Harry's Tales: Dead Engines, Live Game
...We had sailed for five days when all of a sudden the main engines stopped. I knew from the satellite navigational tracker on the bridge that we were thousands of kilometres from either the African or South American coasts and that there was at least 5000 metres of water below our keel!... Harry Wroth recalls a voyage from South Africa to Antwerp.
My wife and I had sailed from Cape Town bound for Antwerp, fifteen days' sailing away. We were the only passengers on an Italian container ship. It was a beautiful clear early winter's evening when we sailed. We enjoyed an Italian cuisine five course supper in port. The lights of Cape Town with the lit-up backdrop of Table Mountain fading into the Twelve Apostles profile was awe inspiring.
After that first supper on board the Capitano gave us free access to anywhere on the ship, from the bilges to the bridge.
We had sailed for five days when all of a sudden the main engines stopped. I knew from the satellite navigational tracker on the bridge that we were thousands of kilometres from either the African or South American coasts and that there was at least 5000 metres of water below our keel! As a landlubber I was alarmed. I dashed up to the bridge to enquire and was told that the engines would be stopped for thirty six hours to effect repairs. I was assured that it was quite safe, that the current was drifting us towards Europe and that we would arrive at Antwerp on schedule.
It was eerie to be on a large ship in mid-ocean with no subtle throb of the main engines and propellers, but only the hum of the small diesel-powered alternator to fill the void.
After 36 hours to the second, our main engines came to life and we sailed merrily on, into the blue.
Some evenings later the Canary Isles came into view as dark profiles with scattered lights dotted about. On our left was Tenerife and on the right Grande Isle. The all-Italian crew, except for the bosun who was a Pole, were avid soccer followers and coming over on the TV was the opening match of the European Cup being played in Copenhagen, between Denmark and Germany. The commentary was, of course, in Spanish.
We watched the next match going through the English Channel and docked on time in Antwerp.
Engines are only machines, after all!
