# Where are you, Andy Amatt?



## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

Andy joined my ship, Debut, in Plymouth Sound, while anchored in Mount Batten Bay. He signed on as my third engineer, and was a personal friend of my chief engineer, Ian 'Blue' Cox, and they were both keen enthusiasts in caving. He was a quiet man, short and stocky, and kept very much to himself. He was technically minded, and brought with him his violin that he himself had painstakingly made. His small block of rosin for the bow gave him all kinds of trouble with customs officers, as it looked like a block of hash-resin. He had a good job as an engineer at the Woolwich ****nal before he joined my ship, but adventure overcame his need for stability.
Together with Blue and Mike 'Hooky' John, my second engineer, they got down to familiarising themselves with all the machinery down in the engine-room, and checking that everything was in full working order. They fitted a new engine to the starboard generator, as the original was in pieces when I bought the ship two months before from Haliers, in Hull. It was a 220 horsepower Rolls Royce Eagle diesel engine from a Foden artic unit, giving me both air and electric start generators.
He'd never been to sea before, and soon settled in to life on board. As none of my crew on this voyage had any sea-time, save some experience of yachting by the first and second mate, so I took it very easy with them. We crossed the Bay of Biscay into a south-westerly blow, but the old girl was as steady as a rock as she punched into the swells to La Corona, in northern Spain. A super-tanker that passed us heading north was rolling her scuppers under.
After working in the Caribbean for a few months on salvage operations, my chief engineer, 'Blue', left to skipper a fifty foot luxury motor yacht for the hotel at Union Island He daily took the guests from the hotel the three miles to Tobago Keys, to swim and sunbathe. He ran his guests ashore to explore the three small islands, while his female assistant lit up the barbecue on the beach for their lunch. After Hooky left the ship to return to the UK with his girlfriend, Whinny-Pooh, who was the cook on board, Andy moved up to the position of chief engineer. He moved into the comparative luxury of the chief engineer's cabin with a double bunk, where he spent much of his time on his various pet projects.
While we were in Trinidad for the carnival, Debut was contracted by the boatyard at Bequia Island to search the reefs of the Windward Islands for lead, from the keels of wrecked yachts. This was to make lead billets for the ballast of a 68 foot Cariacou schooner that they were building for Bob Dylan. Water Pearl was a classic Cariacou inter-island cargo schooner, fitted out as a luxury yacht. 
At the start of the hurricane season, I took Debut to shelter in Falmouth Harbour, in Antigua. By this time, there was only myself, Andy and Jacky, the mate, on board the ship. We survived two of the worst hurricanes to hit the Leeward Islands for a hundred years. Hurricane David had smashed the small insignificant communities of these islands into scrap, most of the buildings blowing out to sea like waste paper down an empty street. The wind reached 250 knots, gusting up to 275 knots, a vortex of pent up emotion. Following in its path by only two weeks, Hurricane Frederick dumped on this peaceful island chain forty eight inches of rain in only thirty six hours. Twelve hundred people died from the hurricane that night, not by the wind, which only reached 110 knots, but from the deluge it brought with it.
We were involved with working for the Green Boat Gang, a syndicate that smuggled bales of compressed marijuana from Columbia to the USA. We were contracted to maintain and provision their fleet of yachts, before they set off for the mother-ship drifting twenty miles west of Dominica, en-route for Florida with their cargo.
At the conclusion of this contract, outlined in my book, The Judas Kiss, part of The Black Ship Trilogy, we left the Leeward Islands, heading for the carnival at Trinidad. By this time, I had increased my crew to a total of 27, and Andy had his choice of the best to train up as engineers. All the deck officers and crew were girls, and all performed their duties well while catching the sun completely naked out on deck. Debut was getting a reputation as a commune ship.
Andy left Debut after transiting the Panama Canal, when he become besotted with Big-Anna, my Norwegian chief mate. He was hopelessly in love with her since she took his virginity in Aruba, despite him being 27 years old. He couldn't handle her playing the field, as she wished from her selection of the crew.
Andy signed on a 35 foot British yacht that was sailing the world. He wanted to visit the Galapagos Islands, before heading for Pitcairn Island. I would have liked to visit the Galapagos Islands myself, but because of the behaviour of another commune ship, Sophia, at the islands some six months before, larger vessels were not permitted, unless as part of an official expedition.
I met up with Andy again at Tahiti, where he was working in the shipyard at Papette to earn himself some more money. My chief engineer, Rekus, got a job with him when I sailed for Pago Pago, in American Samoa. I met up with Andy again in Pago Pago, and he moved back on board Debut for a few days, stirring up a few old ghosts in his old cabin. He flew to Auckland, in New Zealand, to hitchhike from top to bottom, then on to Sydney to do the same, but from east to west. I haven't seen or heard from him since. Get in touch, Andy, so we can sink a few beers and chew the fat. All the best, Cpt Dick Brooks.


----------

