If you are, or were, a Sailor and never rode a Tin Can, you still have some life to live.
The seas set Her mood and on a good night you can’t beat the comfort She will give.
The gentle sea swells provide the sweetest rest that most Sailors will ever want, or know.
You hear and feel the sea as it brushes the hull, you’re close to it and its soothing flow.
Many was the occasion after some time tied up to a pier, and having to sail once more.
The Destroyer Sailor finds that those same gentle seas will lull him as they did before.
He would much rather take a little nap than partake of the typically good noon chow.
I am reminded fondly of days when I rode those Destroyers, yes, I was just learning how.
Also in the fore mind, are the times, when the seas were resigned to be wicked and mean.
The Can seemed to fight for Herself, to stay on an even keel, to manage each swell clean.
But in sea states, as most Tin Can Sailors have seen. It could be over one and under two.
A shutter of the bow was felt throughout the ship, as was the worrying slap of the screw.
Those seas molded mere recruits into Navymen, that could fight in any sea condition.
They’d prefer to ride gentle seas, but it was the high seas that formed the Cans tradition.
The tasks of the Destroyer were many and varied; sea state did not present a real worry.
Steaming from Mayport past Burmuda at max turns into heavy seas, that was quite a fury.
A lot of green water came over the bridge during that 900 mile ride, but we made it there.
E. A. Hughes, FTCM (SS), USN (Retired)
© 2001 E. A. Hughes
(Reprinted here by permission of the author)
Congratulations Chief Petty Officer Cosby.
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