On Patrol: Pt. 2 – Only Miles Away

New Course
The Unity enters the main shipping channel, and as we pass Raffles Light, named after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, who “founded” the city in 1829 for the British East India Company, she takes a new course, heading east northeast. She joins the shipping lane for eastbound vessels and surges ahead.

Singapore from the sea.
Glassy Seas
On the port bridge wing, a hot wind blasts me, as does the roar of the two MTU diesels. They produce 8,554 horsepower and drive two water jets, which are throwing ten-foot-high wakes as we skim through glassy seas at close to the ship’s maximum of twenty knots. Three or four miles to the north the gigantic Shell refinery covers Bukom Island, and between it and the shipping lanes is its adjunct, Pulau Sebarok (palau means island in Malay/Indonesian). Sebarok is nothing but oil and gas storage tanks. Three 150,000-ton tankers lie alongside, discharging crude, probably from Indonesia, or loading refined product bound perhaps for Europe or America.
The shipping lanes in which we are sailing are some of the busiest in the world. More than 600 vessels a day use Singapore Strait and the Malacca Strait, which meet only a few miles to the west. The Malacca Strait runs roughly north and south between the Indonesian island of Sumatra and, to the east, the Malay Peninsula. Singapore is at the southern tip of that peninsula. Processions of enormous tankers ply these straits daily, carrying an estimated 80 percent of the world’s oil. We are the one patrol boat on duty today in the Singapore Strait to protect them.
Demographics
Further north the skyscrapers of downtown Singapore, only five miles away, rise through the haze. The Republic of Singapore, while only encompassing a fourteen-mile-wide by twenty-six mile-long Island, is the most advanced country in Southeast Asia, the area’s Switzerland, really. Not only is it the regional headquarters for most of the world’s multinational companies and the center of advanced industries, its four million people have the highest standard of living and of education, and enjoy the lowest levels of crime, of anywhere south of Japan and north of Australia. Although the multiracial population comes primarily from three ethnic groups (Chinese constitute over 75% of the total; Malays, 15%; East Indians, 7%), the country has identified itself and has close ties with the West. It is home to both an American air base and a navy supply base; western naval vessels as large as aircraft carriers are maintained and repaired there. Because of these western ties, Singapore has been branded as an enemy by extremists from two of the most populous Muslim nations in the world, Indonesia and Malaysia, which together surround it.
More from “On Patrol”
On Patrol: Pt. 18 – Safety and Plenty
Since merchant sailors go unarmed, with the exception of Russian and Israeli crews, there is little risk for the pirates.
On Patrol: Pt. 17 – Castaways and Fish Traps
We continue at flank speed. Then the operations center orders us to break off our escort. Slowly we pull ahead of the Haydock and come to fifty degrees.
On Patrol: Pt. 16 – Cover the Flanks
Since merchant sailors go unarmed, with the exception of Russian and Israeli crews, there is little risk for the pirates.
On Patrol: Pt. 15 – Armed Pirates
In the background are snatches of radio transmissions, some from central control, others from different ships. Everything seems garbled.
On Patrol: Pt. 14 – Explosive Escort
In the background are snatches of radio transmissions, some from central control, others from different ships. Everything seems garbled.
On Patrol: Pt. 13 – Comm Checks and Storm Prep
In the background are snatches of radio transmissions, some from central control, others from different ships. Everything seems garbled.
On Patrol: Pt. 12 – Night on the Equator
An hour later, dinner is served to seven of us in the officers’ mess. The mee soto, noodles and vegetables in a spicy chicken broth, is great.
On Patrol: Pt. 11 – Mess Hall
Back on the bridge. It is 1600, four in the afternoon, and a change of watch takes place. Those on duty brief their relief with pertinent information.
On Patrol: Pt. 10 – Endurance, Tolerance, Patience
“What about your father? Is he alive?” “Yeah, he’s around. My dad, until now, still can’t believe what I’m doing. He’s too shocked.”
On Patrol: Pt. 9 – Machine Guns
Hodgepodge Kenis and Sprig leave to go back to work. Kenis appears to be mature and very responsible. Later, I see her manning one of the machine guns on the bridge wing. Spring’s duty station is at the radar repeater on the bridge, where she continually examines and...