The Atlantic Via Bathtub CH 14

Two hours later found them on a course West, heading toward the great wide land of America. The last they'd seen of the Sutherway, was a dark shape in the distant heading straight into the ocean, there had been an almighty explosion, as 800 metres worth of airship full of hydrogen, and what ever else Sir Eric had stuck in it, exploded.1

The attack zeppelins crew section was 15 metres long, five metres wide, and only single story, with a storage compartment underneath, which was where Bootle was stored. The balloon section was about 50 metres long.2

Inside the zeppelins solid section, there was four rooms, first was the cockpit, it was only big enough to hold three people, one to fly, the other two in gunners seats by the side, manning the two gun turrets on either side.3

The second room was the attack quarters, five seats lined each wall, with two more at either end. On each side there was a boarding door, each side also had two gun turrets. On the floor was a couple of hatchways that led down to the hull turrets, one at either end of the room. With six people in this room, you could defend from attacks from almost all side, except above, that was the zeppelins main weakness, attacks from above, the huge balloon over the main cabin got in the way of guns.4

The third room was the living quarters, each side had two, three tiered bunks, room for 12 people to sleep at anyone time. At the furthest end of the room were toilets and small showers.5

The last room was the eating quarters, kitchen, tables, and food could be found here. On the end wall, there were also two turrets side by side, benches ran in front of them, but you could fold them up, so you could get to the guns. The two gun turrets on the side had similar arrangements.6

There was a table down the middle, which Pete, Charles, John and Baldwin sat around. Ericsson, had insisted on flying, claiming that he'd done it so much, a few days weren't going to make much of a difference.7

'So which port is you parents ship making berth at do you know?' Pete asked John.8

John thought about this a minute before replying, 'I don't know actually, I never asked, didn't see the point then.'9

'Hmm, this could make things a little harder. Do you know where your new home is? Have your parents even found one yet?' 10

'They haven't got one yet. I think they wanted to see the place for themselves before they bought anything.'11

'Fair enough. Anywhere in particular they were planing on going to do you know?' asked Pete, trying hard to think of someway to find them once they landed.12

'No,' said John sadly, looking rather miserable at the thought that he mightn't find his parents again.13

'Well, not to worry to much, we can work out their course, roughly, and speed, to get a basic idea of where their ship is. And then search the area from the air. After all, there can't be that many ships going to America, so it shouldn't be to hard to find,' said Pete with forced cheerfulness, even from the air the Atlantic ocean was a huge place to look for one ship, even if they could work out roughly where it was, not knowing where it was going to make port would make it a lot harder.14

'Say, is there any food on this thing?' asked Charles, changing the subject.15

'Zer zould be zome food in zee cupboardz. Probably zpam.' Baldwin screwed up his face at the thought.16

Charles got up and started rummaging through the cupboards. 'Hmm, let me see, bacon, canned beans, corn, etc. What else?' he mumbled as he picked through the cans. 'Oooo... Would you look at that...' He withdrew his head from the cupboard, 'Looky what I found people.' With a flourish he held up a tin, with big letters on the front saying: "Spam"17

'Belch!' Baldwin screwed up his face even more at the sight of the despised tin. 'Vat did I tell you?'18

Charles stuck his head back in the cupboard. 'Hey, coffee! Real coffee! And a plunger, they know how to travel in comfort here.' He pulled his head back out, and help up another tin, this time with a broad grin on his face. 'Who's up for some coffee?'19

Everyone stuck their hands up, and made positive noises.20

'John, why don't you go see if Ericsson want's some coffee?' suggested Charles, as he started making the coffee.21

'Ok.' John got up and wandered forward, to see if Ericsson did want coffee.22

Once he was gone, Charles asked, 'What do you think the chances of us finding his parents again are?'23

Pete sighed. 'Slim.'24

Baldwin who'd been sitting in silence for awhile spoke up, 'Not necezzarily, I zink I might have zomezing which could help.' He stood up and quickly waddled out the door.25

Pete and Charles were left in the room alone.26

After a moments silence, Pete said slowly, and with great difficulty, 'You did... Well back there... Thanks...'27

'Aww, now that wasn't so hard was it?' said Charles, smiling sweetly at him. 'Sugar in your coffee?'28

Pete glared at him. 'No sugar. Black.'29

'Sure thing, one black coffee comin' right up.'30

John re-entered the room, grinning broadly. 'Ericsson said, "What's coffee?" So I told him I'd get him a cup, and he can see.'31

'The poor lad has never had coffee?' asked Charles, his eyes the size of saucers. 'Good thing we got him to come with us eh?'32

'Aye. Also means we have an expert at the wheel of this thing,' commented Pete.33

Charles poured a cup of coffee, added milk, and handed it to John. 'Here, take this to 'em. We'll soon know if he's a coffee drinker or not.'34

John took the cup and departed, just as Baldwin entered.35

'Did you find what you were looking for?' Pete asked him.36

Charles handed Baldwin a cup of coffee well he replied. 'Yez, I did. Like I zought, ziz zeppelin haz been fitted out viz a radio. Vitch meanz if you can get zee name of zee zip John'z parentz are on, zen you can radio it. Providing zer radio ztill workz.'37

'Pete stared at Baldwin. 'I can not believe that I didn't think of that...' He slapped his head, 'How can I have been so slow?'38

'Old age,' said Charles, nodding knowingly.39

'Shut up. It was a rhetorical question you idiot,' said Pete, frowning at Charles.40

'Vell do you know zee name of zee zip?'41

'No, I don't. John might though,' said Pete.42

John walked back into the kitchen.43

'Speak of the devil,' muttered Charles.44

'John, can you remember the name of the ship your parents are on?' Pete asked.45

'Ahh...' John thought a moment, 'Le Charlotte, I think.'46

'Le Charlotte? That's Doupree's ship. That'll make things easier, he's a good friend,' said Pete, sounding somewhat relieved that John had remembered the name.47

'Your coffee John.' Charles handed him a steaming mug.48

'Thank you,' Said John, as he took a sip of it. 'Why do you need to know the name?'49

' 'Cause Baldwin informs us that this zeppelin has a radio, and a radio means we may be able to get in contact with your parents,' explained Pete.50

John's face lit up, 'Really?'51

'Zer iz a chance it may not work John, zo don't get your hopez to high,' Baldwin told him.52

'Oh.' John's face fell slightly. He took another sip of his coffee. 'This is good stuff,' he said.53

'Aye, it is, but what I need is a smoke.' He pulled out his pipe and tobacco pouch, and started filling it. Pete put the pipe in his mouth and lit it, and took a puff. 'Ohh, that's good.' he puffed it some more. 'It's been to long since I last had a good smoke,' he said with a satisfactory sigh.54

Charles laughed. 'Been awhile since I had a smoke too. I lost my pipe somewhere on that island.'55

'Baldwin screwed up his nose. 'Pipez, blech! I'll have a good cigar any day.'56

John laughed.'You guys and smoke.' He shook his head. 'So when are you going to try radioing my parents ship?'57

'Not till the morning, and we are closer. There's no point now, we'd be to far away from them.' Pete stood up. 'There are charts forward, so I'll go work out roughly where they are.' He picked up his mug, and navigated his way to the cockpit to find the location of Le Charlotte.58

John sat down in the seat that Pete had recently occupied. 'So why where you on that island?' he asked Charles.59

Charles sat down in the chair opposite him. 'Well now, that is a tale.' He took a sip of his coffee well he ordered his thoughts, then began, 'It all started about a year ago. I had been out of work for quite some time, and was running very low on cash, so I decided to take an honest job, sailing with a whaling crew. So off we set, out into the Atlantic to hunt us some whales. This all went nicely for awhile, until the captains girl decided she fancied me. Now I'm opposed to the whole; stealing other peoples girls thing, especially if I happen to be on they're boat, working for them.60

'So I told her that I wasn't interested, and that she should just forget about me. But did that stop her? No, course it didn't. The captain began to wonder if I was stealing his girl. He confronted me about it, an experience which I shall happily live without seeing again, I can tell you! Anyway, I told him that I had nothing to do with it, and wasn't interested in her at all. But he didn't believe me. So he threw me in the hold, with all the wall blubber, and next island they came across, they dumped me on, and sailed away.61

'There I stayed stuck on the island playing Robinson Crusoe, till you came along. Months later,' Charles finished his story and slurped his coffee noisily.62

'So how'd you get on with the natives? They didn't seem to like you much,' said John, sounding fascinated by the story.63

'Heh, for the most part they were fine, occasionally one would try to eat me, but thanks to my natural charm I was able to talk myself out of most situations. It cost me quite a few little gadgets though.' Charles looked slightly forlorn at the thought, but then he smiled. 'At least they weren't mine, nicked 'em from the whaler.'64

'You thief,' said John, frowning mockingly at him.65

'Well, what did you expect? I am a pirate.'66

'Vat did you pinch from zee Zuthervay?' asked Baldwin.67

'Oh, this and that,' said Charles casually, as he started to empty his pockets. 'Let's see... Three gold spoons, a gold knife, Sir Eric's very nice fob watch.' He delved deeper into his pockets, and pulled out another selection of things. 'A pocket knife, two door knobs, and...A chicken leg.' He smiled proudly at his collection of junk.68

Baldwin still seemed to be stuck on the fob watch. 'How did you manage to pinch Zir Eric's fob vatch? I vouldn't zuprized, but for zee fact zat Zir Eric doez not have a fob vatch.'69

'Ah... Did I say Sir Eric? My bad, I meant Hexter's.'70

'Oh, I zee. Yez, Hexter did have a nice fob vatch. But it vas gold plated, not silver.' Baldwin was giving him a very narrow stare.71

'Really? I must have meant someone else. It all happened so fast...' he finished lamely.72

'Indeed. I zeem to recall having a vatch that looked exactly like zat one, but it went mizzing yezterday.'73

'It did? Funny that, watches, never can trust 'em, always disappearing.' Charles laughed nervously as he quickly shoved the stuff back into his pockets, especially the watch.74

'You little thief...' began Baldwin.75

Charles took the watch out of his pocket and scowling handed it back to Baldwin. 'Fine, have your zilly vatch.'76

Baldwin snatched the watch out of Charles hand, and pocketed it.77

John laughed at them both. Then yawned. The past 24 hours action having left his young body very tired. 'I think I'm going to go to sleep now. Goodnight.' He stood up, and wandered into the sleeping quarters.78

'Night kid,' Charles called after him.79

'Goodnight,' said Baldwin.80

'Zat vaz zee kiddie verzion of your tale you told him vazn't it?' asked Baldwin, after a minute.81

'Er...What makes you say that?' asked Charles, a shifty look on his face.82

Baldwin just smiled at him, and didn't reply.83

Charles stared back at him blankly. 'Goodnight.' He got up and ambled into the next room.84

Baldwin sat a moment by himself in the kitchen. Before getting up to join the others in the sack.85

In the cockpit Pete poured over the charts, made calculations, and tried to work out were on earth, or more specifically, where in the Atlantic ocean was Le Charlotte. He had shrunk the area down to about 500 square kilometres, but that was a massive area to search. Still, it was better then having the entire ocean to search he supposed.86

'Do you know what range this radio has?' Pete asked Ericsson, who was sitting in the pilots seat, smiling happily to himself.87

'Hmm, about 100 kilometres I think, it's not a super powerful thing, but pretty good, considering everything.'88

'Mmm, 100 k, that means... We have to make a dozen passes over the area, to get full coverage. How long would it take to travel 500 kilometres in this?'89

Ericsson thought about this, doing some calculations in his head well he flew. 'Let me see, this is one of the fastest zeppelins ever made, it goes about 55 knots top speed, that's about 100 kilometres per hour, so it'd take about five hours to travel that distance.'90

'So ten hours for a round trip, which covers, Ohh... About quarter of the area. In that time, Le Charlotte could travel, say 200 kilometres.' Pete thought about this. 'That means, we'd be constantly behind them. Going to have to shrink the area.' He sighed and rubbed his eyes, this was not going to be easy. 'Well, here's rough co-ordinates for you to fly to, at least that'll bring us a bit closer,' Pete said as he handed Ericsson a piece of paper with some numbers written on it.91

Ericsson looked at the numbers. 'Ok, en route now.'