"A little fire is quickly trodden out which, being suffer'd, rivers cannot quench."
In the past week there have been reports of fires on two US Navy submarines, the USS Jacksonville (SSN 699) and the USS Connecticut (SSN 22) (free subscription required). The latter was a battery well fire, which could have proved a nightmare. Apparently both ships were undergoing shipyard repairs.
It underscores a common and often harsh lesson: there is no such thing as "routine" on a submarine. The ocean environment we work in, the platform we live on and maintain--everything!--is too risky & too complex to allow complacency to creep in. That's not a judgment of what happened during these incidents, just the voice of experience. There's a reason why this is a rigorous, close-knit community of warriors. Please keep these men and their families in your prayers.
UPDATE (2/20/05, 12:30pm): Speaking of the USS J-ville, I'd like to ask any submariners reading this what their thoughts are on the myth of "Bad Luck Boats". You've often heard it said that certain boats seem to carry of curse with them--bringing a string of seemingly inexplicable catastrophes, major or minor, in their wake. In the case of the J-ville, it's been said that things have never been the same since the depth charging. Do you agree? Do you believe in "bad luck boats"? Why or why not? Just curious.
It underscores a common and often harsh lesson: there is no such thing as "routine" on a submarine. The ocean environment we work in, the platform we live on and maintain--everything!--is too risky & too complex to allow complacency to creep in. That's not a judgment of what happened during these incidents, just the voice of experience. There's a reason why this is a rigorous, close-knit community of warriors. Please keep these men and their families in your prayers.
UPDATE (2/20/05, 12:30pm): Speaking of the USS J-ville, I'd like to ask any submariners reading this what their thoughts are on the myth of "Bad Luck Boats". You've often heard it said that certain boats seem to carry of curse with them--bringing a string of seemingly inexplicable catastrophes, major or minor, in their wake. In the case of the J-ville, it's been said that things have never been the same since the depth charging. Do you agree? Do you believe in "bad luck boats"? Why or why not? Just curious.
posted by WillyShake at 12:00 PM
4 Comments:
Yes I believe there are bad luck boats. Even after changing crew and command structure, they still have "issues".
Well the J-ville is not the only boat that would be considered bad luck, you also have the Green-evil (Greeneville) with her string of incidents. (1)The unfortunate sinking of the japanese fishing vessel. (2) The grounding in Saipan. (3) Collision with a surface vessel.
Being a former West Coast Trident sailor (currently on shore duty) I really can't think of any bad luck boats in the ohio class.
Thanks for posting! Come to think of it, you're right; I never heard of a bad-luck SSBN yet either...of course, I was solely on attack boats, as were my friends, so...
hey shakes dude. sometimes "bad luck" boats have a problem that can only be corrected by completely changing out the crew. sometimes it can be corrected by a serious ass kicking. it only takes one or two guys getting their careers handed to them in a burlap bag for the rest of the crew to get the message. i think bad luck has as much to do with attention to detail as anything the cosmic joker tosses your way. my two cents
I totally fall on the "evil spirits" side of this debate. Ships do have souls, and some of them are evil. True, there are sometimes where the "bad luck" meme becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, and sometimes it's just the way the ball bounces, but I'm personally convinced that ships have souls, taken a little bit at a time from everyone who serves on them -- and some of them aren't very nice...
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home