The Boats of Cherbourg by Abraham Rabinovich

The Boats of Cherbourg by Abraham Rabinovich

Author:Abraham Rabinovich
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Primary Publishing
Published: 2012-02-20T05:00:00+00:00


13. Eye of the Storm

The fading storm was still at their backs as they entered the Mediterranean but the Israeli sailors now had the feeling of being on home ground. One of Nave’s men kept polishing every piece of brass in the engine room out of sheer joy. Nave himself was busy changing injectors and fuel filters every hour to prevent the recurrence of the blockages due to the tainted fuel. Listening to the radio, the men began to realize that they and their five small boats were at the focus of world attention. Journalists were said to be flying out over the North Sea and the Mediterranean in rented planes to search for them. One report had them headed for Alaska. Late on Saturday, Europe Number One Radio reported the Lloyd’s agent in Gibraltar sighting five small vessels headed eastward. The vessels, said the agent, flew no flags.

The Saars passed many ships, including American and Russian freighters, but no one seemed to pay them special note. Off Algeria, the French fleet finally made contact. A twin-engined Atlantique observation plane from the fleet’s air arm based in Nimes in southern France circled overhead for three hours and took photographs. Whenever it made a low run from the side, in an apparent search for identifying numbers, the boats turned their bows toward it.

The sailors who appeared in the photographs developed a few hours later were in civilian clothing but French intelligence officers had no trouble identifying the vessels. If French warships from Toulon attempted to intercept, the Saars would attempt to outrun them. However, they would be dead in the water for more than twelve hours during their second refueling. The French knew the boats’ range and could easily calculate when they would have to stop.

Towards evening, a small plane with civilian markings appeared overhead. Radiomen aboard the boats heard the excited voice of a radio reporter saying he had just spotted the five Israeli boats from a plane he had rented on Malta. With darkness, Kimche changed course and headed for the tiny island of Lampedusa between the African coast and Italy, remote from any shipping lane. As they drew near the next day, the men on the bridge saw a single ship drifting on the horizon. Kimche recognized the familiar profile of the Dan.

* * *

The French pilot boarding the Lea outside Dunkirk was an old acquaintance and he greeted Tadmor boisterously. “You clever bastards really did it to us,” he shouted. Tadmor was startled for a moment before he realized that the Frenchman was referring to the escape of the boats as reported on the radio, not to the Lea’s role.

As the pilot oriented himself on the bridge, his expression suddenly froze. He stared at the pumping equipment and the extensive oil stains on the rear deck. The crew’s efforts to clean them had been only partially successful. “You didn’t have anything to do with it, did you?” asked the pilot in astonishment.

“Are you crazy? We’ve got a cargo of phosphates to deliver.



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