This piece is from a writing homework I did, and was for, yesterday. The theme given was "Message in a Bottle". Writing it was a little difficult as I had to find Danish surnames, and the ones in this piece were the easiest one I to do and say. I apologise if the Danish surnames are incorrect in any way.
The Royal Danish Naval ship Triton could see the southern tip of the Faroe Islands about fifteen miles away. Captain Anker was scanning the waters of the Norwegian Sea, and so far there has been nothing.
"Ship spotted off the port bow about twenty miles." Called the voice of the lookout Christiansen, a lieutenant. Anger took a lookout the radar screen then through his binoculars. Sure enough, it is a ship, a Caledonian MacBrayne ship. But that ship is a ferry for the Outer Hebrides off the the Western coast of Scotland, and that is a quarter of a thousand miles south of here. What is that ship doing?
"Shall we call it sir?" Eriksen, a commander, asked.
"Give it a try." Anker replied and Eriksen left the bridge for the radio room. "Helmsman, steer towards that ship."
"Aye sir." Came the reply before the Triton sped towards the ferry.
Within the short distance, there was no reply either by radio or by morse light.
"Prepare a boarding party." Anker ordered.
Within the last short distance, Eriksen boarded the boat with Hansen, Holst, Larsen, Sternberg and Abel, and steered the boat towards the silent ferry.
"Look." Abel called as he waved a hand for command to stop the boat. It was then they saw them. A line of glass whiskey bottles, pieces of rubber wrapped round them, but a piece of rope kept them near the ship's black hull. Abel and Holst took a bottle each, opened them and withdrew a piece of rolled paper from each bottle.
The papers were dirty, smelt of whiskey, stained of whiskey, ink and dark brown sports that looked like dry blood. Slowly the two Danes unrolled the messages.
"Stay away." Abel's said.
"Don't board." Holst's said.
"Clearly they don't want anyone to board the ship." Eriksen spoke.
"What do we do?" Hansen asked.
"Take a quick look." The commander answered and gently drew the boat closer to the black hull. All eyes, worried and concerned, watched as the black wall loomed over them.
"This is the Royal Danish Naval ship Triton, we call for you to make contact." Eriksen announced on a loud speaker. No reply. "Prepare to be boarded."
A rope ladder was thrown up and the small Danish crew climbed up the starboard bow hull, past the name MV Isle of St. Ensay, and placed their black boots upon the ship's deck. Nobody in sight.
"Let's find the bridge." Eriksen spoke, "Larsen, wait here."
"Yes sir." Larsen acknowledged.
The five Danes walked as silent as possible up to the bridge, guns at the ready, but still, there was nobody in sight.
"It's the Mary Celeste." Sternberg commented as they wondered around the empty bridge. All silent and no sign of power.
"What happened here?" Eriksen asked.
At that moment, a gun spoke three times.
I hope that you've enjoyed this piece. I'm hoping to expand this piece and explore where this piece comes from soon, and so far it's at the development stage. I hope to post another piece soon.
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