It was early m, just after dawn, in fact. The mothball fleet was sailing down the Hudson. Grayish-brown shrouds making odd shapes at various points on the superstructures. I ted forty destroyers, fht cruisers, two heavy cruisers, and a carrier. A fog lay upon the river.
I went aboard as the fleet reached the Narrows. I noticed a pair of jeans floating on the surface of the water, stiff with paint. I abandoned my small outboard and jumped for the ladder of the lead destroyer.
There was no one on deck. All of the gun mounts and some pieces of special equipment were coated with a sort of plastic webbing, which had a slightly repellent feeling when touched. I watched my empty Pacemaker bobbing in the heavy wake of the fleet. I called out. "Hello! Hello!"
Behind us, the vessels were disposed i formation -- the carrier in the ter, the two heavy cruisers before and behihe destroyer s correctly placed iion to the cruisers, or as much so as the width of the el would alloere making, I judged, ten to twelve knots.
There was no other traffi the water; this I thought strange.
It was now about six-thirty; the fog was breaking up, a little. I decided to climb to the bridge. I ehe wheelhouse; there was no o the wheel. I took the wheel in my hands, tried to turn it a point or two, experimentally; it was locked in place.
A maered from the chartroom behind me. He immediately walked over to me and removed my hands from the wheel.
He wore a uniform, but it seemed more a stewards or barmans dress than a naval officers. His face was not unimpressive: dark hair carefully brushed, a strong nose, good mouth and . I judged him to be in his late fifties. He re-ehe chartroom. I followed him.
"May I ask where this. . ."
"Mothball fleet," he supplied.
"-- is bound?"
He did not answer my question. He was looking at a chart.
"If its a matter of sealed orders or something. . ."
"No no," he said, without looking up. "Nothing like that." Then he said, "A bit careless with your little boat, arent you?"
This made me angry. "Not normally. On the trary. But something --"
"Of course," he said. "You were anticipated. Why dyou think that ladder wasnt secured?"
I thought about this for a moment. I decided to shift the ground of the versation slightly.
"Are there crews aboard the other ships?"
"No," he said. I felt however that he had appreciated my shrewdness in guessing that there were no crews aboard the other ships.
"Radio?" I asked. "Remote trol or something?"
"Something like that," he said.
The forty destroyers, fht cruisers, two heavy cruisers, and the carrier were moving in perfeation toward the opehe sight was a magnifit one. I had been in the Navy -- two years as a supply officer in New London, principally.
"Is this a test of some kind?" I asked. "New equipment or --"
"Youre afraid that well be used for target practice? Hardly." He seemed momentarily amused.
"No. But ship movements on this scale --"
"It was difficult," he said. He then walked out of the chartroom aed himself in one of the swivel chairs on posts in front of the bridge windows. I followed him.
"May I ask your rank?"
"Why not ask my name?"
"All right."
"I am the Admiral."
I looked again at his uniform which suggested no such thing.
"Objectively," he said, smiling slightly.
"My name is --" I began.
"I am