Ruth and Carl
It was a dark and stormy
night…again, somewhere in the North Atlantic…again.
OK, these are my
stories…I like the way that sounds so either skip this or stop rolling your
eyes…
GRAND ISLE was the
B-6 (Bravo 6), North Response boat for the week in D1 (First Coast Guard
District, basically New England). We would
be the first boat out for a search and rescue case, emergent law enforcement
situation, whatever may happen. If GRAND
ISLE was inport we had six hours to get the boat underway.
A quick primer on
status. Alpha status—underway, making
way; what all sailors want! B-0 was
highest inport alert—something was going down or the approach of a major storm
– you were all on board, engines warned up and ready to go. B-2 or B-6 was the aforementioned alert
status. B-12, second boat out, 12 hours
to get going…good status for the Law Enforcement boat.) B-24, normal inport, can do most maintenance
and good time for the crew to take leave.
Charlie or C, planned maintenance cutter is down hard. Cutters get a set amount of Charlie time
every year…godsend for crews—they need downtime as much as machines do. Delta or D…Drydock…you are literally out of
the water.
It was Thursday
early morning; GRAND ISLE was on patrol and getting flayed – walking along the
bulkheads seemed only moments away. The
XO and I discussed GRAND ISLE’s ability to prosecute any mission – no chance; and
the crew was drag ass tired from the constant beating. Imagine living on a roller coaster…you may
get close to life on a patrol boat.
I called the
District and told them we were coming back to Gloucester for the next couple of
days and would get underway later in the week.
This was a pretty common strategy when the weather deteriorated. GI’s homeport was located just about the middle
of the North Response area. Even in a
B-6 status we could on scene for most SAR cases quicker than other cutters. Gloucester
Harbor was protected by a stone sea wall and it orientation protected from just
about any kind of weather. Easy to
navigate, well marked, and outstanding location—Gloucester was a working harbor
in the 1600s before the Pilgrims settled Plymouth.
We moored in the
mid afternoon and got the boat ready for a quick deployment in case anything
went down…fuel, food, water. XO granted
liberty around 1500 and the crew went home.
The next day we would evaluate the weather situation and maybe get back
underway.
I am such an idiot.
I climbed down into
my 1986 Toyota Celica…used, 100K+ miles on the odometer, the tape deck moved
about wherever it felt like. It still had a little pick up and most importantly
it was front wheel drive. Helpful in New
England when you get recalled in the middle of the night in a snow storm.
Except today I got
recalled in the afternoon; with no snow, or rain, yet.
I walked in the
house we rented and about 37 seconds later the phone rang. That was not a god sign.
“Hello?”
“Captain, it QM3 on
the boat.”
Shit
“Go ahead Wheels,
what’s the situation.”
Turns out, a
fishing vessel about 75 miles east of the Merrimack River entrance was disabled
but not adrift—unusual. They lost their
propulsion due to an unknown cause but they were able to deploy their
anchor. I told QM3 to recall the
crew—that was a formality, D1 was directing us to get underway. I hung up with QM3 and called the District
Command Center to get a run down on any additional information they had.
The phone only rang
once.
“First Coast
District Command Center.” Very official
“This is Lieutenant
Dow, CO GRAND ISLE…what can you tell me about the case?”
They had about the
same information with some changes.
“Lobster boat Ruth
and Carl out of Portsmouth blew the mains and no propulsion. Five POB (people on board), weather is
closing in. On scene 15-20 knots 3 foot
seas.” That wasn’t too bad, we could drop the hammers and be there in no time.
“And NORTHLAND is on scene standing by.”
Ah, what???? NORTHLAND was CTU right now they had the
cutters working for them when we were underway; a 270’ medium endurance cutter
out of Virginia. I knew the CO, great
guy and a real sailor. I must have not
heard correctly that they were on scene standing by.
“Where did you say
NORHTLAND was again?”
“They are on scene
standing by to assist.”
We were not quite
at Who’s on First but, I wanted to go with a little snark and tell them if they
were ready they could assist the disabled boat with five people onboard.
“OK, what does
NORHTLAND need us for?”
GI was a 110 foot
patrol boat about 80 miles away.
“They are not able
to make an approach and requested a patrol boat to take RUTH AND CARL in tow.”
OK…I was rolling
with it.
“Roger that. We will be underway in less tan two
hours. We’ll call the Group VHF when we
clear the sea buoy and we have an ETA.”
“Thanks, Captain.”
And with that, I
hung up. I took about 10 minutes to
repack my bag with fresh clothes and was out the door without ever taking off
my coat. It was about a 20 minute drive
to work and by the time I got in about half the crew was aboard. I wasn’t expecting any issues with getting
out in another hour.
I unpacked my bag
and changed back into the uniform I hung up just a couple of hours ago. I grabbed a mug of coffee and made my way to
the bridge. The XO was already up there
talking to the QM1 and laying out a course.
“Captain on the
bridge.”
I returned their
salutes and wondered over to the 1MC and requested the Chief and BM1 join us.
I gave my
leadership team the rundown from the district and then tried to slip in:
“And NORTHLAND is
on scene, standing by.”
Silence. Crickets.
This was bad.
“Come again, sir?”
“Yeah, D1 said they
were in the vicinity and would standby until we got there.”
It was a hard sell.
In all fairness to
NORTHLAND, 110s were much more maneuverable and I bet we had five or six times
more towing experience than they did.
270s were a tough ship to drive with an enormous superstructure, sail
area. So I really shouldn’t giving the
shit I am in this here little story…but its more fun. CDR Egli, if you or any of your crew ever
read this…sorry sir.
We got the boat
underway and away from the pier. We
called the Group to pass along our ETA.
With the weather like it was, not bad at all, we were up to 20 knots and
skipping over the tops of the waves.
Four, four and a half hours and we would be there.
I am such an idiot.
Another quick
primer: The wind was coming out of the
north-northeast, GRAND ISLE was in the lee of Cape Ann. We were protected from the winds by a
significant land mass. As we made our
way around the Cape the winds picked up a bit…18 knots, 22 knots, 25 knots, 30
knots and then Gale Force (33+).
Wow…that escalated quickly.
When the boat came
of the water and slammed down off the face of a good 10 footer we slowed down
to clutch ahead reducing our speed in half.
It was going to take a bit longer to get to RUTH AND CARL than we
initially estimated. XO updated
NORTHLAND and we held on for dear life and we made out way out there.
Then the rain
started. Did I mention it was bout 31,
32 degree out? Freezing rain started to come down in gale force winds…at
night. This was turning into a case for
the books…or at least a short story.
As we approached we
could see the 270 on radar more than 10 miles out—big return on those
cutters. We called them VHF unsecured
and let them know they could stand down from standing by and resume their
patrol. They kindly informed us that
they would maintain station in case we needed any help.
Yeah, like take the
distressed vessel in tow so they could have gotten back to port sooner…like
that kind of help? They were a little
over two miles away form RUTH AND CARL.
A few minutes later they kindly informed us they would use their
spotlight to assist. OK, yeah, thanks
and could you take a look at those TPS reports while your at it?
We had bigger
issues to worry about. Setting up a tow
is usually done with two ships drifting at the same time. RUTH AND CARL was stationary causing us some
issues, but worse they had a anchor line out at the same time. When we got close there was every chance that
their tow line could get caught in our screws and we would be disabled and
adrift. But lucky for us NORTHLAND was
standing by.
The wind was coming
in hard and RUTH AND CARL was head up…we had to coming in on a 45 degree
approach without coming down on the boat or the anchor line. My XO, Rob Halsey, was at the Conn, he was a
superb ship driver. We knew we wanted to
make a long run before to the tow to give Rob and idea of how the ship was going
to handle.
We started from
2000 yards off their starboard quarter. We were going into the wind so Rob had
to clutch in and out with the engines to have any kind of control on the
speed. We were going into the wind. Remember, 33 knots, freezing rain good
times. I held my hand over my eyes to
look between my fingers…I couldn’t keep my eyes open in these conditions. Rob wore glasses. About 8.4 seconds into the approach, XO
needed lens wipe, a lot of lens wipe.
Boxes of lens wipe. By the end of
this case the flying bridge was papered in this white paper clinging to every
surface.
Rob was working the
mains and the helm to get us alongside.
We came up into the wind because RUTH AND CARL was anchored and there
was no drift. The deck department was on
the fantail with two heaving lines ready to go.
They were attached to a lead and that was attached to our towline. We had to get close enough for the crew to
throw a line over but not close enough to crush the nice ship we were trying to
rescue.
“HEAVE WHEN ABLE”
XO’s command to the
deckies gave them control on when they throw the heaving lines. A heaving line is a small line with a monkey’s fist at one end…a
heavy knot the gives the line heft. A
good deckie could get the line out taught.
We had some great deckies.
I could here the
BM1 tell our first thrower to make his attempts. It went out, a little high and got caught in
the wind and stopped short of the distressed boat. The second line flung out right then and also
hit a gust of wind and failed to get across. XO had to gun the mains because we
were close to RUTH AND CARL and circled around to make a second attempt.
Same set up but Rob
was going to try to get closer…I was not on high blood pressure medication at
that point in my life but probably should have been. On our way around the MKC and BM1 came to the
bridge. They knew what the challenge
was…the weather was causing all sorts of problems with this case.
“CAP” BM1 had to
screen to be heard above the screech. “HOW ABOUT THE LINE THROWING GUN?”
It was the right
question…it was more dangerous and some issues itself.
“BOATS, GET IT OUT
OF THE ARMORY AND HAVE GUNS GET IT READY ON THE MESSDECK. I WANT TO GIVE IT ONE
MORE PASS.”
“AYE, SIR. HOW ABOUT PAUL?”
Paul was out MK2
and routinely won the line-throwing contest.
“CAP, ITS A GOOD
IDEA.” The Chief would have made the
suggestion if BM1 had not.
“ROGER THAT.”
They both laid
below and we started out second run. We
had to bull’s-eye a womp rat in Beggars Canyon, a target not much bigger than 2
meters.
The second
approach, the same as the first. We circled
around again. BM1 got the gun ready and
we were set to make our third approach.
We let the RUTH AND CARL know what were going to attempt. One more heave and then the gun on this
pass. The weather had worsened and it
was getting more dangerous for the crew and for the RUTH AND CARL.
XO, clutching in
and out with the mains, was wiping his glasses as fast as he could. GRAND ISLE was coming into the wind and ice
with the crew on deck ready for a final pass.
It was getting more precarious each pass with the stationary ship and
the anchor line leading forward. We
could t-bone the disabled boat or wrap our screws in anchor line, at
night. At least NORTHLAND was using
their spotlight from two miles away illuminating the ocean surface out 1.8
miles in front of them.
“Put over the tow
line when able!”
The monkey’s fist
hit a wall one more time and splashed into the waves.
I radioed down
“Stand by the gun.”
“Hold on Cap…one
more chance?!?!”
“You have to do
it—“
And right then Paul
Baraso let go the best throw I had ever seen or ever would see. It was a frozen rope, straight out and flew
right over the deck. The crew on RUTH
AND CARL pulled the line over. This was
still a dangerous time for GRAND ISLE.
Rob had to coax the boat forward but not too fast with the line going
over the side. The only problem now was
our screws facing the anchor line and our own tow line—the woods, we were still
squarely in them.
The deckies did a
great job paying out 900 foot of line while the XO kept the catenary with
enough of a dip. RUTH AND CARL had to
cut their anchor but a small price to pay.
We kept radio comms with NORTHLAND and Group and set course for
Portsmouth. We would hand them off to
the small boat station there before we set course for home.
The trip back
ashore was made about 6 knots, clutch ahead on one main and we had to pay out
to 1100 foot of towline. It was about 12 hours to get in range for the station
to relieve us of the tow. All told about
a 24-hour mission until we make it back to Gloucester.
A couple of days
later WILLOW sent out its after action report specifically calling out GRAND
ISLE’s outstanding performance during the case.
Fred White called me later that month and said he could here everything
on the radio. He said he was proud to
have trained me. It was one of the
greatest, if not the greatest complements I have ever received.
