BoatBanter.com - View Single Post - A sea story, a reminder, and a parable (CAUTION: LONG)

Larry

wrote in news:1167492765.581315.254310
@n51g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

A 30 plus year old Sea Story . . . a true one

This old ET, for one, would like to have you continue to post any ol' sea
stories like this one you find.

Thank you!....

Larry

We never ran anyone down on USS Everglades (AD-24), bless her heart.
Anything over 17 knots always made the entire engineering crew call for
the chaplain to come pray over the Korean War parts in the bilge, trying
to get a little more help keepin' her together.

Other than a rowboat or becalmed sail boat....everyone else was always
pulling AWAY from us, leaving us on our own. The SSNs were always
"sinking" us and the sonar gangs said she sounded like a thrashing
machine in overdrive you could hear for 500 miles...(c;

I told 'em we had a special rug beater attachment hooked to the shaft
that beat on the hull to warn bubbleheads not to come up under her and
bend their antennas.

There was a scary vibration aft around 66 RPM shaft speed noone had a
good explanation for. Noone dared run her there to find out what it was.
Maybe some shims in the motor mounts to align it better?...(c;

To offset our lack of a "dripless seal", we had bigger bilge pumps.....

Call us if your tin can's broke. We even had an electric foundry to make
that WW2 valve for the freshwater condenser noone could find.