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

Three Years & Two Days

by Morgan Evans

I think it was in 1949 that Nantucket LS 112 had only been on station a few days when I arrived for another months tour of duty. The ship had been in the shipyard for overhaul and maintenance. Soon after coming on board Skipper Edward Gosson told me about the argument he had with the shipyard. They were going to replace all the swivels in the anchor chain with a different type. He told the shipyard crew that those type swivels would not last under Nantucket's weather.

A few days later when the sea was as flat as a pool table (very rare for Nantucket's location) the skipper woke me up about 0600. He wanted me to check the LORAN receiver because he was getting strange readings on it. I went up to the bridge and went through all of the calibration and then took the readings. In those days you obtained two readings in numbers and had to use a special LORAN chart to plot your position. I told the skipper that the LORAN checked OK and the readings showed us to be about 10 miles east of station. He agreed with me saying he had obtained the same readings when he called me.

He told me to call the engine room crew and he would start pulling the anchor. By the time I got back to him he was using a few choice words and saying " I tried to tell them but they wouldn't listen to me!" He said he only pulled a short time and the end of the chain came in broken at one of the new swivels the shipyard had replaced.

The engine was fired up, I shut down the radio beacons and sent a notice to Boston Radio "NMF" that we were off station. We proceeded to steam back to station and dropped the standby anchor. I turned on the radio beacons and notified Boston that we were back on station. We could see the station buoy now which we first thought it might have drifted off location.

A few days later the Relief LS 106 came out to take over the station. Since I was the only "ET" on board I had to transfer to the Relief while Nantucket and everybody else went to shore again.

This happened in a calm sea. If it had been rough and the ship had drifted 10 miles west it would have piled up on the very shoals we were guarding. We were all very lucky that day.

A few days later the buoy tender Hornbeam came out and grappled for the anchor and chain. They recovered all of it. I believe Nantucket LS had about 900 feet of chain.

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