© 1997 ervd@hotmail.com
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Well, Here I was, back in the saddle again. My gold Cheverons glistened in the sun. My crow was perched on top of my head once again. I was happy and Mom was contented. Everything was right with my world except for one small matter. "I was a sailor without a ship".
I reported into the barracks in Boston and waited for an assignment. Finally after about 2 months, I got the word and went over to the yard to check out my new ship. What I found was a small cargo ship and she was a real rust bucket. It had been out of commission for quite some spell. As for me, well, it was kinda depressing. I remember thinking,,,Well, this is just great. I get the VIP treatment to get me back in. Then, I sit on my butt for 2 months with literally nothing to do. And then they go and assign me to a ship that should have been towed off shore and sunk to provide a habitat for marine life. But I got to watching those yard men and they were all over her like hornets to their nest. My gut instinct went into overdrive and I never disregard my sixth sense (Gut Instinct). I got to thinking there's more to this then meets the eye. Someone has something serious in mind for what I'm seeing. Two of the upper level cargo holes were being converted into living quarters.Brand new boilers and evaporators were being installed into a refurbished boiler room. Finally, I noticed they were installing a brand new steam kettle on top side. Not wanting to appear stupid, I never asked what the hell a steam kettle was doing there. I figured it would come to me. But again, way to much was being done to this bucket of rust, so I knew something was in store for us. Something important.
It seems like they had thought of and prepared for everything EXCEPT a crew. I only had 11 men some of which were not to bright but they could learn. We had 3 weeks to get that mass of rust and dirty bilge cleaned, painted and ship shape for sea.This was in addition to learning how to operate the system. I kept bugging the skipper every day about getting me a crew. One day word came down that our crew had arrived and the skipper wanted to see me. So, tickled silly I went up to check them out. To my utter amazement and shocked I was looking at 11 Chief's some of which were senior to me. Now anybody who's been around any branch of the services can tell you that this was an impossible state of affairs. Seem's like all they had available at the time were Chiefs. I must add that they were as unhappy about the situation as I was. When I approached the skipper, he informed me before I could speak up: That's all there is. I informed him that this was an impossible situation that there was one and only one solution for: the Chief's had to go. Where I didn't care but they had to go and I needed white hats. We conversed, argued and conversed some more. The skipper then reluctently sent that group of Chiefs back and to the man, that was one happy group of Chief's.
About a week later, he sent for me and advised me that he had us a crew but not to ask him where he found them. I later found out that he had cut a deal with the Master At Arms in charge of the disciplinary barracks. The new crew was given a choice: the Navy or the Marine Brig.For those of you that don't know, there was no other place that was more brutal than a Marine Red Line Brig. They have since been outlawed but in their day, well, suffice to say, you didn't want to go. These tough guy prisons of today would have their prisoners crying like sissys in a Red Line brig. There was a red line painted around the entire perimeter of the insides of the brig about 2 feet wide. If one were to step outside the red line , he would be greeted immediately by 2 or 3 Marines with night sticks who would then tap out in moris code on your skull why you should't cross the red line. My new crew would be aboard around 0800 hours. At 0820, I was standing on the upperlevel sipping a cup of coffee watching my crew being escorted by the Marines. They marched them up on the quarterdeck and kept them at ridgid attention until the paperwork was signed, officially turning them over to us. I was preparing to go down and address my new charges when the XO approached me and he appeared to be really upset. I asked the XO what seemed to be the problem. He blurts back at me that he wants the whole lot sent back. Then he asked me if I've seen their personal jackets yet to which I answered :Nope, I don't need to. The XO almost screamed out that they were all criminals. I responded thats what they were yesterday, starting today, their going to be the ships crew. They are going to start being sailors again. He comes back with: One of them stabbed a Lieutenant. I asked: DId he kill him and the XO responded no but, to which I cut in by saying: He ain't much with a Knife, I'll have to work on that and excused myself.
I have to stop here to give you a little background on the relationship between me and the XO:
I always enjoyed flusterring the XO because he was always riding me over every trivial detail and that was something I was never exposed to and I didn't like. The Man didn't like me from the moment I reported aboard and I never knew why. He once told me that it was his goal to get my crow. I responded to him that he must not be very goal oriented because most officer's I knew had goals like Command of a ship and here all you can come up with is getting my crow? I then wished him luck because it won't be easy. I'm a hard catch and it wouldn't suprise me to see you take a few lumps landing me. He asked me if that was a threat, like he had me now. I responded: Sir, in no way was that a threat. I never warn an opponent, no sir, that was not a threat . It was a pure statement of fact and I then bid my ado's. What I did know was that he was starting to rankle me and was just short of plucking my last nerve. That caused me great concern. I was worried about the laws of physics: For every action, there is an opposite and equal re-action. I had a family now and I couldn't afford to lose it over this fool. But there was that side of me that wouldn't think about that if the time came. No, he would just reach out and yoke the XO like them chickens when I was a kid and damn the consequences. It was the pleasure of the moment that other side would enjoy. I really had to guard against reacting instead of thinking when it came to the XO. Hence, I'd pop him with a cheap shot and retreat whenever he left a door open. Bottom line is I knew I had to be real careful and at the same time I couldn't just stand there and take it. It's never been my nature to let someone take a swing at me without throwing one back in acknowledgment you might say. It just wasn't in me. Problem was the bottom line, HE was an Officer by act of Congress. My advantage in this relationship was that he wasn't the sharpest pencil in the box. Many times, in a verbal exchange, I'd hit him with a real good shot and it would go right over his head. Or he would stand there in deep thought trying to figure out if I had just insulted him. It was a real tight rope that I was walking. But, as the old saying goes: IT don't mean nothing. He was just an itch I couldn't quite scratch. One final example and we will get back to the story. He really don't deserve this much ink anyways. One night me and 5 or 6 other fellows were sitting in the chief's quarters talking business over a bottle. Out of no where, the door flies open and in walks the XO. He see's the bottle and grabs it real quick. He has a smile on his face and tells me that I've done it now. I responded by telling him that we have allready had this discussion about you entering my quarter's uninvited. He told me to disregard that and went on to tell me that I knew it was against Navy regulations to have alcohol on board ship. I responded that yes sir, I was well aware of that regulation but begging his pardon respectfully, I got 6 eyewitnesses here that will swear you just stormed into my quarters with a bottle in your hand. He stood there dumbfounded looking at all of us staring at him. He forgot again that this was my crew. I just let him think he was in charge. None of this situation applied to the skipper. He was one of those skipper's that just naturally commanded respect. The skipper knew it was the crew that ran the ship and got thing done, he just issued the orders. The XO? well that idiot was just plain clueless. A FUTURE STORY WILL CONFIRM MY WORDS.
When I reached the crew, I took a long leisurly stroll around the whole bunch making eye contact with each individual and never spoke a word. Once again, most of them were bigger than I and I was wondering which one I'd have to take off my hat for figuring if all of them were the criminals I was told they were, then at least one would call me out. I sincerely hoped it didn't come to that. When I centered myself in front of them (All of this for effect).I then spent a few more minutes just staring at them. When I had my thoughts straight I gave them my speech. I'd never faced a situation like this so I figured it required a real quick get aquaintantance speech. I recall that in my mind it must have been a pretty good one because they turned into one of the best if not the best crews it was my pleasure to work with. I'll try here to relay the speech as best I can but please remember, It's been a long time ago. Also, for such a little fellow I had a booming voice so there was no doubt everyone heard me. I started out by saying that I had gotten the word that I had a group of bad-asses on my hands. I told them that I could appreciate that because I was somewhat of a bad-ass myself. The only difference between me and you hard asses is I'm wearing the crow. I told them that every morning my wife inserted a fuse in the back of my head. I never knew if it was short or long so if you want to screw with me it will be like eating a pot luck dinner, you never know what your going to get. I went on to say that I didn't give a flying f%#k what anyone of you did to land yourselves in the brig. Starting from this point (Giving them the exact time)you will be judged by what you do. Your history is exactly that, Your past and it don't count with me unless you make it so. Now, if you think you are a bad ass, go ahead and cross me and I'll teach you what a real one is. I am giving you social rejects a chance to whip the slate clean and what you do from this moment on is how your personal jackets will reflect. I suggest you take the chance because you will be treated accordingly. I have a rust bucket piece of shit for a ship manned by what I am told is a bunch of misfit unwanted screwups and I have to be ready to put out to sea in three weeks. You answer to no one but me. No one will screw with you but me and you WILL deserve it if I do. I have never been given a deadline that I didn't meet and you people will suffer my wrath if this one is not made. People,You now have only one problem in life : Me. Screw with me and you will lose. Test me and you will flunk.I only work with the best and you people will not make a liar out of me. There are no questions so stow your gear and be in the engine room in 15 minutes. We got work to do. It turned out that I was "THEIR CHIEF" from that point on.
They scattered to the 4 winds and no one was late that day or any other day as I think back on it. Later, I was again talking to the XO about them and he was still unhappy with his new crew. I remember that he advised me not to go up on deck at night because of the danger of being thrown overboard. I told him that was not a problem for me because I was a Chief, basically an enlisted man. It was the officers that I was concerned about.I also at this time , requested permission to go see the old man and he gave me the go ahead. Me and the skipper were allready pretty tight by then, so when alone we were pretty informal. He got a bit of a chuckle about the XO's concerns in reference to being thrown over board . He even chuckled out loud that there probably wasn't an officer on board that would go topside at night for a while. He asked me what I thought and I told him to let em sweat a bit, after all it was them that prejudged the crew. Skip stated: I agree. I knew these guys would bust their humps to get the job done if for no other reason than to stay outta that brig. But I did ask the skipper his help by getting the XO to back off my people until I had a chance to whip them into shape, Skipper stated I got it and asked if there was anything else and I reponded that yes, there was one more thing. I didn't want him or anyone for that matter to refer to my snipes (slang word for engineers) as jail birds, criminals or misfits again unless I was the one making the statement. I further asked the skipper for a free-hand in molding this group into a crew. He stated: You got it Chief, now, are we going to be ready to steam on time. I responded by saying without any doubt. he then stated to me now you can get the hell out of my office and quite bothering him with this trivial shit.
Now,,, to try and explain to you the extreme difficulty of the task that I was facing would be near impossible unless you have put a strange ship in commission or were an engineer yourself. The main powerplant was a huge monster that was 2 stories high. It was a 6 cylinder Norsberg diesel, air starting, direct drive and direct reverse engine. It had huge 3,000 pound air starting tanks and putting it simply, she just plain scared the hell out of us. This was just one of many new systems we had to learn and master. There were the generators, electrical systems, fuel and water tanks which you had to learn how to get them where you wanted them to go. They were even installing a huge main engine cooling water circulating tank that absolutely confirmed to me that we were heading into frigid water.
Then the problem was made more complex by the facts that I had a crew of alleged misfits who whould need a lot of work whipping into shape. As far as they were concerned, they heard me talk the talk but hadn't seen me walk the walk. I know they wanted to believe I was a man of my word but for them, time would tell. For the time being, they had seemed to give me the benefit of the doubt as they jumped when I said jump and ran when I said run. But I also had to play teacher as they had a tremendous amount of learning to do. So far, I had no complaints.
Back to the main engine for a moment. Remember I noted it was a direct drive? Well, what that means in laymans terms is that as soon as you fired her off, you were under way. She had a 30 ton flywheel that kept her running smoothly. We studied up on her as much as we could and it was time to put the schooling to the test. I contacted the skipper and told him I wanted to conduct an engine check and requested that he dog her down real tight to the pier. He contacted me when he was ready and me and my snipes just stood there looking at her. No one really wanted to do this because we all knew that the noise alone was going to be deafening. So the thought of pushing the throttle forward made us a bit edgy. Since I was senior, I got elected. When the air hit those big cylinders, there was little more than a loud hissing sound. When I shoved it into run, it just sat there and chuckled. We could feel the pressure on the lines holding us to the pier but that was it. We stood there for a moment in a daze. It was nothing like we anticipated. I shut her down and fired her up again. I contacted the skipper and told him I was going to reverse the engine. With permission I threw her into reverse. There was a short clanking noise as the camshaft shifted and astern she went, smooth as a baby's butt.. I shut her down again and requested of the skipper to allow the designated throttlemen to try it out. There were several so we were firing her up and shutting her down for awhile. One of the throttle man was taking his turn and she wouldn't catch. Being ribbed by his ship mates he shouted: Ahhhhhh, come on Mabel, let's go and she started purring. From that moment on that was her name. Everybody aboard that ship came to love ol Mabel, from the skipper on down. That days testing was the extent of the throttlmen's experience until we put out to sea for trials.
I road that crew long and hard every day and hung em up wet. We did just what I told the skipper we would. They found out real quick that I was hard but fair. I tolerated no disrespect, slacking off or breach of military rules and regulations. There were some minor infractions from time to time but I dealt with them immediately and always saw to it that the punishment fit the crime. Slowly, I could feel the respect starting to develop. They knew they were indeed being given a second chance and everyone of them took advantage off it. They started taking pride in being sailors again as well as busting their humps in being profficient in their duties. More importantly, they were coming together as a "Crew". The skipper was pleased with what he was seeing but the XO was, well, the XO.
Three weeks later, we took that rust bucket out to sea but you couldn' find any rust, She was ship shape, polished and painted. I had a lot of pride in them sailors and NOT one of them EVER let me down. I'd stand them beside any crew in the Navy including the ones I trained myself. We took her out to sea, shook her down real good, fixed a couple of minor problems and put back into port again. While we tied her down, we were kinda shocked at the amount and type of equipment we were gong to load on board. I looked at it and thought to myself: Damn it, we are headin up to cold waters again. We wanted to keep it a suprise to the crew for as long as we could. But when they started loading all the deep freeze weather clothin, the jig was up. We were going North and Baffin Bay flooded back into my memories.
© 1997 ervd@hotmail.com
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