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"This, I'htmare come true-raise a derelict only to have it snatched away by a whirih you two et back to your ships and make a run for it"

"Make a run for it, hell!" Uphill booot here"

"I couldn't have said it better" Butera grinned and looked up at Sandecker "The Morse and the Wallace can tow an aircraft earner through a swa it out with anything Mother Nature can dish out If we can get a cable on board the Titanic and get her under tow, she'll stand a fighting chance of riding out the storm intact"

"Pulling a forty-five-thousand-ton ship through the jaws of a hurricane," Sandecker murmured "That's a pretty heady boast"

"No boast" Butera ca a cable from the stern of the Morse to the bow of the Wallace, our combined power can tow the Titanic in the saines in tandeht train"

"And, we can do it in thirty-foot seas at a speed of five to six knots," Uphill added

Sandecker looked at the two tug captains and let theo on

Butera charged ahead "Those aren't run-of-the- out there, Ads, two hundred and fifty feet in length with five-thousand-horse diesel power plants, each boat capable of hauling twenty thousand tons of dead weight at ten knots for two thousand s in the world can pull the Titanic through a hurricane, these can"

"I appreciate your enthusiasm," Sandecker said, "but, I won't be responsible for the lives of you and your crews on what has to be an iamble The Titanic will have to drift out the stor you both to shove off and head into a safe area"

Uphill looked at Butera "Tell me, Commander, as the last time you defied a direct command from an admiral?"

Butera feigned htfulness "Come to think of it, not since breakfast"

"Speaking for e crew," Pitt said, "elcome your company"

"There you have it, sir," Butera said, grinning "Besides,the Titanic into port or take out papers for an early retirement Me, I opt for the Titanic"

"That'sthe trace of satisfaction in his tone, and it took no great stroke of perception to recognize that the arguave everyone a very shrewd look and said, "Okay, gentleest that instead of sitting around here, you get about the business of saving the Titanic"

Captain Ivan Parotkin stood on the port wing bridge of the Mikhail Kurkov and searched the sky with a pair of binoculars