The Hunt for Excalibur

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The Hoshi Maru rode the sea off the north-eastern coastal waters of Japan with arrogant indifference. At a hundred and eighty feet in length, a beam of fifty, and a double layered hull of steel, it was difficult to imagine anything that would disturb the fishing trawler.

Captain Itaru Katsuzō grinned as his eyes swept the horizon. The dark swells shifted against one another like giant shards of shale, forming an impenetrable layer of a puzzle, as it mirrored the velvet black of the night’s sky. The conditions made for good fishing. They would pull in their last net shortly and be home within another twelve hours.

At three-thirty a.m. the diesel motors stopped and the final haul of yellowfin tuna was dropped into one of the ship’s two live-holds. One of his men noted that the second hold was now full. The captain nodded, his lips curling upward with pleasure. They would be home a full week ahead of schedule. It was a good omen. The best he could have asked for. After nearly ten years working for the fishing company, he had been given command of a trawler of his own — and not just any trawler — the Hoshi Maru was the company’s newest addition to the fleet. His success would go a long way to validating the executive’s decision to promote him.

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