Father Goose

Author's Note: A story inspired by the 1964 movie of the same name. There's some period slang in the story and if any of it offends you then too bad.

The Cast:

Captain Bob Grant

Leslie Ducasse - The French teacher

Cheryl Locke - English student

Verina Greenlaw - English student

Laurelle Felsette - French student

Stephanie Jansen - Dutch student

Anneke De Groot - Dutch student

Anne Sparks - English student

Nicole Dumont - French student

Jacintha Dekker - Dutch student

************

In the last days of November 1941 I was going to be on my way from Manila to Honolulu. I'd been doing some shipping jobs and ferry jobs down in the Philippines and where things were getting dicey between the world powers I figured it was time to head home.

My ship was a seventy-five foot twin diesel motor yacht built in 1930 by a great firm in New Jersey that went bankrupt while the ship was being fitted out. The important parts were done but the interiors were never installed. The bank sold it to me in 1933 for $1500 when there were no other buyers. I did my best fitting out the interior spaces so they were comfortable enough for myself and a small crew.

I named her "Galene" after the Greek goddess of calm seas.

Once she was all checked out and had her certificates I set out for the Pacific. For seven years I made a decent living and managed to put away a fair amount in a trustworthy bank back in the States. I also kept a decent amount of cash on board for emergencies.

Like the one I had when one of my diesels blew a rod a hundred miles off Brunei. I made the turn and limped back to Manila to get her fixed. I knew a decent shipyard there and soon enough had a deal for getting the engine fixed up.

A couple very polite Navy Shore Patrol from Subic stopped by and advised me to stay aboard my ship with my two hands while the repairs were under way. They didn't mind if we looked around in the day time but they wanted us back aboard at night. I'd planned on doing that anyway so it was no great hardship.

A couple days into the repair and a couple other mugs from the Navy showed up and had some questions about why I was there, what I'd seen while I was there, and when I planned on leaving. I invited them aboard and showed them my logs and my charts so they knew my story was on the up and up and after that they seemed satisfied and left.

The next day they came back and arrested my two hands. Seems those two knuckleheads had gotten into some rhubarb in Sydney and the Aussies wanted to talk to them about it. I never saw them again.

That left me belly up as far as crew went. I'd have normally stood a chance of finding some anchor clankers in Manila to help run the boat but all the merchant guys and even the gypsies had already beat it out of the area.

December 1st was my departure date. I'd run the repaired engine overnight and she worked fine. The yard apes had done a great job on the boat and I made my appreciation understood with a $20 gold piece for each of them. The tanks were topped off with diesel and I had plenty of provisions and water as well. Especially since I was going to be alone.

I was busy getting ready to get underway when the Navy mugs showed up again. Stopping what I was doing I met them at the dock and they gave me the dope on why they were there. Seems I was going to get some passengers and it wasn't a choice.

The American School in Japan had been closed up due to the frictions with America and most of the students and staff had beat it back to the States. A French woman and eight of her students got in Dutch trying to leave because of paperwork problems. They missed the boat back to the States and instead ended up in Manila. And the Navy wanted them gone.

The one mug just looks me in the eye and says, "Mister, they gotta get outta here. The Japanese are gonna start a war right soon and they're not nice to the ladies. I was at Nanking in '37 and I seen what'll happen. You're taking these ladies or I'm taking your boat and taking them myself. Got it?"

I understood and made that clear. The two mugs started yelling and barking orders as a truck rolled up on the dock. My nine passengers were politely but assertively offloaded from the truck and marched right onto Galene. I had the ladies go down to the galley and told them to stay there until I came back for them. Those dames were scared witless and I didn't get any backtalk.

I got back up topside and started the engines. Going out on deck I went to cast off.

I gave a salute to the two Navy mugs and they gave me a sharp salute in return. Hard not to respect guys like that. I knew they'd saved these ladies from certain death. I hoped they made it out themselves.

An hour later I cleared the harbor and made for the San Bernadino Strait. Setting the throttle at ten knots I dogged the wheel to keep her on course and then went below to grab the French broad. She followed me back to the wheelhouse and we had a chat.

"Hey, so you're in charge of the sorority downstairs? Why don't you tell me why you're on my boat?"

"Sir, what is your name?" she asked.

"Bob Grant, but aboard ship I'm Captain Bob or Skipper, okay?"

"Yes, Captain Bob. I am Leslie Ducasse. I was in Tokio teaching French and we were stuck there because these girls had turned eighteen and the Japanese refused exit visas to them because their passports were for children. They wanted a very large bribe to allow us to leave and I did not have the money for that."

She took off her hat and her long dark hair spilled out from under it. "We met with a Filipino fisherman and he smuggled us out of Japan. He was risking himself for us and I'll never forget him for this. And your navy won't allow us aboard their ships so here we are on yours."

"Hmm." was all I had to say as I contemplated her. I figured her at five and seven tall, about a buck twenty in weight, and with a proper rack. Nice.

"Are we going to Australia?" she asked.

I nodded, "We're going to stop at my little hide-a-way down in the Bismarck Sea, pick up a few things I need, and then we'll head down to Brisbane to drop you off. From there I'm heading to Honolulu but that might take a while if I can find work."

"How long do you think it will be until we make Brisbane?" she asked.

I did a little figuring in my head. "I figure about four thousand miles, ten knots...a stop for fuel...three weeks would be about right."

She gave me a sour look. "Three weeks? Oh, no."

I gestured at the sea, "You could swim but it might take a little longer."

"No, what I mean is...well...you're right. Thank you. I should be more grateful for your kind assistance. I'll go tell the girls." she turned to leave.

"Wait a moment, bring back any of your girls who have any experience driving a boat or sailing. I'm going to need some help if we're going to get to Brisbane."

She did what I asked and came back with three of the girls. Proper introductions followed and I appointed Jacintha, Verina, and Laurelle as Ensigns. I went about showing them how to read a bearing from the binnacle and how to use it to hold a course. Jacintha had experience with her father's ship the SS Soesterberg and told me she'd helmed the ship several times. She was promptly promoted to Lieutenant and I gave her the helm which she took with confidence.

Assigning Jacintha to instruct the other two girls on the helm I went off to survey the rest of the passengers and find them a berth.

From there things went quite nicely. The girls would take turns on the helm and that let me get some shut-eye here and there. It took two days to make the San Bernadino Strait and from there we left the Philippines behind.

We were about halfway to the Bismarck Sea enjoying a pleasant morning when Anneke came running up to the wheelhouse jabbering away at Jacintha in Dutch.

I interrupted, "Jacintha, what's she on about?"

"Captain, Anneke says the Japanese have gone to war against America, the British, and the Dutch! A war has started!"

I left Jacintha in charge and went down to the radio to find out what was going on. A station in Manila was on the air saying the Japanese were bombing the city and had attacked the American bases.

I'd expected this but it was still a shock to hear that it had really happened.

It was four more very nervous days to make it to my hide-a-way. At night we ran dark and that's a dangerous thing to do but it's even more dangerous to leave the lights on during a war.

I'd bought my little piece of paradise from a German friend who had been an officer aboard the SMS Seeadler during the Great War. It was the last sailing ship to be used as a warship and when he'd get drunk he'd cry about his beautiful bird. In 1937 he decided he wanted to go back to Germany and help build up a new navy and so he sold me his island.

Technically speaking it wasn't his to sell. But since the Kaiser wasn't going to be claiming it then the law of the sea applied. At least between friends.

My island is a small affair of roughly ten acres. It's the top of an old volcano and sticks up out of the ocean maybe forty feet. The island is surrounded by reefs and it's tricky to navigate into the lagoon. And from there it's even trickier to reverse a small boat like mine into the pool at the center of the volcano. See, the bowl of the volcano is open to the sea on one side and the opening is narrow, shallow, and densely overgrown by trees and vines. Natural camouflage. Once you have your boat in there it's invisible from both the sea and air.

A nice feature of the pool is that in the rainy season it's mostly fresh water and you can wash in it and swim in it but I wouldn't drink it. There's a catchment system for the fresh water supply and it's always sweet water.

The island was perfect for a small supply depot and the Germans did a fair amount of construction inside the bowl of the volcano; storehouses, a kitchen, a comfortable barracks, an empty armory, and an inoperable powerhouse. And they were careful to top off all their works with native stone so it was invisible from the air.

The perfect hide-a-way for a guy who does a little smuggling on the side.

When we got there I showed Jacintha the passage into the lagoon and then she helped me get Galene reversed into the hidden pool.

Nightfall arrived just as soon as we did. The diesels were shut off for the first time in almost two weeks and the boat took on an eerie quiet. Tied up at the dock in the pool there were no waves and no rocking. It seemed unnatural to me but we were safe so I eventually got some sleep.

In the morning I got the ladies fed and then had the sad but necessary duty of painting the Galene. She was white with gleaming brass fixtures and rails and all of it had to be painted over. Gray was the traditional color for this kind of work but I chose brown to make her less visible from the air. The one bit of style I chose was to paint the funnel blood red.

At the end of the day my beautiful yacht now looked like every other local merchant boat that plied the waters. No one would notice her now and that's the way I liked it.

Over the next few days me and my new crew refueled the boat, moved provisions aboard, and made her ready for sea.

The day before I wanted to set sail was when we heard them. Airplanes. And lots of them. They were way up high so I ran forward on the boat and grabbed my binoculars and looked up. The red dots on the wings gave them away as Japanese.

A few minutes later we heard explosions off in the distance and realized that the war we had escaped had now caught up with us.

I got on the radio and managed to get hold of some fellow in Darwin who told me the Royal Navy was pulling back to Australia. I didn't announce my location and he understood but wished us well. He also said to stay off the radio unless it was absolutely necessary because the Japanese could locate us from the signal.

I gathered the ladies and said we could make a run for it at first light or hold tight. They were wanting to get back to civilization and I understood. If we were going to make a go of it then it had to be soon.

I was up before dawn the next day warming up the engines. Everyone was already aboard and Jacintha, Verina, and Laurelle were at their posts. At the first light we made for the sea. Leaving the pool was the easy part, it was navigating the passage through the reefs that was tricky but soon enough we were in the open water. Putting on the throttles for twelve knots we headed for Australia.

It could have been an uneventful trip but it wasn't.

We weren't even an hour out of the island when a Japanese fighter came out of the sky and strafed us from one end to the other. Glass exploded everywhere! Wood splinters flew in the air! The sound of metal hitting metal with loud thuds resonated through the boat.

And then he was gone. Just one pass at us. Like it was for fun. We weren't even worth a second pass to him.

I was a bit angry and a bit deaf when I started to hear the screaming. I also felt some pain and looked down to find my leg punched through by a Japanese.303 round. I grabbed a rag and some rope and tied a quick bandage around the two holes.

Jacintha was on the deck staring up with lifeless eyes. A round through the heart had punched her ticket. The poor kid was dead before she even hit the deck.

Going below I found a slaughterhouse. Nicole and Anne were both dead and I will not describe it for you. A couple of the others were wounded but not badly. Leslie was busy attending to them. I left them to go check the boat.

A quick check and I found she was taking on water. She wasn't going to sink right away but she was definitely going to sink before we could make Australia.

I got back to the wheelhouse and found Laurelle at the helm and Verina in shock staring at Jacintha. I took the wheel from Laurelle and told her to get Verina below. Turning Galene about I pushed the throttles forward until we were doing the full twenty-two knots she could bear.

Getting through the reef I drove her straight through the passage and into the pool. I didn't bother to dock, either. There was a beach on the far side of the pool and that's where I put her. She coasted right up onto the sand with her stern in the water. Grounded, but safe from sinking.

I'm just going to skip some details here. It's too much to have to remember.

Jacintha, Nicole, and Anne were buried together and I made a marker from concrete so their remains could be found later on.

The following days turned to a couple weeks as those of us who survived the attack allowed our physical and spiritual wounds to heal. Leslie was a fine comfort to the girls. Myself, I had several cases of rum, whiskey, and gin to help me along and I made good use of them.

Those weeks did not include any stimulating conversations. We talked when we needed to. We talked about what we needed to. And Verina didn't talk at all being in shock after the attack.

In that time the war beyond our reef proceeded apace. The sea around my island had become a Japanese lake. Going up to the rim of the crater every day I could see a constant stream of ships and boats all flying the rising sun on their fantails. The air was of course dominated by the Japanese.

There were some battles in the area during January and then things quieted down. But the only planes and ships we saw were Japanese so we knew who had won those battles.

Every now and again I'd listen to the radio and find out how the war was going and it wasn't good.

Leaving the island was out of the question unless I could get the boat working again. My leg was not yet interested in doing everything I wanted from it so I made the repairs I could and I left the holes in the hull alone for now. Most of the windows in the wheelhouse were smashed so I just used the hatch covers for the time being. The binnacle was shot up and there was no fixing it. Same with the transmitter. Not that it would have done anything more than tell the Japanese where we were.

February 1942 opened up with Leslie bitching at me on day one about how I was a drunk and wasting time with the repairs and so on and so forth. We ended up having a real Donnybrook which culminated in her grabbing my bottle of gin and sucking down a few shots. After that she was my drinking buddy and now that I wasn't drinking alone I was drinking less.

Now one of the things that happened all on its own was the matter of living arrangements. The ladies preferred the more comfortable living quarters on land and I'll admit they were nicer than being aboard all the time. Myself, I always felt more at home on Galene than anywhere else. Which meant I typically slept alone.

The next thing that matters here is that in the Bismarck Sea region it's the rainy season from December to March and that means it rains every day starting around four in the afternoon and sometimes running all night. Thunder and lightning is part of the free floor show. Which means everything is wet almost all the time and the humidity is impressive.

If you're not out in the sun then it's wise to keep the clothing to a minimum and all of my female guests eventually figured this out. The wool dresses and assorted unmentionables got packed away, the dress jackets got packed away too.

The Germans had left behind a sizable store of plain white cotton shirts when they'd departed the place. Even after twenty years the shirts were fresh as the day they'd been packed because the Germans had packed them in lead sealed cans.

It didn't take the ladies too long to figure out that the cotton shirts were a lot more practical than wool suits in this climate. But white is not something you wear during a war. I showed the ladies how to make a brown dye from tree bark and in short order I had six attractive women dressed in just brown shirts every day.

They had gone native and as a red-blooded thirty-two year old American man I can assure you that I didn't mind.

If they had to get out in the sun they'd put on uniform pants but otherwise they stuck to just wearing the shirts. Of course on the ladies the shirts were really a short dress. Short enough that I didn't mind getting treated to seeing pretty legs every day.

It was the middle of February when one night Leslie was in my cabin drinking with me and acting a bit silly. It wasn't just the drink.

"I had a fiancé, you know." she says to me.

"Oh, I didn't know that. Do tell."

"We were supposed to get married when I got back to France but that was supposed to be back in July."

"We'll get you back to France, it's just going to be a while is all. Don't worry."

She stretched out a bare leg and I could see all the way to her hip. "You've seen more of me than he has, Bob."

I sipped my whiskey. "I suppose I have at that."

She fingered the top button on her shirt. "Would you want to see more?"

"Don't play with me, Leslie. I'm trying my best to be honorable here and I don't normally do that kind of thing."

"What? Try to see more of a girl?" she teased.

"No, I usually don't try to be honorable."

She laughed at the joke and then stood up and undid her buttons and let the shirt fall open before it fell to the floor. She was beautiful and the dim light of the kerosene lamp made her look even more beautiful.

All I had on were shorts and I stood up and let them go.

When we finally kissed it was clear to me that she had been building up some strong feelings for me. I held her close and enjoyed feeling her smooth skin. There was a nice curve to her ass and her tits were nice too.

Neither of us was interested in wasting any more time and we ended up in a clinch on my bed. We rolled around a bit kissing and feeling each other and then I got her onto her back. Her mouth opened and she had a bit of a shocked look on her face as I poked into her.