jaxashby asks through his slobber:

-bilge rat the original poster lives in east central Minnesota or or
northwest Wisconsin. he wants to learn navigation. a local FBO (licensed by
the Federal Government to teach navigation) will teach him more and more
thoroughly than any USPS course done at a distance.-

Bilge-Was he sentenced there? Is he free to say, charter a boat and diddy-bop
around the Bahamas or Carribean?

Has this fellow been put on the Great Lakes "unauthorized boater list"?

-btw, why should some bilge rat crawling around underdeck pulling wires know
diddly squat about navigation?-jaxashby

Bilge- Better to know a little something about it and not need it, than to need
it and know diddly squat about it.

We carry "passengers", you know. I could conceivably end up the senior seaman
in a lifeboat with a bunch of "farmboys and girls" looking to ME for answers
about What, Where, Who, When, Why...

You think you'll get by in a situation like that by covering up ignorance with
arrogance?

You won't. If the sea doesn't exact it's due, your passengers might. Far better
to know some basics and rudimentary skills, and be honest about it, than try to
"bluff"...or crawl under a thwart, curl into a ball and suck yer thumb.

In fact, I once sea-trialed the MV Cape Ducato out of the Sparrows Point Yard
in Bawlmer, and spent most of one night helping the Second mate set the
waypoints into the channel, (Bremerton, IIRC), for our out bound passage down
the Bay.

Now, why bother with "waypoints" and all that jazz when we'd be under pilotage
all the way out through the Capes?

Because the guys on that ship were professionals...not a bunch of slack-asses,
and I respected 'em for it. And I was glad to help out a shipmate and maybe
learn something useful.

Which I did...not to the point where I'm "horny" to tackle spherical
trigonometry as a hobby, but enough to appreciate that the 2nd Mates aren't
necessarily sitting up in the chart room with their thumbs stuck up their
asses.

GFY;


Mutiny is a Management Tool
Select Your Tattoo while Sober

On 29 Sep 2004 21:01:20 GMT, (Bilgeman) wrote:

tomf123 asks:

-You mean it does something other than holding my soda can?-

Bilge- Yeah, man! It can hold your bong, your ashtray, with a little duct tape
it makes a wicked lava lamp platform...like dude! There's a zillion uses for
the thing.

I've even heard, back in the "Golden Age", that some ship turned their
binnacle into the "no-****-'em" finest wet bar anyone had ever seen!

Well, that was only the starboard one...for the licensed officers, the
unlicensed had the port binnacle, which had been converted into a keg chiller &
tap. James Bond and "Q" were mere hobbyists compared to that crew.

Quartermasters were chosen mainly for their skills at dry martini assembly.

Some of the most vicious fistfights anyone could ever witness would be between
two AB's over which one had "First Wheel".

Back in the day, I was called in by one of our electronics suppliers
to take a look at a ships radar that was giving the local technician
fits. It was a courtesy thing as we occasionally used this German
cargo line for hauling pipe and what not to the North Sea staging
areas and they couldn't leave port unless the radars were working.

Everybody was doing everybody a favour.

Anyway,

I'm here to say, without a doubt, that was the finest food and beer I
have ever had 'lo these many years that I have been on Earth.

Those Germans knew how to live on ship, I'll tell you what... )

Take care.

Tom

"The beatings will stop when morale improves."
E. Teach, 1717

bilge, you are so drunk you won't remember a thing for days.

Bilge-Was he sentenced there? Is he free to say, charter a boat and diddy-bop
around the Bahamas or Carribean?

Has this fellow been put on the Great Lakes "unauthorized boater list"?

-btw, why should some bilge rat crawling around underdeck pulling wires
know
diddly squat about navigation?-jaxashby

Bilge- Better to know a little something about it and not need it, than to
need
it and know diddly squat about it.

We carry "passengers", you know. I could conceivably end up the senior
seaman
in a lifeboat with a bunch of "farmboys and girls" looking to ME for answers
about What, Where, Who, When, Why...

You think you'll get by in a situation like that by covering up ignorance
with
arrogance?

You won't. If the sea doesn't exact it's due, your passengers might. Far
better
to know some basics and rudimentary skills, and be honest about it, than try
to
"bluff"...or crawl under a thwart, curl into a ball and suck yer thumb.

In fact, I once sea-trialed the MV Cape Ducato out of the Sparrows Point
Yard
in Bawlmer, and spent most of one night helping the Second mate set the
waypoints into the channel, (Bremerton, IIRC), for our out bound passage down
the Bay.

Now, why bother with "waypoints" and all that jazz when we'd be under
pilotage
all the way out through the Capes?

Because the guys on that ship were professionals...not a bunch of
slack-asses,
and I respected 'em for it. And I was glad to help out a shipmate and maybe
learn something useful.

Which I did...not to the point where I'm "horny" to tackle spherical
trigonometry as a hobby, but enough to appreciate that the 2nd Mates aren't
necessarily sitting up in the chart room with their thumbs stuck up their
asses.

GFY;


Mutiny is a Management Tool
Select Your Tattoo while Sober

tomf123 relates:

-I'm here to say, without a doubt, that was the finest food and beer Ihave
ever had 'lo these many years that I have been on Earth.

Those Germans knew how to live on ship, I'll tell you what... )-

Bilge-Hate to say it, but all the Western Euros know how to live on their ships
better'n us.

I helped to "organize" Global Marine, a British cable ship operation that had
won the Atlantic Cable Maintenance Agreement for a few years.

http://www.globalmarinesystems.com/s...esentinel.html

British flagged, she was. We went out and buried the fiberoptic line between
West Palm Beach and Freeport,Bahamas. Took the robot (and us) 30 days.

Great bunch of guys and gals! Although it was a real chore having to learn
what the "Geordies" were saying..."mrbles 'n th' mouth y'know,mate."

Sho' nuff, they had their little"pub" all set up and runnin' before we'd even
left Bawlmer.

And since the Steward department was American, we had good eats. In fact, the
steward, who'd been a shipmate of mine several times over, called me one day to
tell me the Limeys were bitchin' about his breakfasts.

Now Harry is half-Hawaiian, so you have to keep him away from the Spam, but
otherwise he's a real good cook.
It turns out the Brits didn't want flapjacks, eggs n' bacon, waffles and
whatnot...
They wanted proper English breakfast food:

Stewed tomatoes and baked beans...

Honest to God, we'd take turns going by the licensed mess hatch to gape at 'em
as they packed the muck away with gusto.

Of course, they'd do the same with us...to them, we were eating hot greasy
heart-attack on a plate...with butter.

It was one of the things that made for a real fun trip. Everyone had lots of
opportunities to laugh at each other, and ourselves.

I mean, a blotto 5' 2" Glaswegian 2nd Engineer dancing about in his thong
underwear in the messes to celebrate New Year's 2001...

The other thing I learned from that lot was that it is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to
run a proper engine room on a ship where everyone drinks tea...no empty coffee
cans, y'see...EVERYTHING was a 5 gallon,(or...twenty liter), bucket.

God, the squabbles we had with the deck gang, (also Yanks), when they were
painting.

But yeah, we really lived pretty well on that ship....one of the few trips
I've had where I honestly got along well with absolutely everyone...lotta fond
memories.

Too bad the *******s didn't split the electrician gig UK-US. They kept the
Electrical Officer, although Lord knows there was enough work for an
Electronics Officer AND an Electrician.

I split to Engineer for McCallister Towing...Gawd, what a mistake!

Regards;


Mutiny is a Management Tool
Select Your Tattoo while Sober

On 30 Sep 2004 01:50:36 GMT, (Bilgeman) wrote:

~~ snippage ~~

I split to Engineer for McCallister Towing...Gawd, what a mistake!

I know a couple of Captains for McAllister Towing - HS classmates of
mine. One's out of Portland, ME and the other out of NYC.

They seem to like it.

Later,

Tom
-----------
"Angling may be said to be so
like the mathematics that it
can never be fully learnt..."

Izaak Walton "The Compleat Angler", 1653