Sea Stories and Tall Tales of the Seas by Forum Members

agreed!
yes, there all good tales.

 

Shark and gator. They are both very tasty.

 

Those cheeky submariners. First trip to the Bahamas I got stuck waiting out a norther and then headed south. Decided to sail the Tongue Of The Ocean at night. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongue_of_the_Ocean. Left GF at helm and went below. Lots of moon, not much wind, 5000ft under the keel, seemed pretty safe. Got woke up with "Phil, we're on soundings". Yup - hard bottom at 80'. checked nav and cycled instrument power- no change. punched +10 on the helm and went off soundings for about 10 seconds, then 80' again. punched -10 and went up to the bow and told GF to let me know when it's gone. I rattled 30' of chain out through the chocks as loudly as possibly and the bottom promptly vanished. And it stayed vanished.

Just remembered something else. My GF was from Kansas and people used to call her Kansas. Tongue of the Ocean is called TOTO. So, staring at the depthmeter still half asleep I said "Kansas, I don't think we're in TOTO anymore".

 

Now that's Spooky.
I'd sure hope it was a thick school of Bait fish giving you 'false echos' and not a mid-ocean sumpinorother big enough to capsize the boat.

 

Check the link above. The second half explains what was going on. AUTEC.

 

How interesting. I never knew about that Tongue. I wish we could have an animation on TV about that. It's easier for me to understand in that mode.

 

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Scary-I'm probably going to have a dream about that! Good one!

 

My 600 ft barge was getting new ceramic bead deck paint in Corpus Christi, so to use the down time economically, office had me take tug to Houston for a required tail shaft inspection. After pulling props and tail shafts, yard plugged my shaft logs, dropped us back in water, and secured us alongside a finger dock. Pointless to occupy the dry dock during lathing off the stainless steel cladding on tailshafts, examining soft iron cores, and recladding with stainless, a 3 day long process.
Before retiring that evening, I checked my emails. Had orders from office. Get underway and rejoin barge in Corpus. I emailed back, I don't have any wheels. Dispatcher emailed me " Get underway, we'll put wheels on in Corpus." I kid you not!

 

LOL, what an exchange. Did you ever look that guy up to see if he had all his oars in the water?

 

I have worked with some rough old captains and I have heard some severe dressing downs, not a few directed at me.
The absolute worst I ever heard was on a Laker about 40 years ago. Third mate was newly licensed,in his 50s and had changed careers to sail merchant marine, mid-life crisis I guess. We were upbound Lake Huron at Detour Point, the lower mouth of St Mary's river. A lot of things are supposed to happen at Detour, but It was a gorgeous day, and "Bill" the third was daydreaming. A few miles up river , the captain popped into wheelhouse, roaring. "How come you didn't call me, Bill? Captain must be on bridge in a narrow channel. "Holy smuck, look at our speed! Slow this beasty down!" I'm paraphrasing the salty language. Bill hauls back on the Chadburn to 1/3 ahead. Blaaat! Steam is poring out the stack. Popped safetey valve. " My word, Bill. didn't you notify engineers at Detour? Don't you know how much that steam costs? You did call the Coast Guard Traffic? No? You trying to get me fined, Bill?" Bil is in a dither. "What's this Bill? No coffee?, Look radio is still on 16. Get over to 13. And Bill! You can't run the channel with radar on 24 mile scale. Holy --you still have the lake chart on the desk! Do you even know where you are?" Bill has tears streaking his jowls. The AB watchman steps in and reports anchors cleared and flags up. Did it without Bills prompting, bless his heart. Old man sits down in his chair." Look Bill, Look! At least you could have the windows clean so I could see out of them!" Bill orders the watchman to clean the seagull feces off the window. Watchman starts out the door with windex and paper towels. Bill stopped him. "Wait a minute! Is that inside or outside?" The captain didn't miss a stroke. " And that's another thing Bill! Keep the murking seagulls out of the wheelhouse!"

 

Yessireeebob. I wouldn't be "Bill" for anything in this world and I wouldn't work for that Skipper for the same stuff!

Bill on the other hand was not a guy you'd want in a Fox hole with you where there were enemy marabout.

I rode a ferry of the Alaska Marine Highway down from Ketchikan to Seattle.
I was Impressed with the professionalism of that Wheel house crew. I learned a lot too.

A drunken fisherman caused one Ferry Skipper to make a terrible decision.
Run over the Drunken Fisherman who was protesting (like the OWS Dorks) and cause a loss of life, or Hard Stbd and onto the Rocks with a Ferry full of Passengers, Crew and Cargo.

I still wonder if I'd have hit the Rocks instead of what I was thinking of doing?

 

ACtually, I worked for that captain for three years, at my request. He was uncanny at weather forcasting. I didn't like him personally. Didn't care for his abusive ways either. But I was hoping some of his weather saavy would rub off on me, but unfortunately...

 

"Reading" the weather has always been the province of Very old and Very expeirinced Folk.
Farmers especially.
I had a Commercial Halibut Permit for five years. I never could quite Predict the weather.
But when I learned to fly, the Ground School Weather classes made me an Expert.
I'm not kidding.

I don't think any of Captain Creed's (the Mutiny on the Bounty guy) Weather experience would have done you any good without that knowledge that comes from NOAA.

 

If the Coast Guard ever hauls you up on charges, giving you the third degree interogation about your decisions. Reply thusly, "You can censure me, you can tear up my license, you can throw me in jail. What you can't do is, convince me I was wrong! Because if I'd done anything else, there'd been loss of LIFE!" Shut up at this point and listen to the stunned silense. You'll be leaving their office with career and license intact, in about 15 more minutes. They can't argue against saving life. Of course this won't serve if you killed somebody!

 

We didn't have detailed weather synopsis back then like now. We had May4 broadcast, a coded voice report of current weather at various ports, a bunch of numbers you decoded,, and Laweb, a list of barometric pressures in 50 locales in US and Canada by voice broadcast, you copied down, plotted the isobars on your own weather map. Using these reports, you forecast your weather yourself. Rather captains did. The mates copied the data, drew the chart, and presented it to the OLD MAN.