Highlights In The Shadows: Spectre At Sea
Owen Clement recalls a tragic incident at sea while voyaging from India to England. For earlier chapters of Owen's life story click on Highlights In The Shadows in the menu on this page.
After a couple of days at sea, the sudden silence of the ship’s huge turbines shutting down awoke and alarmed those of us asleep on board. One passenger wrongly surmised that a floating mine which had broken free from its corroded wartime moorings had been sighted.
The time was in the early hours of the morning: the place, the middle the Arabian Sea somewhere between Bombay and Port Said
The incident was the apparent suicide of a mentally disturbed serviceman, more petrified of what lay ahead than the inky sea into which he plunged. The sailor on watch, who saw the naked young man climb the ship’s rail and leap overboard, signalled the alert.
Lifeboats and motor cruisers lowered into the sea were soon undertaking their distressing task with searchlights from the ship and the rescue vessels spraying the sea to guide the rescuers in their unenviable mission. The passengers lining the rails watching the proceedings also scanned the turbulent surface for any telltale sign of a bobbing head.
After fruitless hours of boats crossing and re-crossing likely areas of the restless waters a short blast of the ships horn saw the boats return, be hauled up and secured.
Before long, the sympathetic and possibly empathetic passengers and crew made their way back to their cabins to reflect on the reason as to why this poor wretch would prefer the bottomless waters to what awaited him in good old Blighty.
Too upset to return to the hot cramped cabin and my too short bunk, and finding the balmy night more comforting, I moved to the ship’s aft deck to take up my position at the stern rail where I often enjoyed watching the sea in all its various moods. As I leaned on the rail I reflected on the reasons for my being on the ship.
While surveying the phosphorous percolating wake, to my amazement, I saw a large marine creature swim swiftly across the shimmering wash. It moved so quickly that I was not able to determine whether it was a shark, a porpoise or a marlin. My immediate thought at the time was that it could have been the spectre of the drowned young man lost overboard earlier. Despite the steamy night I shivered.
My sombre mood deepened when I remembered that I was being taken away perhaps forever from the land of my roots, my India; even though I knew that I was one of the prime reasons for leaving. Overwhelmed with melancholy I thought back on my last visit to Bangalore to visit my beloved Grandparents, knowing that it was the time I would see them
I was startled out of my reverie by the words, “Come on Sonny, inside you go now,” spoken by a stocky balding sailor wearing nothing but a pair of trousers rolled up to his knees, his square-shaped hands wrapped around a hose spewing salt water over the decks. Paying passenger or not, the deck was his and his mates at this hour. I smiled and quickly ducked into the main recreation room.
My dark reflective mood was soon lifted by the most glorious sunrise coming from the East and India with dazzling highlights dancing on the shifting surface.
I vowed that some day I would return. It would take fifty-four years before I did.
© Clement 2006
