"Fish Story"

 

The one is from an old salt by the name of Gary Peters of the USS DeHaven DD 727 from way back when … I hope you like fish stories!

There was a young bos'n seaman, new to the fleet. After swabbing the fantail one evening at sea, he proceeded to let the swab over the fantail to rinse. The young fellow was afraid he'd lose the swab so he started twisting some heavy wire around it and the tie line left some large loops in the wire too. Well, he drops the swab in the drink and lights up. He was standing there talking to a buddy who suddenly shouts…

"Look at that swab!"

Our deck tech looked back in time to see a large fish come flyin' outta the water attached to his swab line. He and his buddy tried like hell pulling it in but it was no use, the fish was just too heavy and the ship was making 15 knots. Well, he’d just about cut everything loose when some sonar types showed up to do a BT drop. These guys were taking in the scene and took over. They attached the steel cable from the BT winch to the bosn's swab line and kicked on the juice. Well, that fish put up one hell of a fight but he was plain outclassed. They got that fish up on deck and put him down with a couple of swats from a marlinspike. The whole crew had nothing but fish to eat for a week. Traded some to the carrier for new movies too.