Tales from the Fo'c'sle Salty Stories.

[E.Martin]

WW2 Chippy told me this story, he was on this tanker which was being attacked by a torpedo bomber, he was on the main deck arms spread holding the rail stood there petrified, the bomber launched the torpedo which bounced off the water scraped the back of his right hand hurtled over the flying bridge and dissappeared into the water the other side of the ship, he kept a straight face as he told this yarn.
Deck crowd ashore had a few bevi's through the course of the night, the one telling the yarn reckons that he went upstairs with his new found girl friend and thought his mate was in the a ajacent room with his new lady love !!., every time his mate went into action he did the same by the morning he was completely shattered, what he did not realise is that there was two shipmates in bed with her next door.(At least he did get good value for his money)
Another yarn from Chippy (Straight Face) He reckons his strangest job at sea was when the mate came after him and took him to a passengers cabin where a young lady laid on the bed with a bottle protruding from a very strange place, apparantly the young lady had been playing with the bottle which had caused a vacuum and was unable to with draw the bottle, Chippy's job was to withdraw the bottle which he did by breaking the bottle, he reckons the young lady came and thanked later.

[John Neary]

I think that story must be apocryphal because I heard it happened in the 1960's on an "E" boat not in WW2

[Malcolm S]

I may have my dates and facts a little mixed but I remember an incident on - I believe, the Essequibo . We had a Jamaican Chippy at the time who whenever he went round taking his soundings always whistled. During the seamans strike the vessel was layed up in London and everyone sent home but the Chippy was allowed to stay as he had no where to go. As it turned out he woke up one morning dead.
By the time I returned after the strike a new carpenter had been asigned plus a few new engineers and a new bunch of deck hands.
Half way across the pond after my 2000 - 2400 watch I was having a beer with the engineers when one complained that he was woken up each morning by somebody he never could catch, whistling on the deck outside.

I strongly believe the Loch Avon was haunted - but thats another story.

Malcolm