Everyone who’s anyone in this ol’ canoe club has been associated in some fashion as a resident line handler! And as a young boot camper on any USS Grey Joy we all get the proverbial ‘pick’n on the boy’ kinda situation!! Well on any particular day returning to port… ‘Sea & Anchor Detail’ with the tug pull’n alongside… The Bos’n on the tug tosses down the line to put over the mooring bollard!!!
Now… how many of you ol’ Crackerjacks fell for this one the first time around?!?
While standing there with your thumb up your ass aggressively trying to do the best you can you grabbed the line wondering what to do with it next!! The Bos’n on the tug yells…
" Dip the eye… Dip the eye!"
… Meanwhile you’re asking yourself…
"What the hell does that mean?"
The Bos’n yells again even louder…
"DIP THE FUCKING EYE!"
Not wanting to look like you didn’t know your head from your ass you figure…
“Oh, he must mean dipping the noose in the water!”
The Bos’n inevitably busts a gut laughing his ass off! Eventually everyone around you is laughing his ass off!! That’s when the Safety Officer or Mooring Petty Officer comes over and kicks you in the ass and calls you ‘Numb Nutz’… ‘Dip Shit’ or one of many other colored assortment of explicatory and illustrative words!!!
Then he explains to you in a rather derisive tone…
“When you dip the eye, you run the eye of your second line through the eye of the first before putting it over the bollard … you Moron!”
One of those situations that takes months to live down! Makes you feel dumber than a two story outhouse!!
My LPO was a kind man and told me long before.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a "Black Shoe Navy" thing.
ReplyDeleteLine handling. One of the joys of my time in that is not missed even a little.
ReplyDeleteI loved throwing the monkey fist back and nailing some khaki.
ReplyDeleteWhen we were unrepping - I always seemed to be a safety observer - I could swear someone painted a bullseye on my helmet - because the line during fun always seemed to be aimed at me
ReplyDeleteThe FT's (FC's) and GM's always had the stern on my three ships. After the first or second time of pulling in the ol man could count on one swabby to nail the pier from way over 100 feet. I had to get the attention of those on the pier lest they'd get nailed. I even had a extra long heaving line made for me. And of course it went to the #6 line...
ReplyDelete