Scratch Tape: The Sea Wolves
Reviewed by Sam Aurelius Milam III
While
going through a collection of old videocassettes last July, I came across
a recording of The Sea Wolves. The movie is based on the book
Boarding
Party, by James Leasor and includes some big-name actors: Gregory
Peck, Roger Moore, and David Niven. It tells a story of the sinking
of three German freighters in the neutral harbor at Goa, on the eastern
coast of India, during March of 1943. I haven't read any historical
accounts of the event and I haven't read the book. I don't know if
the story, as told in the movie, bears any resemblance at all to either
the book or to actual events. Probably not. Here's the story
as told in the movie.
German
submarines had been sinking a large number of allied freighters in the
Indian Ocean. British intelligence1
agents decided that information was being supplied to the submarine commanders
by way of a clandestine transmitter on one of the three German freighters
at Goa. Since the harbor was neutral territory, under the jurisdiction
of the Portuguese government, the British couldn't just waltz in with commandos
and destroy the transmitter.
Two
British officers, Colonel Lewis Pugh (Gregory Peck) and Captain Gavin Stewart
(Roger Moore), went to Goa to investigate. Their main objective was
to determine which of the three freighters housed the transmitter.
During the investigation, they managed to cause the needless deaths of
three people, a restaurant owner whom they had intimidated into helping
them, a German agent whom they had hoped to interrogate, and a local man
who was working for the Germans.
Since
the transmitter was in neutral territory, they decided to use civilians
to destroy it. They selected 20 civilian volunteers from a part-time
Territorial Unit, The Calcutta Light Horse, that hadn't seen action since
the Boer War, about 40 years earlier. Another British officer described
its members as "a mixed bag of boozing, middle-aged, pot-bellied businessmen".
Nevertheless, those were the boys for the job.
With
the help of Colonel Pugh, the volunteers stole a decrepit old river boat
named Phoebe and loaded her with several inflated rubber boats and a good
many crates of weapons, ammunition, and explosives. It's interesting
to note that they did it all right out in the open, in broad daylight,
and nobody in the vicinity objected. One has to wonder why there
was so little concern among the locals over the theft of the Phoebe.
With nine men on board, they motored away from the dock amid cheers and
arm-waving from the other volunteers.
They
traveled from Calcutta down the east coast of India, around the southern
tip, and up the west coast to Cochin. The voyage around India was
characterized mostly by seasickness. However a couple of things are
worth mentioning. A possible reason for the lack of concern over
the theft of the Phoebe was revealed by its engine, which was kept running
during the trip only by constant tinkering. The competence of the
crew was typified by a man on duty in the wheel house who observed a shark
fin off the port bow, mistook it for a periscope, and caused a major panic
by reporting a submarine off the starboard bow. He then completely
failed to observe an actual periscope through which the Germans were examining
the Phoebe. The Germans, probably wisely, decided that sinking the
tub would be a waste of a torpedo. They went off in search of more
worthy prey.
Meanwhile,
Colonel Pugh and all but one of the remaining volunteers traveled across
India by train, to rendezvous with the Phoebe crew at Cochin. From
there, they all continued up the coast aboard Phoebe. At this point,
I can't help but to make a couple of observations. Colonel Pugh and
his group of volunteers verified that it was possible to cross India by
train. One has to wonder why they stole a boat at Calcutta, so far
from their ultimate objective. Surely there were boats to steal at
Cochin. The British government could certainly have made the various
necessary equipment available at Cochin as well as at Calcutta. The
entire group of volunteers could have all crossed India by train and stole
a boat at Cochin, probably a better boat, and much closer to Goa.
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Although this usage of the word
is conventional, I use it in this sense with grave misgivings. |
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October 2006 |
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