Old Weather Forum

Oh dear. I've just transcribed 'Employed watering ship' in USS Jamestown's log and had a vision of the crew walking up and down the decks watering cans in hand. I can't decide whether this is a warped sense of humour or the onset of senility.

Warped sense of humour!
I had the same reaction many years ago
That picture and also standing on the dock holding out a bucket of water for the ship to drink from.

Did a couple in real life while writing documentation for work:

- "End of lice" instead of "End of life"
- "One-too-many relationships" instead of "One-to-many relationships"

When I saw this, I realized it was probably time to quit for the day, and indeed it was

A relationship with lice would definitely be one too many

For a second, I read "120 fathoms of wine" instead of "120 fathoms of wire" (for measuring depth)

*hic*

I've heard of a yard of ale but 120 fathoms!!!

You'd have a bit of a headache after that lot

Haida, June 24th 1940:
https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/med ... 6-0029.JPG

Near the end of the third paragraph, it says "Checked small arms and ammunition", which I initially read as "Chucked small arms and ammunition [overboard]"

Probably because in the previous month, they really did throw 2000 rounds of blanks overboard!

There were probably times when the people being drilled wanted to chuck them overboard.

Haida, July 6th 1940, 07:40:
https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/med ... 7-0011.JPG

For a while, I was reading "Angry Personnel came aboard" before realizing it was likely "Army Personnel came aboard"

Being army, and on a ship, they probably were angry!