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Sailor Jumped Overboard
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| USS Haynsworth DD700 |
| * Scuttlebut & Memories * |
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Sailor Jumped Overboard
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To the best of my memories, I'm going to relate to you an incident that happened in 1963.
It was my second Med Cruse and we were on patrol on the Red Sea. It was a warm day, the sea was like glass and we were only doing less then 10 knots. I was on watch in the After Engine when all Hell broke loose. The After Watch started yelling over the IC Phone, H****S***, the kid just jumped overboard. ( As you can see the correct procedure for talking on the phone, went out the window). The Bell came down, FLANK SPEED. we circled around ALL STOP and our divers went into the water to get our shipmate. They brought him up on the Port Side and he broke loose and went off the Starboard Side. FLANK SPEED again ALL STOP again and the divers went back into the water a second time. It seems the boy approached his buddy who was in the paint locker and told him he couldn't take being sea sick any more and was jumping overboard. His Buddy thought he was kidding around and told him "Go ahead, I'll join you in as soon as I'm done here". With that the kid walked up to the Depth Charge Rack, took off his shoes and jumped. The saving grace was that we were only doing 10 Knots and the boy was not sucked into the props. Someone was watching over him that day. A doctor was flown in and he was taken off the ship. About three years after I left the Haynsworth I met this fellow, He told me he was sent to the the Navy Hospital in Naples and they found he suffered from Chronic Sea Sickness and the Navy Discharged him because of it. He fought the Navy because he wanted to stay in, but because the contract we signed with the US NAVY required that we be able to do Sea Time, he lost his case. He told me that he had no problem flying in a plane but could not take his kid out on a boat. |
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One of our mail clerks jumped overboard in the Black Sea and we had to do a 180 to rescue him, all while we were being followed by two Russian Destroyers and a Russian Sub. He was sea sick all the time and just gave up. I found out months later that he was working as a mailman in Philadelphia, PA.
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He was a seaman 3rd class who was always, always seasick! He jumped overboard off of the port side by the paint locker and was spotted immediately. We were in the Black Sea without the ability to refuel so were never moving fast. He was picked up right away and held, hand cuffed, in the Chief's quarters until he was off loaded in Istanbul.
Were at ASW GQ all the time we were underway as we were shadowed by a great looking modern, for 1961, Russian frigate and a number of Russian subs, some of which were nuclear - we taped every sonar contact we encountered the whole time we were in the Black Sea. We made two Turkey ports of calls where liberty was quite different. |