Falling

Chapter 7 : Home

The city of Portsmouth contains Britain's busiest Naval base. The bulk of the Royal Navy is based in this one location, and usually a harbour pilot is required, to guide in the larger vessels. No pilot came out to meet the Ark Royal.

The carrier anchored out in the mouth of the port, the smaller vessels filling all of the available space. The flotilla seemed to sit idle for hours before anything happened. The decision was then made to send someone into the port. Due to her size, the carrier would not be making the journey. After a conference across the flotilla's radio's, a much smaller warship entered the channel.

HMS Severn was a River class patrol boat. She was 79 metres long, and carried a crew of twenty men. It had been decided to send her, as she was the smallest military vessel present. Her size should allow her to be more manoeuvrable. For entering the port, she had taken on another twenty men, Royal Marines despatched from the carrier. These highly trained men had volunteered to go ashore. The plan was to follow the channel, navigate up towards the military area and then launch two Zodiacs, rigid inflatable craft. Each one could carry ten men and all of their personal equipment. After leaving the patrol boat, the Marines would use the Zodiacs to find somewhere safe to land, then search the internal part of the docks, to try and find the reason for the apparent silence.

The tourists were stood on the flight deck of the Ark Royal. It seemed as though everyone was standing outside, on every ship or boat assembled.

Jim turned to Dave, "How silent is this?".

"I know mate. I've never been here before, so I don't know what its like normally, but where is everyone?.

Both men stood and stared out into the port. Ships, boats, yachts and motor launches, all moored in neat rows, each vessel gently bobbing on the water. Any type of boat you could name was here. The only thing missing was people. The collective anticipation was almost visible.

Since they had arrived, not one person had been seen, not even a dead one. They watched as the Severn left the flotilla, and turned to enter the channel.

She travelled around five hundred feet, then started to blast her horn. The sound echoed up and down the silent port, it also made everybody jump.

It made sense to send out signals. The horn would travel for miles, and anyone who could hear it, would know that a ship was active in the port. As she progressed further away from the carrier, her horn took on a pathetic, almost mournful tone. She then turned to follow the channel, and was lost from view.

"Lets go and get some coffee mate. I want to check on Ella too." Dave turned as he spoke and after a few seconds Jim followed.

The trio were sat together in the mess hall. Both of the men wanted to return back to the flight deck, but Ella had complained about the boredom.

They had decided to be chivalrous and stayed below. The conversation had followed the usual pattern. Dave was laughing about everything, Ella saw a conspiracy in everything, and Jim just wanted to get home.

Ella and Dave were telling each other bad jokes, when a different noise, other than the unhappy ships horn, filtered through the open porthole.

It was the sound of a battle. They rushed out of the mess hall, intent on reaching the flight deck.

Most of the tourists had gone below, but now they were streaming back outside. It looked like most of the crew had joined them. Naval uniforms of all ranks mixed in with flowery shirts and Bermuda shorts. Jim and Dave, carrying Ella, joined the throng, and all eyes were staring towards the channel.