Demise of the Captain’s Gig – Part II

Yesterday’s post announced the demise of the CO’s gig on the carrier due to "hangar space" considerations…(riiight…)  Well, it didn’t take long before the sea stories started coming in from all quarters recounting first hand experiences with the gig. Some were just too good to not put up, so, properly expunged (as we aren’t sure of the expiration of the statute of limitations in some cases) we present today’s edition of "The Gig and I":

First up are a couple of stories from a current partner in crime who, as a former 3rd Div O, also shares a former carrier with ourselves:

XXX’s gig was down hard for 3 days in Dubai during Desert Storm. I had to gave the CAPT a PE boat as a gig. When the second class EN had the engine fixed, we took it out on a test run. I was at the helm slaloming through fish traps when I fouled the screw on a net. Fortunately we were out of radio range, so our attempts to call for help (and face inevitable humiliation) failed. We tried all sorts of tricks to get free. Finally, I was stripping my uniform to go over the side into sea-snake infested waters (seriously – it was absolutely revolting to watch them writhing under the waterline lights at night) when my brilliant BMSA (formerly BM3 until two trips to Mast) slowly backed down and worked the screw free. We went back to XXX very sedately.

Last port visit on same deployment: we’re scouting the fleet landing at Palma in a 26 ft Motor Whale Boat with all the liberty boat coxswains when we see the Admiral’s barge racing in (a gig we’d repainted), taking spray over the bow and soaking the admiral and party topside while they were in whites. Why was she racing? Why were the pax getting soaked instead of staying in the cabins? Because oil in the engine compartment had caught fire and smoked out the cabins, as we deduced from the black smoke trail billowing astern the barge…

Back to the gig: we return from deployment and are offloading the boats in Norfolk so Air Dept can lay nonskid in hangar bay #3. The personnel (PE) boats and gig are in the water, and we’re craning off the utility (UB) boats. I’m standing next to the supervising BM on the flight deck and ask him "I’d swear we painted a red stripe on the gig – do you see anything but gray?" He disappears down the ladder, shows up on the pier, disappears into the gig’s after cabin. His eventual sheepish report: "I put the bilge plug back in,ut we’ll need a P-250 to pump all this water and a lot of air freshener for the upholstery."

By the way, did you know that the combined weight of a PE and UB boat in a dolly is a lot more than the NAS Norfolk Aircraft tow-way can handle on a hot summer day? Public Works was REALLY PISSED when we’d only freed one of two dollies that had broken through and sunk up to the axles in the asphalt by the time afternoon rush hour had started…

Lest one think that only airdales and the long suffering SWOs embarked on the CV/CVNs could have "fun" with the gig, here are a few from the blackshoe side of the house (below the fold):

One of my darkest days as CHENG of USS XX (DE 1xxx) in Pearl happened because of the captain’s gig. The CO used to take the gig from his quarters in Magrew Point to the ship. One day he was 45 minutes late. No answer on the hand held radio. I was getting ready to see if I could get a utility boat from the Naval Station to go look for them when a Navy boat full Japanese tourist who were going out to the Arizona Memorial came by with the CO and gig in tow. You could have fried an egg on the old man’s head. He replacated the Hiroshima detonation that morning… Whew! Still makes the hair on my neck crawl… I bet there are a few gig parties before the boats get turned in.

I was CDO on USS XX (DDG-XX) when we were at anchor in Hong Kong Harbor (summer of ’74 I think). It was my very first day as CDO, and I’d only been a LT(jg) a short while. I mean it was the VERY first time I had the whole show to myself. A-Gang had been working on the GIG, replacing water hoses, changing oil, etc. and they wanted permission to take the boat out for a "spin." I approved it.

Everything checked out fine. They radioed back and requested permission to tie up to Fenwick Pier and grab a quick bite of lunch ashore. I mulled it over and gave approval, directing the coxswain to keep one sailor with the boat at the pier while the others got lunch. About 20 minutes later I got a call from the OOD telling me to come quickly to the quarterdeck. When I arrived the OOD handed me binoculars and pointed toward our Gig, about 500 yards away. The bow was almost straight up in the air and it was sinking by the stern. Nobody was in sight near the Gig at the pier. We immediately called away the Motor Whaleboat crew and the Mobile Repair Party, loading two (2) P-250 pumps in the Whaleboat … and off they went to save the Gig. About mid way during the transit to the Gig, the Gig crew arrived to see what all the commotion was about.

Long story short … I got the chance to spend some quality time with our CO, … a great guy, by the way. He remained calm while asking me to rewind the events of that day so that I could assess things I might do differently if the chance were presented again. The Gig did not completely sink, but it probably would have been better if it had. The water hoses had failed, filling the boat with water quickly. Its ballast kept it afloat, but the engine was completely ruined. The coxswain went to Captain’s Mast and got busted for dereliction of duty and failure to obey orders.

It would be 4 months before the Gig was repaired, refinished and repainted at Subic Bay. For most of our entire WestPac our CO had no Gig. Not a good thing when your CO goes to visit other ships in the MWB. But the refurbished and repainted Gig??? She was a beauty, first in her class among all the Gigs in the Squadron. Other CO’s were envious … except for the story behind the "new Gig."

I sunk the Gig on my first day as CDO. I was never destined to make Admiral…

So how about it — any more gig stories out there?  drop ’em in the comments section or if you like, email them and we’ll append them or add them in a new post.

Update: Sid passes along the following story and photo from an earlier era on the Coral Maru (USS Coral Sea for the ROTW)-