Hank & The Whalers
A.N. This story touches on some pretty serious material. Reader discretion is strongly adivsed.
One day, Theodore and Hank were bringing in a container ship.
"Hey, Theodore, can I tell you something?" asked Hank.
"Yeah, go ahead." replied Theodore.
"Well, every time we bring in a container ship, I kinda have a habit of staring at the containers and wonder about what could be inside them." replied Hank.
"Me too, actually." agreed Theodore. "I like how all the containers are in different colors."
Soon, the two tugboats pulled the ship into a dock. Just as the ship was being moored, Foduck came over to Theodore and Hank.
"The Dispatcher wants all tugboats to report to the Great Ocean Dock." he informed the two smaller tugs.
"Okay, Foduck." replied Theodore. "Come on, Hank, let's go!"
With that, the three tugs went to the Great Ocean Dock, where sure enough, the Dispatcher was waiting for them, as was Constance the Coast Guard ship and Rebecca the research vessel.
"Afternoon, tugs." Constance greeted. "Rebecca and I have asked the Dispatcher to gather you all here because there's something I need to bring to your attention."
"What's the sitch?" asked George.
"The "sitch", George, is whalers." Constance replied.
"What are whalers?" asked Hank.
"Whalers are people who hunt whales." said Rebecca. "In the old days, it was regarded as a commercial enterprise as a source of whale oil, but over time, the world's whale population decresed dramatically, and many species of whale are now endangered. In the International Whaling Commission issued a moratorium on commercial whaling that came into effect in 1986. Despite this, people still continue to hunt whales illegally to sell whale meat, bone, and oil on the black market."
"Wow." gasped Hank. "That's sad."
"And that's just the tip of the iceberg." said Constance. "Lately, the Coast Guard has gotten numerous calls about illegal whaling near the Big Harbor. If you see or hear anything suspicious, please tell me or the Dispatcher."
"Or me." added Foduck.
"You got it." winked George.
Hank felt a mixture of nervousness and worry, which Emily took notice of.
"What's the matter, Hank?" she asked.
"What if there's whaling here in the Big Harbor?" Hank asked. "What will happen to Walter and his pod?"
"I'm sure Walter will be okay, Hank." Rebecca reassured. "Whales are very intelligent creatures. If Walter and his pod sense danger, they will try to avoid it."
Hank felt a little better after hearing this. The next day, Hank was towing Barrington Barge to the oil refinery with a delivery of pipes. On the way, Hank spotted a craft he had never seen before. It was faceless tugboat that looked like it had seen better days. There was also a large object that looked like a small cannon on its stern. There were also three men standing on its deck with binoculars.
"Who are those guys?" Hank asked. "And why are they looking around with those binoculars? Also, what's that thing on its stern?"
"I don't know." Barrington denied. "But whatever they're doing, I think we better leave them to it. Who knows, they might leave after a bit."
"Maybe." said Hank.
But Barrington would soon be proven wrong. As Hank and Barrington were returning from the refinery, the boat that had seen was still there, as were the men onboard it.
"I really don't see whales around here." the first man said to his companions.
"Neither do I." said the second man.
"It's like we came out here for nothing." said the third.
Hank and Barrington couldn't help but hear the words that left the men's mouths.
"Did you hear that, Barrington?" Hank whispered.
"I sure did." Barrington whispered back. "Those men might be whalers! We better go tell the Dispatcher."
Hank agreed, and Hank towed Barrington to the Dispatcher.
"Excuse me, Mister Dispatcher?" Hank called.
The Dispatcher turned around to face Hank.
"Yes, Hank?" he replied. "What can I do for you?"
Hank told the Dispatcher about what he and Barrington saw. The Dispatcher listened carefully.
"I see." he said.
The Dispatcher called Constance on his radio and told her to come to the Great Ocean Dock. She soon arrived, and Hank, after docking Barrington in his (Barrington's) dock, took Constance over to the suspicious vessel.
"Ahoy there!" Constance called.
The men heard Constance calling to them and turned to see her.
"Oh no." Number One asked. "We've got company! Scott, you and John wait here. I'll be right back."
"Right, Gary." nodded Number Two.
Numbers Two and Three, whose names were revealed to be Scott and John, went to the bow of their craft while Number One, whose name was revealed as Gary, went below deck.
"What's the trouble?" Number Three asked.
"One of our tugs has reported suspicious activity aboard your vessel." Constance replied. "With your approval, we'd like to conduct a search."
Just then, Gary returned.
"What do you say, Gary?" John asked.
"Yeah, sure, come aboard." Gary said. "We've got nothing to hide."
Constance's crew boarded the suspicious boat and searched the entire craft from wheelhouse to galley. They soon came back on the deck.
"Well?" asked Constance.
"Nothing out of the ordinary, ma'am." a crewman shrugged.
But then, one of the other crewmen saw the cannon-like object Hank had spotted.
"What is that?" he asked Gary and his companions as he pointed to it.
"It's a camera." Gary replied. "Me, John, and Scott are whale watchers."
"Yeah, we built that big camera all by ourselves to get picutres of whales far off in the distance." John added.
"That's right." said Scott. "Nothing to see here."
But Constance and the others knew that Gary, Scott, and John were not telling the truth. Still, since nothing suspicious had been found, the decision as to what to do next was swift.
"Alright, we'll let you go this one time." she said. "But we'll be keeping you under close surveillance."
"Okay." said John.
With that, Hank and Constance left Gary and his friends behind.
"I guess we bothered you for nothing." Hank said.
"I wouldn't say that." Constance disagreed. "You did the right thing. When you saw those men with their suspicious boat, you immediately told the Dispatcher, which is what I instructed you and the others to do yesterday. We've already gotten their names taken and will be letting the police do background checks on them to see if any or all three of them have a prior criminal record. The best you can do now is to wait and hope your suspicions are wrong."
"But what if they're not?" Hank asked in a worried tone. "And those guys really are hunting whales?"
"Then we'll secure an arrest warrant, arrest those men, and search their vessel one more time." said Constance. "And if we find evidence of illegal whaling, we'll have a case."
"Okay." sighed Hank.
But little did Hank know about what was to come. Three days later, the tugs were gathered at the Great Ocean Dock for the morning work meeting.
"Alright, tugs, here are today's assignments." the Dispatcher began.
But before the Dispatcher could give the tugs their jobs, a loud boom was heard. It was so loud it shook everything, even the Dispatcher and the tugs.
"What in the name of Robert D. Cardona was that?!" Theodore gasped.
The Dispatcher quickly decided what needed to be done.
"Foduck, go find out what made that sound." he ordered. "Everyone else, stay here."
"I'm on it like butter on bread." Foduck said as he raced away.
The tugs felt very anxious as they watched Foduck leave, especially Hank.
"Please, Jesus, please don't let it be what I think it is." he said.
Meanwhile, Foduck was searching for the source of the loud boom when he heard the sound of cheering. He followed the cheering to behind Willy's Island. When he laid his eyes on the source of the sound, a wave of terror washed over him (no pun intended). It was Gary, Scott, and John, who were towing the carcass of a blue whale behind their boat.
"GREAT BARRIER REEF!" he screamed.
Foduck turned around and raced back to the Great Ocean Dock as fast as his engine could carry him. He blared his emergency whistle all the way there. When he arrived, the Dispatcher and the tugs saw his face and were immediately concerned.
"Foduck, what's wrong?" Emily asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
"It was far worse than a ghost." Foduck replied. "It was those three men Hank saw yesterday! They're whalers! And they've killed a blue whale!"
The other tugs were mortified at this announcement. Hank started to cry.
"Why do people have to be so mean and cruel?" he sobbed.
"Well, there's no time to lose." said the Dispatcher.
The Dispatcher immediately radioed Constance and the local police. Meanwhile, on their boat, Gary, Scott, and John were still celebrating their latest kill.
"We've hit the Mother Lode, boys!" Gary hollered.
Just then, John spotted something.
"Over there!" he said.
Gary and Scott looked out, and saw a pod of pilot whales not too far away from where the boat was.
"Looks like we'll really be reelin' in the dough today." said Gary. "Ready the harpoon!"
John loaded the boat's harpoon gun and aimed it at the whalers' new targets.
"On my mark." said Gary. "Ready...aim..."
But then, they heard sirens. Constance and a trio of police boats surrounded the whalers' boat on all sides.
"Freeze!" Constance barked. "Put your hands on your heads and get on the ground! You're all under arrest for illegal whaling!"
Gary, Scott, and John, knowing they had no chance to escape, complied, and while the team from the first police boat took the whalers into custody, the second and third teams searched their craft, and found a treasure trove of evidence. What they found were hundreds of crates containing jars of blubber and whale bones. When confronted with this evidence, the men confessed to their crimes. It was also later revealed that the three men were actually escaped convicts from Colorado, where they were being held for burglary, and they were soon extradited back to Colorado to stand trial. The trial was held three weeks later. At the trial, Gary and his boys pleaded guilty and were given an additional 15 years in prison to their 3-year sentence for burglary. When the tugs learned the news, they were very relieved.
"Serves those twits right." said George.
"For once, I agree with you." said Foduck.
But the one who felt most happy was Hank.
"Those bad men won't ever harm another whale again." he said proudly.
The End