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Mess cooking
Posts: 35
| Subject: Memories of Mediterranean Moonbeams
Anyone who has cruised in the "Med" knows how tranquil it can be, especially on warm, sultry, summer nights.
On just such a night, the USS Cobbler SS-344 was plying those languid waters, the mid-watch set, running on the surface, headed for another exciting liberty port. Below decks everything was as peaceful as they can be in a steel pipe with four huge diesel engines roaring full bore, accompanied by all the associated equipment necessary for propulsion and life support. To those of us on watch in and around the control room, it was absolutely peaceful.....
Suddenly the rhapsodic moment was shattered by the deafening clanging of the Collision Alarm! "ALL BACK EMERGENCY" came barking over the 7MC - bringing the helmsman to sharp attention. He instantly selected that position on the Engine Order Telegraph and the boat went into convulsions, the decks throbbing as both screws bit into the water in full reverse.
Hot on the heels of that startling order came another, "ALL STOP"! The violent vibrating shuddered to a halt just as the Captain came tumbling out of his stateroom in his skivvies. He grabbed the first microphone he encountered and demanded, "What the hell are we backing down from?"
There was a fairly long and pregnant pause before the answer crackled from the speaker: "The Moon Sir!"
It seems the moon had had a large cloud bank drift across it's lunar face, obscuring it from view by the bridge watch. For some period of time the only light to penetrate this idealic evening was from phosphorescence rolling along our tanktops, excited by the bow wave. The quite evenings soft moments lulled both the lookouts and the OD until suddenly a moonbeam shot through the cloud cover directly ahead and on what seemed to be a collision course!
If you ever want to test a submarine's crew, sound the Collision Alarm on the Mid-Watch some fine and quiet evening... You get the same effect from swiftly kicking a yellow jackets nest!
AAahhhhh, the memories...
Roger Ramjet |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1814
Location: Boydton, Virginia | Subject: RE: Memories of Mediterranean Moonbeams
LOL!!!! Thats a good one, Rammer! I'd like to have been a fly on the bulkhead the next time that OOD stepted foot inside the ward room! (Or the After Battery for that matter). Thats the kind of event legends are made from.
Steamboat sends |
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Great Sage of the Sea
Posts: 590
Location: Colton, NY | Subject: RE: Memories of Mediterranean Moonbeams
Good to see you posting a no-s**tter again.
Captured... Scroll to #81
http://www.sid-hill.com/ntins/ntins2.htm
Sid |
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 3673
Location: Kansas City Missouri | Subject: RE: Memories of Mediterranean Moonbeams
Thanks Roger, brought back a memory of another Mediterranean beams.
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Mess cooking
Posts: 35
| Subject: RE: Memories of Mediterranean Moonbeams
Gary,
Who is the wise guy (or girl?) with the little white square boxes? And who ran that boat aground? And why is that poor lass out on a ledge in what by all appearances is cold weather without any clothes on? Where you YOU when all this happened? Hey! Somebody is gonna get in the sh*ts for sure!
Ramjet |
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Mess cooking
Posts: 35
| Subject: RE: Memories of Mediterranean Moonbeams
Good to see you posting a no-s**tter again. Sid
Sid,
It is good just to see you're still on this side of the turf! I hate staring up at roots! Know what I mean? Geez I miss Bob!
I take it as an honor to have the very first story on your link! (And the very last too! At least for the moment...)
Several of the crew of the Cobbler SS-344 are in the midst of arranging a reunion for September and I have been sending out a Cobbler Sea Story each week to keep their interest up.. Unfortunately I've dumped most of them. You interested in any of the new ones?
Roger |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1107
Location: Tucson AZ | Subject: RE: Memories of Mediterranean Moonbeams
I don't know about Sid, but I'll speak for some of us, RR! Keep 'em coming ... but make each one a fresh topic. Wouldn't want to miss one because it's buried way down in an unrelated thread, don'tchaknow. |
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Memories of Mediterranean Moonbeams
