My all time favorite: During the mid watch it was customary to blow tubes. A midshipman was instructed by the Officer of the watch to go to the control room and request permission to blow the EEOW (Engineering Officer of the Watch). The EEOW on duty was informed of the midshipman’s assignment and put the 21MC on hands free so we could all listen in on the bridge. The midshipman arrived in the control room and said in a loud voice,“Sir, request permission to blow the EEOW!” The EEOW’s reply was, “Son, there are two ways we can do this. We can go behind that console, or you can crawl under my desk.”
Another midshipman was sent to the supply officer for 100’ of fallopian tube. She told him that the Captain would have to sign the requisition and sent him on his way. Before signing the requisition, the Captain sat him down for a little anatomy lesson.
Mail buoy watch… How else would we get letters from home?
Aboard my current boat we have a large piece of gear that looks like a 3’ long tuning fork and is used for guiding cable onto a drum. A deckhand asked what it was for one day. I told him it was indeed a tuning fork and we used it to tune the ships whistle. He was instructed to go to the focsle and whack the fork end of this thing on a bit and hold it to his ear while I blew the horn giving me the thumbs up or thumbs down after each blast.