Mutiny: The True Events That Inspired The Hunt For Red October Read Online Free PDF Page A

Pioneers in grades four and five when we learned about the October Revolution and what it meant to the people; then the Komsomolez in the eighth grade where we learned more about Lenin and about Marx and Engels. Our education was neverending. Even now in the military it was up to our
zampolits
who made us understand what was expected of us.
    “Serving our country was the most noble and honorable thing any Russian could do.”
    So, when Captain Potulniy calls Gindin, his chief of the gas turbine section of BCH-5, to fix the damage, he naturally agrees. In fact, he completely agrees, because he well understands the fix that not only the captain is in but the entire ship.
    Potulniy wants Gindin and his people to heat the deck plating at the rocket-loading hatch and pound it back into shape. Gindin has a hell of a time convincing the captain that such a fix is impossible at sea but has an idea that might work. The area of mangled deck is cut away with acetylene torches, the gaping wound is covered with plywood and canvas, and the entire patch is painted burgundy to match the rest of the deck.
    But that’s the easy problem. The major damage done by the
Silyni’s
anchor is the huge gash on the starboard side of the hull, just aft of the bow but, thankfully, enough above the waterline that the pumps are taking care of the water that rushes in every time the ship plunges into a trough between waves.
    Gindin is a packrat. Every time they are at home port at Baltisk orthe Yantar Shipyard in Kaliningrad he hounds the port masters for spare parts, anything he can get his hands on; he even uses his supplies of
spirt
to bribe anyone who can help. Parts for the engines and the pumps, electrical wires and parts to repair the motors, nuts, bolts, screws, piping and joints, grease and lubricants, wire and cabling, even plywood and metal plating. Anything, in short, that will allow the
Storozhevoy
to be repaired at sea without having to call for help. That’s a lot of extra weight for a warship to carry.
    A few months before they head out on this rotation, they’re still tied to the dock at Yantar when Potulniy calls Gindin off the ship down to the pier. The
Storozhevoy’s
waterline is nowhere to be seen. “Look what you’ve done with all the junk you’ve brought aboard. We’re never going to get out of here, let alone get back to base.”
    “Captain, I think we’re getting ready for another rotation, which means six months at sea,” Gindin points out respectfully.
    “That’s right, Boris.”
    “Do you want to make it back on your own? Without asking for help, no matter what happens?”
    “Of course.”
    “Or maybe get towed back to base in shame?”
    “Out of the question,” Potulniy fumes.
    “Then, sir, I don’t see why our missing waterline should be a problem.”
    Gindin is allowed to keep his junk, and ten days out of Cuba the stuff comes in handy.
    The first problem is the electrical cable runs, which have been severed and partially ripped away from the inner hull. It’s no good trying to get at them from inside the hull; too much equipment and too many bulkheads would have to be cut away, and there’s no time for it. Gindin’s roommate, Senior Lieutenant Vladimir Firsov, who’s in charge of BCH-5’s electrical systems, will have to go over the side and do the job himself. If his lifeline doesn’t break, sending him into the sea, where there is virtually no chance of ever getting him back aboard, ifthe towering waves and motion of the ship don’t dash him against the hull, crushing the life out of him, and if the edges of the jagged tear don’t rip his body apart, he’s faced with the almost impossible task of identifying and splicing as many as one hundred electrical cables. But he’s a Soviet navy officer, filled with nearly the same zeal as Potulniy and Gindin. Firsov does the job, and when he’s hauled aboard three hours later, drenched with seawater and sweat, his body battered and bruised,
every