another duty day non no-sh*tter

rob posted a duty day sea story below that brings to mind one of the almost required screwups by the below decks watch.
when qualifying belowdecks, the watchstanders have to not only know and understand the major systems forward, but they also have to learn how to place potable water tanks on service, line up for a low pressure blow along side the pier, shift air banks, and blow sanitary tanks. all well and good. qualified submariners are subposed (intentional mis-spelling for humor attempt) to be able to do all those things by the time they get their fish tacked on.
until the late 70's, seawolf didn't have "environmental" hull connections for the sanitaries. we just blew them to the river. on the midwatch. when nobody was looking. not that we were trying to get away with anything, it's just the midwatch was the best time to not impede traffic to the heads, and to mask any "white streamers" that may have been released to the river.
our young belowdecks trainee was lining up to blow the san overboard, with the qualled guy taking logs in another part of the boat. hmmmm, an unsupervised trainee lining up the tank. not to worry...he'd done it several times while underway. and he WAS qualified, don't you know?
here i am, the luckless engineering lab tech, topside in the middle of the night getting caught up on surveys, sampling the pure water header, and shooting the breeze with my roomie the topside watch when.....a geyser of unmentionable horror erupts from the waterline, and douses both of us with a noxious goo.
how did things go so wrong? well, when pressurizing the tank 10 to 15 pounds above seapressure to blow the contents overboard, it helps to remember that the last time you pressurized the tank to 120 pounds, you were not sitting along side the pier.
seaman gang had help for a couple of days from the hapless trainee, and his trainer, as they cleaned the superstructure and below the walking deck and inside line lockers. and i just got sh*t on. over and over from all the jokesters that thought "pretty crappy way to spend an evening, huh nook?" over and over. until the next big dammit happened when the eng blew the sanitary all over himself because he couldn't wait to go, and forgot the tank was pressurized when he slammed the ball valve open.

posted by bothenook @ 1:24 PM