You are going the wrong way

The ship is sailing in the North Atlantic, it is getting close to Greenland on its way across the Atlantic to Canada to go into the Great Lakes. Our captain is an old sea dog, Marshall Blake, who has been around for donkey’s years, and thinks he knows everything. But this is not always the case, some of these up-and-coming young pups as he likes to call them know more that he does already. But he will never admit it. 

Who am I? I am the ship’s head cook; I have served under Captain Blake for fourteen years. Even although he has made very few mistakes, some of the ones he has made have been life threatening. Marshall has been rescued by one of these young pups as he likes to call them. I f he can show that he is right and they are wrong heaven help you. He will comb his hair, put on his best uniform and walk about boasting how good he is, and how no one will ever replace him. But if the young pup is right and he is wrong, then Marshall vanishes for about three days until all of the hullabaloo has died down. One thing about the young pups is they are very good and professional. If they are right, there is no told you so. They just get on with their job in the most professional manner.

Everything is going well on our trip across the Atlantic, until the radio operator appears on the bridge with a message in his hand. ‘Excuse me Captain,’ said Richard Baker the radio operator.

‘Good morning, Richard, how are you this fine day and how can I help you?’ replies the Captain, Marshall.

‘I have a signal from the company that is for your urgent attention,’ Richard tries to pass the message to the captain, but he is occupied with something else.

‘Read it out to me please, I can do two things at once. Unlike some of the younger crew who prefer to only deal with one thing at a time,’ replied the captain.

‘Yes sir, there are reports of icebergs in your vicinity. Proceed with care,’ said Richard.

‘Thank you, Richard, nothing to worry about,’ replied the captain.

‘I will leave the message on the map table, captain.

Richard left the message and returned to the radio room.

The ship sailed on with the person on the bridge on watch knowing nothing about the icebergs. Half an hour later just as it was getting dark, one of the look outs spotted an iceberg.

‘Sir iceberg ahead of us on the port bow about a mile ahead, do we change course?’ shouted the port bridge lookout.

The officer of the watch summoned the captain and showed him the iceberg.

‘Maintain present course and speed,’ replied the captain.

The ship sailed on heading for the iceberg, it would pass just to port, the officer of the watch was a young man, who had watched the film Titanic, but who was he to question the captain? The ship approached the iceberg, it was nearly passed when there was a crunching sound and the whole ship shuddered as it hit the iceberg.

The officer of the watch changed the telegraph to the engine room to go ahead full reverse hoping to minimise the damage the iceberg would do. But it was too little too late. The front of the ship was taking in water. The engine had reversed but it had made it worse. The ship was sinking, bow first.

The engine room appeared on deck, shouting abandon ship, they started to launch the lifeboats. The captain appeared on deck, ‘what is going on,’ he yelled.

‘We are sinking captain, we hit the iceberg that you said we would miss,’ said the officer of the watch.

By now the ship was sinking fast, the bow was going down and the water was about to wash over the forward deck.

‘Abandon ship yelled the captain, the crew all got into the lifeboats and rowed away from the ship as quickly as possible. The all watched the ship go down five minutes after hitting the iceberg. There were three lifeboats all full with oars.

‘We will head south and we should pick up the shipping lanes quickly,’ said the captain The weather is overcast making it difficult to get a bearing. But the crew did as asked and all started rowing south, only they were actually going north. The sky remained overcast giving no chance of getting a bearing from the sun or the stars.

They continued to row, only instead of getting warmer it starts to get colder. That night the sky still remains overcast.

The officer of the watch speaks out what every crew member has on their mind, ‘captain, are we going the right way, it is getting colder not warmer as it should do.

The captain looks up, and says, ‘You hit the iceberg, you got us into this mess shut up and do as you are told.’ The officer of the watch feels guilty for sinking the ship and clams up.

The next day the sky is still overcast, but as it starts r=to get dark, the clouds seem to be thinning. As night falls the clouds start to gradually break up. The stars start to appear. After an hour the sky is clear enough to see the majority of the stars.

The officer of the watch stops rowing, he stares at the sky. The turns to his neighbour. ‘See that bright star that is the pole star, this means we are going north.’

The captain looks up and says, ‘Are you still talking you need to be rowing.’

‘Captain we are rowing north, as we have been since the ship sunk, we are going the wrong way.’

‘I am the captain and you do as I say, we are going south.’

‘No captain you get it wrong, we are going north.’

‘How do you know?’

‘Look at the stars, the bright star is the north star we are heading towards it we are going north.’

‘Why should I believe you, you hit the iceberg.’

‘No captain you chose to ignore the warning of the icebergs,’

The captain went quiet he had been found out.

‘Sir, permission to turn about, to head south?’

The captain did not reply, he wanted to go to his cabin and hide, He had made a mistake and been found out. The officer of the watch. A young lad took command turned the rowing boats around and headed south.

They were picked up two days later. The captain never held a commend again and the officer of the watch was promoted.