Part 132, Chapter 2263
Chapter Two Thousand Two Hundred Sixty-Three
24th November 1973
Wilhelmshaven
The Freighter was steaming for the neck of the Jade Bight and from long experience, Louis Ferdinand Junior expertly steered the craft he was piloting on an opposing parallel course. The open whaleboat bobbed like a cork over the bow wave of the much larger ship. As the hull of the Freighter raced past, it loomed over the whaleboat though they were still a safe distance away.
“The first command I held was one of these boats” Louis said as he gunned the throttle of outboard engine. At 8.2 meters length by 1.8 meters beam, the wooden boats were a common sight wherever the fleet was. The addition of a small outboard engine and ditching of the sailing rig in the 20’s had only increased the capabilities of the design. Louis had earned a Coxswain’s patch learning to pilot one of them and he valued it far more than the medals and orders he had received in the years since. “I still like to take one of them out whenever I get the chance.”
The two crewmen from the Grindwal who had come with Louis on this errand were nonchalant about the whole thing. Margareta and her two bodyguards were clearly not expecting this and were fearfully looking at the wall of steel passing by at several meters per second. Louis had agreed to spend time with the Romanian Princess, but he was going to do it on his terms, and it was going to be a warts and all. Louis figured that ought to be enough to send the Margareta packing like few other things. A cold a trip across the Jade Bight on a cold drizzly afternoon with a low overcast and the rain was expected to turn to snow at any time seemed perfect for that. A tour of the Grindwal with most of the crew on liberty with the sight, and smells, of the caretaker crew aboard would seal the deal.
They entered the choppy water in the wake of the Freighter and Louis steered the whaleboat back to the course that they had been on before. After several minutes, the line on ships anchored out in the Bight came into view. Most of them were light units of the North Atlantic Squadron with some units from the Baltic. That included SMS K24 Grindwal and a pair of her sisters. Louis saw that in addition to her pennant number someone had taken it upon themselves to paint her name to the bow and presumably the stern. There was talk of painting a likeness of the ship’s namesake, the Long-Finned Pilot Whale on the side of the superstructure, but nothing had come of it yet.
Steering the whaleboat to the floating dock, Louis could see that Borchardt was waiting. The crewmen expertly tied off the boat as Louis killed the engine.
“Welcome aboard Ma’am” Borchardt said as he helped Margareta off the whaleboat. “The Captain told us that you were coming, hope it wasn’t too rough a passage from the pier.”
“This is Oberdeckoffizer Borchardt” Louis said hastily, “One of the Ship’s Officers.”
“Came up through the hawse hole Ma’am, though only partway” Borchardt replied, “Though I have a warrant rank rather than commission.”
The entire thing was a bit complicated, Borchardt was effectively the third in command of the ship. However, he still enjoyed a close relationship with the crew of the sort that Louis could never have. Louis had several questions, not the least of which involved the presence of Borchardt himself who was headed into Wilhelmshaven the last Louis had heard.
“What are you doing here?” Louis hissed at Borchardt.
Borchardt gave him a wink before they escorted Margareta up the ladder to the deck of the Grindwal. It was then that Louis heard them pipe Margareta aboard with a Bosun’s whistle that had very rarely seen the light of day while Louis had been in Command. She was all smiles as she saw the crew lined up in their dress uniforms as if an Admiral were coming aboard. It was also clear that though Louis had only been in Wilhelmshaven for a couple hours, the crew had cleaned the entire ship to within an inch of its life in his absence. Something that he had made happen only with great difficulty in the past.
“You didn’t need to do all of this for me” Margareta said.
“The men wanted you to feel welcome” Louis replied.
As Margareta walked into the wardroom, Louis finally had a chance to have a word with Borchardt.
“What the Hell is going on here?” Louis asked.
“We aren’t letting you mess this up Sir” Borchardt replied, “The scuttlebutt going around is that she is a proper Lady and the Grand Admiral himself ordered us to see to it that you don’t.”
Plänterwald
Listening to Nella and Nan gossiping about their classmates when they were supposed to be studying was welcome from what Kiki had been learning about over the last couple weeks. Ben had been amused by her questions. Had it not occurred to her that the ivory tower she was on cost a considerable amount of money? The day-to-day running of the University Hospital was done with appropriations by the Reichstag and the respective Landtags of Berlin and Brandenburg in addition to the funds that came from Social Insurance like any other hospital. However, research, state-of-the-art equipment, and many of the building additions of the Hospital were often paid for by interested third parties. It was something that she had known about all along, the lengths that the University would go to keep those third parties happy was something that she had not thought much about. That was until she found herself neck deep in it.
Kiki was aware that her education and training had cost the State a considerable amount of money. The return on investment was having her saving lives with what she had learned, but that wasn’t all of it. When she had met Generaloberstabsarzt Biermann, it had been because a few days earlier she had made a splash with her efforts as a surgeon. A portion of the University Hospital’s funding came from the Medical Service and Kiki had once again found herself in the spotlight as the poster girl for both the Medical Service and the University. It had been Biermann who had suggested that Kiki would be an excellent Instructor for the next class of Medical students, and a quiet word from him was like a lion’s roar.
24th November 1973
Wilhelmshaven
The Freighter was steaming for the neck of the Jade Bight and from long experience, Louis Ferdinand Junior expertly steered the craft he was piloting on an opposing parallel course. The open whaleboat bobbed like a cork over the bow wave of the much larger ship. As the hull of the Freighter raced past, it loomed over the whaleboat though they were still a safe distance away.
“The first command I held was one of these boats” Louis said as he gunned the throttle of outboard engine. At 8.2 meters length by 1.8 meters beam, the wooden boats were a common sight wherever the fleet was. The addition of a small outboard engine and ditching of the sailing rig in the 20’s had only increased the capabilities of the design. Louis had earned a Coxswain’s patch learning to pilot one of them and he valued it far more than the medals and orders he had received in the years since. “I still like to take one of them out whenever I get the chance.”
The two crewmen from the Grindwal who had come with Louis on this errand were nonchalant about the whole thing. Margareta and her two bodyguards were clearly not expecting this and were fearfully looking at the wall of steel passing by at several meters per second. Louis had agreed to spend time with the Romanian Princess, but he was going to do it on his terms, and it was going to be a warts and all. Louis figured that ought to be enough to send the Margareta packing like few other things. A cold a trip across the Jade Bight on a cold drizzly afternoon with a low overcast and the rain was expected to turn to snow at any time seemed perfect for that. A tour of the Grindwal with most of the crew on liberty with the sight, and smells, of the caretaker crew aboard would seal the deal.
They entered the choppy water in the wake of the Freighter and Louis steered the whaleboat back to the course that they had been on before. After several minutes, the line on ships anchored out in the Bight came into view. Most of them were light units of the North Atlantic Squadron with some units from the Baltic. That included SMS K24 Grindwal and a pair of her sisters. Louis saw that in addition to her pennant number someone had taken it upon themselves to paint her name to the bow and presumably the stern. There was talk of painting a likeness of the ship’s namesake, the Long-Finned Pilot Whale on the side of the superstructure, but nothing had come of it yet.
Steering the whaleboat to the floating dock, Louis could see that Borchardt was waiting. The crewmen expertly tied off the boat as Louis killed the engine.
“Welcome aboard Ma’am” Borchardt said as he helped Margareta off the whaleboat. “The Captain told us that you were coming, hope it wasn’t too rough a passage from the pier.”
“This is Oberdeckoffizer Borchardt” Louis said hastily, “One of the Ship’s Officers.”
“Came up through the hawse hole Ma’am, though only partway” Borchardt replied, “Though I have a warrant rank rather than commission.”
The entire thing was a bit complicated, Borchardt was effectively the third in command of the ship. However, he still enjoyed a close relationship with the crew of the sort that Louis could never have. Louis had several questions, not the least of which involved the presence of Borchardt himself who was headed into Wilhelmshaven the last Louis had heard.
“What are you doing here?” Louis hissed at Borchardt.
Borchardt gave him a wink before they escorted Margareta up the ladder to the deck of the Grindwal. It was then that Louis heard them pipe Margareta aboard with a Bosun’s whistle that had very rarely seen the light of day while Louis had been in Command. She was all smiles as she saw the crew lined up in their dress uniforms as if an Admiral were coming aboard. It was also clear that though Louis had only been in Wilhelmshaven for a couple hours, the crew had cleaned the entire ship to within an inch of its life in his absence. Something that he had made happen only with great difficulty in the past.
“You didn’t need to do all of this for me” Margareta said.
“The men wanted you to feel welcome” Louis replied.
As Margareta walked into the wardroom, Louis finally had a chance to have a word with Borchardt.
“What the Hell is going on here?” Louis asked.
“We aren’t letting you mess this up Sir” Borchardt replied, “The scuttlebutt going around is that she is a proper Lady and the Grand Admiral himself ordered us to see to it that you don’t.”
Plänterwald
Listening to Nella and Nan gossiping about their classmates when they were supposed to be studying was welcome from what Kiki had been learning about over the last couple weeks. Ben had been amused by her questions. Had it not occurred to her that the ivory tower she was on cost a considerable amount of money? The day-to-day running of the University Hospital was done with appropriations by the Reichstag and the respective Landtags of Berlin and Brandenburg in addition to the funds that came from Social Insurance like any other hospital. However, research, state-of-the-art equipment, and many of the building additions of the Hospital were often paid for by interested third parties. It was something that she had known about all along, the lengths that the University would go to keep those third parties happy was something that she had not thought much about. That was until she found herself neck deep in it.
Kiki was aware that her education and training had cost the State a considerable amount of money. The return on investment was having her saving lives with what she had learned, but that wasn’t all of it. When she had met Generaloberstabsarzt Biermann, it had been because a few days earlier she had made a splash with her efforts as a surgeon. A portion of the University Hospital’s funding came from the Medical Service and Kiki had once again found herself in the spotlight as the poster girl for both the Medical Service and the University. It had been Biermann who had suggested that Kiki would be an excellent Instructor for the next class of Medical students, and a quiet word from him was like a lion’s roar.
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