A Nuke Jap becomes a Coner Jap

We had been under way for a while, I don’t remember how long for sure. The nukes had this new guy, I believe his name was Brown. They had been giving him a bad time for a while, you know, the usual stuff. This particular watch he was in AMR#2.

I was going back aft as I was standing "Aux of the Watch", the nukes proceeded to tell me about their latest prank on Brown. Normally this would be safe, but for some reason it just hit me that it was time for a turn around. Don’t ask me why, because to this day I don’t know why, but it just seemed the thing to do.

What they had Brown doing was looking for the O2 Generator discharge overboard valve. One of them anyway. If you look at the TAB it showed it in AMR#2. Seems innocent enough, and that was the catch, it was a misprint in the tab. The valve was actually in AMR#1. They were giving him hell because he couldn’t find it. If I remember right, they were telling him we were having trouble with the O2 Generator. Anyway I decided that maybe we would have trouble with the O2 Generator. Hey! Everyone was doing it! So the plan was hatched.

I found Brown down in Machinery Two lower level and asked what was going on. He seemed stressed out so I asked him about the valve. He tells me he can’t find it and he’s not so sure it’s down there. I enlightened him to the fact that he has been had and tell him to roll with what ever happens next. I did let him know that I was going to get the Machinery One watch to call Control and tell them that the O2 Generator had shut down on high back pressure.

I found Thomas, the Machinery One watch and told him what was going on and my little scheme. He told me that he couldn’t report the O2 Generator down. Apparently they had reported an equipment failure as a joke before and gotten their asses reamed for it. He didn’t want to take a chance to get his ass in a sling and I don’t blame him.

Now I'm feeling dejected, I wondered off to Control realizing that my plan was folding up like a cardboard suitcase. I don’t remember who I was talking to, but I was telling someone in control what was going on with the Nukes and about my plan that would never be since Thomas, wouldn’t report the O2 Generator down.

Frank Stewart, the Engineer was standing OOD at the time. He wasn’t known at the time for being a prankster. He was a pretty serious guy at the time and was still trying to prove himself.  What happened next I couldn’t believe, and fortunately for me, the nukes wouldn’t either.

Stewart, with no prompting from me, picks up the 2MC, calls maneuvering, and tells them the O2 Generator had just shut down on high backpressure. I could have kissed the guy.

I believe it was either Dave Yohn or the Maneuvering Watch Officer (the A-gangs Div. Officer) that took the call. Now this is what they told me what happened. Whoever took the call never looks back to hang. All he can do is state that the O2 Generator has shut down on high backpressure. They just know Brown has closed a valve that has caused the problem.

If anyone other than Stewart had called they might not have bitten, but knowing how by the book Stewart was, they just knew they had a problem. Me, I’m headed to Machinery One to tell Thomas that if Maneuvering calls, tell them the O2 Generator is down, and that the Engineer had personally told Maneuvering.

I finally head back aft and they are swearing that all our valves are open. I’m asking real concerned, "Are you sure Brown didn’t close something he shouldn’t have." They are assuring me they’ve checked everything, they are showing me the final discharge valve so I can see it’s open. The first thing they had done was drill Brown on whether he had turned any valves looking for the mystery valve. Of course Brown knows there’s no problem and is getting the last laugh.

The nukes had a couple of theories on what could have happened, my personal favorite was that the discharge itself had froze over.

I went back forward after some more "concerned" talk about what could have happened. I go straight to Machinery One, tell Thomas what is happening back aft. Then straight to Control to let them in on how things were back aft.

Like all good things this was not to last. One of the nukes came forward to get some coffee. Being as he was concerned for our situation he dropped down to Machinery One, went in and saw that the Bomb had all green lights. When the O2 Generator is down she has all red light, when she is up all green.  The gig was up.

Later, I’m coming thru the crew’s mess when he sees me and proceeds to tell me what a sorry individual I am. Some references to my mother, etc. He does promise me I will pay. This was not exactly how I had wanted them to find out and now the tables were turned again.

I’m still on watch and have to go aft to take readings. Now I’m just sure they are going to have duct tape, grease, or something unpleasant for me. I get to maneuvering and once again I am told what a sorry individual I am. Well I survived the watch and they were still promising I would pay.

They never actually did anything to me that trip. I think they were having to much fun the next two weeks watching try to figure out who was up before I would take a shower because I was just sure they would cut off the hot or cold water to either freeze me or burn me. Or watch ease back aft the rest of the trip waiting to see what traps they had planned.

If it hadn’t been for Stewart it would have never come off. Wherever you are Eng, "Thanks" you made the last run a little more bearable.

Scooter Roy

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