p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Shaw stopped at one of the lifeboats on the port side. "Just for fun...Give me a hand, Jake." They each took a side. "The boat is meant to slide forward to the end of the davits by electric motor but in no bloody way do the battery back-ups have the power to run them. If using the boats on this side is any possibility, We've got to shove them, loaded, by hand."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"And so they pushed, and it was an effort due to the ship's 10-degree list to starboard, but they did get it to the end of the davits before they released it and it slid backwards./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Well, those are out. It took effort and the ruddy thing was empty." Shaw banged a fist against the empty lifeboat./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Still," Jake told him, "We did manage to push it to the end. We could use them in a pinch, right?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Shaw smiled wryly. "Alright. Now imagine them loaded with over 2,000 pounds worth of people. And that's if everyone in the boat only weighed a little over 100 pounds like your wife. Still think we can slide them to the end of the davits then?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Jake frowned. "We'd probably have an equal chance of lifting and throwing the ship's anchors as we would have shoving that out out even with 10 people as skinny as Amanda is. You're right. Shit."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Shaw gave his arm a light punch. "Steady on, my boy. You're learning, you're asking questions, you're trying to DO. Both you and Amanda are trying to DO, and that is the most important thing. The only thing that is going to save us is people that DO. And one of the first things that will be remembered is the people that DID."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"They went further aft where a throng of people were gathering. Julie McCoy and Dr. Bricker were already guiding the startled passengers coming from the lower decks to the starboard side. Shaw went through a door and crossed through the midships of deck eight to the exit door on the other side with Jake following him. He put his shoulder against one of the lifeboats and shoved. When it didn't budge he pulled himself to the roof and stood on it. After all, it would be rather humiliating if he stood on here for a rousing speech, and the boat slid to the end of the davits and tossed his bloody arse into the sea./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Ladies and gentlemen, a moment of your time, please." He waited until the noise died down. "There's no sense in being modest. The captain, the ship's officers, and most, if not all of the deck crew have already abandoned the ship." He gestured down towards Jake. "We had to activate the emergency alarm ourselves. As you can tell by the slant in the deck, we've developed a starboard list. The ship's power is inoperable and the engines, as well as any pumps, have completely and, at this point, permanently ceased to function."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"A babble of speaking had started when Shaw told them the captain and a portion of the crew was gone. It increased in intensity as they realized how bad things had gotten on the ship. Shaw held up his hands and shouted until they stopped speaking./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""We're also taking on water. That is why the ship has a list. I'd guess by 10 to 12 degrees by this point. Those of you in the starboard cabins have likely seen the water but anyone from the port side is likely still in the dark. Water flooded bathrooms as high as deck eight. What exactly is causing it..."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I can probably help with that a little," said another voice. Shaw turned and saw ship's maintenance director Harrison, as well as the other members of his work crew arriving on deck. "The outer shell plating was damaged by the rough seas, according to what I heard from the engine room crew. One of the sections breached was where we have one of the sewer storage tanks. In case anyone doesn't know, when you shower or flush, it doesn't just disappear into the sea," he gave a sarcastic smile./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Anyway," Harrison continued, "The vent pipe wasn't fitted, so there's a four-inch opening around it. Also, I'm guessing that they stripped the non-return valve for repairs, but didn't fix the bastard. It was on the last for shipyard maintenance this last time, and if we're getting water in the waste pipes, then that valve is either stripped or it's not even there at all."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Harrison looked at a few faces, then continued speaking. "When the hull was breached, the aft bulkhead filled with water, and it's wateright, so that isn't the problem. The problem is that goddamned tank. The seawater has, I'm pretty certain, flooded that tank through that little gap. If the non-return valve was functional, then we'd have just had a flooded bulkhead and a flooded tank, but the water would have been held there until we made the fixes."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Harrison sighed. "But because the valve was stripped or removed, it's not holding the water in. It's letting it through the wastewater pipes. So that means that we're going to continue to take on water, it's going to continue to go up through the wastewater pipes, and it's going to continue to keep flooding this bitch because that bulkhead is now open to seawater. We can't get into a flooded bulkhead to make repairs. We're screwed."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Someone hollered," Can't we cut the pipe off from the sewage tank at a place beyond the bulkhead? That would stop it from flooding a bunch of decks, it would just flood the deck at the bottom. We'd still be sinking, but it would be a lot slower."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Harrison looked in the direction of the voice. "The pipe is two and a half inches thick. And with no power, we can't use any of the electric metal-cutting tools we have to make it easier. We'd be trying to cut through it virtually in the dark with hacksaws. We'll be at the bottom of the ocean long before we even got halfway through cutting the goddamn thing. It's a good thought, but it won't work. Believe me, we already thought of it. We even thought of cutting torches but those are mainly kept at the shipyard. We couldn't find any of them aboard."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Shaw said, "I appreciate the information, Mr. Harrison. Now that we have a clearer idea of the details, I think you can all agree that evacuating the ship in the lifeboats is the only real option available at the moment. An attempt is being made to send a distress signal, and in the interim, we've got to lower the boats. However, due to the list, the port-side lifeboats are going to be impossible to load and lower. All we have available are the lifeboats on the starboard side."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Will those hold everybody?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Shaw looked in the direction of the person who had shouted and shook his head. "We do have enough boats for everyone, but the starboard list will require us to push the boats upward to get them to the end of the davits on the port side, because the electrical motors that would ordinarily launch them are now without power. We already tried pushing one, and while we were successful, it was still difficult to push an empty one. As you can imagine, loaded with people, that's going to be virtually impossible."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He looked around the crowd. "Julie? Wave your hand." Julie did and Shaw picked her out of the crowd. "Julie, you and Dr. Bricker will organize the evacuees. As for leading the rest of it..."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The burly man Jake had been talking to when Shaw had first arrived on deck, and who appeared to be Jake's friend said, "I'm okay with you doing that. How bout da rest of ya?" He looked at the others in the massive group./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Shaw looked around the crowd. "I was a junior ship's officer about two decades ago, before I moved to the hospitality side of things. If you're comfortable with me taking the reins, I shall, unless of course there's someone else with experience who feels they would be better suited."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"There was a silence. Shaw nodded. That was it then, he was now the Ocean Princess' new captain. He said, "Can I have a show of hands? Are there any others on board who have any sailing experience whatsoever?" A cluster of hands shot up. Jake's did as well. He'd spend some time learning things with the crew on his father's yacht./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Shaw said, "Those of you with experience, split off into groups of three or four, and we'll each coordinate the lowering of lifeboats. Also, any other volunteers who wish to assist may do so. And for the rest of the time we have, we'll forgo the formalities of the distinction of passengers and crew. Many of the remaining crew are as experienced as you the passengers are. We're all in this together, and if anyone has a suggestion, passenger or crew, make it. Any suggestion may help save lives."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He climbed off of the lifeboat and Julie and Dr. Bricker approached him. Julie asked him, "Any objections to women and children first?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Shaw shook his head. "As long as it's not women and children only. They have top priority, but don't send down any boats unfilled simply because you've run out of women and children to load them with. Pass that on to the other crews coordinating the lifeboat loading. The Titanic's death toll was 400 or so more than it should have been by going women and children only."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Julie nodded. Shaw looked at the crowd, which was getting thicker and thicker as the alarm brought more and more people to the deck. "I don't think you'll have much problem with finding people to go in them, however." Julie nodded and she and Bricker moved off./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Jake's friend stuck out his hand and introduced himself as Mike Rogo. Shaw led him, Jake, and several other members of the hospitality crew and passengers to the first lifeboat in line on the starboard side and prepped it for launching./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Jake asked Shaw, "Do you know how many this will hold?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""It's rated for 20 people. A year from now, we're supposed to have lifeboats that are double the capacity, but it's far too late for that now. We'll load them and drop them as quickly as we can."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Julie and Dr. Bricker started sending women, mothers, and children in their direction./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"*****************************************************************************************/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Amanda wanted to slam the radiophone on the wall in frustration. Were they the only fucking ones out here on the fucking ocean?/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"After flipping to channel one and giving the first distress message, she'd waited for a reply and got nothing. So she's moved to channel two, and done the same, waiting several minutes, then three...Etc. After many long minutes and no replies on the first 13 channels, she was feeling more and more nervous as she was running out of channels. She tried 14, with no results, then 15, gave the message, and waited./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"In a few moments, she would move to channel 16, And that was the channel she needed. Unfortunately for her and Shaw, they were not very familiar with the radio at all. Therefore, neither were aware that VHF Channel 16 was designated as an international distress frequency. Amanda had simply done what was natural, and started at channel one, and because Shaw didn't know any better, he hadn't stopped her. Amanda, to her overwhelming relief, would soon discover they indeed were not alone on the ocean./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"***************************************************************************************/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"South of the stricken Ocean Princess, making a tramp charter run from Belize City to Puerto Lempira, Honduras, was the wholly-inappropriately named, for the region she sailed in, tramp freighter the Norwegian Star. She'd been launched in Norway in the 1960s, and had many owners before being acquired by Manray Express Freight Systems who wanted a small, seaworthy vessel for short cargo runs where the costs to operate the larger cargo vessels was astronomical./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The old girl was tired. The paint on the white superstructure and the royal-blue hull was faded, but she moved gamely on the warmer waters of Central America, far from where she was born, and the engines and equipment that drove her were carefully-maintained./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Many who saw her on her cargo runs, which ranged from passengers, to vehicles, to electronics, got a large kick out of the small ship obviously connected to Norway being so far from home, yet she'd been owned by Manray Express for over 10 years. She had a crew of 15, and also frequented such ports as Trujillo, San Andres, and Bluefields./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Unless it was necessary to move to a different channel for communication, the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System on the small ship was always left on channel 16 in the cramped bridge. After all, the ocean was filled with idiots, and the Norwegian Star had been called upon more than once to come to the aid of overzealous larger freighters and a fishing boat./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"On the bridge, at her helm, was the captain, Juan Gomez. a Belize City native. Also present was a Dutchman, Adrianus Vandenberg, who was currently trying to correct the slightly altered course the rough seas from earlier had steered the ship on. The Netherlands, where Vandenberg had been born, were never to be his home. He longed for a crew position in a warm climate and was happy to serve aboard the tired Norwegian Star and set up his own residence in sunny Belize City. He'd been part of the crew for the last seven years, and loved every minute of it. All 15 members were very tight-knit./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Miles away from Vandenberg, an increasingly terrified woman stood on the tilting bridge of the Ocean Princess. Amanda finally, after many long moments wasted, reached channel 16. She said, "SOS, this is the Ocean Princess, send help." And she waited./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Gomez turned from the wheel briefly, looking incredulous. He spoke English fluently, as did Vandenberg, and the weird radio message was not only clearly understood, but caught both of them off-guard. Had they somehow traveled back in time? It came through again, "SOS, help. We're sinking. Come on, goddamnit."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Vandenberg walked to the ship's own radiophone, which actually was the old style model due to the ship's age, lifted the receiver, and placed it to his ear. He couldn't hide his surprise. "SOS? Is this a joke?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Amanda's terror greatly subsided. Finally, someone. Thank fucking God. "Who is this?" Amanda said desperately./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""This is Adrianus Vandenberg on the Norwegian Star. SOS has not been used for distress signals in decades. Why are you transmitting in this way?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Amanda couldn't hide the exasperation in her fucking voice. "Look, I'm really out of my damn element here okay? Our ship is sinking and the Captain apparently pissed and shit himself at the first sign of danger and already abandoned the ship. Once the sun gets higher in the sky we'll probably be able to see the shit streak he left behind across the goddamn deck."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"On the bridge of the Norwegian Star, Vandenberg and Gomez shared another look. He said. "If this is some sort of practical joke..." And then almost immediately he had to hold the radiophone away from his ear as Amanda completely and totally lost her shit on the other end./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Amanda's knuckles were white from the grip she had on the radiophone. "God FUCKING DAMNIT! I'm not fucking joking! I'm a passenger on the Ocean Princess and management left the building! Forgive the fucking language but FUCK! Do I sound like I'm fucking kidding!? We're on a ship with no fucking power, no fucking ENGINES, and in addition to the fucking captain it looks like very other fucking crew member who was actually supposed to fucking help left with him. What the fuck kind of deal is that? How do you leave a fucking boatload of people behind to drown? What a fucking asshole piece of shit cocksucker."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Vandenberg hesitated a moment before he put the radiophone to his ear. "Miss, I must ask you to remain calm, please. I can tell by your voice now that this is far from a practical joke, and I understand too that you are out of your element and I promise you I will help you. You've made it this far, and you have reached someone who can assist you. What is your position?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Amanda looked around her. Why the fuck did that matter? "Uh, I'm standing on the bridge next to the Global...Martini Distress something or other system. Why?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Vandenberg's eyes closed and he shook his head. He was reminded briefly of the old disaster movies where the airport must help the flight attendant land the plane. He needed to remain calm. The woman, while possessing a vocabulary that would have made even the usually foul-mouthed Captain Gomez sit down in surprise, was very clearly terrified. "No, No...I mean the location of the ship itself. Can you tell me the location of where the vessel is currently taking on water, miss?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Amanda wanted to strangle the radiophone. "The name's Amanda. I'm a passenger. I have no fucking idea where we are and I have no fucking idea where to look so I can tell you that. We're all gonna fucking die aren't we? Fuck. Let me get Shaw, he's the shore excursion manager but he's kind of taken charge at the moment, maybe he can..."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Vandenberg shifted on his feet. She could tell him, he just needed to help her. "Just wait a moment. I think I can guide you to the location where you can collect your current coordinates. It may take a few tries, as our vessel is likely much smaller than yours. The Ocean Princess is a cruise liner, correct?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Amanda nodded, felt like a complete fucking idiot, was glad that no one else was present on the bridge to see her nodding at the phone like a complete fucking idiot, and said, "Yes, a big one."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Vandenberg gave her verbal directions to where she could potentially locate the position of the Ocean Princess among the numerous control panels on the bridge, and after two failed attempts, the third location he guided her to was the charm. She repeated what she saw there several times to memorize it, then took the phone back in her hand and relayed the numbers. Vandenberg then asked her, "Can you activate the EPIRB?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""The what?" Her brow scrunched in confusion. The fuck was an Ep Herb?/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Vandenberg said, "Emergency position-indicating radio beacon. It will help rescue ships find you if they are within your range. I'm unfamiliar with the bridge of a ship of that size, but if your system is anything like ours, it should be a labeled button somewhere in front of you. That would be the most logical location for it."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Amanda scanned the lit up buttons until she saw one labeled EPIRB and pressed it. Vandenberg said, "I can see you on radar. Well done. In order to get an understanding of the timeline we have available, can you please tell me the exact status of the ship at this moment? Were you struck by another ship? Or did the ship strike some sort of obstacle that has led to you taking on water?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""The lights are out except for emergency lighting. Right before the lights went out, there was a bang noise from the bottom of the ship. We're not moving, so I'm guessing that means the engines are dead? That's what Mr. Shaw thought. Um...When I look out the main windows towards the front of the ship, we're leaning to the right by, I dunno, a few feet? I'm standing upright but leaning. Before the power went out, the drains in our cabin belched out a bunch of seawater and I remember Mr. Shaw said that he also had seawater come up through his bathroom drains. We're on deck eight and I'm not sure where Mr. Shaw's cabin is, but I guess if we both got water, then it came up from other cabins also and is probably still coming up."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Vandenberg turned with the radio phone in-hand and spoke to Gomez. He relayed the information in nautical terms. Ocean Princess foundering. No power to the ship's engines or electrical systems. Crew deserted, starboard list of perhaps 10 degrees. Unknown breach but seawater flooding passenger compartments through sink and floor drains, reportedly as high as passenger deck eight./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Based on your location, you are roughly 25 miles from our location, and 150 miles from the Soto Cano U.S. Air Base in Honduras. I will contact the air base from here. If you activate the DSC...I'm sorry, digital selective calling system, it will automatically relay the distress signal for you so you can leave the radio phone and evacuate. It will automatically change between channels, and share the ship's position and other essential details. I'll guide you through activating it. We have already turned our heading to your location and I promise you Amanda, we will be there as soon as possible."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"So Amanda let Vandenberg guide her through the DSC activation, and inanely said she'd see him soon. Once the automated system was running, she left the empty bridge on the starboard side. At least some fucking people were coming to make up for their shitty ass fucking deadbeat captain. FUCK. She looked at the deck but couldn't find the captain's shit smear. It must have fucking washed away./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The deck was crowded with passengers and very few people if they were crew, had dressed in their white crew uniforms. Life jackets were on, and after shoving her way through the cluster of people clustered just beyond the bridge, she finally found Shaw and Jake and a number of other male passengers in the process of lowering a lifeboat. Among them was Rogo, in dress slacks and a t-shirt./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He grinned when he saw her and Amanda found it in her to relax and grin back. Behind them she saw Julie McCoy and the guy who had introduced himself as Dr. Bricker shouting directions to the crowd and calling women and children first repeatedly. It reminded Amanda of the Titanic movie, and it filled her with dread. That movie didn't end well for a lot of the people on there, including the guy from "The Young and the Restless."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"She relayed the information she had to Shaw. "Well, that's a bit of good news. I didn't realize the system was automated." He lowered his voice. "Now that you're not distracted, I can go into detail about the problem we're going to have with the lifeboats. We can't evacuate passengers from the port side at all due to the list. The position of the ship is pulling the lifeboats on the port side inward, and they are too heavy for us to push out when loaded. Jake and I tried an empty one and it was already difficult. Even if we could, they'd scrape the hull all the way down which could breach them."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""The other problem is this. If we keep listing further, lowering the boats on the starboard side is going to become difficult as well, as they are going to swing away from the ship. Not only will that make loading them dangerous if they swing out too far, but the angle may tangle up the lowering ropes in the davits. The air base, I would hope, has large helicopters. We will probably need them to airlift passengers if the lifeboats become useless."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Amanda's head was spinning. Fuck. He was full of good news. Shaw said, "But at least it will be fully light soon, that will help us see, and thanks to Mr. Rogo..." Rogo looked at Shaw and flashed a toothy grin. "...I'm the newly-appointed Captain of the Ocean Princess. Now look alive, or I shall have you swab the decks, matey." Shaw grinned at her./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"A group of female passengers and children were inside the enclosed lifeboat that Jake, Shaw, Rogo, and the other passengers were attempting to lower. The boat was a few feet from the water when the rope got stuck on the falls. "Bloody Hell!" Shaw yelled. "Already? No! It's too bloody soon for them to be binding up now!" Shaw facepalmed./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Amanda was not an expert on ships...But she was definitely an expert in knives, moreso than Shaw would ever know, and saw the solution almost immediately./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Is it close enough to the water?" Amanda looked at Shaw, who nodded. "Got a knife?" Shaw did not, but Rogo did and fished it out of his pocket. "Blade's less than four inches so they let me carry it. That's lucky. Carnival and some of the other lines won't letcha at all."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He handed it to her. Amanda ditched her sandals, opened the blade, and clenched the knife between her teeth. Her tongue brushed it and it tasted like loose change. She snaked her little body out on the davit and cut one rope, pressing her legs and bare feet against the sides of the davit for additional support. The lifeboat touched the water at a mild angle. She scooted back to the deck and went out the same way on the other davit and cut again, and the boat dropped into the water and the motorized engine was started, moving it clear of the sinking ship./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Unseen by her, a number of passengers were documenting the sinking with video recordings on their Nokia N90s and handheld camcorders and had swung them her way as she climbed the davits and cut the ropes. As the lifeboat lowering continued, she and the other passengers who did the cutting were repeatedly recorded. Shaw was impressed. She had crawled the davit with no hesitation. Rogo, standing next to Jake, clapped him on the chest and nodded his head at Amanda with a smile. She may not be as strong as they were, but she'd climbed that davit so efficiently she made it look as easy as climbing a jungle gym at a playground./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"As she got back on deck from cutting free the first lifeboat, Shaw said, "And now you've seen firsthand one of the bloody problems we're going to have with the ship listing to starboard so much. Eventually when we have them in position for lowering them, the list of the ship is going to bind up the ropes from the angle and stick them in the davits too high to cut them free and drop them in the water safely. Then all the remaining boats will be useless, rather than just the ones on the port side."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Rogo started moving to the next lifeboat waiting to be filled and hollered, "Then we ain't got time to waste gabbin'. If we can get them close enough to the water we can let Amanda keep climbing the davits like a cat like she just did and cutting them free. You can hang onto the knife. We'll keep doin' it till we can't no more. Holler down to the others and let 'em know to get their own cat and knife ready."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Shaw did so. Nothing more needed to be said. They moved onto the next filling lifeboat. Shaw seemed in total command and Amanda decided if he wanted it, God love him./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""How long do you think we have?" Jake asked Shaw after they moved into position around Rogo near the next empty lifeboat./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Difficult to say, we haven't seen anything considerable in the list for well over an hour..." As if she'd been waiting for someone to jinx it, the Ocean Princess lurched, and listed several degrees further to starboard./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Shaw looked to the sky. "Well I'm not going to speculate on that anymore if that's the result." He looked back at them. "We now know WHY we're sinking, but that can still only go so far in letting us determine how long we have. It all depends on how many drains on how many decks are still belching water, and how much or how little water is coming out of them. We're just going to have to do the best we can."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"They lowered two more lifeboats with Amanda once again sliding out on the davits and cutting the ropes before dropping barefoot back onto the deck. Every time she returned from her tightrope act, Jake stole a long kiss. One camcorder-wielding passenger caught them from Amanda's return to the deck to the kiss' completion, and even the loving smiles they shared with each other after. In the wake of the news reports following their deaths, the clip was often used in the broadcasts after it was determined the kissing couple were the pair that had not survived./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Shaw noticed with a brief look of admiration that Amanda had, thus far, made no effort to get into a lifeboat herself. Even though, as a female passenger, she would have well been within her rights to do. He'd managed to organize enough of the remaining activities and maintenance staff aboard that they were in as best of shape as they could be with no captain and officers, but Shaw guessed that she wouldn't think about leaving until he officially released her from her unofficial duties, and even then probably wouldn't leave until Jake could join her./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"While he was right in a way, as they worked, both Amanda and Jake shared knowing looks over the fact they also had an ace in the hole. They could contact the Entity and be immediately returned to the realm if things looked really awful But they wanted to save that ability until the very end, and make sure everyone who did not possess their hole card get off the ship. Deep down, they were determined to be the last two aboard, just in case. They weren't opposed to continuing their real-world vacation if they had a chance to board a boat or a helicopter and be rescued, but if they couldn't, they had a safety net knowing they had another means of rescue. They felt at the time that the ship would hold off until they got every last passenger and crew member off ahead of them./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"And they were right. In the end, they accomplished their objective and put everyone else ahead of themselves. They might have done it even without knowing they could return to their realm, but they definitely did it now. But there was a price to be paid for tempting fate, and in a few hours, maybe less, they'd find that when it came time to collect, fate wanted their last breaths./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"*******************************************************************************************/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Below them, the seawater continued to stream in and fill the lower decks. The engine room was partially flooded. Water steadily streamed from several locations from the upper few decks to collect in the bottom of the hull and slowly spread its deadly weight./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Cargo holds two and eight were unsealed on either side of the starboard bulkheads, and the rising tide of seawater made the lighter cargo float and butt against the wall on the starboard side. Cargo hold two carried a vast assortment of additional foodstuffs for the upper deck restaurants, and anything close enough to the floor that could float was doing so./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Water surged through the corridor between the closed watertight bulkheads, save for bulkhead eight, which was slowly delivering the killing seawater that would send the ship to the bottom. Since the bulkheads were sealed with air, they were helping to keep the Ocean Princess afloat, and were keeping the list to the ship manageable enough to continue with the lowering of the lifeboats. But the seawater was unheeded, and simply streamed around them to flood the areas of the hull that were open to it./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The water was patient. Eventually it would become too heavy for the sealed bulkheads and the other air-filled sections of the ship from being able to keep the ship afloat. It would push more and more air out as more and more seawater streamed in. At that point, it was hard to determine the outcome. Would she pass the point of no return and collapse to her side to sink like the Andrea Doria? Or would the water make its way portside to right her for the final time before it pulled her down by her prow like the Titanic?/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The water didn't know, because it wasn't capable of rational thought. But it would keep relentlessly flooding her, and fate would determine the position of the Ocean Princess' final death throes./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"****************************************************************************************/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"On the Norwegian Star, Vandenberg had made contact with Soto Cano. The commanding officer scrambled the troops in the 1st Battalion, 228th Aviation Regiment, and preparations were made for the base's CH-47F Chinooks to take flight as soon as possible to begin airlifting stranded passengers from the sinking ship. He shared with his airmen the current coordinates./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Commander Nathan Archer stood in front of the assembled men and said, "We'll airlift in tandem with the lifeboat operations. Currently they are lowering as many as they can into the water. Some of you may know this, and some of you may not, so it bears repeating: The crewman on the Norwegian Star said eventually when the ship's list gets too great, it's all gonna be on us. He hasn't made visual contact with her but said from his knowledge of sinking ships that list when they do, eventually the lifeboats that they can lower now will no longer able to be lowered. They'll get bound up in the davits."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Any idea on the number of passengers?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Archer replied, "According to the cruise line, 1,103. Also, the captain abandoned the ship, so evacuations are being run by whatever poor hospitality suckers are left aboard, and whatever passengers they could get. Norwegian Star said the passenger he spoke to, a woman named Amanda, mentioned something about getting a Mister Shaw to come to the radio. According to Starlight, it's more than likely Brian Shaw, one of the hospitality staff who knows a bit about boats, and thank the good lord for him even having a little bit of knowledge and experience. Anyway, when that son of a bitch captain's lifeboat is found, I want the asshole detained and we'll transport him here to be held in the stockade. He abandoned a ship full of Americans."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He paused. "We've got three Chinooks on-site. I'm going to do everything I can to get the other three Chinooks on training exercises to alter course to assist. If not, we're going to have to move as fast as we can with the three we have here on the ground. Captain Phillips is currently in communication with several airfields that are close to the coast, so that they can quickly be reached on a return flight from the ship's current coordinates, rather than carrying everyone an extra 100 or so miles back to here."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He clapped his hands. "That's it, dismissed. We've got a shipload of Americans that we need to be kept high and dry."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"As the automated distress call continued to be sent, it went mostly unanswered. In fact, the air base and the Norwegian Star were the only ones that would assist them before they sank. It wasn't as though they were being ignored, but at that point in time, the stretch of sea was simply devoid of any ships that could have come to her aid. A few ships quite far away picked up the Ocean Princess' last distress calls, but all knew that they would not reach the stricken vessel in time to do anything but simply watch her slip between the waves./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"So across the sea and the sky came rescuers. On one side, the United States Air Force was sending in its cavalry. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the most unlikely of heroes was slicing her way through the water at the fastest possible speed her tired engines could bring her. In the end, though, it didn't matter. In the end there would be time, even from only this minimal response, to save everyone.../p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Everyone but two./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"At the Teleceiba T.V. Network, one of the news directors received a tip from his son-in-law at the Soto Cano base that the Ocean Princess cruise ship was sinking, powerless, and abandoned by her captain and crew. She was located roughly 20 miles off the coast from Puerto Cortes. He was given rough coordinates./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The veteran newsman knew this would be a major story, especially when the details of the captain abandoning ship before the survivors came to light. None of the major American news networks had affiliates close enough to make it in time. They themselves were over 150 miles from Puerto Cortes...By car. But the T.V. station was also one of the only ones in the area with its own helicopter./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The ship set sail from Florida, and would be loaded with American tourists. Tourists abandoned to fend for themselves by the captain. The news networks would be all over the story and if anyone died, they'd be calling for the Captain's hide./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"And they had a helicopter. And several cameramen, and a pilot...And if they got in the air now and refueled at Ramon Villeda Morales Airport, they could be over the ship in time to get it before they sank, and probably catch most, if not all, of the ship's remaining time on the surface before they needed to leave the area to refuel again. An hour and a half at the most from the station to the ship. In addition to the cameraman, the helicopter also had several camera mounts and cameras installed to capture multiple video shots./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Video footage of the sinking would fetch a pretty penny, and bring positive notoriety to the station. They'd be the only ones with a camera in the air to capture the ship's final moments. It was close to 7 a.m., he could have someone be to the ship by around 8:30 a.m./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The news director found the first available cameraman and told him to find the pilot of the network's 206B III helicopter and gave him those exact instructions, and also passed on the rough coordinates to give to the pilot. At 7:03 a.m., the helicopter was in the air and flying towards Ramon Villeda Morales./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The news director smiled in his office and wrote out a check to send his son-in-law for the news tip./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"And so they pushed, and it was an effort due to the ship's 10-degree list to starboard, but they did get it to the end of the davits before they released it and it slid backwards./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Well, those are out. It took effort and the ruddy thing was empty." Shaw banged a fist against the empty lifeboat./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Still," Jake told him, "We did manage to push it to the end. We could use them in a pinch, right?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Shaw smiled wryly. "Alright. Now imagine them loaded with over 2,000 pounds worth of people. And that's if everyone in the boat only weighed a little over 100 pounds like your wife. Still think we can slide them to the end of the davits then?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Jake frowned. "We'd probably have an equal chance of lifting and throwing the ship's anchors as we would have shoving that out out even with 10 people as skinny as Amanda is. You're right. Shit."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Shaw gave his arm a light punch. "Steady on, my boy. You're learning, you're asking questions, you're trying to DO. Both you and Amanda are trying to DO, and that is the most important thing. The only thing that is going to save us is people that DO. And one of the first things that will be remembered is the people that DID."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"They went further aft where a throng of people were gathering. Julie McCoy and Dr. Bricker were already guiding the startled passengers coming from the lower decks to the starboard side. Shaw went through a door and crossed through the midships of deck eight to the exit door on the other side with Jake following him. He put his shoulder against one of the lifeboats and shoved. When it didn't budge he pulled himself to the roof and stood on it. After all, it would be rather humiliating if he stood on here for a rousing speech, and the boat slid to the end of the davits and tossed his bloody arse into the sea./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Ladies and gentlemen, a moment of your time, please." He waited until the noise died down. "There's no sense in being modest. The captain, the ship's officers, and most, if not all of the deck crew have already abandoned the ship." He gestured down towards Jake. "We had to activate the emergency alarm ourselves. As you can tell by the slant in the deck, we've developed a starboard list. The ship's power is inoperable and the engines, as well as any pumps, have completely and, at this point, permanently ceased to function."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"A babble of speaking had started when Shaw told them the captain and a portion of the crew was gone. It increased in intensity as they realized how bad things had gotten on the ship. Shaw held up his hands and shouted until they stopped speaking./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""We're also taking on water. That is why the ship has a list. I'd guess by 10 to 12 degrees by this point. Those of you in the starboard cabins have likely seen the water but anyone from the port side is likely still in the dark. Water flooded bathrooms as high as deck eight. What exactly is causing it..."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I can probably help with that a little," said another voice. Shaw turned and saw ship's maintenance director Harrison, as well as the other members of his work crew arriving on deck. "The outer shell plating was damaged by the rough seas, according to what I heard from the engine room crew. One of the sections breached was where we have one of the sewer storage tanks. In case anyone doesn't know, when you shower or flush, it doesn't just disappear into the sea," he gave a sarcastic smile./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Anyway," Harrison continued, "The vent pipe wasn't fitted, so there's a four-inch opening around it. Also, I'm guessing that they stripped the non-return valve for repairs, but didn't fix the bastard. It was on the last for shipyard maintenance this last time, and if we're getting water in the waste pipes, then that valve is either stripped or it's not even there at all."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Harrison looked at a few faces, then continued speaking. "When the hull was breached, the aft bulkhead filled with water, and it's wateright, so that isn't the problem. The problem is that goddamned tank. The seawater has, I'm pretty certain, flooded that tank through that little gap. If the non-return valve was functional, then we'd have just had a flooded bulkhead and a flooded tank, but the water would have been held there until we made the fixes."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Harrison sighed. "But because the valve was stripped or removed, it's not holding the water in. It's letting it through the wastewater pipes. So that means that we're going to continue to take on water, it's going to continue to go up through the wastewater pipes, and it's going to continue to keep flooding this bitch because that bulkhead is now open to seawater. We can't get into a flooded bulkhead to make repairs. We're screwed."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Someone hollered," Can't we cut the pipe off from the sewage tank at a place beyond the bulkhead? That would stop it from flooding a bunch of decks, it would just flood the deck at the bottom. We'd still be sinking, but it would be a lot slower."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Harrison looked in the direction of the voice. "The pipe is two and a half inches thick. And with no power, we can't use any of the electric metal-cutting tools we have to make it easier. We'd be trying to cut through it virtually in the dark with hacksaws. We'll be at the bottom of the ocean long before we even got halfway through cutting the goddamn thing. It's a good thought, but it won't work. Believe me, we already thought of it. We even thought of cutting torches but those are mainly kept at the shipyard. We couldn't find any of them aboard."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Shaw said, "I appreciate the information, Mr. Harrison. Now that we have a clearer idea of the details, I think you can all agree that evacuating the ship in the lifeboats is the only real option available at the moment. An attempt is being made to send a distress signal, and in the interim, we've got to lower the boats. However, due to the list, the port-side lifeboats are going to be impossible to load and lower. All we have available are the lifeboats on the starboard side."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Will those hold everybody?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Shaw looked in the direction of the person who had shouted and shook his head. "We do have enough boats for everyone, but the starboard list will require us to push the boats upward to get them to the end of the davits on the port side, because the electrical motors that would ordinarily launch them are now without power. We already tried pushing one, and while we were successful, it was still difficult to push an empty one. As you can imagine, loaded with people, that's going to be virtually impossible."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He looked around the crowd. "Julie? Wave your hand." Julie did and Shaw picked her out of the crowd. "Julie, you and Dr. Bricker will organize the evacuees. As for leading the rest of it..."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The burly man Jake had been talking to when Shaw had first arrived on deck, and who appeared to be Jake's friend said, "I'm okay with you doing that. How bout da rest of ya?" He looked at the others in the massive group./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Shaw looked around the crowd. "I was a junior ship's officer about two decades ago, before I moved to the hospitality side of things. If you're comfortable with me taking the reins, I shall, unless of course there's someone else with experience who feels they would be better suited."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"There was a silence. Shaw nodded. That was it then, he was now the Ocean Princess' new captain. He said, "Can I have a show of hands? Are there any others on board who have any sailing experience whatsoever?" A cluster of hands shot up. Jake's did as well. He'd spend some time learning things with the crew on his father's yacht./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Shaw said, "Those of you with experience, split off into groups of three or four, and we'll each coordinate the lowering of lifeboats. Also, any other volunteers who wish to assist may do so. And for the rest of the time we have, we'll forgo the formalities of the distinction of passengers and crew. Many of the remaining crew are as experienced as you the passengers are. We're all in this together, and if anyone has a suggestion, passenger or crew, make it. Any suggestion may help save lives."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He climbed off of the lifeboat and Julie and Dr. Bricker approached him. Julie asked him, "Any objections to women and children first?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Shaw shook his head. "As long as it's not women and children only. They have top priority, but don't send down any boats unfilled simply because you've run out of women and children to load them with. Pass that on to the other crews coordinating the lifeboat loading. The Titanic's death toll was 400 or so more than it should have been by going women and children only."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Julie nodded. Shaw looked at the crowd, which was getting thicker and thicker as the alarm brought more and more people to the deck. "I don't think you'll have much problem with finding people to go in them, however." Julie nodded and she and Bricker moved off./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Jake's friend stuck out his hand and introduced himself as Mike Rogo. Shaw led him, Jake, and several other members of the hospitality crew and passengers to the first lifeboat in line on the starboard side and prepped it for launching./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Jake asked Shaw, "Do you know how many this will hold?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""It's rated for 20 people. A year from now, we're supposed to have lifeboats that are double the capacity, but it's far too late for that now. We'll load them and drop them as quickly as we can."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Julie and Dr. Bricker started sending women, mothers, and children in their direction./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"*****************************************************************************************/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Amanda wanted to slam the radiophone on the wall in frustration. Were they the only fucking ones out here on the fucking ocean?/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"After flipping to channel one and giving the first distress message, she'd waited for a reply and got nothing. So she's moved to channel two, and done the same, waiting several minutes, then three...Etc. After many long minutes and no replies on the first 13 channels, she was feeling more and more nervous as she was running out of channels. She tried 14, with no results, then 15, gave the message, and waited./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"In a few moments, she would move to channel 16, And that was the channel she needed. Unfortunately for her and Shaw, they were not very familiar with the radio at all. Therefore, neither were aware that VHF Channel 16 was designated as an international distress frequency. Amanda had simply done what was natural, and started at channel one, and because Shaw didn't know any better, he hadn't stopped her. Amanda, to her overwhelming relief, would soon discover they indeed were not alone on the ocean./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"***************************************************************************************/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"South of the stricken Ocean Princess, making a tramp charter run from Belize City to Puerto Lempira, Honduras, was the wholly-inappropriately named, for the region she sailed in, tramp freighter the Norwegian Star. She'd been launched in Norway in the 1960s, and had many owners before being acquired by Manray Express Freight Systems who wanted a small, seaworthy vessel for short cargo runs where the costs to operate the larger cargo vessels was astronomical./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The old girl was tired. The paint on the white superstructure and the royal-blue hull was faded, but she moved gamely on the warmer waters of Central America, far from where she was born, and the engines and equipment that drove her were carefully-maintained./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Many who saw her on her cargo runs, which ranged from passengers, to vehicles, to electronics, got a large kick out of the small ship obviously connected to Norway being so far from home, yet she'd been owned by Manray Express for over 10 years. She had a crew of 15, and also frequented such ports as Trujillo, San Andres, and Bluefields./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Unless it was necessary to move to a different channel for communication, the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System on the small ship was always left on channel 16 in the cramped bridge. After all, the ocean was filled with idiots, and the Norwegian Star had been called upon more than once to come to the aid of overzealous larger freighters and a fishing boat./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"On the bridge, at her helm, was the captain, Juan Gomez. a Belize City native. Also present was a Dutchman, Adrianus Vandenberg, who was currently trying to correct the slightly altered course the rough seas from earlier had steered the ship on. The Netherlands, where Vandenberg had been born, were never to be his home. He longed for a crew position in a warm climate and was happy to serve aboard the tired Norwegian Star and set up his own residence in sunny Belize City. He'd been part of the crew for the last seven years, and loved every minute of it. All 15 members were very tight-knit./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Miles away from Vandenberg, an increasingly terrified woman stood on the tilting bridge of the Ocean Princess. Amanda finally, after many long moments wasted, reached channel 16. She said, "SOS, this is the Ocean Princess, send help." And she waited./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Gomez turned from the wheel briefly, looking incredulous. He spoke English fluently, as did Vandenberg, and the weird radio message was not only clearly understood, but caught both of them off-guard. Had they somehow traveled back in time? It came through again, "SOS, help. We're sinking. Come on, goddamnit."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Vandenberg walked to the ship's own radiophone, which actually was the old style model due to the ship's age, lifted the receiver, and placed it to his ear. He couldn't hide his surprise. "SOS? Is this a joke?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Amanda's terror greatly subsided. Finally, someone. Thank fucking God. "Who is this?" Amanda said desperately./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""This is Adrianus Vandenberg on the Norwegian Star. SOS has not been used for distress signals in decades. Why are you transmitting in this way?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Amanda couldn't hide the exasperation in her fucking voice. "Look, I'm really out of my damn element here okay? Our ship is sinking and the Captain apparently pissed and shit himself at the first sign of danger and already abandoned the ship. Once the sun gets higher in the sky we'll probably be able to see the shit streak he left behind across the goddamn deck."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"On the bridge of the Norwegian Star, Vandenberg and Gomez shared another look. He said. "If this is some sort of practical joke..." And then almost immediately he had to hold the radiophone away from his ear as Amanda completely and totally lost her shit on the other end./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Amanda's knuckles were white from the grip she had on the radiophone. "God FUCKING DAMNIT! I'm not fucking joking! I'm a passenger on the Ocean Princess and management left the building! Forgive the fucking language but FUCK! Do I sound like I'm fucking kidding!? We're on a ship with no fucking power, no fucking ENGINES, and in addition to the fucking captain it looks like very other fucking crew member who was actually supposed to fucking help left with him. What the fuck kind of deal is that? How do you leave a fucking boatload of people behind to drown? What a fucking asshole piece of shit cocksucker."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Vandenberg hesitated a moment before he put the radiophone to his ear. "Miss, I must ask you to remain calm, please. I can tell by your voice now that this is far from a practical joke, and I understand too that you are out of your element and I promise you I will help you. You've made it this far, and you have reached someone who can assist you. What is your position?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Amanda looked around her. Why the fuck did that matter? "Uh, I'm standing on the bridge next to the Global...Martini Distress something or other system. Why?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Vandenberg's eyes closed and he shook his head. He was reminded briefly of the old disaster movies where the airport must help the flight attendant land the plane. He needed to remain calm. The woman, while possessing a vocabulary that would have made even the usually foul-mouthed Captain Gomez sit down in surprise, was very clearly terrified. "No, No...I mean the location of the ship itself. Can you tell me the location of where the vessel is currently taking on water, miss?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Amanda wanted to strangle the radiophone. "The name's Amanda. I'm a passenger. I have no fucking idea where we are and I have no fucking idea where to look so I can tell you that. We're all gonna fucking die aren't we? Fuck. Let me get Shaw, he's the shore excursion manager but he's kind of taken charge at the moment, maybe he can..."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Vandenberg shifted on his feet. She could tell him, he just needed to help her. "Just wait a moment. I think I can guide you to the location where you can collect your current coordinates. It may take a few tries, as our vessel is likely much smaller than yours. The Ocean Princess is a cruise liner, correct?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Amanda nodded, felt like a complete fucking idiot, was glad that no one else was present on the bridge to see her nodding at the phone like a complete fucking idiot, and said, "Yes, a big one."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Vandenberg gave her verbal directions to where she could potentially locate the position of the Ocean Princess among the numerous control panels on the bridge, and after two failed attempts, the third location he guided her to was the charm. She repeated what she saw there several times to memorize it, then took the phone back in her hand and relayed the numbers. Vandenberg then asked her, "Can you activate the EPIRB?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""The what?" Her brow scrunched in confusion. The fuck was an Ep Herb?/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Vandenberg said, "Emergency position-indicating radio beacon. It will help rescue ships find you if they are within your range. I'm unfamiliar with the bridge of a ship of that size, but if your system is anything like ours, it should be a labeled button somewhere in front of you. That would be the most logical location for it."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Amanda scanned the lit up buttons until she saw one labeled EPIRB and pressed it. Vandenberg said, "I can see you on radar. Well done. In order to get an understanding of the timeline we have available, can you please tell me the exact status of the ship at this moment? Were you struck by another ship? Or did the ship strike some sort of obstacle that has led to you taking on water?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""The lights are out except for emergency lighting. Right before the lights went out, there was a bang noise from the bottom of the ship. We're not moving, so I'm guessing that means the engines are dead? That's what Mr. Shaw thought. Um...When I look out the main windows towards the front of the ship, we're leaning to the right by, I dunno, a few feet? I'm standing upright but leaning. Before the power went out, the drains in our cabin belched out a bunch of seawater and I remember Mr. Shaw said that he also had seawater come up through his bathroom drains. We're on deck eight and I'm not sure where Mr. Shaw's cabin is, but I guess if we both got water, then it came up from other cabins also and is probably still coming up."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Vandenberg turned with the radio phone in-hand and spoke to Gomez. He relayed the information in nautical terms. Ocean Princess foundering. No power to the ship's engines or electrical systems. Crew deserted, starboard list of perhaps 10 degrees. Unknown breach but seawater flooding passenger compartments through sink and floor drains, reportedly as high as passenger deck eight./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Based on your location, you are roughly 25 miles from our location, and 150 miles from the Soto Cano U.S. Air Base in Honduras. I will contact the air base from here. If you activate the DSC...I'm sorry, digital selective calling system, it will automatically relay the distress signal for you so you can leave the radio phone and evacuate. It will automatically change between channels, and share the ship's position and other essential details. I'll guide you through activating it. We have already turned our heading to your location and I promise you Amanda, we will be there as soon as possible."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"So Amanda let Vandenberg guide her through the DSC activation, and inanely said she'd see him soon. Once the automated system was running, she left the empty bridge on the starboard side. At least some fucking people were coming to make up for their shitty ass fucking deadbeat captain. FUCK. She looked at the deck but couldn't find the captain's shit smear. It must have fucking washed away./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The deck was crowded with passengers and very few people if they were crew, had dressed in their white crew uniforms. Life jackets were on, and after shoving her way through the cluster of people clustered just beyond the bridge, she finally found Shaw and Jake and a number of other male passengers in the process of lowering a lifeboat. Among them was Rogo, in dress slacks and a t-shirt./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He grinned when he saw her and Amanda found it in her to relax and grin back. Behind them she saw Julie McCoy and the guy who had introduced himself as Dr. Bricker shouting directions to the crowd and calling women and children first repeatedly. It reminded Amanda of the Titanic movie, and it filled her with dread. That movie didn't end well for a lot of the people on there, including the guy from "The Young and the Restless."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"She relayed the information she had to Shaw. "Well, that's a bit of good news. I didn't realize the system was automated." He lowered his voice. "Now that you're not distracted, I can go into detail about the problem we're going to have with the lifeboats. We can't evacuate passengers from the port side at all due to the list. The position of the ship is pulling the lifeboats on the port side inward, and they are too heavy for us to push out when loaded. Jake and I tried an empty one and it was already difficult. Even if we could, they'd scrape the hull all the way down which could breach them."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""The other problem is this. If we keep listing further, lowering the boats on the starboard side is going to become difficult as well, as they are going to swing away from the ship. Not only will that make loading them dangerous if they swing out too far, but the angle may tangle up the lowering ropes in the davits. The air base, I would hope, has large helicopters. We will probably need them to airlift passengers if the lifeboats become useless."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Amanda's head was spinning. Fuck. He was full of good news. Shaw said, "But at least it will be fully light soon, that will help us see, and thanks to Mr. Rogo..." Rogo looked at Shaw and flashed a toothy grin. "...I'm the newly-appointed Captain of the Ocean Princess. Now look alive, or I shall have you swab the decks, matey." Shaw grinned at her./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"A group of female passengers and children were inside the enclosed lifeboat that Jake, Shaw, Rogo, and the other passengers were attempting to lower. The boat was a few feet from the water when the rope got stuck on the falls. "Bloody Hell!" Shaw yelled. "Already? No! It's too bloody soon for them to be binding up now!" Shaw facepalmed./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Amanda was not an expert on ships...But she was definitely an expert in knives, moreso than Shaw would ever know, and saw the solution almost immediately./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Is it close enough to the water?" Amanda looked at Shaw, who nodded. "Got a knife?" Shaw did not, but Rogo did and fished it out of his pocket. "Blade's less than four inches so they let me carry it. That's lucky. Carnival and some of the other lines won't letcha at all."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He handed it to her. Amanda ditched her sandals, opened the blade, and clenched the knife between her teeth. Her tongue brushed it and it tasted like loose change. She snaked her little body out on the davit and cut one rope, pressing her legs and bare feet against the sides of the davit for additional support. The lifeboat touched the water at a mild angle. She scooted back to the deck and went out the same way on the other davit and cut again, and the boat dropped into the water and the motorized engine was started, moving it clear of the sinking ship./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Unseen by her, a number of passengers were documenting the sinking with video recordings on their Nokia N90s and handheld camcorders and had swung them her way as she climbed the davits and cut the ropes. As the lifeboat lowering continued, she and the other passengers who did the cutting were repeatedly recorded. Shaw was impressed. She had crawled the davit with no hesitation. Rogo, standing next to Jake, clapped him on the chest and nodded his head at Amanda with a smile. She may not be as strong as they were, but she'd climbed that davit so efficiently she made it look as easy as climbing a jungle gym at a playground./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"As she got back on deck from cutting free the first lifeboat, Shaw said, "And now you've seen firsthand one of the bloody problems we're going to have with the ship listing to starboard so much. Eventually when we have them in position for lowering them, the list of the ship is going to bind up the ropes from the angle and stick them in the davits too high to cut them free and drop them in the water safely. Then all the remaining boats will be useless, rather than just the ones on the port side."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Rogo started moving to the next lifeboat waiting to be filled and hollered, "Then we ain't got time to waste gabbin'. If we can get them close enough to the water we can let Amanda keep climbing the davits like a cat like she just did and cutting them free. You can hang onto the knife. We'll keep doin' it till we can't no more. Holler down to the others and let 'em know to get their own cat and knife ready."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Shaw did so. Nothing more needed to be said. They moved onto the next filling lifeboat. Shaw seemed in total command and Amanda decided if he wanted it, God love him./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""How long do you think we have?" Jake asked Shaw after they moved into position around Rogo near the next empty lifeboat./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Difficult to say, we haven't seen anything considerable in the list for well over an hour..." As if she'd been waiting for someone to jinx it, the Ocean Princess lurched, and listed several degrees further to starboard./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Shaw looked to the sky. "Well I'm not going to speculate on that anymore if that's the result." He looked back at them. "We now know WHY we're sinking, but that can still only go so far in letting us determine how long we have. It all depends on how many drains on how many decks are still belching water, and how much or how little water is coming out of them. We're just going to have to do the best we can."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"They lowered two more lifeboats with Amanda once again sliding out on the davits and cutting the ropes before dropping barefoot back onto the deck. Every time she returned from her tightrope act, Jake stole a long kiss. One camcorder-wielding passenger caught them from Amanda's return to the deck to the kiss' completion, and even the loving smiles they shared with each other after. In the wake of the news reports following their deaths, the clip was often used in the broadcasts after it was determined the kissing couple were the pair that had not survived./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Shaw noticed with a brief look of admiration that Amanda had, thus far, made no effort to get into a lifeboat herself. Even though, as a female passenger, she would have well been within her rights to do. He'd managed to organize enough of the remaining activities and maintenance staff aboard that they were in as best of shape as they could be with no captain and officers, but Shaw guessed that she wouldn't think about leaving until he officially released her from her unofficial duties, and even then probably wouldn't leave until Jake could join her./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"While he was right in a way, as they worked, both Amanda and Jake shared knowing looks over the fact they also had an ace in the hole. They could contact the Entity and be immediately returned to the realm if things looked really awful But they wanted to save that ability until the very end, and make sure everyone who did not possess their hole card get off the ship. Deep down, they were determined to be the last two aboard, just in case. They weren't opposed to continuing their real-world vacation if they had a chance to board a boat or a helicopter and be rescued, but if they couldn't, they had a safety net knowing they had another means of rescue. They felt at the time that the ship would hold off until they got every last passenger and crew member off ahead of them./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"And they were right. In the end, they accomplished their objective and put everyone else ahead of themselves. They might have done it even without knowing they could return to their realm, but they definitely did it now. But there was a price to be paid for tempting fate, and in a few hours, maybe less, they'd find that when it came time to collect, fate wanted their last breaths./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"*******************************************************************************************/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Below them, the seawater continued to stream in and fill the lower decks. The engine room was partially flooded. Water steadily streamed from several locations from the upper few decks to collect in the bottom of the hull and slowly spread its deadly weight./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Cargo holds two and eight were unsealed on either side of the starboard bulkheads, and the rising tide of seawater made the lighter cargo float and butt against the wall on the starboard side. Cargo hold two carried a vast assortment of additional foodstuffs for the upper deck restaurants, and anything close enough to the floor that could float was doing so./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Water surged through the corridor between the closed watertight bulkheads, save for bulkhead eight, which was slowly delivering the killing seawater that would send the ship to the bottom. Since the bulkheads were sealed with air, they were helping to keep the Ocean Princess afloat, and were keeping the list to the ship manageable enough to continue with the lowering of the lifeboats. But the seawater was unheeded, and simply streamed around them to flood the areas of the hull that were open to it./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The water was patient. Eventually it would become too heavy for the sealed bulkheads and the other air-filled sections of the ship from being able to keep the ship afloat. It would push more and more air out as more and more seawater streamed in. At that point, it was hard to determine the outcome. Would she pass the point of no return and collapse to her side to sink like the Andrea Doria? Or would the water make its way portside to right her for the final time before it pulled her down by her prow like the Titanic?/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The water didn't know, because it wasn't capable of rational thought. But it would keep relentlessly flooding her, and fate would determine the position of the Ocean Princess' final death throes./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"****************************************************************************************/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"On the Norwegian Star, Vandenberg had made contact with Soto Cano. The commanding officer scrambled the troops in the 1st Battalion, 228th Aviation Regiment, and preparations were made for the base's CH-47F Chinooks to take flight as soon as possible to begin airlifting stranded passengers from the sinking ship. He shared with his airmen the current coordinates./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Commander Nathan Archer stood in front of the assembled men and said, "We'll airlift in tandem with the lifeboat operations. Currently they are lowering as many as they can into the water. Some of you may know this, and some of you may not, so it bears repeating: The crewman on the Norwegian Star said eventually when the ship's list gets too great, it's all gonna be on us. He hasn't made visual contact with her but said from his knowledge of sinking ships that list when they do, eventually the lifeboats that they can lower now will no longer able to be lowered. They'll get bound up in the davits."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Any idea on the number of passengers?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Archer replied, "According to the cruise line, 1,103. Also, the captain abandoned the ship, so evacuations are being run by whatever poor hospitality suckers are left aboard, and whatever passengers they could get. Norwegian Star said the passenger he spoke to, a woman named Amanda, mentioned something about getting a Mister Shaw to come to the radio. According to Starlight, it's more than likely Brian Shaw, one of the hospitality staff who knows a bit about boats, and thank the good lord for him even having a little bit of knowledge and experience. Anyway, when that son of a bitch captain's lifeboat is found, I want the asshole detained and we'll transport him here to be held in the stockade. He abandoned a ship full of Americans."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He paused. "We've got three Chinooks on-site. I'm going to do everything I can to get the other three Chinooks on training exercises to alter course to assist. If not, we're going to have to move as fast as we can with the three we have here on the ground. Captain Phillips is currently in communication with several airfields that are close to the coast, so that they can quickly be reached on a return flight from the ship's current coordinates, rather than carrying everyone an extra 100 or so miles back to here."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He clapped his hands. "That's it, dismissed. We've got a shipload of Americans that we need to be kept high and dry."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"As the automated distress call continued to be sent, it went mostly unanswered. In fact, the air base and the Norwegian Star were the only ones that would assist them before they sank. It wasn't as though they were being ignored, but at that point in time, the stretch of sea was simply devoid of any ships that could have come to her aid. A few ships quite far away picked up the Ocean Princess' last distress calls, but all knew that they would not reach the stricken vessel in time to do anything but simply watch her slip between the waves./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"So across the sea and the sky came rescuers. On one side, the United States Air Force was sending in its cavalry. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the most unlikely of heroes was slicing her way through the water at the fastest possible speed her tired engines could bring her. In the end, though, it didn't matter. In the end there would be time, even from only this minimal response, to save everyone.../p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Everyone but two./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"At the Teleceiba T.V. Network, one of the news directors received a tip from his son-in-law at the Soto Cano base that the Ocean Princess cruise ship was sinking, powerless, and abandoned by her captain and crew. She was located roughly 20 miles off the coast from Puerto Cortes. He was given rough coordinates./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The veteran newsman knew this would be a major story, especially when the details of the captain abandoning ship before the survivors came to light. None of the major American news networks had affiliates close enough to make it in time. They themselves were over 150 miles from Puerto Cortes...By car. But the T.V. station was also one of the only ones in the area with its own helicopter./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The ship set sail from Florida, and would be loaded with American tourists. Tourists abandoned to fend for themselves by the captain. The news networks would be all over the story and if anyone died, they'd be calling for the Captain's hide./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"And they had a helicopter. And several cameramen, and a pilot...And if they got in the air now and refueled at Ramon Villeda Morales Airport, they could be over the ship in time to get it before they sank, and probably catch most, if not all, of the ship's remaining time on the surface before they needed to leave the area to refuel again. An hour and a half at the most from the station to the ship. In addition to the cameraman, the helicopter also had several camera mounts and cameras installed to capture multiple video shots./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Video footage of the sinking would fetch a pretty penny, and bring positive notoriety to the station. They'd be the only ones with a camera in the air to capture the ship's final moments. It was close to 7 a.m., he could have someone be to the ship by around 8:30 a.m./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The news director found the first available cameraman and told him to find the pilot of the network's 206B III helicopter and gave him those exact instructions, and also passed on the rough coordinates to give to the pilot. At 7:03 a.m., the helicopter was in the air and flying towards Ramon Villeda Morales./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The news director smiled in his office and wrote out a check to send his son-in-law for the news tip./p