One Clumsy Officer

Jim Gibson 1950/51

In 1950 we had an officer who was somewhat accident prone and clumsy. We were steaming down the East Coast and it was very rough and the SOP was for the OOD and lookouts to be tied in. When a very big wave would approach the OOD would call down to control to shut the main induction/shut the upper conning tower hatch. Well here comes the very large wave with this officer on the bridge. If you were in the control room you would have heard the following "control/conn shut the main induction, shut the upper conning tower hatch ...AAAAAAAAAAAh!!!!!!!." You are right, he had his toes on the hatch lip.

This same officer a few days later came through the crews mess wtd into control with an arm load of pubs and once more AAAAAAAAAAAh!!!!!!!. He fell into the dry store room in front of the radio shack.