“Was it a big wave or is it course change?” Hammarstedt asks.
The gusts of wind are now blowing at up to 60 knots. The change in course will lead them to the French territories on the Crozet or Kerguelen Islands, and it will soon be morning, with a grey and lifeless light. Adam Meyerson glances down at the map.
“There is not much of anything here …”
“We’re still with the Thunder,” Hammarstedt says.
11
THE SECRET CHANNEL
LYON AND BERGEN, DECEMBER 2014
As the Thunder and the Bob Barker are fighting their way through the storm in the Southern Ocean, Interpol’s Alistair McDonnell and his second in command, the agent with the nickname “Super-Mario”, are forming a plan.1
“Super-Mario” is an expert on fishing vessels, fishnets and fish poachers, but is feeling the absence of the Glock pistol the police organization does not permit him to carry. The husky Portuguese man with a well-groomed bush of black hair is the low-key and correct McDonnell’s clear opposite. “Super-Mario” is happiest out in the field and in dark interrogation rooms. In Lyon he likes to end the work day with a good evening meal at one of the restaurants in the Cité Internationale.
This year it looks like it will be an austere Christmas. Mario settles in on the couch in McDonnell’s flat. In the evenings he must make do with a hamburger for dinner and on the weekends the two of them work from a café on the Croix Rousse plateau. Every evening they have conversations over the phone with a number of Interpol’s member nations, the sole topic of which is the search for the Thunder.2
When the Thunder is finally forced into a port, an Investigative Support Team from Interpol will turn out to assist the local police force.3 In Lyon the Operation Spillway team is working out a detailed formula for how to handle the vessel as a crime scene. Documents, computer equipment, telephones, maritime maps, nets, floats, cabins and cold storage rooms are to be turned upside down and catalogued in the search for evidence. The catch is to be subjected to DNA testing, and computers and all digital equipment handed over to experts in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.4 If they are to succeed in bringing the owner of the Thunder to court, there must be no gaps in the chain of evidence. For the time being, the only evidence they have indicating that the Thunder has been fishing illegally are statements from Peter Hammarstedt on the Bob Barker. The nets and floats that were found beside the Thunder will not be sufficient. They are but strong circumstantial evidence.
From the Southern Ocean they now receive daily emails from Peter Hammarstedt reporting the position and speed of the two ships. But the investigators still have questions they can’t ask the Sea Shepherd captain directly. The solution is to treat Sea Shepherd like any other police informant within a criminal network, but then they must find a back channel: a person they can trust and who can communicate the questions to Hammarstedt.
They find the secret channel in an office at the Directorate of Fisheries in Bergen. The Norwegian fisheries officer and former homicide investigator Tor Glistrup is head of intelligence for the Fisheries Crime Working Group.5 Glistrup is assigned the job of maintaining regular contact with Hammarstedt. Telling the world that they are in direct contact with Sea Shepherd is too incriminating, also for the Norwegian fisheries authorities. The head of intelligence’s communication with Hammarstedt is kept secret.
In his emails Glistrup asks Hammarstedt detailed questions. He requests photographs of the Thunder’s antennas to find out the type of radar the ship has, he asks about the kind of gear found on deck, he wants photos of the hull from every conceivable angle and of every single officer who is imprudent enough to stick his head out of the Thunder’s wheelhouse.6
Peter Hammarstedt answers the questions by navigating the Bob Barker closer to the Thunder. Then he sends the ship’s photographer Simon Ager out on deck. He sends the photographs from the Southern Ocean to Bergen. From there, unbeknownst to Hammarstedt, they find their way to the Interpol headquarters in Lyon.
Every day the Operation Spillway team tracks the ships’ journey by plotting coordinates on a digital map. They analyse oceanographic data and current conditions to see whether this will affect the Thunder’s fuel consumption – and thereby its endurance.
Once a day they check the shipping lane and the areas lying ahead of the two ships. A foreign, unidentified ship on the radar image can be an ally of the Thunder, who will confront the Bob Barker and perhaps attempt to sink the campaign vessel. If they see suspicious vessels, they check their identities and whether they have any connection with the pirate fleet. Hammarstedt can then receive a warning. And time to prepare for an impending altercation.
12
THE LONGEST DAY
THE SOUTHERN OCEAN, DECEMBER 2014
24 December.
It is one of the longest days in the southern hemisphere. On the northern side of the continent of Antarctica there are only a few hours of dusk following sunset before the sun appears again and paints the first faint strokes of blue shadow across the sky.
In gentle swells the two ships move on their course headed northwest. Inside the Bob Barker it is still damp and chaotic after the storm. In the evening, oven-baked vegetables, roast potatoes and tofu turkey – a roast turkey substitute consisting of tofu, vegetable broth and bread, herbs and spices – are served. Almost the entire crew of the Bob Barker are vegan. For the members of Sea Shepherd, saving one species while simultaneously eating another is considered to be less than consistent.
For the early explorers, Christmas in the Antarctic was a highly treasured period, offering a break from the toil, uncertainty and usual diet of penguin and seal. On board James Cook’s the Resolution, Christmas was celebrated with “drunkenness and boxing”. Roald
