October 27, 2010

Sea story time. This is outboard the main engine. Back onboard BAINBRIDGE a senior first class petty officer and I were supposed to paint outboard the main engine in number two engine room. Where we were there were stringers, horizontal slats with lips to give the hull strength. After about a day of carrying the paint in buckets down to where we were supposed to be painting we decided it would be easier to just pour the paint into the stringer and slap it up onto the bulkhead from there. So we filled the stringer with bilge red and went to town. Of course we didn't use all the paint in the stringer. Years later, about two years later I think, the engineer assigned to BAINBRIDGE decided to go down and inspect outboard the main engine. He came back up into the space with one leg covered in red paint from the shoe to about halfway up his shin. Turns out he stepped into the stringer and thought it would just be a solid sort of shelf. That two year old paint was still wet on the inside. To bad Kevin wasn't there to see the fruits of his labor. USS MASSACHUSETTS (BB-59), Fall River, Massachusetts. October 27, 2010