# Sailor Feared Lost at Sea Found Hiding in the Ship's Engine Room **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 16, 2017, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sailor-feared-lost-at-sea-found-hiding-in-the-ships-engine-room/789139 "2017-06-16T19:09:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2017, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sailor-feared-lost-at-sea-found-hiding-in-the-ships-engine-room/789139/21 "2017-06-16T23:46:04Z")
> [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > Mustered out and changed his name sort of - writes it backwards now. Poor Bob. ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2017, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sailor-feared-lost-at-sea-found-hiding-in-the-ships-engine-room/789139/22 "2017-06-16T23:54:19Z")
Newt was able to survive longer than that with no weapons and no training. ---
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2017, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sailor-feared-lost-at-sea-found-hiding-in-the-ships-engine-room/789139/23 "2017-06-17T18:37:42Z")
> [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](#): > > Newt was able to survive longer than that with no weapons and no training. Well, she was privy to the fact that they mostly come at night. Mostly. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2017, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sailor-feared-lost-at-sea-found-hiding-in-the-ships-engine-room/789139/24 "2017-06-17T19:53:21Z")
> [@Tranquilis](#): > > Yeah, the word is spreading pretty fast through the grapevine that the CO of the USS Shiloh is a serious old-school martinet. One wonders how long before he’s sacked for cause. Kind of amazing that a “Capt. Bligh” like that can manage to make it in today’s Navy climate. My battalion was deployed to Guam in 1978 under a CO and XO who were both complete assholes. Tensions ran pretty high, with some outright rebellion from some individuals. It all came to a head one Friday night, when someone fired up a D-6 dozer, pointed it at the CO’s office and let it go. It crawled down into a ditch, which served to make it pivot away from the CO’s office and plow into the personnel office instead, nearly destroying that end of the metal structure. Next weekend a D-8 was let loose on the building I worked out of. Big investigation by NCIS, interviewing almost everybody (including me). They never got to the bottom of it, other that realizing the command had a huge morale problem. The OPS (S-3) officer was relieved of his position (for incompetence) and sent home, but the CO and XO stayed on. Thankfully it was my last deployment with that outfit. I heard later that a similar incident occurred on the following deployment. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sailor-feared-lost-at-sea-found-hiding-in-the-ships-engine-room/789139/25 "2017-06-18T15:23:27Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Yep, that’s exactly where I cut and pasted the relevant scene. Just changed the names [del]to protect the innocent [/del] to make it generic for the current incident. Wow. I got completely whoosed. Sorry about that. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sailor-feared-lost-at-sea-found-hiding-in-the-ships-engine-room/789139/26 "2017-06-18T18:30:19Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > My battalion was deployed to Guam in 1978 under a CO and XO who were both complete assholes. Tensions ran pretty high, with some outright rebellion from some individuals. It all came to a head one Friday night, when someone fired up a D-6 dozer, pointed it at the CO’s office and let it go. It crawled down into a ditch, which served to make it pivot away from the CO’s office and plow into the personnel office instead, nearly destroying that end of the metal structure. Next weekend a D-8 was let loose on the building I worked out of. Big investigation by NCIS, interviewing almost everybody (including me). > > They never got to the bottom of it, other that realizing the command had a huge morale problem. The OPS (S-3) officer was relieved of his position (for incompetence) and sent home, but the CO and XO stayed on. Thankfully it was my last deployment with that outfit. I heard later that a similar incident occurred on the following deployment. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sailor-feared-lost-at-sea-found-hiding-in-the-ships-engine-room/789139/27 "2017-06-18T18:34:03Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > For a week? Someone else in the crew was probably smuggling him food and water. I can’t picture him going without for that long, and if he tried to sneak out to the galley, he’d probably have been caught. Maybe he stored a few things before he “disappeared”. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sailor-feared-lost-at-sea-found-hiding-in-the-ships-engine-room/789139/28 "2017-06-18T18:40:04Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > :eek: That’s not the worst that has ever happened. Back in the late 60s, or early 70s, some guys from the same battalion (MCB 40), in retaliation for brawls started by Guamanian locals, loaded a bulldozer up on a lowboy, took it up to a bar perched on the edge of an ocean overlook, and pushed the (empty) bar off the cliff. That particular Seabee battalion was banned from the island until 1974, which is when I was there. First time back and still causing trouble. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sailor-feared-lost-at-sea-found-hiding-in-the-ships-engine-room/789139/29 "2017-06-18T19:26:22Z")
> [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > they thought he’d gone (literally) overboard till he was so hungry he came out after 3-4 days IIRC. Mustered out and changed his name sort of - writes it backwards now. > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Poor Bob. “There are campfire legends that the plainsmen spin Of a man who was nothing like Palidin Couldn’t ride couldn’t shoot but he won his fame Cause everything he said said backwards was the same Palindrome Palindrome what’s in a name Palindrome Palindrome backwards the same” ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sailor-feared-lost-at-sea-found-hiding-in-the-ships-engine-room/789139/30 "2017-06-19T00:32:36Z")
I wonder what this sailor’s end game was. Sooner or later, the warship had to return to port, and he had to go home. Did he plan to sneak out of the warship after it had moored at home port, and 007 his way past all the guards, other sailors, and base personnel? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sailor-feared-lost-at-sea-found-hiding-in-the-ships-engine-room/789139/31 "2017-06-19T07:20:50Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > For a week? Someone else in the crew was probably smuggling him food and water. I can’t picture him going without for that long, and if he tried to sneak out to the galley, he’d probably have been caught. Energy bars are small and last a lot. If a toilet was easily accessible from there, he had water. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sailor-feared-lost-at-sea-found-hiding-in-the-ships-engine-room/789139/32 "2017-06-19T12:51:54Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I wonder what this sailor’s end game was. Sooner or later, the warship had to return to port, and he had to go home. Did he plan to sneak out of the warship after it had moored at home port, and 007 his way past all the guards, other sailors, and base personnel? I think when you get into crisis mode you don’t think clearly about the endgame. Two analogies: - people who run from the cops, even when it’s bloody obvious they’re not going to escape; they just keep running until they can’t run anymore, and then keep fighting (through the OC and taser) until the cops wrestle the cuffs onto them against their will. - a pilot whose plane is in stall, but he keeps pulling back on the stick: he’s not thinking “I have to nose-down and get some airspeed to regain control,” he’s feeling “STAY AWAY FROM THE GROUND”. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sailor-feared-lost-at-sea-found-hiding-in-the-ships-engine-room/789139/33 "2017-06-19T16:31:51Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I wonder what this sailor’s end game was. Sooner or later, the warship had to return to port, and he had to go home. Did he plan to sneak out of the warship after it had moored at home port, and 007 his way past all the guards, other sailors, and base personnel? While I was serving aboard the USS CARL VINSON, one of the sailors assigned to the mess decks (“mess crank”) went missing immediately after the beginning of a cruise. We had a man overboard evolution and a few general quarters. The GQ was to get everyone on board to search everywhere aboard. Finally, the missing sailor was declared “missing, presumed dead” and his next-of-kin notified. A few weeks, maybe a couple of months, later, the “dead” sailor was apprehended by civilian law enforcement for committing some crime. The cops knew “Lazarus” was active duty military because he had his Navy identification card on him, and turned him over to the military. So, what happened; how did he get off the ship? Quite simply, he walked. After mustering on the morning the cruise began, he was assigned with other mess cranks to take bags of wet garbage to the dumpsters on the pier. He did so, and then just left. Thanks to him, the pier was guarded closely for the next cruises. Like the sailor in the current incident, he had no end game. At least these two guys didn’t do what two other sailors aboard the VINSON did: jump off the ship at sea and tried to swim to Thailand. Two guys, separate incidents involving only one person, same bad swimming plan. No end game for them either. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sailor-feared-lost-at-sea-found-hiding-in-the-ships-engine-room/789139/34 "2017-06-19T16:44:28Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Energy bars are small and last a lot. If a toilet was easily accessible from there, he had water. For the aspiring Mark Spitzes I mentioned above, each had a Glad bag containing: [ul][li]Brush, tooth @1[/li][li]Paste, tooth @1 tube[/li][li]Bar, candy (Snickers) @1[/ul][/li] At our next port-of-call, which was not in Thailand, my division officer told my division, “It might take a long time to get ashore, so be sure you have your Thailand liberty bag with you; the candy bar does not have to be Snickers.” ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sailor-feared-lost-at-sea-found-hiding-in-the-ships-engine-room/789139/35 "2017-06-19T17:06:39Z")
I see that their moms had convinced them of the importance of brushing one’s teeth. Very, very important if you want to make a good impression! ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sailor-feared-lost-at-sea-found-hiding-in-the-ships-engine-room/789139/36 "2017-06-19T17:10:26Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Though places I would have hid would not have been an engine room, but rather voids and spaces for servicing the air system. I wonder if he was caught going to or from a head (bathroom). I see some un-fun problems with hiding in either. As to using the head, he just may have, er, stopped and dropped when and where needed. If so, I wonder what the searchers thought. “Wow, we must have some big rats on this ship.” Or maybe he recycled the waste, if you get my drift. > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Poor Bob. Posts like this are part of why I love this site. [Here are more palindrome names.](http://www.babynamewizard.com/archives/2011/1/palindrome-baby-names-the-master-list) ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sailor-feared-lost-at-sea-found-hiding-in-the-ships-engine-room/789139/37 "2017-06-19T23:06:51Z")
He was the one who made the duplicate wardroom key and stole the strawberries. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sailor-feared-lost-at-sea-found-hiding-in-the-ships-engine-room/789139.md?page=1)