Officially, it is the authorities of Nigeria who are now coordinating the rescue operation. The Navy, Air Force and the maritime rescue coordination centre in Lagos have been alerted and are standing by. Enisuoh has also asked the authorities of Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to make preparations to assist Sea Shepherd. The atmosphere on the bridge of the Bob Barker becomes calmer. The officers look out at the crew of the Thunder in the two life rafts.
“Maybe we should get them some sodas? Red Bull?”
“That will make them angry. Nothing with caffeine,” is the opinion of the ship’s physician Colette Harmsen.
“Let’s give them Valium,” Meyerson suggests.
The two life rafts floating between the Thunder and the Bob Barker bear the name Ming No. 5, Ulaanbaatar, one of the Thunder’s many identities. In the intensifying heat, the crew of the Thunder eat oranges and drink soda. The empty bottles are thrown into the ocean. The Sea Shepherd crew in the Gemini try to fish them out. Both the fishing pirates and activists have the ocean as their place of work, but the similarities end there.
Soon the hunters and the hunted will be on the same ship.
“Tell him that the shipping director in Nigeria has said that we will stand by. Another boat gets here in two hours,” Hammarstedt says.
“How far away is the next ship?” Cataldo wonders.
“25 nautical miles,” Hammarstedt replies.
He neglects to tell him that it is Sea Shepherd’s the Sam Simon who is heading towards them.
“Is it a ship that wants to pass us?” Cataldo asks.
“I don’t know. We will ask the Nigerians. Tell him that Nigeria is coordinating now and that we are taking our orders from them,” Hammarstedt says.
Cataldo tells Gimeno that the battery in the radio he is using to communicate will soon be dead.
“Tell him to get off his damn boat. This guy is a joke,” Hammarstedt says.
While Hammarstedt tries to lure Cataldo into the life raft, the chief engineer Erwin Vermeulen is ready to board the Thunder.
“It is not the Titanic nor the Kursk. Nobody is going to go down for it,” he says.
“James Cameron is a supporter,” Hammarstedt responds with a smile.
The Canadian director behind the two largest box office successes in history, The Titanic and Avatar, in March 2012 was the first to undertake a solo descent of the 11-kilometre depths all the way to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean. But nobody on the bridge of the Bob Barker has any particular faith in the idea that Cameron will dive 3,800 metres for a fishing vessel in the Gulf of Guinea.
Cataldo comes on the radio again and asks how far away the other ship is now.
“12 nautical miles,” Hammarstedt answers.
He explains that the ship will arrive in an hour.
“Illegal, illegal,” Cataldo answers in Spanish. Again he demands that Hammarstedt bring the crew of the Thunder on board the Bob Barker and points out that the law requires that the first vessel to arrive at an emergency situation must rescue the shipwrecked seamen.
“He’s saying he’s going to sue you,” Gimeno says.
“I’m so tired of this asshole,” Hammarstedt replies softly so the radio won’t pick it up.
“He says we can leave if we want,” Gimeno translates.
“We are not leaving. We are coordinating on orders from Nigeria. Tell him to disembark so he can save his god damn life,” Hammarstedt says and continues: “Just ignore him. And tell him that it is illegal to sink his own ship. I am so tired of this asshole,” he says again, this time loud and clear.
He feels that he is starting to gain the advantage over Cataldo.
“He’s not going to be happy when he finds out that the second boat is the Sam Simon,” he says to Meyerson and Vermeulen.
The bridge of the Bob Barker is filled with laughter.
“This guy’s a clown,” Hammarstedt states.
“If he goes down with his own ship, it would be like that scene in Cape Fear,” Meyerson chuckles.
In Martin Scorsese’s action thriller, Robert De Niro plays a mad rapist who is chained to a burning houseboat and drowns.
Cataldo stands on the bridge of the Thunder holding a pair of binoculars and staring in the direction of his nemesis on the Bob Barker. Cataldo is not planning to accompany the Thunder to the bottom of the ocean and now it’s high time that he get himself into the life raft. In São Tomé a hotel bed and flight tickets to Lisbon await him. Everything has been arranged.
At the same time, he knows that Hammarstedt and Sea Shepherd are in contact with Interpol and authorities on all continents. He has received regular updates from his wife in Viña del Mar in Chile, and he knows what’s at stake. If they can just reach Europe, get away from this nightmare. Will the other ship that is approaching offer a solution? He takes the radio with him and climbs down the stairs from the bridge of the Thunder for the very last time.
While several of the crew are taking selfies in the life rafts, the Sam Simon comes within range of the radio receiver on the Bob Barker. Hammarstedt and Chakravarty discuss the next step. They are still afraid that the officers who remain on the Thunder will sail away as soon as Sea Shepherd begins picking up people from the ocean. Five practised seamen can easily navigate the Thunder alone. Then the Bob Barker will have to resume the chase of the pirate ship while Chakravarty and the crew of the Sam Simon will be left alone with 35 men. That won’t do.
There is only one solution. Everyone has to get off the Thunder before anyone can be rescued. That is the condition. And then it happens: Cataldo and the last of the Thunder officers climb down into the
