The group toiling forward on board Guitarro departed for lunch at 2000, unaware that the other work crew had already completed their calibrations and begun the process of emptying the aft ballast tanks.
Despite warnings from the security watch that the boat was already riding low enough in the waves that water was sporadically pouring into an unopened manhole, they continued their work, still wholly ignorant of what was transpiring at the other end of the vessel.
A half hour later, another construction team, unware of their counterparts’ activities, filled the ballast tanks at the bow in order to bring Guitarro to within a half degree of trim. At 1600 on, workmen who had been assigned to calibrate instruments on board Guitarro filled her aft ballast tanks with approximately five tons of water. The second Guitarro (SSN-665) was laid down on 9 December 1965 at Vallejo, Calif., by Mare Island Naval Shipyard launched on 27 July 1968 and sponsored by Mrs. Armed with new inspiration, Alfred is ready to become the eco-warrior he was destined to be.(SSN-665: displacement 4,103 (surfaced), 4,634 (submerged) length 292'0" beam 31'0" draft 29'0" speed 20 knots complement 130 armament 4 21-inch torpedo tubes class Sturgeon)
Despairing at the cruelty inflicted upon his friend, Alfred learns that the antidote to violence is not more violence, but the strength of one's heart and an indomitable determination to improve the world, as exemplified in the life of Nelson Mandela. Escaping overland to Johannesburg, with a reckless young inventor from Soweto, Alfred discovers that the violence which taints the shores of the continent is deeply embedded in the life of South African society, so recently freed from apartheid. Brought into conflict with the pirate scourge that plagues Africa's eastern shores, Alfred takes action against them, only to bring them into tireless pursuit of him. Now, almost seventeen, Alfred is on the cusp of switching from exploring the world to playing an active environmentalist role in protecting the sea that he loves so dearly. In SEAS OF SOUTH AFRICA, the sixth volume in the best-selling Submarine Outlaw series, it has been over two years since the young explorer first set sail in his own submarine, with his dog and seagull crew.
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