"One Tough Skipper"

In the beginning of my exploits onboard the ol' Lucky No. 7, I headed to NASSCO in San Diego which for the most part was just another dirty shipyard. Like most shipyards it’s a gaudamn ghetto with rats, roaches, & smells, and plenty of illegals running around, which made you wonder about National Security when some son-of-a-bitch who couldn’t speak a lick of English was caught in sensitive spaces. Working in this kinda shithole you become familiar with the faces of some of these yardbirds, especially hang'n out down at the 'Roach Coach!'

When meet'n the Captain I realized he was a real hard nosed son-of-a-bitch! But a true maverick in most senses. As mean as he was we had an appreciation for one another...maybe it's because we were both damned short enough to see eye to eye! He was a special naval officer. A gaudamn leader of men. Many did not like his hard ass ways but I understood him and he made it clear that it was his ship. He commanded respect because every crackerjack knew if the son-of-a-bitch didn’t like you then you damn well knew about it. He made no bones about it. I understood him. We were a couple of short stout bastards in a tall mans world.

The man forgot more about navy seamanship than most of us ever knew and he held all the patents on unauthorized behavior as an officer as well as an enlisted man. Rumor had it President Bush re-commissioned his mean ol' ass for the return of an aircraft carrier and a couple of nuke submarines he lost to him in a poker game… It was probably true!!!

We entertained ourselves by tell'n T.P. Danaher stories. They could be total bullshit, but everyone knew he was capable of everything said about him. He was one of those 'larger than life' kinda fellas sailors told bar room legends about. The man left one hell of a mark on our memories!

He always had this thing he'd do on the ship's cable network 'bout being industrially smart or industrially dumb!' After a few seconds of his rants you begin to realize just how bone headed some sailors can be...just read the Darwin Awards and you kinda get the picture! The man had a way of crack'n the proverbial whip!!!

And though many o' you scallywags out there might not agree, the man was a true sailor's sailor!!! When it came to the ol' school Navy ways he was a staunch believer in keeping it ol' school! He wasn't too fond of all the fancy navigational gadgets and computeristic technological doohickies and he sure's in the hell let us know how he felt about women on ships! But most of all he let us know that what happens underway stays underway.

I think it was a visit to Victoria, B.C. when he got on the ol' 1MC and explained this to the crew!!! Too gaudamn many people get stupid and do things they're not too proud of when they're away from home and he felt that kinda stuff had no place gett'n back to the home front! Too many wives, darl'ns and Mommas might get their hearts broken to find out what little seaman Johnnie was doin in that strip club on the bar stool with two young mistresses of the night!!! Perhaps he was involved a little too!! But I wouldn't know!!!

Then there was the time we were head'n back north from work-ups down in San Dog just before the merry month of December! Many of the crew had put in for Christmas Leave and we were heavily dependant on gett'n back to homeport on time. Well the good ol' weather report came in and The Admiral 'COMCARGRU ONE' decided he wanted all his ships to pull into San Francisco and wait out the weather until the seas calmed. Well T.P. Danaher knew a lotta plane tickets were at stake and people were anxious to get back home to see there families for the holidays...so he got on the 1MC and let us know the deal and asked us if we thought 'Lucky No. 7' could make it through the high seas!!! Hell yeah we could...and so we headed up north through the storm. Skipper tells 'COMCARGRU ONE,'

"Hell no we won't go to San Francisco!"

It was noth'n but another couple of days underway!! We took on that storm like a snow plow in the heat of a gaudamn blizzard... got back to homeport in time for the holidays... and everyone was happy!!! Except for 'COMCARGRU ONE' who was wait'n anxiously on the pier when we pulled in. Sure would've loved to be a fly on the wall to hear that conversation in the Skippers Stateroom!!!

You know, I've been on boats with shitty wardrooms and 'PC' Skippers! It's a shitty existence in hell!! But ol' 'Lucky No. 7' was one hell of a ship from fore to aft!!! We operated way beyond testosterone constraints... and it worked! When the shit hit the fan we did a hell of a job finding a way out of it... or blame it on someone else!!! HE-HE!!!