Calling the Captain Stories

I’ll start with 2

So on one of my Coast Guard ships I had a Captain that was big Horatio Hornblower fan. I was making a routine call on the 12-4 watch for a ship inside the acceptable CPA.

“Captain I have a contact bearing 045 at 10 miles, it currently has a CPA of 1,000 yards, I plan to addjust course right to XXX to increase the CPA to 2,000 yards”

and the responce back

" very well, hoist all possible sail and put the ship on a port tack"

" Captain - I am not sure you are awake yet"

and second - years later on a tanker inbound NY in the Barneget - Ambrose Seperation scheme. I had a radar target that sure acted like a real target, but I could never actully see it. I went back and forth in my head for 20 or 30 minutes, but I could never resolve my doubts about if it was real or not. I called the Captain, and told him - pretty sure this is a fake tarket - but it sure acts real on the radar. Can I get another pair of eyes on this. He came up and we both watched it on the radar, both kept looking for it out the window. Never saw it and eventully it dropped from the screen. Captain went back to bed. Not being one to let something like that go. I went back and after some investigation it appeared I woke up the Captain to miss the World Trade Center that I picking up on the radar in the distance and it was showing a range of 1/10 or so the actual distance.

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Ah, second trace echoes and back scattering, the joys of early radars.
Woke one Old Man up because I picked up land on our (one) radar, 45 miles early; not too shabby considering it was 10 days of low level cloud before we got there, so no sextant obs possible. Also lucky that it turned out to be Thailand which was where we were headed.
Another time, took over from the Old man at noon and within 15 minutes there was a shadow, in and out on the radar; called him back and extra lookout and we spotted a bergy bit, close to our course line.
Same on the way back north, big bergy bit, same latitude as Buenos Aries.
Always call the Old Man, if in doubt.
Even if you are the Old Man.

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I was downbound off the Sunrise Coast of Michigan when I saw Point aux Barques light dead ahead. I was just south of Alpena. I called the Captain and before he got up there all of a sudden the lights of Tobermory, Ontario were off the port bow. Point aux Barques was about 80 miles ahead and Ontario was around 160 miles off.
The Captain had spent his entire career on the Lakes whereas I was a “Saltie”. He told me of the phenomena of Fata Morgana. Other manifestations of it were that sometimes you would see a ship 10 degrees or so above the horizon, sometimes upside down. I learned a lot on that ship!

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Joined a new company from one of their major competitors.

2 British Oil majors so go figure.

First question asked as I had come directly from tugs " do you have a uniform third mate" , " yes captain" sort of set the tone for the next 5 months. :sob:

So first watch outward bound from a UK discharge port, beautiful afternoon trudging down the Bristol Channel. A Japanese build capesize bulker equipped with a really nice set of binoculars fixed on a stand on the front of the bridge.

This is slightly off topic as I did not call the captain. ( Deliberate small c as he was a C )

I had picked up a radar contact and had plotted it in fairly light traffic. Then with the aid of those blooming great optics seen a conning tower ( sail for you colonials) of a submarine.

" What are you staring at 3/0?"
" A submarine captain"
“Don’t be so stupid 3/0”

It had dived , I swear I saw the wash it had left but unfortunately that set the tone for the next 5 months :weary:

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Maybe this thread should be titled, cock ups you made as a junior officer.

Anyone want to hear about when I made an emergency manoeuvre to avoid a collision with the moon? :flushed:

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Psh if you meet a sailor who says he hasn’t done that, he’s full of shit.

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Heading south from Sardinia to pass Lipari Is./Aeolian Is. towards Messina Straits. Wake-up call by Ch Mate “distess flares ahead”!
Had sighted “red flare” ahead, and then again after a few mins.
I get on the bridge, just in time to see another burst of red, check the radar -nothing, VHF #16 - nothing, NAVTEX & Sat-C - nothing , then chart & plotter (pre-ECDIS)…
…had a bit of an idea, and saw the next red with binos …
… showed the mate the chart …
… “welcome to the Stromboli volcano!
But keep checking, just in case!”

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No I never did an emergency alteration for the moon.
I called the Capt. Because I saw the moon rising.

Blooming heck I thought I was the only one daft enough to do it.:thinking:

Better still, I was called as captain of my patrol boat whilst patrolling in the Arafura sea. I was fully aware that conditions were flat calm with sea like a mirror and my enthusiastic navigator called me to the bridge in the afternoon and informed me he could detect fish on the radar.

“Don’t be so stupid, Nav.”
“No. No”, he insisted. “Take a look.”

I took a look and … had to admit he was right. The fish were making the smallest possible waves as they swam near the surface without breaking it away from us and their wakes were clearly visible on the screen.

Things can be boring on a long patrol.

Bear in mind this same enthusiastic junior officer on another occasion responded to my question on arriving on the bridge early one morning and quickly checking the radar asking what were all the contacts astern.

He hadn’t noticed so looked in the radar and declared “Interference, Sir.”

I quickly looked astern and invited him to actually look at his ‘interference’. He was aghast to note the entire USS Midway Battle Group Alfa of some ten warships in line to transit the Sunda Strait overtaking at what seemed spitting distance.

Less amusing.

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When they got rid of radio officers in russia they let them go thru a few classes and receive 3rd mate’s license. It’s been a while ago, most of them already retired but some still there and one made it to captain . Nobody knows how he did it. Guy is absolute asshole by nature and still has no clue profession wise. So, every morning when they walk in for breakfast each officer says “good morning everyone… except captain “.

Calling the captain from an engineer’s perspective. We were in a storm at night on a drillship with a Kongsberg PMS that I had experience with for a few years. The 1AE woke me up and said I needed to go to the bridge as the CM and DPOs were over riding the PMS system, starting and stopping engines frequently and the 1AE was concerned the breakers would fail due to frequent switching. Went to the bridge and suggested the CM stop and let the PM system do its job. He said he couldn’t take the chance the PMS worked as designed. I called the captain and he deferred to the CM’s decision which ultimately resulted in a partial loss of power and emergency disconnect soon thereafter. Exciting

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When I was CM I got a call from the 3M asking if I could come take a look at the ECDIS, as it was doing something “strange”.

“Sure”, I said. I then asked him If he had called the Captain to report an equipment issue? Guess who he called next? We had the “calling the Master” conversation a few minutes later.

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I worked on a tug, an ATB with a captain who never wanted to be woken up by the telephone unless it was a life or death situation. All other times he wanted a crewmember to knock on his door, open it, then wake him up to tell him the problem. Me being the chief I mostly didn’t have to worry about that particular eccentricity of his because we worked the same hours, 06-12, then 18-24. That wasn’t the case u/w though because the capt & mates would work 4&8’s on long trips. The mates never had to knock on his door u/w because they’d be in the bridge so it was either the AB or engineer on watch who did it. This captain was also a non-stop chain smoker & I heard rumors that he’d smoke in his sleep. One evening the mate called the engine room & asked me to call the captain about something, the AB couldn’t because he was on the barge. Sure enough, when I opened the door it was pitch black except a little red cherry of the captains cigarette. The dude was asleep flat on his back with a cigarette sticking straight up. That guy had a lot of other weirdness with him too but those are for other threads I suppose.

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Didn’t actually get called,
Was on a PSV on the approach to Great Yarmouth which means navigating through shifting sand banks although they are always well buoyed.
It’s a good 30 mins or so until I actually have to take the con , I held the Pilots Exemption, so was busy watching the preview to Saturday’s football fixtures.
Kept glancing out of the rear facing windows of our saloon to keep a check of where we were when I saw something out behind.
I knew it meant something but nothing was ringing bells until F##K :hushed::hushed::clap:

A stern wave, :fearful::fearful::fearful:

I beat the record getting to the bridge.
We were in a lagoon outside the channel with only one way in and more importantly one way out :weary:
I stopped the ship dead and fixed our position, then gingerly backed us out back into the channel.

Phew

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That above was me as the hero, gawd I love myself :rofl:

So how about me being an idiot.

Just got my Pilots Exemption for Den Helder Nederland’s.

Horrible rainy night and as you know a low lying coastline with poor radar returns. Same PSV as above.

Took over from the mate on the approach shortly before the 90 degree starboard turn into the harbour.

Struggling to pick out the entrance on the radar but spotted the red breakwater light.
Great just go a little further then leave the red light to port then into the harbour, super, sounds like a plan.

Thankfully my mate finishes his paperwork in time to see me turn in and wanders out on the bridge wing.
He then shouts. Skipper, ( he only called me Skipper or Captain if I had F####ed up) Full astern NOW.
You just don’t argue at that point.
We pulled up single meters from a breakwater.

Red light should have been to starboard :flushed:

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There are loads more, don’t care now as I am retired :rofl:

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Way back when I was in the navy we were taking part with one of the very last British fleet deployments East of Suez. The carriers HMS Victorious and Ark Royal were in the fleet as well as numerous British and Commonwealth warships and RFA’s. In the middle of the Indian Ocean and all vessels were fully darkened and in the middle of this a lone merchant ship stumbled in at about 02:00.
As was the case in those days the merchant ship’s radar was being “preserved “ and switched off, a fact that we on a warship were fully aware. I can picture the scene now.
Second Mate in defiance of the masters wishes, relaxed in the pilots chair, cigarette in hand, gazing out the window when the fleet was given the order to switch on navigation lights and deck lighting. The radar was soon switched on.
When I joined the merchant navy it was still common to have the radar off deep sea and the collision regulations hadn’t been amended to “and all available means” referring to look outs. The bridge chair was lashed up at the back of the bridge where it couldn’t be used.

I was the bow lookout on our training ship as a freshman crossing the Atlantic. I barely knew port from starboard. All I knew was I was supposed to call the bridge with the sound powered phone if I saw any lights or ships. I was super nervous and was keeping a good lookout, so I thought. I saw something dead ahead on the horizon, a bright light. I rang the sound powered phone and the captain happened to answer it, lucky me. I said I had a light dead ahead……he said back to me “that’s the moon” and hung up. Haha.

This story is more like “The Captain calling himself”:

As a 2nd Officer (in 1966) I sailed with an Old Man that had got into his head that because the PPI was GURANTEED for XXX hrs. operation, it would go blank at XX1 hrs. Consequently his Standing Order was that the radar where to be used ONLY when absolutely necessary. (I.e. when he was on the bridge)

PS> The PPI had been replaced abt. 2 years earlier.

The Watch Officers were obliged to keep a log of the time on/off and the hours of use of the radar.
As 2nd Off. I had to add up the monthly use and total use since the PPI was replaced.

Unfortunately the transformer for the radar was in the Gyro room, next to his sleeping cabin, so he could hear when the radar was in operation. (not when on standby)

Being on the 00-04 watch I was fortunate enough to be able to put the radar on standby and occasionally switch it on long enough to take a bearing, then switching it off again, before he got on the bridge.

He would look around a bit, before going to the radar, pull the rubber shield apart, stick his head in to see if the radar was on, before asking if there were any fog, or other problems.
PS> That trick were not to be used too many time per night though.

The ship M/S Gyda:


https://skipshistorie.net/Oslo/OSL315EivindEvensen/Tekster/OSL31519600100000%20GYDA.htm
The type of radar was something like this:

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