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Originally Posted by GraylingSTS(SS)
Ahhh the Horse and Cow...I have a lot of great memories from that little establishment...even more "non-memories".
When I was first assigned to the Grayling, she was still in the yards after a refit at Mare Island.
We supplied the bar with several "artifacts" from the Grayling...the funniest I think was the CO/XO's ****ter seat. Some guys "borrowed" it one night right before sea trials.
The XO was a jerk, threatened to prosecute everyone...the CO was cool though. Before we left Vallejo for good, he showed up at the H&C one night and signed the missing seat in GOLD marker.
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In my travels I picked up a medal from the Soviet Red Banner Northern Fleet. The last time I was at the H&C, right before they closed & passed on the medal to the owner who was moving lock,stock & barrel to Pearl. For five years from 90-95 I lived on Sandy Beach at the end of the Napa River on those houses on the piers, literally on the Dock of the Bay. Since the ex-wife was working at Mare Island, whenver an LA-class boat pulled in or out, I used to hoist the Soviet Flag, break out the camera with the telephoto lens and snap,snap,wink,wink. If I had been a real schmuck, I'd have dropped a hydrophone into the water and turned on my electric shaver. It sounds just like a torpedo. During the 1st gulf war, I watched a Japanese Self-defense force destroyer come steaming up the San Pablo Bay heading to Port Chicago toload war shots. Since I was curious about it, I broke out the binocs to have a closer look. Sure enough, fluttering from the masthead was the Rising Sun flag of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
I grew up in Benicia, about 7 miles up the Carquinez Straits from Vallejo and lived there and in Vallejo for about 25 years man & boy. As a boy, I used to sell the local Benicia paper in the same bar that Jack London used to frequent in his days on the Fish Patrol. In fact, he was rescued off Sandy Beach by a poacher he had chased down the straits from Benicia when his sloop tore her bottom out near the present day jetty. His partner was waiting at the dock and had to arrest the man for poaching but when the trial date came up, Jack & his partner paid the poachers fine for him in gratitude. Jack wrote a series of short stories about his experiences there entitled,"Tales of the Fish Patrol".
If you do a title search online, they are available and are a great read and an interesting documentation of the area around 1900.