[481] in Humor
HUMOR: Two "ships" that pass in the night
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Andrew A. Bennett)
Thu Oct 6 12:11:40 1994
To: humor@MIT.EDU
Date: Thu, 06 Oct 1994 12:05:19 EDT
From: "Andrew A. Bennett" <abennett@MIT.EDU>
Date: Thu, 6 Oct 94 08:47:13 PDT
From: Connie_Kleinjans@Novell.COM (Connie Kleinjans)
Just in and delightful (in a Reader's Digest kind of way). :)
Sender: "XpnsivWino" <XpnsivWino@aol.com>
To: mdb-humor@cisco.com
From: "andrew m. boardman" <amb@large.org>
Two battleships assigned to the training squadron had been at sea on
maneuvers in heavy weather for several days. I was serving on the lead
battleship and was on watch on the bridge as night fell. The visibility
was poor with patchy fog, so the captain remained on the bridge keeping an
eye on all activities.
Shortly after dark, the lookout on the wing of the bridge reported,
"Light, bearing on the starboard bow."
"Is it steady or moving astern?" the captain called out.
Lookout replied, "Steady, captain," which meant we were on a dangerous
collision course with that ship.
The captain then called to the signalman, "Signal that ship: We are on a
collision course, advise you change course 20 degrees."
Back came a signal, "Advisable for you to change course 20 degrees."
The captain said, "Send, I'm a captain, change course 20 degrees."
"I'm a seaman second class," came the reply. "You had better change
course 20 degrees."
By that time, the captain was furious. He spat out, "Send, I'm a
battleship. Change course 20 degrees."
Back came the flashing light, "I'm a lighthouse."
We changed course.
- Frank Koch, Proceedings of the Naval Institute
