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| Queen of Bermuda, a Few Years Ago |
Our ship was our world. With no contact with the outside world we left behind all human interaction except for that which took place with the 210 other guys on the vessel. We lived in a tight community where every day and in every way we had to count on each other for everything. If whatever it was that we needed was not on the ship we did without or used something else. Sailors just out of Boot Camp were given jobs on the ship that had to be done and done properly and on time. These were kids who probably never did a days work for pay before they joined the Navy and who never were given a task and had to get it done by a certain time.
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| Next Time Pay a Few Bucks More |
Whatever happened it happened to all of us. My ship's boilers were leaky and my evaporators had a hard time making fresh water out of salt. We had few tanks to carry potable water. The longer we stayed at sea the less fresh potable water there was for crew. This meant water hours were put in force. My ship-fitters went around the ship and took the shower heads off the shower pipes and sealed the pipes with pipe caps. Fresh water was turned on only in the sinks in the bathrooms from 0630 until 0730 and from 1530 until 1630. All hands had to take care of their hygiene during those hours. There was no fresh water except for those times.
We learned more about some people we never met before we stepped on the ship than we knew about folks we grew up with. This did not mean that the ship was a mutual admiration society. Just because you get to know a great deal about your shipmates does not mean that you get to love them. What it did mean was that you knew them, warts and all. If a shipmate was a jerk, you learned just how big a jerk he was. Personal habits, quirks and mannerisms tended to be magnified when you were in intimate contact every day, and many hours every day for some people. Little things begin to mean a lot when there is no way to escape the owner of the little things that maybe drive you mad.
That being said, every one of those humanly perfect and imperfect sailors were your shipmates and By God, if anyone from any other ship or even shoresiders dared to hassle or degrade them, their shipmates presented a united front and let the outsiders know that certain guys might be jerks, but they are our jerks and woe to anyone outside of our shipboard family who disrespected them.
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| Adventure At Dawn |
I will grant that the situation aboard a modern cruise ship is far from the spartan life we lived during the Cold War in WWII leftover ships. What is similar is what happens on a cruise ship or any vessel where bands of strangers from far flung homes are thrown together into a universe with definite and very limited boundaries and the population of that universe is just each other. Folks back home or at the office or school are not there. You meet, get to know and rely on whoever are your companions aboard for all of the human contact and support you need. The barriers shorebound people use every day with strangers break down, contact is made and friendships evolve faster than you would ever believe.
So, let me assure you that whenever someone who has spent considerable time under way over the horizon calls you a shipmate it is not a casual choice of words. It is a measure of respect and affection that folks unlucky enough not to have gone to sea could not necessarily comprehend.
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| The Audience---Shipmates All |
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