The US Coast Guard
Cutter Cartigan used to sit moored to the wooden bridge which sits at the end
of Ocean Avenue and crosses Sheepshead Bay. A few years ago I wrote about it
here and have run subsequently run several stories by some of her crew members
who saw that post. This one is from April 2011 and was written by George Copna for Rooftop Reviews.
Everybody who has sailed aboard ship for any length of time
will have a story to tell about a storm. Some are better than others. But
basically, they are all good. They provide an insight, for those who will never
experience it, of the wonder, along with the sheer terror, that comes of facing
waves larger than the vessel in which you are riding. They serve as reminders
that we are all just visiting, and all at the mercy of something, at some time
in our lives. Here is George Copna's latest story of the USCG Cutter Cartigan,
during which she encounters some very nasty weather. This story takes place
around 1961.
THE BIG STORM by
George Copna
Once, while on CAMPAT, we were on the tail end of the
patrol looking forward to relief. The weather was warm, the seas calm and we
were stopped, just drifting at a certain latitude awaiting relief from the CGC
SEBAGO out of Pensacola, FL. I was the RM on duty and I heard them, via CW
(Morse code) getting underway enroute to relieve us. I copied their radio
traffic which included a weather report to 8th CG District New Orleans, LA. The
SEBAGO was reporting winds in excess of 60 mph and seas running 25-30 feet. I
thought how lucky we were to be in calm seas as opposed to what they were
experiencing.
Let me pause here and say that the SEBAGO was literally
twice our size at 255 feet as compared to our 125 feet in length. After being
relieved of my watch, I went below and hit the rack. I awoke the next morning
to some violent ship movements. All the hatches to the exterior decks were
'dogged down' and nobody was permitted outside on deck. The only way to get to
the radio shack was through a hatch in the radio shack deck. I climbed up the
ladder to relieve the RM on watch and found that we were in the midst of the
weather that the SEBAGO had reported. The duty RM advised me that we had
absolutely no communications with anybody. The wind and waves had torn away our
whip and wire antennae. The only sounds coming from my earphones was loud
static.
So, I spent the next four hours standing in the radio
shack door watching the helmsman trying to maintain some semblance of a course
while plowing into the seas head on. I watched in awe and some fright as we
rode up one wave 25-30' and crash down into the trough with a crash. The next
wave would cover us up, sometimes to the flying bridge. It was certainly a wild
and somewhat frightening ride, and it was the first time I didn't get seasick
in rough weather. I guess I was just too scared to think about it.
At one point, a large wave struck the face of the bridge
directly and broke out several windows, showering the bridge watch with water
and glass shards. This was truly getting to be a worrisome ride! After getting
relieved from my watch, I went to the mess deck for some chow - I actually felt
good enough to eat. When I got below to the mess deck, I found the cook
fore-lonely seated with the evening meal of oyster stew and biscuits sloshing
around his feet. So much for chow, so I just went back to my rack.
I was wakened for my next watch (0001-0400) and found we
sere still in the maelstrom so all bridge watch standers were still being
routed through the radio shack. I hadn't been signed on long before the sliding
door that leads to the bridge flew open. A non-rated seaman watchstander stood
there and entered the radio shack, endeavoring to close the door behind him. He
looked like he had a mouthful of regurgitated stomach contents (a.k.a.
vomitus). His abdomen was spasming and his cheeks were puffed out like a
chipmunk. I told him I'd shut the door, just get down below, out of the radio
shack. He lifted up the electrical matt covering the hatch that led down below
- right into officer's country. He finally got the hatch open and literally
slid down the ladder, hitting the deck HARD! This sudden stop caused him to
lose control of his ability to maintain control of the contents in his mouth
and he sprayed the area with its contents. He then had to clean up the stinking
mess.
We rode like this for close to another day before the
storm subsided and the seas began to calm themselves. If my memory serves me
correctly, we had ended up in the 7th CG District waters (we were assigned to
the 8th CG District).
We limped home, beat up, torn up, canvas all gone from
fore & aft, port & starboard, low on fresh water and food and very
tired. We finally made it into our home port two days longer than we were
supposed to be out. St. Andrew's Marina never looked so good!!
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