Then the fate of the ship underwent a series of strange reversals. Back in Norway it was converted into the coast guard vessel the Volstad Jr. and used to chase Sea Shepherd’s Whales Forever out of Lofoten during their action targeting Norwegian whalers in 1994. Three years later, the Volstad Jr. was rebuilt for the transport of tourists in the waters around Svalbard, but the ship never had any success there. Finally, it ended up in the Gulf of Guinea as a bunkering ship for the fishing fleet.
Sea Shepherd had long been looking for a new campaign vessel. During a meeting with the American television host and multimillionaire Robert William “Bob” Barker, Paul Watson claimed that for 5 million dollars he would manage to stop the Japanese whaling crafts in the Southern Ocean.
“I think you do have the skills to do that. And I have 5 million, so let’s get it on,” Barker replied.2
This saved the vessel from being scrapped. Subsequent to rebuilding in Mauritius, in 2010, painted black and under a false flag, it sailed into the Antarctic as the MY Bob Barker. The ship was registered in Togo, but the Norwegian flag fluttered on its bow.
“The Japanese could be forgiven for thinking that the pro-whaling Norwegians had sent a ship to support their illegal whaling activities in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. But any excitement turned to disappointment quickly as the Norwegian flag was hauled down and the black and white skull with crossed Trident and Shepherd’s crook was raised to announce the arrival of the Bob Barker,” Sea Shepherd bragged after the incident.3
She was the most important tool he had in the search for the Thunder. The Bob Barker’s radar has a range of 20 nautical miles. If the Bob Barker were to let him down, the Thunder would be out of sight in less than two hours.
29
THE WANDERER
GABON, MARCH 2015
“It is a whole world of crazy,” Peter Hammarstedt thinks as he looks at the map lying in front of him on the bridge.
The Thunder and the Bob Barker are sailing north at the outer edge of the Benguela Current, the cold ocean current carrying nutrient-rich water from the South Atlantic Ocean along the West African coast that has made Namibia and Angola into wealthy fishing nations. The interior is a scorched and ruthless landscape that was desiccated 80 million years ago. When the warm, dry air from the Namib Desert meets the cold, damp ocean air, the coast is enveloped in a thick belt of fog. More than a thousand ships have perished due to the fog, currents, cantankerous winds and waves along Namibia’s Skeleton Coast. It could just as well have been named the Dictator Coast, the long strip of land that without warning veers off to the east: Angola, Congo-Kinshasa, Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon, all brutal, corrupt states disguised as democracies and republics. Pirates are known to wreak havoc in the surrounding seas, so Hammarstedt gives an order that the Bob Barker is to be made unassailable. A guard is posted around the clock on the helicopter deck to ensure that they are not boarded from behind, additional locks are welded onto all the hatches and bulkheads, and the jack ladder is covered with aluminium plating. Iron spikes are installed along the railing pointing down towards the water like spears.
On the Angolan coast, a mere two days’ sail to the east, there are small port towns scarcely anyone on the ship has heard of before. Namibe, Porto Amboim, Lobito. If the Thunder were to make a quick move towards one of these ports, the local authorities and Interpol’s emergency response team would have little time to respond.
Peter Hammarstedt needs all the help he can get. The Sam Simon has been at Mauritius to deliver the nets the Thunder left behind; now he asks Captain Sid Chakravarty to sail towards the Bob Barker as quickly as he can. In this area they will be much stronger if there are two ships. To gain some time, the Sam Simon will follow close to the coast of Namibia. Then the Benguela Current will provide him with added propulsion.
Hammarstedt must also find an ally on land. In the dim light of the great cabin he sits down to write an email to the only person he believes can help him in this situation: the explorer J. Michael “Mike” Fay. Besides having a doctorate on the western lowland gorilla, he has flown into war zones to protect elephants from guerrilla groups, been shot by poachers and barely escaped with his life when an elephant attacked him, inflicting him with 13 deep stab wounds. Mike Fay has been called “the world’s greatest living explorer”, and he has powerful friends in the area that can come in handy for Hammarstedt.
“Dear Mr. Fay, for the past 92 days I have been in physical pursuit of the internationally wanted Nigerian-flagged poaching vessel FV Thunder,” Hammarstedt begins.
“I am currently chasing the FV Thunder north along the Namibian coast and believe that the poachers will attempt to offload their illegal catch in a West African port.”
When Mike Fay came wandering in onto the coast of Gabon in the late 1990s, it was after 455 days and some 3,500 kilometres on foot. He appeared wearing salt-water sandals, shorts and a thin synthetic T-shirt that could be washed every morning. His entourage consisted of 13 pygmies, serving as pathfinders, baggage carriers and assistants.
Fay had covered the entire Congo Basin, the fertile landscape along the river Congo with the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest and its unique animal and plant life. The purpose was to quantify, measure and document the vegetation and ecosystems that were not cultivated or razed by humans in this vast natural
