Really enjoyed my time on the Conserver. Had some good times, and some bad times. Have some great memories and sea stories that I have shared over the years with old friends. I especially remember the RUWS project and the “shipyard” time in Singapore with the emergency underway in the middle of the night.
An aircraft lost the back door, or something, we were in Singapore, in a short shipyard repair and had all the anchor chains and anchors off, three engines either torn down or in repair, and a lot of other stuff off loaded. Everybody that was on liberty was in town, they sent the SP and a bus to get us, Doc Hansen and I mustered all the divers and jogged back to the ship. Sent 2/3 of the crew to bed, reloaded what we could, and got underway. Came back to Sing later on and finished.
I remember filling in as a hatch captain the day we had to hurredly reload all the Westpac purchases back into the forward hold. Thankfully the boatswain mate running the boom knew more than I did and averted smashing anything despite my not so polished hand signals.
I also recall getting into a four point moor so we could be a stationary navigation point for a ship with side scan sonar. That whole operation was an adventure.
U-2 in Gulf of Siam. Met Florikan there and stayed 2 weeks longer than our water lasted. Rigged a salt water shower beside the dump on the fantail.
Lash!!! QM2/DV Leonard here!! Great to hear from you!!
That was Westpac before I boarded – Vietnam was still going on.
Skip, where have you been? Re you in touch with other shipmates of our era? Doc Hanson?
I see doc every so often, We met and had a acouple of good chats at the Mark V Monument Memorial Dedication, and keep in touch through email. I am now in Frisco City, Alabama, enjoying retirement and rock hounding with my wife. where are you, now?
I’m in Vegas – really enjoying- my doctor’s up in seattle sentenced me to the desert – had walking pnuemonia 9 out of the 14 years in seattle!
Hi Skip. Did you and I sail on the Chanticleer back in the day?
YEp, back in 70-71
Skip, do you remember what the emergency was about. What year was that?
’74-’75 time frame, I think a plane lost a door, or something,not really sure what.