When MEN go down to the sea in ships

[Seascamp]

North Sea/North Atlantic platform service boats, always an ?erp?. Aarrgg, I hate it when that happens but it always happens. I'm getting sick again just looking at the pics. Excuse me, I got to run now.

Scamp

[reeb]

Could have sworn I seen Drywall on the port side about midship with pole in hand.

enough..............

[JeffL]

I was not fortunate enough to have a vessel under me even as big as Bill's 44-footer.

A 40-footer, with a mere 18" freeboard, in the Great Lakes, in a storm, with ice in the water. When I think of what we did back then.

This is a painting of the 40-boat we used way back in those days of yesteryear. But we used it even before the days of the CG racing stripe that's on all of their vessels nowadays.



Jeff

[Tamaroa]

I remember those 40 footers very well Jeff. When I lateraled from deck to engineering and became a DC I had to automate Great Captains Island Light Station. It was an hour and a half bone- jarring stomach-wrenching ride in the Long Island sound that I will never forget. Even after earning my sea legs on the TAM, the ride on that thing was so violent, I started to get queasy about an hour into the ride.

Those forty footers were made for lunatics!!

BillD

[Drywall]

I left Brooklyn Navy Yard on a 600 ft ship headed to Bremerhaven. That ship sure looked big at the pier. That ship sure seemed small out in a North Atlantic April storm. Surf's up

[JeffL]

Bill, those 40s did provide an interesting ride. But they got you where you wanted to go, almost no matter how long it took. Since the coxswain was outside and exposed to all weather and sea conditions, almost any splash from the bow would fly over the windshield and soak him. Rain? Forget it; everyone got soaked. Remember tieing yourself to the mast so you you'd be sure you stayed aboard? A following sea would occasionally come right over the low stern, which provided for a few anxious moments when the back of the boat was under water. But that real low freeboard was sure nice when you reached over the side and pulled someone from the drink. And you and the ones you pulled out of the water knew the rumbling of those twin 671s meant you'd get back safely.

Only in the Coast Guard back in those days would a Yeoman be part of a boat crew!

The weekly log run out to the lighthouses at Group Charlevoix in northern Michigan provided a full day's boating experience. White Shoal, Gray's Reef, Lansing Shoal, Beaver Island - the day seemed endless. There were also possible stops at the unmanned lights in that area. And there was always the opportunity for some extra time aboard if the boat got a SAR call during that run.

I learned how to operate a boat on a twin-screw 40-footer at the air station in San Diego. To this day I haven't operated an outboard, but I can still put a twin-screw anywhere you want it. (Providing it'll fit into that spot!)

I guess I'm one of those old farts you call lunatics. I still miss those days on those old 40-boats.....


Jeff