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Something unusual happened in the Bermuda Triangle after the 13th torpedo was launched. |
I had about enough of the 12 hour days onboard a sub-rescue ship and was looking forward to a few days of R&R at the Bahamas.The engineroom was sweltering from the tropical heat despite the fact that there had been no A/C units on the blink and the fans were working fine. We had been pulling double duty since many of the crew members were on leave and I came up out of the hole sort of ticked off about the fact that we might not finish up until after 5. I was anxious to feel steady land beneath my feet again after almost 3 weeks in the Hatteras area and my green seasick face was darkened by the black circles I had under my eyes. Besides that I didn't want to miss any time at the casino. The sun was blinding me as I stepped on to the deck outside the electricians department. I asked Petty Officer Tom what time it was. He told me it was 13:00Hrs. I remembered it was Friday. Friday the 13th actually. We were on our 13th operation for the year. The gunner had just fired the 13th torpedo. And then it happened. The gyrocompass froze. I got a call from the officer's deck that they needed an electrician up there now. Tom and I went up to investigate with a few tools and after we looked at the gyro we decided to just replace it with a spare we kept in the electricians office. The new one we reinstalled froze up right away too. We were dead in the water with no compass to guide us. There were plenty of ways to get in trouble without a compass. Being in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle with all of these "13"s finally got to me. I stepped out on to the fantail to get a breath of fresh air and was stunned by what I witnessed. The entire ocean was like a sheet of glass. There was not one ripple. No wind. Nothing but deep blue seawater in all directions.A perfectly still moment in time. And then after standing in awe for an entire minute, the gyro went back on. |