Berin walked quietly down the lane and onto the Penny Jane. The tide had turned and was running out. Berin knew that he had another forty minutes before the water level would be too low to leave the harbour. Once on board, Berin stowed his gear and cast off at the bow which was pointing seaward. He let the tide swing the bow out and then cast off at the stern. Running forward, Berin grabbed the boat hook and used it to pole the boat out into the current and clear of the next fishing vessel. He then went into the cabin and took the wheel to steer the vessel into mid-stream. Gradually the vessel slid silently out of the harbour. With the inclement weather there was no-one in the harbour to see what was happening. The Penny Jane cleared the harbour and Berin kept her in the channel. As she drifted out to sea she lost way and Berin turned the key to warm up the igniters before firing the engine. It started first time when he pushed the starter button on the console. With the noise of the wind and sea it was not heard back in the village. Berin left the riding lights off as he steered the vessel out to sea. It was a dark night with the clouds hiding the moon. As he headed the boat out to sea it was hit by a rain squall and he turned on the wiper, a circular piece of glass driven by an electric motor. It spun the rain off the glass to give clear vision. Berin took the vessel out about two miles into the shipping roads and brought the motor to idling speed to maintain way. He switched on the transmitter and waited for it to warm up. When it was ready, Berin switched to the channel he needed to transmit to Moscow. He then fed the tape into the teletype machine and switched it to send. When that was done, Berin ripped the tape into little pieces and opened the cabin door. He stepped out and dropped the pieces overboard. The wind caught them and whisked them away into the night. They would eventually drop into the sea and gradually sink. Berin then locked the wheel and went down below into the engine room. He then unscrewed the cocks so that seawater started pouring in. Going back on deck, Berin put some weight into the fish box with the encoder and other equipment. He put a lead weight in the bag with the documents and threw both the bag and box overboard. They sank without trace.
Taking his duffle bag, Berin put it in the dinghy and then put a jerrycan of fuel in too. The Penny Jane was beginning to settle in the water. Looking up, Berin saw a large freighter bearing down on the fishing boat. He thought he couldn’t have worked it better. He went aft, climbed into the dinghy and cast off. Putting oars into the rowlocks, Berin pulled clear of the fishing boat. Now the freighter was looming very large and Berin rowed away and clear of the path of the freighter. The thud of the freighter’s engines grew louder and Berin turned the bow of the dinghy to ride out the freighter’s wash. He watched, fascinated, as the bow of the freighter bore down on the small fishing vessel. There was a crunch as the freighter’s bow hit the fishing boat. Being wooden, it stove in and broke apart. By the time the freighter passed, the fishing boat was beyond saving. A crewman on deck near the stern noticed the bow and wheelhouse of the Penny Jane silhouetted against the light-glow from Grimsby and Cleethorpes as it crested a wave. He raced to the deck ‘phone and called the bridge. “Looks as though we hit a fishing boat and it’s sinking,” he said. The telegraph to the engine room rang to stop and the freighter started to slow down. Berin pulled on the oars and headed away from the area and toward the coast. It would be at least half-a-mile before the freighter could stop and lower a boat to check for any remains and crew. When he was well away from the area, Berin set the throttle to start the outboard motor of the dinghy. He pulled at the starter cord and the motor fired, a tribute to the way Walmar maintained his vessels. Berin steered towards the coast. He could see the lights of Cleethorpes and Humberston as the dinghy crested each wave. He set a course just south of the lights so that he would be able to beach the dinghy clear of
