Close Calls!

[Carter Brey]

Carter,

By any chance, was the AFB your dad was at, Reese/Lubbock AFB?

O J

OJ, no-- it was in Harlingen (and of course in those days, before the Air Corps split from the Army to become a separate branch of the service in 1947, there were no Air Force bases).

He was a gunner on a B-24.

CB

[marvbrinn]

I cant top any of the posts.
My son Dave and I had joined the Charleston sailing club and were enjoying a J-22 near the Yorktown. I gave him the tiller and was looking around at the scenery for about 5 minutes. we noticed one cruise ship about 300 yds away. I took my eyes off of her for about what seemed like one minute.
When I looked up I could see 60 feet of her hull straight up in the Air!!
We missed judged her speed distance and everything else
Besides lesson learned we have a fond memory

[Bob B]

Andy,
My legs are shaking thinking of your story. I have seen all of three foot standing waves in the cut and it is trecherous. I have heard other tug captains do the tongue lashing because of tenuous situations, never done one myself, but it seems what could have been a real tradgedy was avoided. Thank goodness for the outboards.

Bob B.

[Carl Thunberg]

Okay, here's one for sheer stupidity on my part, and level-headedness and skill on my wife's part (God, I hate to admit that part ). We were in a following current in the Piscataqua River in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It was a beautiful day with a steady breeze directly from behind and we decided we'd sail wing and wing down-river instead of motoring (mistake no. 1). We rounded a bend in the river and the Sarah Long bridge was dead ahead, about a quarter mile away. We lowered the sails (mistake no. 2) and I went to start the outboard. This was a well-maintained very reliable outboard, but it simply would not start. We had already taken the sails down and we were in a following current. We were literally dead in the water bearing down on the Sarah Long bridge. By now I'm panicking and pulling the starter rope for all I'm worth. Meanwhile my wife grabs the tiller and with what little stearage way we had, she managed to thread the needle and guide the boat through the only elevated span. We missed the bridge pier by about 5 feet. Once we were safely through the bridge opening, I then discovered that I had forgotten to put the retainer clip on the kill switch on the outboard. That's a mistake you make once!

[Ron Turner]

ALL BACK EMERGENCY
As a young Ensign in the Navy,newly qualified as Officer of the Deck (OOD underway) returning from his first deployment on a Destroyer in 1970, somewhere in the Western Atlantic about 0300.. I remember those awful words that I shouted , the sound of the steam whistle blowing and those twin screws churning up the ocean trying to avoid a collision at sea. I put that memory away a lot because I was at fault on several counts. But.. we did not have a collision and no one was hurt in the aftermath except for a young officers ego. I went on to have a full naval career but not in the shipdriving arena.
On steam ships of that era the engine controls were down below in the engine room where the throttleman opened and closed large vales admitting 600 psi steam to the turbines at a rate that would not overstress our 1940's vintage equipment. An all back full bell was not uncommon for shiphandling in a big current and it was answered by closing ahead steam and then opening astern steam. All back emergency was an order to close and open at the same time, this could be dangerous to the turbines, the machinists mates and the boiler tenders. I was assigned to the Engineering Department so I knew what they were having to do on account of me.
The next memorable moment from that night was the Boatswain mate hollering " Captain on the Bridge". I had failed to awakened him as the situation developed that night. The ship did have radar and a watch was manned in the Combat Information Center to avoid just such things as described. The ship we did not hit was a merchant vessel, heaven only knows how many sailboats at sea have not been so lucky.

[Photo Chief]

Ron reminds me of another close call that wasn't.

My light photographic detachment was assigned to the USS Ranger CV-61 for a WesPac cruise. The boat had just departed Subic Bay in the P.I. and was transiting the Malacca Straits bound for the Indian Ocean. At 0500 I was in my rack and was awoken by a slight jar. My berthing compartment was directly under the number 4 arresting wire so I had learned to sleep through jets hitting the deck just above my head. In retrospect the jarring was probably not "slight". In any case, mere seconds later the 1MC (ships speaker system) began wailing the collision alarm.

Turns out an oil tanker crossed in front of the carrier's bow and we plowed her midships spilling oil into the ocean. As I ran forward toward my duty station in the intelligence center I was sickened by the heavy odor of fuel oil. Fortunately there was no fire nor were any casualties taken. Several fresh water compartments in the bow were crushed but the impact stopped just forward of berthing areas with hundreds of sailors asleep.

The ship returned to the Philippines before sailing to Japan and a drydock. The entire bow was replaced by the Japanese workers. Amazing sight to see the ship in dry dock. What huge screws she had.

The sad part was that the skipper was soon replaced. The Navy usually changes command after an incident at sea. Doesn't matter that he was asleep at the time. He is responsible for the training I guess. I was only involved in the photographic coverage of the damage. I never did make it to the Indian Ocean on that deployment. Years later I made the I.O. aboard the USS Independence.

[Neil Gordon]

In 1971, following Mardi Gras in NO, my heavy cruiser was heading down the Mississippi to the Gulf. My QM3 buddy was in after steering... what he heard in rapid succession... "After steering, take steering control... Right full rudder (in the Mississippi River???!!!)... Stand by to let go both anchors..." (YIKES!!!) Seems we were about at a big "S" curve in the river... and a freighter that didn't make the turn was up on the mud with her ass sticking right out at us.

[John D.]

This was not mine, and maybe you all have seen this, but it's worth sharing:

http://koti.mbnet.fi/~soldier/towboat.htm

[Rperlot]

Hopefully everyone was O.K. and nobody was below deck.

The problem is, if the captain is drunk in a bar somewhere telling this story, he'll just get 86'd. No one would believe this one.

[WARSPITE]

MY CLOSEST CALL HAPPENED AS FOLLOWS:
I HAD JUST SAILED OFF THE ANCHOR FROM MATINICUS ISLAND (APPROACHES TO PENOBSCOT BAY) WITH A MODERATE SOUTHEAST BREEZE AND OCCASIONAL GUSTS. IT HAD BEEN FOGGY AS IT OFTEN IS OUT THERE BUT IT HAD BEEN CLEARING WITH INTERMITTENT FOG
PATCHES.
I WAS SAILING ON A REACH UNDER GENOA & MAIN WITH THE HELM ON AUTOPILOT WHICH I LEFT OCCASIONALLY TO MONITOR MY POSITION WITH THE GPS AND CHART BELOW. I HAD SET A COURSE TO CLEAR THE ROADSTEAD AND THE LARGE ROCK (OR ISLAND) THAT GOES BY THE NAME OF NO MANS LAND.
A GUST OF WIND HAD CAUSED ME TO GO OFF COURSE A BIT AND I KNEW I HAD TO RESET THE AUTOPILOT BUT SHORTLY THEREAFTER I NOTICED I HAD A SPILL IN THE CABIN.
I WENT BELOW TO CLEAN IT UP AND AFTERWARDS THOUGHT I SHOULD CHECK MY POSITION ON THE CHART WITH THE GPS. AS I PLOTTED OUT THE LAT AND LONG CO-ORDINATES I THOUGHT TO MYSELF- HMMM, ACCORDING TO THIS I SHOULD BE JUST ABOUT ON TOP OF...A HUGE ROCK! IMMEDIATELY I RAN UP ON DECK AND LOOKED AHEAD TO SEE A HUGE WALL OF GRANITE TOWERING OUT OF THE MISTS OVER MY 24 FOOT SLOOP SPEEDING TOWARDS IT AT ABOUT 5 KNOTS OR MORE.
I INSTANTLY GRABBED THE TILLER, PUT HER OVER AND CAME ABOUT WITH MY BOWSPRIT JUST INCHES AWAY FROM THE ROCKFACE. BEING AS CLOSE AS I WAS I EXPECTED TO AT LEAST GRIND MY KEEL INTO SOME OUTLYING LEDGES BUT BECAUSE THE WATER RAN DEEP RIGHT UP TO EDGE OF THIS THING NOTHING HAPPENED AND I SAILED AWAY UNSCATHED.
HOWEVER, I SPENT THE WHOLE DAY AS I SAILED UP PENOBSCOT BAY TRYING TO GET OVER HOW CLOSE I CAME TO DESTROYING MY BOAT THAT MORNING.