Page 265 - The Tigris Expedition

The Tigris Expedition
and canvas, and arms stiff from gripping the oar shafts and legs
weary from tumbling about as Tigris jumped the angry wakes like a
porpoise.
When morning came the lights disappeared but the ships were
still there; now we saw them from the moment they rose humming
like mosquitos on the horizon, buzzing like wasps as they came
nearer, until they passed us like drumming elephants.
Towards sunset on the fifth day the weather changed. Heavy
clouds rolled up over the horizon and we heard distant thunder. To
the west we could still see the outlines of coastal mountains briefly
each time they stood out against the lightning. The night had barely
started when a strange combination of lamps that made us think of a
Christmas tree floated very slowly past in front of us, crosswise to
our course. We marvelled and discussed what they might be, when
we noted some other unusual lights from a low and equally slow
craft following at a distance behind the first, also intending to cross
our course. Both vessels moved so very slowly that there would be
time to pass between them. And that is what Gherman and I tried to
do when Detlef came up on the bridge and I showed him the
Christmas tree. The next second Detlef realised what it was. We
I
threw both tillers hard over to starboard and barely managed to
skim around the low stern of the second vessel, which proved to be
a heavily loaded, unmanned barge. As a captain of merchant ships
Detlef had read from the many superimposed mast lights on the
first boat that here was a tug towing a barge on a two hundred yard
cable.
I crawled into the main cabin to get some sleep before my own
night watch. I was already accustomed to lying calmly and relaxed
with eyes closed, even if a natural reaction would have been to sit up
and look out each time a ship came near. My ears registered the
rhythmic drumming of distant engines that slowly grew in strength
and then as slowly died away as ships came and passed us. Then a
terrified yell of warning came from the steering platform over and
behind my head, followed by the intense droning of a big ship’s
l
pistons as it approached us dangerously fast, suddenly so near that
the noise chased all of us out on deck like scared mice. I barely had
my head out of the port-side door opening when I saw our
ochre-coloured sails brightly lit by something big and noisy just on
the opposite side of the cabin. As I rose naked to my feet with a grip
on a mast stay, everything seemed in chaotic movement and I felt as
if I were travelling at night through a city street, almost blinded by
the many lights from a tall black wall. A fully lit cargo ship rose out

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