Hammarstedt has decided to paint a picture of the fish poachers as a criminal organization and mentions the fishing captain Lampon’s business partner, who was apprehended in possession of two tons of cocaine.
“These three were not involved. Somebody on the ship was,” Hammarstedt stresses.
Chief engineer Agustín Dosil Rey looks at Hammarstedt as if he is a leper. Every time Hammarstedt mentions Interpol, the chief engineer rolls his eyes.
“You don’t represent Interpol. What gave you the right to follow this ship? Did Interpol ask you to follow them?” the defence attorney asks.
“No, we came across a criminal act and followed the ship,” Hammarstedt answers.
To the question of the consequences of the Thunder’s wreck, Hammarstedt replies that the oil will start leaking out of the wreck.
“You sell fishing permits to the EU. This destroys the opportunity to do so. São Tomé is a natural habitat for sea turtles and you are investing in ecotourism. These people are destroying that for you. How can you put a price on the country’s ecotourism?” Hammarstedt asks.
At that moment, Hammarstedt is sure that the chief engineer is going to stand up and knock him down. A stenographer is seated on a wooden bench against the wall and diligently writing down every word with a ballpoint pen.
The Thunder officers’ defence attorney Pascoal Daio got his education at the prestigious university La Sorbonne in Paris, has formerly been a Supreme Court Judge and is a highly esteemed man in São Tomé. His strategy is to discredit Sea Shepherd, to portray the organization as terrorists and a kind of ISIS of the environmental movement. He accomplishes this by showing a series of YouTube videos of Sea Shepherd and the Bob Barker in confrontations. Many of the videos have been published by Sea Shepherd supporters. When he shows the near-collision between the Bob Barker and the Thunder in February, Cataldo gets to his feet, clicks the heels of his shoes together, and holding his hands behind his back, he takes the floor.
“I have never been so afraid. I was sure that my crew and I would die,” he says.
Then Hammarstedt speaks up.
“What Cataldo is saying is absurd. The film shows that the Bob Barker is sailing at full throttle astern to avoid being hit. We saved them! It’s not certain they would be here had it not been for us. Every day for 110 days we reported to the police. We saved them. We gave all the evidence to Interpol. We came to São Tomé at our own expense to testify. Captain Warredi Enisuoh of the Nigerian coast guard stated that never before have two ships sacrificed so much to stop a ship. That is why we are here,” Hammarstedt says.
“Why didn’t you put in at port?” the judge asks Cataldo again.
“I had my orders,” he answers.
“Who did you report to?”
“I don’t know.”
After their initial optimism the three defendants seem battered and resigned. There is no Spanish or Chilean consul present during the trial. Also Cataldo’s attire surprised Hammarstedt. He has come dressed in dungarees and a blue shirt unbuttoned at the neck. Beforehand he had imagined the ship owner would hire a local tailor to sew the captain a suit. The first engineer Luis Miguel Pérez Fernández scarcely utters a word. Most of the time he stares at the floor, now and then he glances up to send Hammarstedt a look of contempt. The impression is that the three have been left to manage on their own. Nonetheless, they are clearly protecting the ship owner.
Throughout the entire trial they categorically deny having sunk the Thunder, but cannot give any sensible explanation for why the ship is now resting on the bottom of the ocean off the coast of São Tomé.
“Why did the Thunder sink?” the judge asks in closing.
“It was a perfect day to sink a ship,” Hammarstedt replies. “And they thought they could get away with it. Either the Thunder was sunk intentionally, or it was the unluckiest ship in the world,” he continues.
During his entire testimony the three defendants listened to Hammarstedt’s explanation without moving. Now all three of them nod in approval. As if they want to say: Yes. The Thunder was the unluckiest ship in the world.
44
THE JUDGMENT
YELLOWSTONE, OCTOBER 2015
When he wakes up, there is hoarfrost on the tent canvas. After packing up the tent, Peter Hammarstedt gets in the car and drives south through Yellowstone. From the window he sees the sulphurous vapour rising from the hot springs. It’s as if the earth is alive. When he catches sight of a bison, he stops the car and gets out. He is finally on the holiday he dreamt about during the search for the Thunder half a year ago.
While he is silently observing the grazing animal, his mobile phone chirps. It’s a message from Sid Chakravarty.
“Everyone was sentenced. They got three years in prison. EUR 15 million in fines,” the message says.
“What?” Hammarstedt answers.
“Cataldo and the officers. They were sentenced to three years in prison.”
Hammarstedt sits down on a rock. The chase of the Thunder has reached its final conclusion. Now he stares out across the shining mirror of water on the lake before him and feels a trembling joy over the fact that Captain Cataldo must spend the coming years behind bars.
45
PRISONERS’ ISLAND
SÃO AND PRÍNCIPE, JANUARY 2016
They are like two pinheads in the enormous Gulf of Guinea, spit out of the sea and covered by a labyrinthine rainforest. Since the equator and prime meridian meet here, São Tomé and Príncipe are somewhat justified in calling themselves a kind of global midpoint. In reality there are few places located so far from the attention of the world as Africa’s
