Battleship Cove, Part the First

BB-59 USS Massachusetts "Big Mamie"

As mentioned the other day, blog buddy Murph and I were at Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts on Sunday. The weather was superb, no doubt it was that way so Murph would think his whole vacation in New England would be like that.

Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Wrong...

Weather will be going to crap soon, so Murph had to cut his vacation short and head back to his place. You can drive in crappy weather and the odds are you'll come out alive. Not always true in a small aircraft. Murph has no doubt heard the saying...

There are bold pilots and there are old pilots, but no old, bold pilots.

While Murph loves to take chances and boldly go where he ain't supposed to go (or play with F-4 boarding ladders when he shouldn't), that boldness doesn't extend to his flying.

Smart man that Murph. Though our trip to Battleship Cove might lead one to think otherwise.

USS Lionfish, SS-298

On board USS Lionfish I discovered that Murph has yet to find a switch or button that he won't at least try to activate. I had the following go off not 6 inches from my left ear.

Let's just say that it got my attention!

That was in the control room of the Lionfish. The look on his face was priceless, he seemed rather chagrined when he realized that he'd activated the alarm right next to my head.

It was pretty funny.

Also in the control room I decided to have a head butting contest with a piece of equipment hanging from the overhead.

The equipment won...

If someone swabs that corner inside the yellow circle, that's my DNA and I'd like it back...

Notice in that previous photo how there seems to be Plexiglas covering all of the neat switches, levers and buttons? Man did that frustrate our man Murph!

While this is a short post to cover for Tuna (who mumbled something about a paying job and dashed off) I will be posting more pictures later. Well, when I "hired" Tuna I told him he didn't have to post every Tuesday, just when he wanted to. I have a similar arrangement with Juvat for Mondays. If they don't have time, I get to step in.

Then again, when I was incarcerated in the hospital, the lads covered for me very well. (Oh yeah, convalescence is at an end, by the time you read this I'll be back at work. Coffee break's over, back on my head...)

We watch over each other here at The Chant. Lord knows someone needs to keep an eye on us!

USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., DD-850

On the left the Soviet built (Leningrad) Tarantul I-class corvette Hiddensee.
On the right the stern of the Lionfish.

Ship's bell, USS Massachusetts.

One of the things which would have enticed me into the Navy. Posing on Kennedy's port-side bridge wing.

Why I didn't join the Navy. Enlisted berthing on board Kennedy.

You could hear the gears in our heads turning as we plotted how to get this next beauty back to Newport State Airport!

North American T-28 Trainer

I think they knew about Murph's visit, hence the fence.

A great time was had. Unfortunately The Nuke was under the weather and had to stay home. But the tale of our trip to Newport will be seen in these spaces. Soon I hope. (It did involve fried clams and Guinness for those who were wondering!)