Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2015 17:06:13 +0000
From: Robert Me <winchesterbornbred@hotmail.co.uk>
Subject: M/V Lady Jean Peterson/17

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are so much better off being able to write and read some great stories.
Thanks.
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Both Scott and Andrew had taken an instant liking to these two officers,
no attitude, no superiority, no questioning about their reason to be
there and most important of all, their comments about the Jean. Both men
had been more than impressed during the tour which only confirmed what
they had been asked to report back on anyway. The Commander came straight
to the second reason why they were there.

"When we stop a boat that we suspect could be a mother boat we hold the
crew in the wheel house while we search it and a month ago found a device
that James recognised as a tracking receiver. We kept it of course so we
could keep it on the bridge and see if it reacted. We assume they are
planted on ships when they are in port so that these people could follow
and attack. When it went off we followed it and surprise surprise, it was
you! We were coming to Colombo on a goodwill visit anyway and that's why
we are here to let you know you have been visited and a tracking device
has been fitted somewhere on your ship and you need to search and find it
before you sail again. James and I have another two hours before we have
guests on the IoW and would be happy to search with you.

We followed your last action and well done it seems you really stuffed
them up and the other actions you have been involved in. I think you must
realise that you are being talked about at home and I want to tell you I
have been asked to look at you and report back. Scott, you and your crew
have done well and I have been asked to find out what you want to make
your ship more secure because we all know that the Jean and the one you
are escorting could become an even bigger target and, if you have not
already realised it, the shits who force these people out to take ships
hostage will do anything to take you and the ship you are escorting. The
ransom demand will be massive if they manage to get you."

"Why aren't you telling me to fuck off back home and leave it to the
Naval forces to sort out? From what you are saying you and those back
home could possibly be thinking that all we will do is make matters worse
if we were taken and held hostage. The Government or whoever must be
pissed off with us."

"Its true that's what was being said at the start until they realised you
were doing a great job. Look, you have been attacked a few times now and
although other ships have been taken you could have become number one on
the pirates wish list because your activities have been shown on so many
news channels and the more they do, the more our people now want to
support you, there are quite a number thinking that ships should be
armed. Scott I have been asked to find out what you want and there is no
doubt you will get anything within reason." Scott wished like hell he
could talk to Andrew in private but that was not possible while Dennis
and James were there and he needed time to think.

"Can we go and search for this tracker? There are two crew still on board
and I will get them to search with us."
"Good idea Scott." Scott picked his mike up. "Marcel and Jon, whatever
you are doing, stop it and meet us and our guests on the bridge please."
The boys cussed Scott and got dressed.

After introductions and telling the boys what this was about Jon came up
with the place to search first.
"If it was me I would plant it on top of the bridge." They all followed
Jon out and he took them up top and within a couple of minutes he pointed
at the unit behind the mast.
"There it is, right were I would have put it. Can I have a pay rise now
Skip?"
"You get PAID?"

They ripped the box off and Dennis suggested he would take it with him
and keep it on when he sailed and see who turned up.
"You never know the IoW may make a name for herself as well!"
Scott gave him the photo of the guy who had fired on the old O6 and may
have been the shooter who had killed his mother and disabled his father.
" Just in case you ever come across him, I would love to see him in the
Old Baily one day Dennis, but even if we get him, nothing will happen I
guess."

They said goodbye after another hour during which time Scott had given
the Commander his own "wish list."
"I will make my report Scott and recommendations, all of which will
include your requests." They left and the four friends went out to try to
forget the meeting that morning and enjoy themselves. Scott however
couldn't and Andrew knew it and kept even closer to him. Marcel and Jon
did not know what it had been about, but also knew Scott was thinking
hard and they too kept close to him, which they wanted to do anyway.

The rest of the time in Colombo was great and they all had a wonderful
time in Club Lush thanks to Colin. As in Mumbai they found themselves
very popular especially when Paul let his hair down and gave everyone the
amazing sight of him doing press ups for the duration of one tune. As it
went on many of the local lads joined in as well as the two boys who,
after the number had finished, got even more phone numbers, Paul got a
few as well and gave them to Reggie.

They were all in the saloon at 8am on the last day and would cast off at
midday. They were having breakfast followed by a meeting that Scott had
asked for, but before that he needed to talk to Paul. They left for
Scott's office and sat down.
"We are going to be offered a snipers rifle Paul, but only if you agree
to it. You would of course be the only person permitted to use it and you
would have to go on a refresher with your old unit, but only assuming you
would want that anyway. Before you answer we are getting a serving Marine
who apparently is one of the best shots with the GPMG (General Purpose
Machine Gun) and can apparently shoot the bollocks off a mosquito in
flight. So we will have a weapon anyway. It seems the authorities are
impressed with us and there are people who, like us, think that if ships
carried weapons, piracy would stop, or at the very least become much
less. What do you think?"
"Can I choose the weapon?"
"Yes."
"Count me in then and before you ask, I wont harm anyone, I wont need
too."

Back in the saloon Scott went through all that he had told Paul and also
a couple of more things as well.
"We are getting stun/flash grenades to fire in the same way you guys had
planned to fire fireworks and smaller grenades to fix on the
helicopters." Marcel and Jon thought it was Christmas.
"And, finally, we are taking delivery of a GPMG later today, issued by
the IoW and Paul is authorised to use it. We will now be armed." Scott
let that all sink in.

"Right, I'm not going to ask for your thoughts now because you need time
to take it all in. This may be going much further than anyone of us
expected and you may now have concerns that this maybe a step too far as
it seems we could be victims of our own success. For my part I am more
than happy that we seem to have the support from our people and, for me
any way, I will feel much more confident having the means to defend
ourselves properly. BUT, and this is the big one, I don't expect any of
you to agree and I would like you to have time to talk with your partner
and as a crew without me and tell me what you think and if you wish to
leave. We are being allowed weapons because of Paul and his service and I
am confident no pirate will ever take us as we will have the means to out
range their weapons and Paul has promised not to kill anyone! I'm going
to my shack and call my dad."

At 11am two crew from the IoW came on board carrying a couple of
open boxes with fruit on top. They were taken down to the saloon and
unpacked the fruit and looked in at the GPMG, all in bits. Paul had the
whole crew around him while he explained the weapon as he reassembled it.
"And there it is, welcome aboard pirates!" The gun and the 200 rounds
were locked in an empty cabin and would stay there until they were at sea
and Paul would start to practise fire.
At the pre sailing meeting Reggie spoke up. "Skip, we have all met and
you will be having the same crew for as long as you want us except, Theo
and Royston of course."
"Thanks everyone I wont be asking for any crew changes. Now, I have
already mentioned to Andrew that I will drop off any of you when we get
to Cape Town and you can fly to where ever you want to go, I think you
and Tommy should go Paul as it will give you more time on your rifle
refreshment or whatever you call it. I will need six crew, so fight it
out amongst yourselves if you what to go home from CT."

Two days later they met the O1 and took up station behind her. Scott went
over to her and got permission to practice boarding which began that
night with Scott and Jerry in action. Marcel and Jon took it in turns
flying around the ship practising to observe her without being detected.
Before they met the O1, Paul had practise fired the GPMG shooting at a
target fixed to the RIB which was towed behind the Jean at 200 yards and
was satisfied he had zeroed it and ready for use.

Now that they were armed the obvious happened which meant nothing did!
The whole journey was without incident and after they had reached the
mouth of the Red Sea the two ships parted and Scott ordered 20 knots
sailing west out of the Arabian Sea and then turn south on a direct route
to South Africa which would take them 200 miles off the Somalia coast and
when approaching Madagascar he would sail down the west coast and then on
to Cape Town. At that speed it would take just over eight days, eight
days of intense concentration as they sailed and even the off watch crew
just waiting for the alarm to sound.

"Scott?"
"Yes love?" Andrew turned round and kissed his man and held him tight.
They were in the bunk and coming back down to sea level after intense
concentration in the love making department and the only 'alarm" to go
off was the pair of them shouting out what was just about to happen.

"Something wrong Andrew?"
"No, not wrong, just thinking that's all.........., but yes a bit
worried."
"Is it about us?"
"Don't be daft......, no its Marcel and Jon. We love both of them to
death, but I also know they love us.......and I mean LOVE us! Oh I know
they flirt and make any excuse to hug and cuddle us and that's fine, but
I am sure they would love it to go further, I know it Scott. Did you not
think about them not wanting to fly to Iceland when we get to Cape Town
even though it would give them a few more days there? Jon hasn't seen his
family for ages and Marcel is part of Jon's family now, so why not go? I
think its because they know I'm going home and they will have you to
themselves. FUCK! That sounds so bad!" There was a long pause, Scott had
come to realise that as well and as much as he loved the pair of them, he
knew it was getting too close.

"Yes, I have seen it as well and just hoped it would go away. I will have
to talk to them, unless you want too?"
"Your the fucking captain, its your job!"
"Oh piss off, how many captains have to talk to crew about wanting to go
to bed with him and his boy friend?"
"More like a captain hoping they would! I haven't got a clue. So captain,
sort it out." Andrew cuddled into Scott and laughed his head off.
"Shut the fuck up, what do I say for Christ's sake?"
"No idea but I know you will come up with something, even if you make it
worse."
"Thanks, but I tell you something, those boys will be flying home when we
get to Cape Town."
"Good luck."

Scott did not like working in his office as it cut him off from the crew
so he had taken to working in the saloon at the head of the dining table
as often as he could and would only use it for private meetings and video
calls. He was sat with his laptop writing emails when Marcel and Jon came
in.
"Hello Skip, want a coffee?" Jon asked.
"Yes please. You going on or coming off watch?"
"Just come off Skip, can we sit with you?"
"Course, nice to have a bit of company." They bought the coffee's to the
table and sat down, one on each side of Scott.
"Skip can we say something?"
"Could I stop you?" They looked at one another and then at Scott.

"Skip, Jon and I realise we hoped to get much closer to you and Andrew
and we now know it was wrong and could effect all of us if we kept it up
and Jon and I are very sorry because we have let ourselves think there
could be more. We know you both love us as we love you, but we know that
if we tried anything on.......,like being more physical which we wanted
to happen, it could damage our relationship and could cause big problems
which could effect just about the whole ship if it came out that we were
"doing stuff" and we realise neither you or Andrew would want that
anyway, it was just us and again we are sorry Skip." Scott looked from
one to the other a couple of times and smiled broadly at these two lovely
young men.
"This is Andrew talking isn't it."
"Yes."
"When?"
"Yesterday." Scott laughed in relief that this was over.
"Ok..... thanks, lets not talk about this again and as far as we
are concerned no harm done. Are you flying home when we get to Cape
Town?"
"Yes Skip, we cant wait. We are going now is that alright?"
"I just want to say before you go that you are right, we love you to
death, but in a much different way than Andrew and I love one another and
there is not one thing that would stop us loving you."
"Andrew said the same yesterday. See you later Skip." Scott stood up with
them and the three cuddled in together and then watched them as they went
out and could not be happier, once again Andrew had come to his rescue
and dug him out of the shit! He packed up and went to their cabin
hoping to find him there, but realised he was on watch. He climbed up to
the bridge and went to him and put his arm around his shoulders and
kissed his cheek.
"Thank you Mr Washington." He whispered.
"Your welcome Mr Churchill." Andrew whispered back. They stayed like that
for some time thinking about the boys. Scott took Andrew out on the port
wing and shut the door.

"Andrew?"

"I already know what you are going to say because I have a feeling we
both want the same thing."

"Which is?"

"IF, and I mean IF the situation was right, I have a feeling we would end
up in foursome with them. I'm as sure as I can be you do and I know I
would have no problem it either. Scott, do you know I'm absolutely
positive NOTHING would happen that would harm either our relationship or
the boys." Scott looked at Andrew for a long time.

"Lets go back in, I need a few Chapters to think this through."

They were half way through the trip when Captain Andrew's of the USS
Rockall called the Jean and spoke to Scott asking for the two ships to
meet and for Scott to go to the Rockall and discuss the exercise Scott
had suggested they carry out. Scott was in fact a little surprised they
had got back to him, but was pleased non the less.

The following day Jan took him and Paul over to the immensely impressive
war ship and was welcomed on board by both Robert Andrews and Don
Forrester "Great to see you again Scott and nice to meet you Paul, is it
cold up there?" Paul looked down at the 6ft Robert and just smiled
back. "Lets get to my cabin."

"No Admiral Harding Robert?" Andrews was pouring coffee and had his back
to the others so they would not see him smiling.
"No Scott he has been recalled and that's the reason why we would like to
carry out this exercise, the Admiral, to be honest, was not that keen."
"So who's in charge then?" Don spoke up.
"You are looking at the new Admiral Scott." It was Roberts turn to speak.
"And Don here is the new Captain of the Rockall."
"Congratulations, hope we can work better together now. Admiral which
hatch do you want me to unlatch?"
"None thanks, I haven't got a son on board."
They got down to business as soon as Marine Captain Martin Standing
arrived.
"OK Scott, what do you want?" the new Admiral asked

"We were attacked by six boats a couple of weeks back and found out
afterwards we had a tracker put on us so they knew where we were. We got
rid of them without a shot fired, but we think they would have learnt by
that and in future they will attack out of our water cannon range and
just fire their AK's and RPG's and hope to do enough damage to get on
board.

I would like the exercise to be in two parts, the first part is for you
stay out of our range and fire blanks at us and the helicopters will
attack you, I want them stretched to the limit. They will only use red
dyed water spray, but an indication of a hit will be how much dye ends up
on your guys and if you can spot them when they attack. IF the crews deem
to have enough dye on them I would like them to stop attacking for five
minutes as though they were contaminated and not able to see so we can
concentrate on the other boats, then after that time they attack again,
in that way we will be able to assess how effective we were. Obviously
nothing will be definite as to who has done what to who, but it will give
us an idea of how successful or not we have been and how we will operate
in a real fight. I know we have experienced attacks now, but I want men
who are better trained to exercise with, anyway you can never get enough
practise.

Part one will end when I raise the Union Jack. The helicopters will come
back and replenish and when I take the flag down part two begins and I
would like your guys Martin to carry out a full scale attempt to get on
board us. You will not get sunk, but very wet and a lot of bailing out.
Of course how you attack will be up to you, but I am hoping for a multi
attack in different directions to see how our water cannons and
helicopters coup. If any of your men do get on us we could of course use
the cannons to wash them back off, but we wont do that as there will be
injuries. When I feel the exercise has done all it can and is at an end I
will raise the American flag and invite all of you lads to come on board
for a BBQ and a dry off so tell them to ware swim breifs and we can talk
about how it all went and what lessons we have both learnt. There will be
plenty of beer which I know is against the rules, but it would be great
to break them for once. Paul has got something to say."

"Because of my military service , we have been cleared to be armed. We
took delivery of a machine gun by the Royal Navy just before we left
Colombo, we don't have blanks, but the point of telling you about our
weapon is that you know we have one. It wont make much difference to your
attack on us, but at least you know we could fire back."

"It will make a difference Paul. If its ok with you Captain I would like
to invite Paul to fire one of ours, at least we would know how good he
is!" Don Forrester agreed. "Don't show us up Paul." Paul couldn't wait,
it had been a long time since he had fired a weapon, apart from
his inside Tommy of course.

Half hour later all the Marines and many crew were out on the flight deck
as a Marine took him through the basics of the weapon and after Paul had
test fired it, he waited for two target balloons to be released over the
stern, waited for them to get to about 200 yards and sunk both of them in
two short bursts. Three more were released but now one at a time and when
the first got to 350 yards Paul fired and sank that one followed by the
other two when they also reached the same distance. Of  the 30 rounds in
the magazine, he still had 5 left.

"This is getting expensive Paul, excellent shooting sir." Captain
Forrester said and everyone else agreed.
"Thanks Paul, I will take this into account when we start the exercise."
Capt Martin Standing shook a fellow Marines hand and Scott was as pleased
as punch. When they got back to the Jean Scott could not stop telling
everyone about it.
Before they left to go back to the Jean though, Don Forrester took Scott
aside.
"You will accept I cannot in any way sanction the breaking of any Naval
rules Scott, but if it helps I wont be smelling anyone's breath when they
get back either."
"Will Capt Standing know that Don?"
"Of course."

The exercise would take place in two days time. They had agreed it would
be in daylight and the first they knew it was under way was when the
Rockall called to say it had begun, in that way the helicopters had time
to change the gas containers and fit the dye ones on. Other than that
there was no exchange by either ship.

It was a beautiful day, hardly any wind, bright hot sun and calm seas.
Perfect for an exercise or even an actual attack.

"Six boats 5.5 miles to the stern, 50 knots." Tommy rang the alarm.

"Do not take off, but start up. When they are in range go and attack
them. Jan and Theo I want you to fire on maximum spray to cover the ship
in the same way a smoke screen would. Paul you know where to go, take the
gun and have a nice sun bathe." In any attack know that's were he would
be only this time feeling a bit spare with a gun and nothing to fire it
with.

Martin Standing had his boats came to 300 yards and peel off to starboard
and begin to circle the Jean. Marcel and Jon saw this and got behind
the last boat and attacked with the screamer on and placed a good load
over them, Marcel pulled to starboard leaving Jon to attack himself. Two
boats would now be out for five minutes. So far so good. Martin Stanton
seeing this told the other boats to break as soon as they heard the
screamers and the next two attacks failed so did the next two, meanwhile
the attackers were firing blind through the mass of water belching out in
a mass of spray.
"They have got used to the screamers Skip." Marcel said," we should turn
them off."
"Ok lads do it." They attacked two more but they did not stop and Scott
assuming they did not think they had been sprayed enough to affect them.
Martin Standing sent two boats to the stern followed by Jan's cannons
still sending up a huge spray.
So far Scott did not have to alter course, but as the two boats were
closing slightly he ordered full astern, the ship rapidly lost speed.
"Full power at maximum throw." The boats literally drove into the two
jets and were soaked and had to turn away. Marcel and Jon attacked them
with a good covering each and they stopped for five minutes, but there
were still four boats attacking'
"Full ahead." The Jean took off!
"Go back to spray. How much dye have you got boys?"
"Two passes each Skip."
"Use yours Marcel and come back in." Now he would see what one helicopter
could do, but knew Jon would be out of dye before Marcel could get back
up. Andrew went to the hanger to help Marcel refuel and change the
canisters. Jon attacked two more boats only stopping one before running
out and told Scott.
"Ok come over the Jean and stay there at 150 feet and have your camera so
we can see the whole area." It was a good move as they could see
everything and now Marcel was back up he sent him off to attack the two
nearest "attack" boats.
Jon landed and turned his helicopter round with Andrew helping again.
"When you have run out of dye Marcel come back and hover over us at
150ft."

They carried out two more attacks and twice came back to turn round
before Scott asked Paul to run the Union Jack up bringing the first part
to an end. Martin took his boats away a mile to the Jeans stern and
waited for the Stars and Stripes to be raised.

"Ready Skip and taking off." They arrived at their stations and took over
manual control and Scott asked for the American flag to be raised.
"Ok both stern cannons at half power, Theo ours on full power high
angle and cover 30 degrees port and starboard of the stern."

For the next hour the six boats made every attempt to come along side,
but the cannons kept them at bay and found it impossible to get alongside
as Scott had the ship sent all over the place and just that stopped any
boarding for the whole time they were under attack. The helicopters could
not attack as the boats were so close to the Jean and the cannons firing
would have bought them down, but if one found itself further away because
of Scott's violent turns they pounced on it and several found themselves
having to wait in the "sin bin" for five minutes.
Just to try out what would happen if there was a reason, Scott had the
Jean stopped and watched as there were more attempts to come along side,
but all boats were half filled with water and the poor lads bailing out
like fuck.

Scott eventually asked for the flag to be lowered, it was all over and
George and Colin got the BBQ out and began to cook. All the boats were
secured to the Jean and the Marines climbed on board, very wet and a bit
knackered. The Lady Jean Peterson's crew had a wonderful view as all 24
Marines stripped off down to their swimming gear and dried off. They were
a glorious sight.

They eat and drank with Martin passing around the cans and all talking in
groups and discussing the exercise and all agreeing that the Jean was
next to impossible to board.
"Sending out spray from the cannons when we were out of range was a great
idea and we have no idea if we were firing for real if we would have hit
you at all, I guess we would, but the spray really put us off and as for
firing an RPG, that would be total guess work. The fact that you can now
fire at an attacker makes you so much safer and with Paul behind a
machine gun, I'm just glad I'm not a pirate attacking you. From the time
the exercises started and the helicopters put two boats out, we never had
more than four boats able to attack you at any one time. Bloody good
result Scott.

As for trying to board, that was great fun and impossible at the same
time and as the cannons were only on half power  when it was directly
turned onto a boat for those few seconds, it was impossible to do
anything and when the jet went away we were just left to bail out and
pretty much out of it. Great exercise and very well done, we will look at
this and, as you said, learn."

It was a great end to a great day. There where lots of handshakes all
round and Scott was pleased that every Marine shook hands with Theo and
Royston.
They all helped clear up and went to join the watch on the bridge and
looked at the video. When it got to the point Marcel was told to go to
150ft and give a whole view of the area Scott asked Jerry to stop it.
"That gave us such a better overall view don't you think?"
"M and J, before we get to Cape Town I want you to contact the helicopter
people and talk about getting one that can just take off and hover over
us like Marcel did today. I don't want anything like we have now, just a
simple battery unit with a decent camera."
"I think we all ready know of one Skip, let you know tomorrow. Who will
fly it?"
"Lets see if we can get one that suits us first, then we will think about
it. Right, bloody great day and I learnt a lot, thanks so much everyone
it was an excellent exercise and even impressed the US Navy, just as much
as they impressed us. Andrew when are you on watch?"
"Now."
"Bollocks!" They all took the piss and those that could went to their
cabins.
Instead of sex Scott wrote an email to Don Forrester thanking him and
Martin Standing and all the Marines for a great exercise and sent the
Jeans crew their regards. A reply came back more or less saying the same
thing. "We watched it from a quarter of a mile away as you could see and
found it very interesting and I can assure you we too learnt a lot.
Regards from the USS Rockall and look forward to working with you again."

Andrew, Marcel, Jon, Reggie, Freddy, Paul and Tommy had packed ready to
leave for the airport after they had moored and cleared immigration and
customs. Scott, Neil, Colin, Jerry, George, Jan and Paulina would remain
and take the Jean home. It was only a "stop and go" so goodbyes had to be
said before they approached the harbour.

They wrapped up tight after they had made love to one another. They could
not say much and knew this was not going to be easy. They kissed one last
time and went for a shower. They dried one another off and then dressed
each other.
"There you look great, in fact too great you will get too much attention
on your way home and when your there."
"I will make a little effort trying to beat them off, but there is only
so much I can do still never mind, I will email you details." Any
bullshit helps when you are about to leave your love for a week and a
half.

Andrew would be back in the UK after his holiday one day if Scott could
maintain 20 knots, at that speed it would take him just under 13 days,
but he was bound to hit bad weather on the way and would have to reduce
speed.

They got into two taxis and they were gone and everyone left felt
dreadful. Scott took them back out of the harbour and once clear went
to 20 knots and on a course for home.

Andrew text loads of times before his flight telling Scott about all the
attention he was getting and finding it hard to resist. "So many great
looking guys Scott, even the Brit's aren't that bad." Scott decided
to shut him up.
"M+J came back after they saw you off, but I will redecorate the cabin
and burn the sheets when we get home!" Andrew decided to shut Scott up.
"They took off an hour before me, Nob head!"

During the trip Scott got a lot done including ordering the new
helicopter Marcel and Jon looked at for him and after a lot of discussion
about its ability to do what Scott wanted and it would already be home by
the time he got there. He also spoke to William a great deal and he would
arrange a meeting with their lawyer.
"Scott there is something else, but best not to talk now."
"Obviously a problem then dad."

William had had a visit it by police from the Metropolitan Police.
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