Concur on the ‘nutters’ evaluation but you HAVE to throw in ‘awesome’ and ‘badass’ at the same time.
How quickly political correctness take hold!
The link to the newspaper article about the twins was 1997; the headline for the article beside it was: Retarded Murderer Executed
Australian soap operas :smack: Who knew???
Reminds me of the story of a suicidal young woman who went down to the docks to throw herself in the water. Just as she was about to leap, a friendly sailor stopped her.
“I’m off to South America in the morning, you could come too,” he said. “I’ll hide you in the hold, bring you as much food as you need, and all I ask is that you keep me happy on the long voyage.”
She agrees, and over the next few weeks she enthusiastically keeps up her side of the bargain. Eventually, however, she is caught hiding and hauled in front of the captain.
“Explain yourself, woman,” he yells.
“Well, sir, I have come to an arrangement with one of your crew. He’s taking me to South America to start a new life, and giving me food and water on the voyage…”
“And what are you giving him in return?”
“Well, sir, I have to admit he’s screwing me.”
“He certainly is,” the skipper replies. “This is the Calais ferry.”
Edit… OK so Krokodil got there first…
As a peripherally related question, how late in history was a naval captain privileged to have his wife aboard? I would guess that the practice was still technically legal but frowned upon in the Napoleonic era; but I don’t actually know.
FWIW I knew a lady that claimed that in her youth, she and another free spirited young lass were smuggled aboard a US Navy destroyer before it went out for a weekend exercise.
She and the other lady spent the weekend entertaining members of the crew.
From what I gathered not on a professional basis, but rather as their way to support the troops, if you catch my drift.
No they were not caught.
Some merchant vessels used to allow the the officers to bring wives and infant children on board till very recently. In particular, Shipping Corporation of India (the government owned shipping line of India) allowed it. I think it has stopped post 9/11 because getting visas became harder and the whole thing became too much trouble. I’m not sure about this though. I haven’t been on an SCI vessel for a while.
I think they still do allow it, at least on longer Voyages. I have an Aunt whose Husband is in the Merchant Navy and She Travelled with him for a few months on a Journey to Indonesia. I’m not too clear on what the actual route was but She did Travel with him for 4-5 Months and has done so pretty regularly in the past.
Merchant sailors don’t travel with pasports. In the US Merchant Marine they have Z cards. The wife and family would need visas.
In the days of sail most masters were also part owners of the ship and could bring their family.
While I’m no expert, I did do a little research on this for an undergraduate project. I never found any evidence to suggest that women were considered to be bad luck on a ship. In fact, in the 19th century it wasn’t uncommon for the captains of some merchant vessels to have their wives and daughters aboard ship.
David Cordingly’s “Women Sailors and Sailor’s Women” is a pretty good book that might interest people here.
Odesio
“Bad luck” may be the wrong term. The sailors who aren’t getting any action deeply, deeply resent the sailors who are, adversely affecting morale on the ship.
I was just reading how pregnant women aboard ships during the Battle of the Nile went into premature labor from the concussion of the guns.
One of my favorite short story ending sentences is in “Bottle Party,” by John Collier. A man is tricked by a genie into being trapped in his bottle:
“In the end, some sailors happened to drift into the shop, and, hearing that this bottle contained the most beautiful girl in the world, they bought it up by general subscription of the fo’c’sle. When they unstoppered him at sea and found it was only poor Frank, their disappointment knew no bounds, and they used him with the utmost barbarity.”
In the 1980’s while traveling in Malaysia, with another girl, we caught a ride down the coast on a Malay Police/Coast Guard vessel. It was a large ship, over 90 sailors on board, and anti aircraft guns on both sides. We were not stowaways, though. We were guests of the Captain and Firstmate who befriended us, on an island off the east coast. While we were ‘guests’ I’m pretty sure it’s not standard operating procedure to offer rides, down the coast, to tourists. We had full run of the ship, (very interesting!), played cards with the officers, and had crab, (liberated from nearest fisherman), for lunch! We were on the boat only for an afternoon, but had a blast!
What happened to the dude? The first article says the sisters scarpered with him and some life jackets but then it only says the twins were found by the local Aboriginal community later.
So wait, they stole some fisherman’s catch? What a bunch of dicks.
Well, I think he was there or maybe found a bit later - the reports were pretty contradictory for a while. Eventually both the twins went to Malaysia, married (one of them to the aforementioned crewman), converted to Islam and had babies. They blame drink for their youthful indiscretions.
Si
Cool, thanks. I assumed bad things happened since the article specifically named the guy but rather suspiciously didn’t mention what happened to him. By bad things I mean I imagined either the twins killed and ate his corpse or he got separated and was found half-eaten by dingoes yet was still alive. You know, stuff the twins might not want to mention to the authorities.
He was there. It’s just that he’s some seafarer guy from some 2nd world nation and they are female teen twins from New Zealand. One is news, one isn’t.
"So wait, they stole some fisherman’s catch? What a bunch of dicks. "
To be honest, it would have been hard for me to determine, if the inquiry concerning the fishing boats morning catch produced ‘liberating’ or ‘proffering’ of crab for lunch.
As a guest, I was hardly in a position to pursue it.
A poor fisherman, kicking back a little crab to the police/naval ship might well be standard operating procedure, for all I know. I was led to believe we were surrounded by fishing vessels as it is just plain safer to ply your trade in sight of a police/naval ship, as these could be dangerous waters. At the time, I was told, the threat was Indonesian pirates.
We had one on my ship in the U.S. Navy once back in the last 80’s. She was found in about 3-4 days. The big issue was that as more and more guys found out she was there, the ahmmm, demands on her time if you will, grew and she came out in the open. The ship turned around and took her back to the UK.
Name and hull number of the vessel, please.