Open Writing

Chapter 22
Going Down

Christmas morning we expected there could be a flurry of activity.
So we climbed aboard Uhuru and cruised back to the Kofi Koranteng,
leaving Captain Bandaranayake and his five colleagues ashore.

Joseph and Khadra were very pleased to see us. While we had had an
easy time of it on dry land, there had been tensions aboard. One of
the engine room crew had brandished a heavy-duty spanner threateningly
and had to be subdued. With others spoiling for a fight, the
use of weapons to quell their enthusiasm had been only a hair’s
breadth away.

We found the mood still ugly so while we waited for developments
from afar, we locked the crew up in the brig for a few hours.

Midday came and passed. There was no delivery of the money.
‘They’ve called our bluff, Nimrod,’ I said. They’re not going to
come now.’

‘It seems so.’ Nimrod was entirely deflated and looked a shadow
of himself. I placed my hands on his shoulders and tried to massage
the tension out of them.

‘We have to do it,’ Joseph advised. ‘There’s no point threatening
to sink the ship if we don’t then carry it out. They didn’t even acknowledge
our demands.’

‘Why did they not come up with the money? I feel like a fool,’
Nimrod said, clearly now crestfallen.

‘Maybe it’s too much to expect anyone in Europe to do anything
on the most celebrated Christian festival,’ I suggested, unhelpfully.

‘Unlock the crew. I want to speak to them.’

They were assembled on the deck. A scrawnier more restless
bunch I’d never seen.

‘Captain Bandaranayake sends you his greetings and asks that you
give us your full cooperation.’

The men shuffled their feet and muttered darkly to themselves.
Nimrod’s opening words had brought little relief to the fraught
situation. He responded by changing his own tone.

‘For the next two hours we want you to load as much of the
cargo as possible onto our boat, the Uhuru. Do as you are told. We
will shoot anyone who does not pull his weight.’

The moping Sri Lankans got to work using the Kofi Koranteng’s
winch and crane. Soon our craft was sitting low in the water.

We had
only offloaded about 10 tonnes of maize. Nimrod instructed that
the boat should be taken back to Kaambooni quay, offloaded, and
then return. We were able to do this twice more before darkness fell.

‘What now?’ I asked.

‘For the next two days we’re going to take as much of the maize
as possible and distribute it to the local community. Then we will do
just as we promised.’

‘With a hold still half full of food?’

We all had serious misgivings but there could be no turning back.

Working dawn to dusk we succeeded in removing only about a quarter
of the cargo. When we were hard up against our self imposed
deadline Khadra then forced the crew to open the ship’s valves and
hatches to the sea before transferring them to Uhuru. From about
half a mile away, we watched the Kofi Koranteng take on water. Her
discomfort was perceptible. Slowly she began to list heavily to starboard.

Then, like a frolicking whale, she capsized, resting on her side
for about twenty minutes until the bow suddenly lifted clear of the
surface and the ship plunged rapidly into the depths.

**

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