Three Years & Two Days by Morgan Evans [USCG LSA]

Three Years & Two Days

by Morgan Evans

It was sometime in February of 1949 that I had to go to Stonehorse LS 53 for a radio beacon repair. This winter was the worst I had seen since I had been stationed at Woods Hole CG depot. The high temperature in daytime would be 10 degrees above and the low at night minus 15 degrees. Buzzards Bay, Vineyard Sound and Nantucket Sound had been frozen solid since the first of the year. The only way I could get to the lightships in these waters were either by the 180 ft buoy tenders or the 98 ft tug.

We started with the tug in the morning headed for Stonehorse. The tug was breaking ice that appeared to be anywhere from two to three foot thick. I don't know how many have ever had a ride on an ice breaking ship, but it is quite an experience when the tug starts to rise up on top of the ice until you think it is going to turn over and then it breaks through with slabs of ice big as a car go sliding across the frozen field.

As we approached Monomoy Point we began to run out of ice into clear water. The ocean was almost flat calm so the skipper brought the tug along side the lightship. I went aboard and the tug stayed astern. The skipper told me he would wait for me if I didn't take too long for the repair job. It took longer than I thought and it was getting late in the afternoon by the time I was ready to go. By then the seas had built up to the point that the it wasn't safe for the tug to come along side. The lightship crew tried to start the engine in their motor lifeboat before they lowered it. The engine would not start probably because of the extreme cold weather. So it looked like I would have stay on board for a few days before the tug could come back since the tug had other work scheduled. The coming weekend was supposed to be the first chance I had to go on liberty for about three weeks and I didn't want to spend it on Stonehorse.

Chief Peabody said he could get me to the tug if I wanted to chance it. He said if I wanted to go in the dory they had enough line to let it go back to the tug. Being young and foolish I said why not? I laid down in the bottom of the dory with my tool box and multimeter. They lowered the dory away and I cast the blocks off and started a rough ride back to the tug in that sea. When I came along side the tug it looked as big as the Queen Mary. Each time the dory came up on the top of a wave I would pass the meter and tool box to the boatswain mate on the tug. I waited for my chance and stood up as the wave crested and grabbed the Jacobs ladder but I wouldn't have made it if that mate hadn't grabbed my belt and snatched me on board. The dory stayed tied up on a long line all night and they got back on board the next morning.

After another ice breaking trip back to Woods Hole, I was able to go on liberty that weekend. I have thought about it many times since then how dumb I was to take a chance like that

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