Sea Stories and Tall Tales of the Seas by Forum Members

girlfriends?

I once had a Maltese girlfriend in Australia,she invited me to a family get together on her dads boat.When she introduced me to her dad I got quite a shock,he looked like a gorilla with gold teeth.When I had a think about it I decided to call the relationship off,I couldnt shake the feeling off that if we had an arguement,and she told"Daddy"I might end up visiting Davy Jones with a new pair of concrete boots on.

 

My Catalina had never had any plumbing trouble. Tight as a drum. I could come back to the boat after a month and switch the water on and the pump wouldn't run. Still had pressure.

So I'm living on the boat while I'm helping a friend get a couple of store fronts opened in Cocoa Florida and about 5AM one morning I wake up because the fresh water pump cycles. Crap, I've got a leak. When daylight arrives I tear the boat apart looking for water leaks. Not finding any, I leave a piece of TP under every fitting to check later.
A couple of days later, same thing happens, and this time I really tear the boat apart. The third time it happens, I'm thinking 'I thought I switched that damn pump off last night'. The fourth time I actually switched the light on and yes, the pump breaker was off. Who knew that a Carnival Cruise liner at Port Canaveral six miles away sounded exactly like a 12V water pump.

 

I've spent a lot of nights anchored out. I hear sounds, Murphy plagues my sleep, the Anchor feels like it's dragging.....whatever else.
I just don't sleep well at Anchor.

 

Not strictly a sea tale, but.... One of my uncles on my mother's side was a pipeline supervisor in the same gas utility I work for, and a legend throughout the company. He was totally old-school: he could do anyone's job under him better than they could; he was totally relentless and accepted no excuses -- and God help anyone above him in the chain of command who tried to screw with his guys, because they had to get through him first. He'd never make it in management today, because there wasn't a diplomatic bone in his body. But back then they still prized performance over manners....

He was about 6' 4" with a voice somewhere between a bass drum and a dump truck dropping a load of gravel, and he could scare the paint off an outhouse with a hard look. One of the stories about him was the day a pipeliner who cultivated a rep as a tough guy accidentally sent a shower of sparks into someone's face while grinding a weld. My uncle chewed him up one side and down the other, and finished up with, "and if I ever catch you with a grinder in your hands again, I will personally kick your sorry *** clear up between your shoulder blades. Do you understand me?"

The tough guy he was chewing on just stood there frozen with the grinder in his hands, and by the end had tears streaming down his cheeks.

The crews who worked under him had a love/hate attitude. One guy told me, "Troy, your Uncle Buck was a hard man. But he he took us in when we was just young pipeline pups, took care of us, and raised us all up to be full-grown pipeliners." Another one said, "you know, I hated your uncle with a passion. But when he was in charge of a job I felt totally safe, because he knew what the !@#$ he was doing."

Judging by what I see around me nowadays, they don't make 'em like my Uncle Buck Samons anymore... too bad.

 

I heard the quote by Samuel Johnson was Nobody would go to sea who was smart enough to get thrown in prison. In prison theres better food, better company, and not the chance of being drowned. Or something along those lines

 

It's all about political correctness today. For me, political correctness is trying to pick up a turd by the clean end.

 

Ghost

I have found that a "ghost" fault is sometimes more helpful than you would think,because you have an inspection of other things as you search for it,plus you have a tidy up,and maybe find that "lost for ever item"It's a pain I know,but sometimes a hidden bonus.{unless you find the mother in law stowing away of course}

 

There are several quotes along those lines from Johnson; apparently he seriously didn't like being at sea.

 

I was given command of a brand new 220 ft Tug/Supply vessel. As all new vessels, she had plenty of minor, annoying problems to sort out. Took better than a year to tweak her into shape. I stayed with her 5 years, untill she was sold to another company. We had infrequent intermittant electrical problems seemingly forever. Chief and I agreed must be gremlins.
Then one night offshore, light tug, not on tow, generator dropped the load. It happens. We always have the 2nd generator, a twin, clean and serviced, ready to put on line. The 2nd genset wouldn't stay on load. Soon as either was connected, it tripped the bus. Gremlins! This time though, the prankish lil devils are toying with our lives. The hi-press compressors are electric, and without high pressure air my clutches will deflate and we'll be dead in water. I've got sufficient air pressure in the tanks to last 3 to 4 hours. I head her in. Maybe I'll make port or not, but I'll at least be closer in and a shorter tow if I need one.
Fortunately, we make it to a dock. I used last of air docking. Electricians came down and found our gremlin.
Original installation, main power feed to electrical control panel, wire had an oversized copper terminal soldered on. Know it was oversized because it had also been swaged to try to make it fit. A NO NO! The cable end had finally burned loose from its terminal. But not all at once. Cable end was stair stepped with multiple partial burns. All those previous electrical problems? From the cable arcing and burning and melting the solder and reconnecting itself. Our real gremlin? A lazy yard electrician trying to use an inappropriate 2 dollar fitting on a 15 million dollar new ship. Hate gremlins.

 

http://www.documentarywire.com/1421...paign=Feed: DocumentaryWire (DocumentaryWIRE)

 

I found that very interesting! Now to find the book.

 

Glad you liked it

 

Interesting and certainly possible. The Norse were here before Columbus. Shipwrecked Sailors were very likely in Florida/GA/SC before Columbus and maybe even the Norse got here.

Some questions I had was 28,000 people in 300 ships on voyages that must have taken years to complete.
Those must have been big ships. Possibly with Oars.
Food? Medical Care? Reason? Women? Ship Jumpers? Decendents of the Escapees?

 

American indians have scroll enamel on their teeth. It's an oriental gene. Orientals are the only folk have scroll enamel. Ergo....

 

March of 1977, I was just a kid. We pulled out to sea for a three day shake down run (on my 19th birthday). I was a "green wennie", I was so green I hadn't a clue what was going on. In a shake down run you test everything at test depth, gauges, pipes, valves, switches, pumps, you get the idea. You have to know what your ship will do before you leave for 90 days underway.

The ship performed what is called "Angles and Dangles" testing fair-water planes and tail and rudder control. It was fun watching everyone hang on to chairs and hatches and such.

So we went to Test Depth to check everything out. Sonar was in "passive" mode, you werent allowed to emit a "ping" for fear of having your location compromised. (it was the cold war you know), Did you know an uncharted mountain dosent make any sound?

At any rate, while at test depth, the ship "clipped" the top of a mountain not on the charts. It started about mid-ships and scrapped all the way aft. I was so green I didn't even know enough to be scared. Everyone else did though. Emergency Blow to the top was next, we came half way out of the water when we hit the surface. Within an hour we were surrounded by other Navy ships and divers in the water inspecting for damage. We were escorted back in for NDT testing and x-ray inspection of the superstructure and pressure hull. No damage.

I think the ships laundry did have a lot of skivies to wash for the next couple of days.