Vic, the stories about Sydney were Interesting, though the waters I cruised in my career were a little closer to home. You wrote about sea-stories yesterday. I have a few of those, too on the way to a career that culminated as a Master Chief Boatswain’s Mate, United States Coast Guard. I don’t mind your officer-centric approach- I suppose there is a need for you guys, but sea stories really are the province of the Goat Locker- the Chief’s Mess.
My first ship after Great Lakes RT was a Fletcher-class destroyer out of Mayport doing mostly Eastern Caribbean patrols off of Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.
Being a 17-year-old E-3 (I picked up an extra grade out of boot camp for having graduated as honor man) I had little clue at the time why we were maintaining a naval presence there. I was more interested in perfecting my helmsmanship and convincing the BM-2 that despite my “gratis” status as a full seaman that I ought to be assigned more technical gigs like pointer or trainer on one of the mounts vice extra lookout, bow or stern hook on one of the launches, line handling instead of stand in ranks with the other teenaged SAs (E-2s) at special sea detail.
It’s really interesting now to see what that portion of the Atlantic Fleet was actually a part of. It was while on that first Navy ship that I met and saw the Coast Guard in action and met my first Coasties in person.
Comparing non-rated life, the Coasties didn’t seem to have to campaign for Boatswain mate-like assignments. Whatever they were willing to learn they were quickly assigned to. I was a two-year naval reservist on active duty. I went to visit the CG recruiters and learned that I could cross over by signing up for the CG regulars for a 4-year active duty contract.
But I had to get on a waiting list. I got on the waiting list and proceeded to agitate for a jump-up, arguing that I wasn’t a boot recruit and I’d save ’em $10,000 on boot camp. It took awhile but eventually reason or annoyance factor won out. I ended up on a much smaller CG ship patrolling the Campeche Flats off Yucatan on Piracy Suppression before anyone had even heard of piracy suppression patrols.
On reporting aboard, my billet included helmsman watch, gun crew and boat crew duties, and a spot in the landing/Boarding party. I also drew mess cooking, which sucked, but went with being non-rated.

The maintenance on the old tug built in 1938 was intense but I got to use power tools, learned fancy rope work which covered a lot of ugly aged stuff on board, and gave the cutter a sort of “Yacht-like” feel.
On the USN destroyer, new non-rates did get to stand helm watch but most of our time was spent “soogeing”, sweeping down, painting in remote corners where it was more important to get the steel covered than to have the paint also present a decent appearance.
I often wonder if life for new Naval non-rates has improved any. I worked much harder in the Guard, but learned something new every day and after 3 months felt like a skilled craftsman even though I was non-rated.
On the destroyer, mostly I was bored until GQ was called or it was time for helm watch. Anyway thanks for the trip down memory lane and distant ports of call with the insight of history. It was nice to be a part of history, but my part was pretty boring.
Boats

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