The Executioners

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The U.S.N. Paycock was the latest of the guided missile heavy cruisers in the South Pacific Joint Defense Fleet. It held fourteen hundred men, weighed twelve thousand tons, had six 8-inch guns and two twin missile launchers equipped with the «Terrier» S/A supersonic missile. The twin launchers were capable of firing two missiles per launcher every thirty seconds. They could fire four missiles in eight-tenths of a second. The U.S.N. Paycock was a magnificent piece of fighting equipment and cost 225 million dollars to build.

On the night of June 4, 1969, she was knifing through the blackness of an almost moonless night in the South Pacific. The men on the shrouded bridge could occasionally glimpse the dark bulk of the other vessels taking part in the joint Australian-American naval maneuvers. Captain Wilbur Foreman was on the bridge, watching as his helmsman began a slow turn to port, as called for, at precisely zero hours and fifteen minutes. All ships were sailing without lights, under battle conditions, as the radarman, peering into his green screen, frowned.

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