CAPTAIN OVERBOARD

Ever hear about the time the the Pollack lost her Captain Overboard??  What
a cruise!!  I can't remember exactly when it happened, but I think that it
was just before the last voyage.  If I remember right, we were going out on
a weekly op when we ran into a major problem and the boys in the wardroom
decided that we would stop in Alameda for repairs... or something like that,
I really can't remember what the reason was.

I remember that we were tied up on the outboard side one of the Trident subs
and across the pier from the Enterprise.  I was amazed at the size of that
floating hotel, the trident I mean; it was nearly a third the length of the
Enterprise and our gangplank was at an easy 45 degree up angle to their
topside.  It was something to see... a minnow tied up to a salmon!

Anyway,We all got a free tour of the Carrier, they wouldn't let us on the
trident, and spent the night at the base barracks.   Then we headed out the
next day through the "potato patch", y'know that really choppy part of the
San Francisco bay.  We were on Manuevering watch, and I think that I was
stationed on the Sound Powered phones back near the shaft seals, when the
call went out for "Man Overboard"!  It was something.... no one below deck
knew what was going on, but it wasn't long before we heard that the Captain
had been washed overboard by a huge wave.

>From what I remember, the Engineer (LCDR Wirth), Captain House, and I think
Thor Angle MM1/SS were up in the conning tower when we were going through
the patch and it was particularly bad that day.  Waves  were washing clear
over the top of the conning tower and the farther out we went, the worse
they got.  I remember Thor telling me what happened next.

He was by the Eng and the Captain was turned away from them when a huge wave
came over the tower and hit them.....  the Eng was hit in the face so hard
that his contact lenses were washed right out of his eyes, and he barely
escaped going over the side by grabbing onto something and hanging on for
dear life (he walked around for weeks after that with eyes so red that he
looked like a demon from hell ::chuckle::).

The Captain wasn't so lucky. the wave hit him and sent him over the side,
only the safety rope he was wearing kept him alive.  He dangled there
slamming up against the side of the tower until they managed to pull him up
and in, but they weren't even sure he was still alive at that point.  Well,
he was alive and had both his shoulders dislocated along with more than a
few bruises.

I remember the look on Thor's face when he came back aft, he'd helped pull
the Captain in and he looked like he had just seen his bestfriend killed or
something.  We all thought it was funny until we heard that the Captain had
actually gotten hurt, then it wasn't that funny at all.

Well, we ended up going back into Alameda and they took the Captain to the
hospital, of course, we went right back out to sea to finish our op.

And that's the story of how the USS Pollack lost her Captain overboard, as
far as I can remember it.  I'll try and remember some more....funny
stories....  later...see ya!!

                                                            David G. Harlin
MM2/SS