by David Elder

Created on: July 20, 2009   Last Updated: August 02, 2009

A Friend like Stanley

The merchant ship Karina Maru left Durban, South Africa on a day which seemed normal enough. She was bound for Fiji, carrying a load of machine parts when the 9.0 Earthquake off the shore of Sumatra hit. The world watched in horror as thousands were swept away in the tsunamis that traveled at almost five hundred miles an hour across the Indian Ocean.

After all reports were in, every ship at sea in the region was accounted for except for the Karina Maru.

Unfortunately for the families of the survivors, the captain had a side business involving contraband that was unknown to his employers. The location of the ship was undetermined at the time of the disaster because it had not been documented. The captain couldn't very well report their position without tipping his hand. It had been necessary to travel outside of the normal shipping lanes to maintain a low profile.

When the ninety foot wall of water collided with the side of the ship there had been insufficient time to turn her into the rising swell. Radar showed the reflection of a large wave traveling at high speed, but the first mate had been telling a joke and failed to notice. An isolated reef to their starboard caused the temporarily exaggerated height of the wave to peak at just the wrong time for those aboard the ship.

There were only a handful of survivors who clung to wreckage or were lucky enough to grab a lifeboat in the strong current. Three such men climbed into a lone lifeboat to begin their journey into the vastness of the Indian Ocean.

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I sit here feeling the rocking motion, and I hear the lapping of the small swell as it washes against the lifeboat. The sun is merciless today, with no clouds to shield me from its unforgiving gaze. I remember the events of the last few weeks and feel that I must write them down with this journal and pencil that I just found stuffed into a corner of a storage compartment. I begin with the sinking of our ship, which eventually led to my current predicament. The details are all too clear as I see them unfolding in my memory.

The sea was calm that day, unusually so in fact, and we were all looking forward to our eventual arrival in Fiji. We had been jokingly anticipating our impending shore leave when the claxon sounded. The captain's call over the loudspeaker betrayed his panic, as he warned us all that there was a massive wave approaching to our starboard. I remember running to that side of the ship, and having just enough time to

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