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"Yes, Sir Captain Dempsey is only a few hundreda boat across to put a salvage crew on board and take off the only survivor"

"How many casualties?" asked Sandecker

"After a preliminary search of the ship," answered Pitt, "I've accounted for all but five of the crew

Using a passenger list from the purser's office and a roster of the crew in the first officer's quarters, we're left with 20 passengers and two of the crew still a, out of a total of 202"

"That tallies to 180 dead"

"As near as I can figure"

"Since it is their ship, the Australian governedy A British research station with an airfield is situated not far to the southwest of your position, at Duse Bay

I've ordered Captain Dempsey to proceed there and transport the survivors ashore The cruise line owners, Ruppert & Saunders, have chartered a Qantis jetliner to fly them to Sydney"

"What about the bodies of the dead passengers and crew?"

"They'll be packed in ice at the research station and flown to Australia on a ators will launch a forists conduct postmortem examinations on the bodies"

"Speaking of Polar Queen," said Pitt He gave the admiral the particulars of its discovery by him and Giordino and the near brush with calaer Islands At the end he asked, "What do we do with her?"

"Ruppert & Saunders are also sending a crew to sail her back to Adelaide, accoators, ill examine her from funnel to keel before she reaches port"

"You should dee NUMA could be awarded as much as 20

the ship from certain disaster"

"Entitled to or not, we'll not charge one thin di their ship" Pitt detected the silky tone of satisfaction in Sandecker's voice "I'll get twice that suovernment for future research projects in and around their waters"