both cases the Filipinos witnessed my night visits to the bridge. This immediately becomes known to all. There are no exceptions. I don't sleep until the end of the night, I think about the situation. The ship approached Gibraltar at four in the morning. According to the rules of navigation, an hour before the ship approaches the port, the state of readiness is announced and the crew takes seats according to the schedule.

      In Gibraltar, we have to get a bunker – one thousand five hundred tons of naval fuel oil. I'm in the central post. Suddenly a voice command:

      – Electrician urgently on the bridge!

      I take the bag with the tool and go to the bridge. There are the captain, senior and second navigators, Oleg and a Filipino sailor.

      The captain immediately declares:

      – You can't do your job. Now there is no lighting near the windlass, sailors can be injured. Repair immediately! There have been many problems with your arrival on board. I warn you that if you do not recover, I will send you home!

      I turned my gaze to my «countrymen» – there was an expression of quiet joy on their faces. I silently went to the bow deck, climbed on the mast on the spotlight. Of the five searchlights, the middle one, the one that illuminated the windlass, was off. I loosened the spotlight, turned it over, and looked inside. At the bottom of the searchlight lay a twisted DRL lamp.

      I screwed it into place – it immediately caught fire. Butterfly glass mounting nuts are unscrewed – a clear sign of human hands. Put everything in place. At the bottom, the Filipinos were giggling merrily and mocking the type of «well done», «you work well», «a top-class specialist.»

      Returned to the central post gloomy.

      – What happened? – Serg asked.

      – The lamp burned out in the spotlight.

      Then the usual actions: anchoring, preparing to receive the bunker, checking the connection with the engine room. At the end of the bunkering immediately ready, disembarked and set course across the Atlantic to New Orleans. In the evening I went into the cabin to the second engineer and told him that my fellow countrymen wanted to push me out of the ship, and the initiators of this process were not Greeks at all.

      – Here bastards, do not calm down in any way. The second and the third