HOSTAGE TO FREEDOM: THE SEARCH FOR THE SIREN
by Richard SorapurePublish: Jun 09, 2021Action & Adventure Historical Fiction Literary FictionBook Overview
On a balmy day near noon on Tuesday, February 14, 1764 the East Indiaman ‘The Siren’ came to grief on Brutus Reef in the Sulu Sea.As the ship sat upright on the seabed, the sand waves into which she fell first cushioned her fall and then entrapped and buried her. Within a few years, trains of dunes hid the last traces of the Siren and her valuable cargo. The skeleton of the teenage apprentice stared out blindly from his crow’s nest, and fish flew into his gaping mouth and left via the open eye sockets.
The main mast stuck a defiant finger and the uniform of the boy shrank over his bones, flakes of his red shirt danced in the current, the bright colours shimmering as shafts of sunlight pierced the waters. At last, masthead and the apprentice fell in a graceful arc to a seabed repose, and sand and coral encrusted his skeleton.
Onboard a rich cargo of 250,000 cases of Ming Dynasty porcelain lay buried until a diver recovered a single plate in the mid 1980’s.
Roll on to 2002 in Singapore when the diver, fallen on hard times, sells the plate to an antique dealer for a high price. Two teams, aware of the potential rewards and dreaming of riches embark on marine surveys to find the shipwreck.
Expatriate geophysicist Michael and his teenage son, Alex become involved in the search for the Siren in a race against a rival team led by Tong, a ruthless Clan leader and collector of antique porcelain, much to the dismay of Michael’s wife, Julie.
But the Sulu Sea is the hunting ground of local pirate gangs and the brutal Abu Sayyaf terrorist group led by Khadaffy Janjalani. The remote area where the shipwreck lies buried is close to terrorist jungle camps on Basilan Island.
Can Michael’s team locate the precious cargo before they are attacked?
This fast-paced novel is located in many localities in SE Asia including Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Zamboanga and Tawi-Tawi Island. The struggle for an independent Mindanao by Abu Sayyaf is one of continuing conflict.
