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Drebbel
12-24-05, 03:03 AM
"CHRISTMAS AT SEA"

The sheets were frozen hard, and they cut the naked hand;
The decks were like a slide, where a seamen scarce could stand;
The wind was a nor'wester, blowing squally off the sea;
And cliffs and spouting breakers were the only things a-lee.

They heard the surf a-roaring before the break of day;
But 'twas only with the peep of light we saw how ill we lay.
We tumbled every hand on deck instanter, with a shout,
And we gave her the maintops'l, and stood by to go about.

All day we tacked and tacked between the South Head and the North;
All day we hauled the frozen sheets, and got no further forth;
All day as cold as charity, in bitter pain and dread,
For very life and nature we tacked from head to head.

We gave the South a wider berth, for there the tide-race roared;
But every tack we made we brought the North Head close aboard:
So's we saw the cliffs and houses, and the breakers running high,
And the coastguard in his garden, with his glass against his eye.

The frost was on the village roofs as white as ocean foam;
The good red fires were burning bright in every 'long-shore home;
The windows sparkled clear, and the chimneys volleyed out;
And I vow we sniffed the victuals as the vessel went about.

The bells upon the church were rung with a mighty jovial cheer;
For it's just that I should tell you how (of all days in the year)
This day of our adversity was blessed Christmas morn,
And the house above the coastguard's was the house where I was born.

O well I saw the pleasant room, the pleasant faces there,
My mother's silver spectacles, my father's silver hair;
And well I saw the firelight, like a flight of homely elves,
Go dancing round the china-plates that stand upon the shelves.

And well I knew the talk they had, the talk that was of me,
Of the shadow on the household and the son that went to sea;
And O the wicked fool I seemed, in every kind of way,
To be here and hauling frozen ropes on blessed Christmas Day.

They lit the high sea-light, and the dark began to fall.
"All hands to loose topgallant sails," I heard the captain call.
"By the Lord, she'll never stand it," our first mate Jackson, cried.
..."It's the one way or the other, Mr. Jackson," he replied.

She staggered to her bearings, but the sails were new and good,
And the ship smelt up to windward just as though she understood.
As the winter's day was ending, in the entry of the night,
We cleared the weary headland, and passed below the light.

And they heaved a mighty breath, every soul on board but me,
As they saw her nose again pointing handsome out to sea;
But all that I could think of, in the darkness and the cold,
Was just that I was leaving home and my folks were growing old.

By Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94).

Drebbel
12-24-05, 03:08 AM
http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/588/s20xmas20tree20616vh.jpg

Drebbel
12-24-05, 03:13 AM
Lulu's Christmas Eve

http://crip.moorey.net/images/boats/stories/lulu1.jpg

It was Christmas Eve, and the light was already fading at four o'clock in the afternoon. Down beside the Truro River at Sunny Corner, the echoing call of the curlew haunted the tree-clad slopes, with winter branches now stark black against a purple sky. High water was just past, and the brimming tide lapped against the old granite walls of the quay, as a gentle north-west breeze fanned tiny wavelets in the channel. Far away, at the head of the river, traffic rushed out of the city at the end of the last working day before the Christmas break ........................... click here to read the full story (http://crip.moorey.net/toplevel/boatpages/stories/lulustory.html)

Drebbel
12-24-05, 03:16 AM
After trials off New York and shakedown and battle practice in Chesapeake Bay, Battleship USS Missouri departed Norfolk 11 November 1944, transited the Panama Canal 18 November and steamed to San Francisco for final fitting out as fleet flagship. She stood out of San Francisco Bay 14 December and arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on Christmas Eve 1944

http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/016334b.jpg

Drebbel
12-24-05, 03:18 AM
http://vesuvius.jsc.nasa.gov/er/seh/shipwreck.gif

Christmas Eve of 1492, Santa Maria ran aground and sank.

Drebbel
12-24-05, 03:23 AM
Repel Boarders on the Daniel Boone on Christmas Eve

Shipmates, I'll tell you a story of Christmas 1977: (very true .... names withheld to protect the guilty) In the yards at Portsmouth.

Nice Christmas party going on the working barge for all the guys that had the duty. Lucky me, I'm the EDPO, stuck on the boat, hull cuts everywhere. The engineroom is a mess, the front of the boat is gutted. We slept on mattresses thrown in the ward room. No food, no water, nothing.

I'm in the engineroom about 2200 when the guys from the barge call and say, "Hey, can Santa come down to the boat and pass out a few gifts? Sure, why not was my answer. What a mistake. Santa, and his two very skimpily dressed helpers, show up at the after trunk. Santa wants to go from the back to the front, I guess. Really didn't have time to find out. .............click here to read the full story (http://www.submarinesailor.com/Humor/ChristmasRepelBoarders.asp)

Drebbel
12-24-05, 03:26 AM
http://www.chron.com/content/interactive/voyager/sail/photos/head3.jpg

My most miserable Christmas

It just turned Christmas Eve 1998. I'm at the helm of New World at midnight, and I'm wondering if we'll make it to Sri Lanka by Christmas Day. We will -- if the wind stays the same, both in direction and intensity.

If you've cruised, then you know that you think a lot when you're on watch by yourself. Tonight, I thought about a Christmas many years ago. A young person, whom I shall call Sandy, stayed with us overnight. She was finishing school in the area after her parents had moved away..............click here to read the full story (http://www.chron.com/content/interactive/voyager/sail/mindi/98/12/christmas.html)

Drebbel
12-24-05, 03:31 AM
How "Cutie" Saved Our Christmas Eve

http://www.submarinesailor.com/stories/Images/mk27_Cutie.jpg

The night was clear and warm. The moon was high, and we could see the outlines of the islands of Lombok and Bali in the distance. We were heading north to our scheduled operating area off the east coast of what was then called Indo-China. We were the US submarine BLUEGILL. We had just finished a refit in Fremantle, the harbor of Perth, West Australia.

George Folta photoIt was late Christmas Eve 1944 and many of us were reminiscing on Christmases past and praying that we could see this one through for we were approaching Lombok Strait.

"They" would be waiting for us on Lombok and in the Strait; shore batteries on Lombok and anti-submarine patrol craft in the Strait. The Japanese knew that Lombok Strait was the gateway through the Dutch East Indies where Allied submarines transitied from "down under" to the Japanese-held islands and homelands to the north. Headquarters had not reported any of our submarines lost in Lombok Strait, but we knew that the enemy had given some of them a thorough depth-charging resulting in some physical damage to the subs and a great deal of nerve shattering apprehension for the men. Furthermore, there was a strong current running through the Strait. Tonight it was running from north to south. We knew if we transited it submerged, headway would be very slow making us a sitting duck target for the anti-submarine patrol craft above. None of us cared for close depth charges. ............click here to read the full story (http://www.submarinesailor.com/stories/Cutie.asp)

Kapitan
12-24-05, 04:51 AM
word spam comes to mind but a good post :up:

Drebbel
12-24-05, 05:04 AM
word spam comes to mind but a good post :up:

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