Abandon Ship

[John Arton]

Hello all
Here is a question for you all.
If you had to abandon ship what personal items would you grab from your cabin before getting into the lifeboat (obviously has to be small and portable)
Reason this comes tomind was I was thinking of the famous case of the electrician on one of our ships. He always had little or no gear with him. One day they were forced to abandon ship in the mid Pacific and he came dashing out of the accomodation to his boat station with 2 cases of beer and nothing else. Apparently they came in real handy as they were picked up by a Japanese fishing boat and fed on fish and fish head stew until they were eventually landed.
When we had to abandoj ship off the Grand Banks, I grabbed my wallet with all the family photos in it together with the Officers Bar funds (I was running it at that time). Cannot for the love of me think why it was important to get the funds, maybe thought we would have to pay our way upon being rescued or the boys would want to charge me for losing all the funds.
They came in handy when we eventually got to St. Johns as the stingy company gave us next to nothing living allowance whilst we were stuck in a hotel waiting for the ship to be towed in, brought a few rounds out of it.
So think of it and let us know what you would grab.

rgds
Capt. John Arton (ret'd)

[Doc Vernon]

Well for me John A
I like you would also just grab my Wallet,and personal Pictures i may have had,as there is not much more that would have been of much Value ! Well not in a crises!
Only other thing that i would have missed was my Portable Record and Radio Player,but that would have been too bulky to run with hah!
Cheers

OH !! Dont forget the Life Jacket !LOL!

[Chris Allman]

Yes me too, wallet, watch, and photographs, marlin spike and knife too.

Chris

[Lou Barron]

as for the first thing you would grab if you have to abandon the shipis not your wallet or any other things so its your life jacket as it would not be very nice laying at the bottom of the ocean with your wallet

[j.sabourn]

A clean pair of underpants. John Sabourn

[John Pruden]

I did here from an old timer that had to abandon ship fags and booze were the first thing in the life boat then the food and water.JP

[John Arton]

The well known story in C.P. was of the Electrician, a man who liked a beer or case or two, who when they were abandoning ship in the Pacific turned up at the lifeboats with 4 cases of beer and nothing else, quite literally as he was only wearing his underwear.
Apparently he was well thanked for the beer as they were rescued by a japanese fishing trawler and fed on fish head soup and rice until they reached port. So the beer came in handy for supplementing their rations.
rgds
Capt. John Arton (ret'd)

[Jim Brady]

One thing we did'nt have to worry about leaving behind was money,we did'nt have any the bloody wages we were on!!!!!
Regards.
Jim.B.