“Exactly so.”
“Let us hope the Americans have not read them. For it would surely be even more shocking if they sank the Xiangtan.”
Back out on the ocean, the bizarre convoy began to swing to the east as Kaufman increased speed to stay above Greenville. The SSN was stepping up her speed two knots at a time, checking her sail constantly, for fear it might rip right off.
On the plus side, she was not leaking, although she sounded like a floating steel strip mill. On the minus side, the Chinese destroyer showed no signs whatsoever of giving up the chase. A little over a mile and a half behind, she now steamed along steadily, making an easy 16 knots through the water, just as Greenville was doing. She made no attempt to establish contact with either of the American frigates. She just stayed right where she was, watching, waiting, tracking.
In Greenville, Commander Wheaton, clattering along now at 17 knots, decided to go for another speed increase, since there appeared to be nothing wrong with either the reactor or the turbines.
“Make your speed nineteen,” he said. The battered submarine surged forward, and the only discernible result in the control room was an even greater racket coming from inside the shattered sail. But she kept going.
Up on the surface the American operators in the frigates were unable to pick up any radio contact from the Chinese, but every time they looked back over the stern, there was Xiangtan running through the fading wake of the frigate Kaufman. The unnerving presence of the big Chinese destroyer seemed to increase as the day wore on, because they ran eastward for hour after hour, and nothing changed. Where Kaufman went, Xiangtan went, and by early afternoon the Americans were beginning to wonder if they should do something to discourage this strange game of follow the leader, particularly since the Shantou had now caught up and was steaming along 200 yards off Xiangtan’s starboard quarter.
Commander Carl Sharpe opened up his encrypted line to the Flag at midday, informing Admiral Barry that the destroyer from Zhanjiang, which had summarily opened fire on Greenville sometime before 0700 that morning, had now been tracking the submerged and damaged submarine for the best part of five hours. It was also in the company of a Chinese antisubmarine frigate.
He added that he had no idea what the plans of either Chinese captain were, but they had made no attempt to fire on either of the American frigates. “They seem, sir,” said Commander Sharpe, “to have an exclusive interest in the submarine, and a total disregard for our surface ships.”
Admiral Barry asked if the Kaufman’s CO had any recommendations. But the frigate captain said he could not come up with anything more constructive than perhaps firing a shot or two across the Xiangtan’s bows. But this seemed extravagant, and Admiral Barry told him just to proceed back toward the battle group, but to keep him posted, on the hour, as to the precise movements of the Chinese warship. “Remember, you are not authorized to shoot, Commander, except in self-defense. That’s straight from Washington. She’s a big ship, and we’d have to sink her to disable her, and I’m not sure Washington would be crazy about that.”
Commander Sharpe returned to the bridge and ordered the helmsman to hold course and make their best speed back toward the carrier, which was of course only the best speed Greenville could make, rattling along underneath with virtually no sonar. However, Commander Wheaton had now wound her speed up to 27 knots and they were clattering along extremely smoothly, though you would never have known it, judging by the shrieks of tortured steel from the sail.
Two miles astern, still following with bland, impassive determination, were Xiangtan and Shantou, pitching through the rising ocean swell, as apparently innocent as a couple of tourist ferries, but with menace in their gun turrets.
The Ronald Reagan was now positioned eight hours away to the east, and for every one of those hours the Chinese warships kept a constant vigil on the American frigates and her unseen underwater colleague Greenville. Every hour Commander Wheaton checked in on the UWT to check if they still had company, and the answer was always the same: “They’re still there, two miles astern, same speed.”
It was five o’clock in the evening when Commander Sharpe again contacted the giant aircraft carrier, which still steamed 200 miles east in company with her battle group.
He knew both Cheyenne and Hartford had transferred their big cargoes of SEALs and former prisoners to the Ronald Reagan, but he did not yet know how Greenville was ever going to conduct a similar operation, since the destroyer seemed determined to follow them until she was able to open fire again on the American submarine she had already hit and almost crippled with a sizeable shell.
Commander Sharpe was now convinced they should put the goddamned destroyer on the bottom and have done with it. And he relayed these thoughts to the distant Admiral Barry in forceful terms.
But the battle group commander had been told this had not been authorized. His instinct was to avoid a confrontation with China if possible. But right now, with Greenville damaged, he opened up the line to CINCPAC in San Diego to report.
Again there was great caution in the American camp, and CINCPAC emphasized no shooting unless fired upon. However, they did believe that the heavily gunned Xiangtan was showing an obdurate interest in the submarine, and they developed a new plan…to send two more ships back to join Kaufman and Reuben James, surround Xiangtan, and try to ride her off — Navyspeak for forcing the destroyer away, under the IRPC rules governing international waters.
Admiral Barry detailed the frigate Simpson to head back and resume station close aboard Xiangtan, which was of course by far the most menacing of the two Chinese ships. He also ordered the big 9,000-ton Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser Vella Gulf, under the command of Captain Chuck Freeburg, to join them and to take overall charge of the operation.
And two hours later, the four American warships moved into position for a complicated maneuver that carried with it the danger of a collision. However, the veteran commanding officer of Vella Gulf knew precisely what he was doing, and he ordered Kaufman and Simpson to make a wide sweep and then come in fast, with Simpson spearing in on Xiangtan’s starboard quarter, and Kaufman coming in at a right angle straight at her starboard bow, with full right of way.
Under the laws of navigation, as laid down in the International Regulations for the Prevention of Collisions at Sea (IRPC), the ship that can see a red portside navigation light coming in on her starboard side must give way.
They even have a poem for it:
In instances like the one now unfolding in the China Seas, it was not much more than a very grown-up game of chicken. Chuck Freeburg had Simpson blocking the Chinese captain’s escape route on her starboard quarter, while Kaufman came straight at her bow on the same side.