“It doesn’t say.”
“Doesn’t say! What kind of help is the Coast and Geodetic Survey giving us if they don’t even tell us the depth?” Weaver said sharply.
Arneau touched Weaver on the arm and then looked at Van Ness. “Do we have an idea of how deep it should be?”
Van Ness shook his head. “I can’t tell you, XO. I wish I knew. I looked through the books I had after our meeting yesterday to see what I could find on Kola Bay.” He touched the chart on the table. “This is all we have on board. It’s large-scale and doesn’t identify where the wrecks and sandbars are.”
“Sandbars?” Weaver asked.
“Kola Bay is ice-free year-round. Seems the currents and the ice outside of it cause the bottom terrain to shift during the winter. The Soviets have to remap it every year. Doesn’t exactly say ‘sandbars,’ but does refer to a shifting bottom. Could be gravel.”
“Things just keep getting better.”
“I wouldn’t worry too much, Alec,” Shipley said to his operations officer. “We are going covert. They won’t know we’re there, and if we do this right, they won’t know when we depart. It’s a matter of good seamanship.”
“And a shitload of good luck,” Weaver added.
Van Ness leaned forward. “Once we enter Kola Bay, Skipper, I recommend we use the navigational lanes for the first leg. First leg will be from abeam Polyarnyy on a course of one-eighty.” Van Ness picked up a pencil and lightly traced the route. “This will keep us in the center of the bay entrance. It also will keep us well away from known wrecks.” He straightened for a moment before leaning forward again. “Then we turn slightly southwest for the second leg. This will take us into the area of the bay where we need to be. We will have Severomorsk to our southeast, and the facility that Lieutenant Logan wants to see will be directly opposite, on our northwest.” He moved the pencil back to the second leg. “This is the most dangerous part of the navigational picture, Skipper. It’s narrow. There are multiple wrecks on both sides of it. And according to what I had available, there is a portion of this leg just before we reach the wider-open area between Severomorsk and the target where shallow water forces surface ships into two narrow channels.”
Shipley took a deep drink and let out a sigh. He looked at Van Ness and smiled. “Well, Lieutenant, can we get into where we need to be while completely submerged?”
Van Ness straightened. His face wrinkled in concentration as he bit his lower lip. “I don’t know, sir. I know the Soviet cruisers and warships can go back and forth between them.”
“How about their submarines?”
“I don’t know.”
Shipley looked at Weaver. “Go get Lieutenant Logan and have him come to the wardroom.”
Weaver nodded.
“He’s in the forward or aft diesel spaces,” Arneau said. “I think he and his team are practicing putting the air testers on the main induction valves.”
Ten minutes later, Weaver returned with Logan in tow.
Logan glanced down at the chart and then up at Shipley. “Sir, do you think it wise to be doing this in an open area?”
“Lieutenant Logan, an open area to a submariner is anything above the surface of the water. We’re down at 150 feet, doing eight knots, heading south-southeast.” Shipley touched the chart. “We have some questions about our mission.”
Logan looked around the wardroom. “Sir, I’m not sure I can talk about it out here.”
“Lieutenant Logan, while you are aboard my boat, I am all the authority you need. What I tell you to do, you do. Understand?”
“Yes, sir, but—”
“There are no ‘buts’ on my boat.” He leaned forward. “Here is Kola Bay. We are doing the navigation picture for our transit into the bay and for our escape afterward.” Shipley looked at Van Ness. “Show him.”
Van Ness took his pencil and put it on the narrow portion of the transit between the entrance and the wider area between Severomorsk and the facility. “Right here are two narrow navigational channels: one for ships entering the main part of Kola Bay, and one for them exiting. The C&G surveys warn ships to be alert for shifting shallows caused by winter conditions and of wrecks scattered along the north and south sides of the bay.”
Logan nodded, his attention on the chart. “You have a better chart than this one?”
“This is the only one we have. We had expected to be in the Iceland-U.K. gap patrolling seemingly calm waters, drinking our coffee, eating our pastries until relieved in thirty days,” Arneau corrected. “We had not expected to be risking our lives in the middle of the Soviet Fleet.”
“Not to mention the Soviet Northern Fleet headquarters,” Weaver added. “It would be like having a Soviet submarine sail into the harbor of Norfolk Naval Base. We’d sink the son of a bitch.”
Everyone looked at him.
“I’ll have no more talk of sinkings,” Shipley said. He looked at Logan. “The question we have, Lieutenant, is do the Soviet submarines egress from Kola Bay submerged, or do they have to exit on the surface here, where C&G warns ships to be alert.” Logan’s eyes narrowed as he stared at the chart. Everyone waited for him to answer. Shipley was beginning to believe the intelligence officer did not know, when the young man finally relaxed and confirmed it. “I don’t know, sir, but I can send a message to Naval Intelligence, asking them. They’ll know, and we should get a reply within twenty-four hours.”
Shipley turned to Van Ness. “What is our estimated arrival time off the entrance?”
“At current course and speed, we should be there tomorrow night — midnight, Greenwich Mean Time.”
The U.S. Navy ran on GMT, as did the Royal Navy. Greenwich Mean Time was the common time used in the days of sail so captains could calculate their longitude from the Greenwich meridian. As navigation improved over the years into the twentieth century, the original purpose was clouded. Since their days and nights ran together beneath the ocean waves, submarines needed the common time element even more than the surface forces.
Shipley glanced at the Navy clock on the wall. The huge black hands showed a few minutes before 2100 hours. “That’s cutting it close, Lieutenant. That means we may have to break radio silence if they require any additional information. It also means that we will not have an opportunity to ask for clarification from Naval Intelligence if their reply is ambiguous.” Shipley looked at Arneau. “XO, you get with Lieutenant Logan and help him ask the right questions.”
“Yes, sir.”
“For all of you, regardless of the reply, we are going to go ahead with the orders if we are told to execute them.”
“It’ll be dangerous.”
“If we weren’t used to danger, we would not be in the silent service. We’d be skimmers, watching the sun rise and set as we bore holes through the ocean.”
“Yes, sir, Skipper,” they said in unison.
“Once again, even though the crew will eventually find out everything, I do not want us discussing it with them. The less they know, the better it is for them. There is enough speculation ongoing now. Better they speculate than we read about this in the newspapers once we return.”
“There should not be anything in the newspapers, sir,” Logan objected.
“Aye, sir,” Arneau answered, speaking to Shipley but glaring at Logan. “Lieutenant Logan, if you will stay behind, we’ll work on the message.”
“Sir, shouldn’t we do that in the radio shack?”
“Lieutenant, there isn’t room for both of us in the radio shack,” Arneau said sarcastically. “This is our classified briefing room, where we can talk secret shit, drink coffee, and eat a meal. Besides, you see this?” he asked as he reached behind him and tugged at the curtain. “This is our own soundproof curtain.”