The Galician Parallax Read Online Free PDF

mock-up stage.
    ‘Hear the navy sunk another Spanish trawler,’ said Robin smiling. ‘Spared us a call out, right Stan?’
    Stan looked sternly at his friend. ‘That’s uncalled for. Illegal fishing is one thing but human lives are another.’
    ‘Come off it, Stan, you know bloody well the bastards were screwing us yet again.’
    Jerry chipped in. ‘What was the final outcome anyway, or are we again playing the confidential bit?’
    Stan explained that as far as the official records were concerned, the Mayday signal was taken care of as per normal procedures and that the vessel unfortunately sank but that the crew were all rescued and taken ashore, safe and sound.
    ‘End of story!’
    Jerry was not convinced. ‘Stan, we’ve been playing this cat-and-mouse game for years with the Spaniards. Their own bloody government supports all the tricks their fishing fleet gets up to whilst ours sits with its finger up its bum waiting for the scrap heap. Yes or no?’
    Stan knew that they were right. Yet he had a duty to perform. Whether or not he agreed, it was not up to him to comment or discuss the ongoing rift between the United Kingdom and Spain over different allotted fishing quotas and who was allowed to fish where and when. The sinking of the
Maruxa
did hit a chord that reminded Stan of his childhood and why he had decided to become a coastguard officer rather than follow in the family footsteps of a fishing career.
    He was born in Falmouth on 15 November 1967 and came from a once proud and ancestral seafaring Cornish family. He was the eldest of the Bullock household with two sisters, Pam and Cynthia, four and two years younger. His father, Christopher, grandfather and two of his uncles had all been long-serving fishermen whilst his mother, Francis, ran one of the local fishmonger stores in the town centre. From an early age his parents had taught him all about the sea, from rowing and sailing boats to the different types of fish and seafood caught and sold by his family. As a child he spent hours scrambling along the rocky shores and the beach, searching for crabs, cockles or clams, studying their habitat, taking note of the seasonal changes that affected life along the coast. The tides and the behaviour of the sea during the summer calms and the winter’s menacing storms fascinated him.
    On weekends, weather permitting, he would go out with his father in their dinghy and sail for hours around Falmouth harbour. During mid-school breaks, and despite his mother’s reluctance, Chris Bullock would occasionally take Stan out to the allotted crabbing zone off the Cornish coast and help him hall in the crab pots. Whenever his Uncle Bart was in town, enjoying long leaves after months aboard a trawler fishing in the Norwegian Sea, the family would set sail in his uncle’s ten-footer coasting along the English Channel all the way to the Isle of Wight and back. At school, Stan was active in sports, academically sound and popular amongst his fellow students and teachers alike. Despite his young age, he’d made up his mind to follow in the family tradition.
Civil Guards’ HQ in Santiago de Compostela
    A peculiar transfer took place in Spain once democracy had settled down in 1975. The long-standing civil guards, the police section of the armed forces, took over the centuries-old costal surveillance from the Spanish Navy. They were equipped with helicopters and coastguard vessels. Specially trained guards in maritime law were stationed and spread along the Spanish coastline. Whereas the navy was ultimately confined to activity in support of national defence in international waters, the civil guards’ responsibility was more concerned with criminal activity within the shores of the country. Once again, the 200-mile limit came into play and formed part of the overall judiciary system of Spain. There was, however, a grey area in the civil sector involving commercial and contractual activity that overlapped national and