Death of a Supertanker (22 page)

With the revelation in court of an affaire which had for weeks been the subject of informed gossip out of it, public interest in the enquiry had grown even more intense by the fourth day.

Cape Town’s morning newspapers had featured Ohlsson’s cross-examination of Foley and headline writers had had a field day:
Love
Drama
in
Wrecked
Supertanker
competed with
Sex
Fight
Strands
Ship?;
one columnist got in his titillation with
Did
Sex
Wreck
Supertanker?;
another with
Supertanker
Sex
Drama.
It was highly predictable stuff and no doubt sold newspapers.

Thus it was not surprising that on the fourth day a queue had formed outside the Magistrate’s Court. It led into the building and down the passage to the entrance to ‘C’ court. Those who’d come early and managed to get into the courtroom sat on benches in the public gallery exchanging whispered confidences. A number who’d been present since the enquiry began had acquired the ephemeral status of ‘Old Hands’ and were listened to with due respect. The atmosphere was unmistakably that of an audience looking forward to a good day’s entertainment.

While there was considerable interest in the two men primarily concerned in the drama of the previous day’s evidence – Jarrett and Foley, who sat with their counsel at the long table – it was Sandy who stole the occasion. For the first three days of the enquiry she had sat well back but now, with feminine perverse-ness and not a little courage, she had moved to a front bench. Wearing a simple grey suit, her hair elegantly casual, her oval face with its fine bone structure scarcely concealed by dark glasses, she looked the sort of woman men could fight over.

The low hum of conversation ceased when order was called and the Chairman and Assessors entered and made their way to the dais.

Almost immediately Ernst Rohrbach was called, went to the witness box and was sworn in. He was a slight man with a skeletal face, large dark eyes and a pronounced German accent. Lourens’s opening questions established that Rohrbach was an electronics
engineer whose qualifications included a doctorate from Munich University. He had, he said, received his practical training with Krupp-Atlas in Bremen. There he had specialized in marine radar and other shipborne electronic devices. In Cape Town, where he had been in business for five years, he headed a firm which installed and serviced maritime electronic equipment. In this way he had acquired considerable experience of Decca systems since they were widely used.

‘I understand you inspected the equipment on board
Ocean
Mammoth
a week after she was wrecked?’ said Lourens.

‘Yes. I did.’

‘Why did you do that?’

‘The marine surveyor acting for the insurers, Captain Summer-bee, asked me to go on board the after part of the ship to evaluate the electronic equipment for salvage purposes. Most of the superstructure was still above water but there had been two gales in close succession and he wished to know if it was still worth salvaging. He also said that if I had time I should try to find the cause of the failures.’

‘Did you find the cause of those failures?’

‘Yes.’

‘Can you tell the court what you found?’

‘In the case of the Decca Navigator, the insulated aerial wire which leads into the chartroom through a gooseneck on the monkey island …’

The Chairman held up his hand in a traffic-stopping gesture. ‘What is a
gooseneck
and what is a
monkey
island
?’

Rohrbach’s face showed surprise. Surely, his expression conveyed, everybody should know these things. ‘A gooseneck is a tube with the top bent round through one-eighty degrees to face the deck … this keeps the water out. The monkey island is an open space on top of the bridgehouse. Its primary purpose is to provide a platform for the magnetic compass.’

‘Thank you. Please continue.’

‘This gooseneck I was talking of is on the starboard side of the monkey island, immediately above the chartroom. I found that the aerial wire had been pulled out of the gooseneck, cut with pliers and pushed back again.’

‘Would that put the Navigator out of action?’

‘Yes. Completely. It would also take some time for the cause of the trouble to be found.’

‘You are quite certain that the aerial wire had been cut?’

‘Absolutely. With cutting pliers.’

‘How do you know that?’

‘It was a clean, two-dimensional cut. Not a single cut as with a knife.’

‘Could it have been done with scissors?’

‘I don’t think so. The wire was too thick.’

‘Could the aerial wire have been kicked or pulled out accidentally by someone on the monkey island?’

‘I don’t think so. In any case there would not then be the clean cut.’

Lourens frowned at the notes on his clipboard. ‘And the radar sets. The TM and AC sets, both of which failed. What did you find there?’

‘There was an inter-switching unit on the after bulkhead in the chartroom. In a steel cabinet. From it multi-core cables led to the transceivers and radar displays. This unit makes switching
possible
. Gives the operator a choice of ten-or-three centimetre signals at each display, and other alternatives. I found that it had been short-circuited.’

‘How had this been done?’

‘A pocket-knife blade had been thrust between the two multi-core cables just beneath the unit.’

‘How do you know it was a pocket-knife?’

‘The end of the blade had broken off and was still embedded.’

‘Would a short circuit on the inter-switching unit put both radar sets out of action?’

‘Absolutely.’

‘You are telling the court that both the Decca Navigator and the two radar units were deliberately sabotaged?’

‘Well, they had been interfered with. Yes. This is sabotage.’ Rohrbach’s guttural accent made the word more sinister, and exclamations of surprise came from the public gallery. The Chairman called for order. ‘If that happens again,’ he threatened, ‘I will have the court cleared.’

Lourens, fidgeting impatiently with his spectacles, scowled at those in the gallery before turning back to Rohrbach. ‘How is access gained to the monkey island?’

‘A ladder leads from the bridge deck on to the after end of the island.’

‘How long would it take a person to go from the chartroom up
on to the monkey island, carry out the act of sabotage you have referred to, and return to the chartroom?’

Sandy saw her husband wince as the question was put, and her heart thumped against its rib cage.

‘Two minutes at the outside. Probably less.’

Lourens said he had no more questions.

Kahn at once rose to cross-examine Rohrbach. ‘Were you alone when you went on board
Ocean
Mammoth
to make this examination?’

‘No. Sergeant van Jaarsveld of the South African Police at Bredasdorp was with me.’

‘Why was that?’

‘In terms of the South African Shipping Act the wreck falls under the jurisdiction of the Secretary for Transport. Local responsibility for it had been delegated to the S.A. Police at Bredasdorp. Sergeant van Jaarsveld accompanied me.’

‘Did he watch you making the examination?’

‘Yes. All the time.’

‘Did you show him what you found?’

‘Yes. I did.’

‘Why did you not at once report to the authorities?’

‘I left the next day for Europe on urgent business. The police at Bredasdorp knew what I had found. Captain Summerbee had flown to London that day. I wrote to him there from Germany to say the equipment was in good shape and still worth salvaging. I mentioned that failure of the electronic systems had been caused by interference. I understand that when he returned to Cape Town recently, Captain Summerbee informed Mr Lourens and I was then subpoenaed as a witness. I had expected to be back here well before the enquiry began. I did not know that I would be detained abroad as a result of a car accident.’

Kahn said, ‘No more questions,’ and sat down.

Ohlsson leapt to his feet. ‘Your Worship, I must object. Counsel for the enquiry, in providing particulars of the charge, failed to mention that evidence would be led to show there had been sabotage. We have had no opportunity to consider this point, or to prepare any sort of defence in relation to it.’

The Chairman called on Lourens to explain.

‘Your Worship, the report we received from Captain
Summerbee
indicated that the failure was due to “interference”. We took that word to mean interference caused by atmospheric conditions.
We did not realize until Mr Rohrbach gave his evidence this morning that it meant sabotage.’

‘That seems to me a reasonable explanation, Mr Ohlsson. Your objection is overruled.’

Ohlsson’s dark eyes flashed angry signals of resentment and when he returned to Rohrbach his manner suggested that some of this displeasure was reserved for the German. ‘You went on board
Ocean
Mammoth
a week after she was wrecked?’

‘Yes. That is so.’

‘How do you know someone did not go on board during that week and interfere with those wires? Commit those acts of sabotage?’

‘In the first place weather, and the police guard on shore, would have made it difficult. But in any event the sabotage took place
before
the ship ran aground. First to the Decca Navigator and after that to the two radar sets.’

‘How do you know those failures were not due to some other causes?’

‘I tested the circuits after I’d found the faults. There was nothing wrong with the Navigator or the radar units.’

Ohlsson hesitated, seemed about to say something, shook his head, announced that he had no more questions and sat down.

Lourens asked leave to address the court. He said they were now confronted with an entirely new factor. Sabotage was, he explained, a criminal act and as such a matter for investigation by the police and trial by a criminal court.

‘We are here,’ he said, ‘to enquire how
Ocean
Mammoth
came to run aground. The failure of the electronic navigation systems was certainly an important factor but it was contributory and not necessarily decisive. We have already heard evidence which suggests that serious errors of judgement, of commission and omission, played a major part in the disaster. I trust that Your Worship will feel that we should restrict ourselves at this enquiry to the purely maritime aspects – the mistakes and errors of judgement in navigating and handling which led eventually to the loss of this great ship – and leave the sabotage aspect to the police and criminal courts where it properly belongs. That is my submission, Your Worship.’

Lourens sat down and Goodbody got to his feet. ‘May I reply to My Learned Friend’s submission, Your Worship?’

The Chairman nodded. ‘Please proceed.’

‘We have known all along,’ said Goodbody, ‘that the electronic systems failed at a critical juncture. We are now told that those failures were due to sabotage. That, Your Worship, is an
extremely
important and disturbing development, and it is one of the utmost importance to those answering charges here today. For the witness Rohrbach to have testified that sabotage took place is one thing. To establish by whom it was committed and for what purpose is quite another. There are considerations of access, motive and corroborative evidence. We know that certain persons had access to the monkey island and chartroom during the critical time of approach to Cape Agulhas. There may have been others, for it was a dark night and there was dense fog. If so, who were they? Short of a searching and thorough investigation these questions cannot be answered. There is, I submit, good reason for adjourning this enquiry until such time as the proper authorities have completed their investigations. I do not see how we can usefully or justly proceed with the matter now. That is my submission, Your Worship.’

Goodbody sat down. The Chairman had just begun to consult with Lourens on the question of adjournment when a man stood up at the back of the public gallery and called out, ‘Your Worship, I can give you important information about the sabotage.’

There was a surge of excitement in ‘C’ court. Heads turned to see who was speaking, the Chairman called for silence and two policemen converged on the speaker.

‘Bring that man before me,’ ordered the Chairman.

The policemen brought the interrupter forward and stood one on either side of him beneath the dais.

‘Who are you and what do you mean by interrupting these proceedings?’ demanded the Chairman who looked very fierce, his good eye glaring at the man.

‘Piet Pieterse, sir. I am sorry I had to do this but I was a steward on
Ocean
Mammoth
when she ran aground and I know quite a bit about the sabotage. I can help you, Your Worship. That is why I spoke out.’ Pieterse’s voice was hoarse, querulous, and he appeared to be extremely nervous.

The Chairman frowned. ‘If you have such important evidence why did you not come forward at the preliminary enquiry, or during the weeks since?’

‘I didn’t know that I had this evidence until today, Your Worship. It was only when I heard the German gentleman talking
about sabotage … and then the other gentleman…’ he turned and nodded towards the table where counsel sat. ‘When I heard the talk about motives, I knew I could help you. It would be wrong if Your Worship didn’t know what I know.’ Pieterse’s voice trailed away as if he didn’t really think his message was getting through.

The Chairman had a discussion with the Assessors after which he said, ‘Mr Lourens, I would like to discuss this matter with you and with counsel for the defendants. We shall now withdraw briefly for that purpose. In the meantime the court will remain in session.’ He looked at the young man beneath the dais. ‘You, Pieterse, must stay here until we return.’

The clerk of the court called for order and everybody stood as the Chairman left the courtroom followed by the Assessors, Lourens and the various counsel. The Chairman led the way down the passage to the Chief Magistrate’s office, additional chairs were brought in, and when everyone was seated he said he would like to have the views of those present on whether or not Pieterse should be heard.