32

“YOU ARE NOTHING”

THE COAST OF CENTRAL AFRICA, MARCH 2015

For breakfast the next morning, Hammarstedt serves up an offer Cataldo will most likely refuse.

“Good morning, is this the captain of the Thunder?”

“Yes, how are you, good morning, go ahead, over,” Cataldo answers.

“We are concerned with the message yesterday about the self-harm, and we wanted some more information about that,” Hammarstedt says through the interpreter.

“That is information from the ship, and everything’s fine. The only problem is when you get too close and start to harass us and bother us, that’s the problem, over.”

“We have doctors on board and we can lend medical assistance.”

“Yes, here, too, I have the medical assistance preparation, there is no problem.”

“If you are concerned about your Indonesian crew, we wanted to offer you the possibility of transferring them to the Sam Simon and pay for their flights to go home,” Hammarstedt suggests.

“No, negative, negative. They are fine here working with our contracting agency. They are content with us, they are fine. We have all the food and their salaries, everything’s fine. The problem is you. When we get to port we will make everything clear with you and the authorities,” Cataldo answers.

The Thunder’s captain seems calmer and more collected on the radio than he had the day before, when the fishing vessel the Atlas Cove joined the chase for a brief period of time.

“If you are concerned for your Indonesian crew, you should go to port. The only reason why we are here is because we are waiting for you to go to port, and we won’t leave you until you do so,” Hammarstedt says.

“But you are no one. You are no authority, no army, no one to order me to go to port. I only take orders from my contracting agency and from the country of my flag, Nigeria. Until this point they have said nothing to me, so we will remain here. That is the idea, and that is what we are going to do.”

“OK, if you need medical assistance, or medicines, radio us. We will be here on channel 16, thank you.”

“OK, OK, thank you. We have everything here on board, medical supplies, food, everything. We have enough to be here nine months without any problem, over.”

Nine months! Hammarstedt prays a silent prayer that he’s bluffing. Then he gives the order to prepare the dinghies.

“We will launch the boat at 2 o’clock,” Hammarstedt says over the ship’s internal communication radio.

He wants to try once more to throw bottles containing messages to the Indonesian crew on the Thunder.

“Greetings Indonesian crew, we understand that you cannot come and speak freely while your captain is on board but we will always be standing by on VHF 77 and should you have the opportunity, just transmit a message and we’ll try and receive it,” he writes in the new message.

Hammarstedt sees no activity on the deck of the Thunder. He guides the Bob Barker in close to the Thunder’s starboard side and blasts the ship’s whistle for half a minute to provoke a reaction. He also sends one of the two dinghies out in front of the Thunder’s bow to distract the officers. Suddenly he sees movements on deck and calls up the dinghy:

“There are three of them out on deck now!”

Perhaps one of them will manage to snatch the message out of the water.

On the Thunder, Captain Cataldo has decided to respond to the information siege and calls the Indonesian third engineer up onto the bridge. He sailed on the Spanish trawler the Pitufo – “The Smurf” – for several years and speaks a few words of Spanish. Cataldo has written a few sentences down on a piece of paper in advance and asks the third engineer to read them out loud to Hammarstedt. None of the others in the Indonesian crew are informed of what is about to happen when Cataldo calls up the Bob Barker.

“We have received the letters that he has sent. And the person in charge of the Indonesian crew is going to talk to you now, so that you will hear from them that they don’t want you to bother them again. He is going to tell you now. Over,” Cataldo says.

“OK, go ahead,” Hammarstedt asks.

Then the microphone changes hands. In faltering Spanish the engineer reads out the message.

“I mariner from Indonesia, please, your small boat, not possible anymore, and um, no throwing cans here, because here mariner no problem, here good. Lot of food, when I call the family, no problem. Captain good, and company much good too, food also a lot, and salary, there is no problem. Everything, everything good.”

“I got your message, could you give me your name and talk about the person that attempted to take his life?” Hammarstedt asks.

For a moment everything is silent, and then Hammarstedt once again hears Cataldo’s voice.

“No, we can’t do that. That stays here. It is this ship’s business. That’s something personal about the ship. I don’t go asking you about your ship’s stuff. We talked to the person, he calmed down. It was nerves when he saw three ships that wanted a collision, any person would be nervous with that. Over.”

“If he said he can speak to his family, can you give us a contact to their family so we can check with them to make sure this is correct?” Hammarstedt asks.

That is a question that causes Cataldo to lose whatever vestiges of compliance and patience he had at the beginning of the conversation.

“You are nothing, no authority, you are nothing. Why would we have to give personal information to you? He’s got his family, his son, his things at home, and you want to bother them! The only one working here is him, no one else, his family is happy where he is working. And he already told you to please don’t bother anymore, and that the letters that you are writing are pure lies. Over,” Cataldo shouts.

“The police are investigating you for human trafficking and if you can at least give us the name of the crewing agency they used, we can clear everything up with the police,” Hammarstedt says.

“Everything that you are saying is false. You never saw us fishing, you never saw us fishing, only sailing. Now, about the Indonesian matter, they’re happy here, their families are happy, their welfare is good with us. There is no problem. They are all content here. And the person that talked to you represented the Indonesian crew. What you are doing is taking away their job, you are ‘cutting their hands’ so that they can’t work and maintain their families. Over,” Cataldo says.

“On any normal fishing boat we can talk with the crew, we can laugh with the crew, but with your boat, we are not allowed to speak to them, why is that?” Hammarstedt asks.

“You heard the Indonesian mariner say it, they don’t want to have any communication with you because you say a lot of lies. You are causing problems for them and their families. And I won’t communicate with the captain of the Bob Barker by telephone either because everything that I say can be heard by radio, I have nothing to hide. Over.”

“We will take what the Indonesian crew said into consideration, is there anything else?” Hammarstedt replies through his interpreter.

“Yes,” Cataldo answers. “He wants to say the last words, he wants to say one last thing so that you stay assured and stop bothering the Indonesians, since you won’t get anything from us, any information, and that’s what he wants to make clear now. He’s going to talk to you now, over,” Cataldo says before once again handing the microphone to the Indonesian engineer on the Thunder.

“Please, no bother anymore because here all mariner Indonesian happy. Everything fine. Captain very, very good, agency also very, very good. Lots of food, lots of medicines, and much fuel, for 10 months more.”

“We understand that you are annoyed with us following you, but if you have nothing to hide, why don’t we go together to port right now, we can sort this out, and then we won’t have to see each other again.”

Cataldo is back on the radio.

“I would gladly do that, but I obey orders, you receive orders from your boss Paul Watson, and I receive orders from my contracting agency. I am not the owner of the ship. I have a contract and I have to follow it and accomplish it. I have always accomplished my contracts. I don’t see why I wouldn’t now. Over.”

“Don’t you think it’s strange that the owner would rather have you stay here in the open sea and not go to port?”

“Look I have a contract, and I earn money for every day, every month and every year. If I am here, we are all winning. We are all winning. And if the contracting agency wants to keep paying me, and feeding me, and keeping me here, we are all very happy here then. Over.”

“We have our orders, too, so we will continue to enjoy spending time with one another for a long, long time,” Hammarstedt answers before the Thunder’s captain vows to give him a long and exhausting fight.

“As I told you, we have a lot of fuel, a lot of supplies. We don’t have any need for another ship to come and resupply us. We are ready physically and mentally to be here for a long, long time. Over,” Cataldo says.

“OK. We will enjoy spending the foreseeable future with you,” Hammarstedt replies and glances toward the Thunder before turning to face Adam Meyerson. “They’re throwing a lot of big numbers out there today,” Hammarstedt says.

In the evening, the Thunder turns around and sets its course for the southeast.

It is probably just temporary. Just mind games, Hammarstedt thinks.

One hundred days. The chase has travelled across three oceans. It is the longest ship chase in history, it is the longest campaign in Sea Shepherd’s history, and it is one of the longest days in Peter Hammarstedt’s life. He says it to himself, he says it to Adam Meyerson, he says it to the majority of those who come onto the bridge:

“I wish a Navy ship would come.”

But for the time being, nothing appears on the horizon, other than thin shafts of light breaking through the clouds. Nobody offers them assistance or a new supply of provisions.

The morning arrived with some good news. The Viking has been arrested in Malaysia and the captain thrown in jail. Hammarstedt believes that the Thunder and the Viking have the same owner, and hopes the arrest will have an impact: that the owner will take some action with the Thunder other than simply allowing the ship to drift for month after month. The Kunlun was stopped in Thailand.

“The Thai customs authorities said that the boat will be held until the investigations were concluded and that could take a very long time … Huge,” Hammarstedt explains on the bridge.

“It’s like half the ships that we’re looking for are out of the game now. Fantastic!” Adam Meyerson answers.

“Yeah! Half of them down,” Hammarstedt replies.

On social media, Sea Shepherd now calls the Thunder a “floating prison”.1 They hire Dr Glenn Simmons, a researcher and specialist in human trafficking, to describe what he thinks is taking place on the Thunder. For several years Simmons has been researching the working conditions of Asian fishermen and he maintains that the alleged suicide attempt on the Thunder was a desperate act on the part of a man being held on the ship against his will.

“We have reasonable cause to believe that the crew are indeed being held captive and against their will. The worst thing you can do is leave the scene as crew would lose hope,” Simmons writes in his statement to Sea Shepherd, which Hammarstedt forwards to Interpol.

That is the story Sea Shepherd wants – and which they quickly distribute to the media.

The news of the duel at sea also reaches the bridge of the Thunder. From her exclusive apartment in the luxurious Viña del Mar in Chile, the Thunder’s captain’s wife sends him regular updates on the chase by telefax. Luis Alfonso Rubio Cataldo therefore knows everything about his opponent Peter Hammarstedt and Sea Shepherd. He also knows that Hammarstedt has not succeeded in establishing the identities of the officers on the Thunder and has ordered them to wear ski masks to hide their faces when they are moving around on deck.

In an attempt to refute the accusations that he is sailing a slave ship, Cataldo now orders the entire crew on deck. As the Bob Barker’s dinghies approach the side of the Thunder, everyone on board is told to pull on their ski masks and bring with them pieces of metal pipe to bang against the railing. In this way Cataldo will demonstrate that everyone on the Thunder is united against Sea Shepherd.

“It’s strange that the Indonesian crew are now hiding their identities,” Hammarstedt says as he sees the procession of balaclava-clad fishermen on the deck of the Thunder.

Through the binoculars, Hammarstedt can see the crew members hammering on the railing with the iron pipes as the dinghies pass by. It resembles a bizarre theatrical performance.

In the evening the Thunder’s captain changes the ship’s course, this time to the northeast. To the other officers on the Thunder, Cataldo seems tired and depressed. The story of the suicide attempt on the Thunder was a bluff – a morbid attempt to induce Peter Hammarstedt to give up the chase.

Those who know that the Thunder has just lost its Nigerian flag also find Cataldo’s next move to be strange. All the fishing buoys are to be removed from the quarterdeck. The Thunder is to be prepared to put in at port.

At Port Harcourt in Nigeria.