Tackling a toothy problem

Sergeant Frank Alcantara takes in the Capetown panorama from on board the Australian Fishing and Customs vessel Southern Supporter.

A helicopter lifts off from South African warship SAS Drakensberg during the saga.

High seas add to the adventure as the Viarsa makes its way back to Australia with Sergeant Alcantara on board after a chase across two oceans.

By Paul Cross

PIRATES of the Caribbean notwithstanding, what do high-seas adventure and fluency in Spanish have in common?

For one senior medic based at Richmond it meant operations in the south Atlantic for the pursuit and return to Australia of Patagonian toothfish poachers in what has been described as the longest sea chase in Australian maritime history.

Born in Madrid and fluent in Spanish, Sergeant Frank Alcantara, of No. 3 Combat Support Hospital, was tapped on the shoulder to join the Australian Customs Service and Royal Australian Navy for Operation Gemsbok and the chase of the Viarsa across two oceans.

SGT Alcantara said his main role in the operation was to act as interpreter and translator between the Australians and the crew of the Viarsa.

“I don’t think Spanish is one of those languages that is required all that often in the ADF – obviously the Middle Eastern dialects and Portuguese are in demand but Spanish is probably one of the least used,” he said.

“I was happy to go on it and do something completely different – and that is what it turned out to be. Embarking for the operation was an exciting time for me. For security reasons there was not a lot of information before the mission but that added to the whole sense of adventure.

“There was always a sense of trepidation - you are out in the middle of nowhere, it is a new environment and you are doing things that you would not normally do. There was this awareness of isolation from the world but I was never really afraid at any time.

“The Navy crew that provided the boarding party were very professional. They had done this type of thing before and many of the guys had recently returned from the Gulf – they were always there to tap into if things should become a bit hairy.”

He said after catching up with the Viarsa, the little convoy began the homeward trip across the south Atlantic and around the Cape and into the Indian Ocean.

“The last component took about 32 days of non-stop sea travel to finally get back to Australia. My biggest concern was whether I was going to get seasick but the only queasiness I felt was on about day three, when we encountered sea-state seven, with swells up to 8m high bombarding the ship. It might have been a combination of the fish smells in the aft section as well, as I was on watch there at the time.”

SGT Alcantara said that because of his duties translating he was in routine contact with the crew of the Viarsa.
“I tried to establish a rapport between our crew and the crew of the Viarsa. I wanted them to see me as approachable so if any issues arose they would be happy to talk to me so I could approach my command structure. Generally their concerns were of a basic nature – had their families been notified in Uruguay, Spain or Chile, wherever they were.”

What is a Patagonian toothfish? Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides) are found in subantarctic waters on shelves around islands and submarine banks. They are bottom-living, in depths of 300m to 2500m but move off the bottom on occasion to feed. They eat small fish and squid in midwater and a range of fish, crabs, prawns on the bottom. They reach sexual maturity when they are between 70cm and 95cm long and are up to 10 years old. The maximum size is 2.2m in length and about 120kg in weight. The oldest recorded age is about 45 years. They are also known as sea bass, Chilean sea bass, Chilean grouper and black hake. They form part of the sperm whale’s diet and up to 98 per cent of the elephant seal’s fish diet. Eggs and larvae are pelagic with the larvae feeding on zooplankton.

He said his duties translating took more than 18 hours every day, bobbing up in all areas of the ship from bridge to galley.

“I started off keeping watches along with the others but it soon became evident that to put me on a watch was problematic – they would have to wake me up all the time. It was easier for me to maintain an all-day and half-night watch to be able to access the departments on the ship.”

SGT Alcantara is no stranger to the ways of the RAN, having served four years in the white uniform before transferring to the Air Force in the mid-1980s.

“That previous training perhaps partially prepared me for this. I knew what I was getting into as far as language and tradition differences between the services, so it was not a complete surprise. But I had never been at sea for this duration and never doing this type of work.

“It really was a true privilege to be invited to do something I will probably never get the chance to do again and something just totally different.”

He said getting back to the creature comforts of home was something of a relief after many thousands of kilometres aboard the Viarsa.

“Comforts on the Viarsa were pretty much nonexistent. We ate ration packs all the way back, so it was nice to get back to normal food and a normal bed. Bed on the Viarsa consisted of sleeping on a metal conveyor belt on one side of the ship and basically hot bunking – where one person gets out of bed and you jump into it. That whole cycle continued for week upon week.

“It was a very long trip that covered almost three quarters of the world. It is a big expanse of sea out there. You don’t realise how big the planet is until you are in the middle of nowhere with Antarctica 3000 nautical miles to the south, India the same to the north, Australia was the same to the east and Africa to the west.

“I went on board primarily as a translator but I was called upon to use my MEDASSIST skills as well for some small accidents but that just goes with the job. I have deployed a few time before but this is definitely one of the highlights of my career.”

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