On one memorable occasion, one of my friends in the ON Division missed the first step on the ship’s accommodation ladder as he moved from the whaleboat to the Chicago on a particularly rough day, with a storm brewing. He ended up floundering in the water. In the rough waves, the whaleboat was sometimes high above the the ship’s ladder, then suddenly far below it. When my friend was coming aboard, each previous passenger on the whaleboat had successfully jumped onto the small platform at the bottom of the ship’s ladder, as it moved with the water. But finally, when my friend’s turn came, the timing of the waves had changed slightly and his leap to the platform was not successful. He landed in the rough, cold water of the bay, between the ship and the whaleboat. Numerous hands reached into the water and pulled him out. He escaped with only minor cuts and scratches. It was definitely his lucky day!
Despite the awkward moment of transition between the whaleboat and the ship, I enjoyed taking the whaleboat across the bay for my morning and evening commute. It was about a 10 minute ride and it gave me a good sense of what the weather was like. On foggy days it was really neat to hear the seagulls calling and the fog horns sounding.
The pilot always got us to the ship, no matter what the weather might be. On rainy days, there was a canvas that was put over the whaleboat. It helped somewhat, although it never kept me completely dry. On sunny days, there were usually a lot of sailboats on the bay, and sometimes there were pretty young women on the boats, and sometimes the women were in bikinis. Those were the really nice times to ride the whaleboat, although I don’t remember very many of those.
