Island News

A large vessel with a Chinese flag arrived in port several days ago. The captain told port officials that it was a research vessel. Then he changed his story and said it was a fishing vessel. Or so I heard.

One of my colleagues told me he had watched with binoculars from his home farther north on the island as the ship moved slowly up and down along the outer reef for several hours. I asked if any smaller boats could be seen motoring up to it. He could not see any, he said, but it was a long way off. More suspicion about the ship arose when no local registration as a research vessel or any other purpose was found despite the captain’s insistence that it existed. The absence of research equipment and fish added to the doubts about the captain’s intentions.

A group of local police and officials from the compliance office boarded the ship and requested that they be allowed to conduct an inspection. Nothing was found.  At the end of the tour, the captain was asked to open a locked closet. He complied and a large stash of weapons and ammunition was revealed.  The captain said they were for the protection of the ship but the police and officials are skeptical. The weapons and munitions are more aligned with those used by armies, not a research crew. Photographs were taken and the captain and his men told to stay on the ship until a government official from the main island of Pohnpei flies to Yap on the Saturday night flight. There are only two flights a week in and out of Yap so the ship and its crew are confined until the next one arrives this weekend.

Word of the ship and its stash, like all island news, spread immediately throughout the town and into the villages beyond. We now wait for the government official to arrive on tonight’s flight for the story’s continuation.

Or so I heard.