Bask in the soothing sounds of the sea...
Nerd By Northwest #281 – “Beer + Guys + Boredom, Equals…”
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Makes you wonder what the ship crews of old did to pass the time, doesn't it? All those guys on one boat for weeks at a time with few opportunities for recreation... who's to say that belching contests were not a thing on pirate ships? Or even on merchant or navy ships, for that matter? Sure, the movies and literature have us thinking those British Navy ships spend their leisure time with powdered wigs and tea & biscuits. But I'm betting that for every formal tea-drinking officer, there were about ten crew spending their non-working hours something like this...
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Go out on one of these ships sometime and it will give you so much content you will be able to last a lifetime.
And then there is this one time my Captain friend had a bunch of fish and game officers walk up and he just looked at him and said write me out a ticket for barbed hooks. And is this ticket cover me for the rest of the day?
There are quite a bit of humorous things that happen around a bunch of salty sailors.
It's even worse when they've been landlocked away from the ocean for decades.
Actually, this story arc IS partially-based off personal experience fishing in my home state of Alaska (charter boats and otherwise). While Alaska charter fishing captains are often (outwardly) more professional than Einar here (alienating the tourists isn't great for business), if you can get them to let down their guard then yeah they can be a real riot to be around...
Oh we should talk I got a job fishing and a really nice $5,000 check to get here and flight to the job site.
I just barely gotten hired and hopped on the bus and ran back to my parents' house where my childhood mentor was hanging out with my family drinking whiskey.
My mentor wasn't very excited and asked to see the check.
He just read who it was from.
He dropped the check on the table and picked up his phone.
Scroll through it and found the company number to the president.
And then he calls my boss.
Chews him up one side and down the other on speakerphone. Threatens to go up there and publicly throw him a beating. At the Town bar. Which is also the police station and mayor's office....
My boss starts apologizing and gives assurance is that he will never recruit in Portland Oregon ever again. He also says that I'm allowed to keep the check and cash it. As a measure of his Goodwill I have been let go however I now have a $5,000 severance package....
My stepdad was extremely upset at this turn of events.
My mentor then explained that there's been multiple deaths in this company as well as regular amputations disfigurement and as well horrible events that happen there. And of course I was also hired on with my mentor for the next couple months until I was able to secure a different job because the economy was really bad.
My mentor is legendary figure and all throughout the American West quite a few individuals know him.
All depends on who the owner of the company is... And how much they have had to drink. Lmafo!
LOL! Oh yeah, without a doubt! I bet the winner got an extra biscuit! 😂
A biscuit? Nah... winner gets another beer. Obviously... 😉
My dad was in the merchant navy 60 years ago and I think boredom was an issue then. I know they had some movies to watch, but they would get through those on a long voyage. I think there was a fair bit of drinking going on. The olden pirates might have had some guys who could play music for a song and a dance, but who can stand weeks of sea shanties? I expect few of them could read and voyages could last years. Again, drinking was probably popular.
!PIZZA
Reminds me of a story from a coworker who had been in the US Merchant Marine. He said one day they were walking into one of the common areas, and saw there was a naughty video playing in the VCR showing a woman slowly going topless. But eventually the camera panned down and... turned out it was definitely NOT a woman. From the way he told it, it sounded like someone set that up to play a prank on the other guys coming into the break room.
You gotta make your own fun I guess. 😉
Some people would prefer that sort of video and when a load of guys are cooped up together for long periods things may happen. Nothing wrong with that of course. I expect crews are more mixed these days.
!BEER
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Nice comic. I dig this one! 😁
Manual selection by @cliffagreen.