Any Real Navy types out there?

[kayleighanne03]

Hey Guys, just a reply to the question posted above. It is true that there are no internet connections on board a ship when we are 200 miles off the coast!! And it is very rare we get access unless out in the new college in Ringaskiddy.Although i have to admit there are some great people on this site with a great knowledge of the ins and outs of the service but it is also a lot of pressure on them to keep this side of the site running!So lets all join in and try our best...

[Lordinajamjar]

I once owned three 90 foot steel shrimp trawlers which operated in Mexico and roamed the Sea of Cortez. Never went to sea myself due to Mexican fishery protectionist policies governing presence of non-Mexican nationals onboard fishing vessels. Only had one short trip across the harbor in the port of Guaymas in the early hours upon meeting one of the vessels, Huerfano translates to Orphan, to ensure that the shrimp were unloaded in a secure dock protected by armed guards.

Shrimp was just like cash. Pink Gold we called it. The catch was a mixture of Blue Shrimp (8-10 inches usually without the head) which sold for around $20,000 dollars a ton and Brown shrimp which sold for half that. Each boat had refrigerated holds and could handle about 30 tons per trip, A typical catch in the peak season, 20 tons, usually fetched an average of around $100,000. My partner was a paraplegic who was a commercial airline pilot before a car crash ended his professional flying career. My other partner, who is still an an active commercial airline pilot, and I referred to him as Captain Dan aka Forrest Gump.

We operated out of Rocky Point (Puerto Penasco) less than 4 hours drive from Phoenix. Quite a story behind it. The day we closed the deal on the trawlers there was a huge bonfire overseen in the desert on the outskirts of town by Mexican Navy personnel consisting of 2 tons of cannabis. Turned out later the brothers we bought the boats from were funded by one of the major drug cartels out of the state of Sinaloa. Apparently the cannabis belonged to them but had been intercepted by the Mexican Navy when some of the "brothers" pangas were heading into shore at great speed with the stuff. When we said they were lucky not to have been caught they laughed and told us if the Navy had known it was them they would never have confiscated the stuff in the first place. Rocky Point is a tiny fishing village they all know each other. The brothers claimed to have armed their pangas with grenade launchers for all future business transactions and we had no reason to doubt them. We had to fire all three crews after the first two months of the first season due to major theft problems, unloading and selling some of the the catch at sea and falsifying accounts with suppliers. We had one captain put in jail for six months of course we had to bribe the judge. Half the supplies we bought for each trip usually made their way home to to the families. Electronic gear would go missing nets would be mysteriously "lost" overboard. We had some help from the Mexican army. They loaned us a few soldiers to meet the boats and guard them overnight them until we could get new captains and crews aboard and out to sea. Firing whole crews unfortunately became the norm. We always let them keep all the fish they caught and any small or broken shrimp which is know as "charro" and kept it separated from the main catch in burlap sacks which they used to sew shut. We always made sure they got paid on time but they still couldn't stop themselve from screwing up. It might sound strange but basically the Mexicans are great people but they have been screwed by their goverment and officals and their employers for so long thye just take what they can when they can. Corruption at every level made it impossible to continue after 3 years. Lost an arm and a leg but it was a hell of an experience. Death threats, murder, corruption I was exposed to it all. I haven't visited Mexico in four years.

I did pull one over the Mexican border guards. One time I was smuggling $30,000 of Caterpiller diesel engine replacement parts in large bags wrapped in towels. Got caught and one of the Mexican border guards offered me a deal as he nervously played with the trigger on his handgun. I thought he was going to shoot his own leg off he was so damned nervous. He wanted to deal with me without letting his buddies know. He demanded $100 I agreed so he passed me his cap to place the money inside it. While he was looking away I slipped him four ones wrapped in a twenty dollar bill and drove the hell out of there laughing my head off. You meet all kinds of stuff on the road though. During several of my many trips across the border I was stopped by different groups of armed personnel on a few occasions I met the regular army checkpoints and a couple of times I was stopped once by the feared Federal highway police (Federalis) and just once by plain clothed secret police (they made me nervous). The Federalis were OK I gave them some cans of sprite and some local sweet bread I picked up before leaving Rocky Point. I was driving a Ford F150 XLT with a six foot model trawler tied up in the back which I had earlier commissioned a local boat builder to build for me and had him name it San Patricio. The Fedaralis only pulled me over because it was covered up in tarp and they just had to know what it was. They were just hoping for an excuse to extort a bribe. Alone in the middle of the desert they know they are not going to get refused too often. They always wore mirrored sunglasses and so did the army officers. I made it a habit to never drive alone at night. The mexican army guys always were an assorted looking motley crew, young kids mainly, mismatched uniforms and an assortment of vintage weapons except the officers who always seemed well turned out. They had a very tiny naval base. One frigate, I never did get the name of it, reminded me a lot of the Eithne though it always operated a helicoptor. It couldn't dock in the harbour as that was way too small so it always anchored at sea. There was one small fast patrol boat similar in size to a "P" boat I never once saw it actually leave the harbour. The port of Guaymas a few hundred miles down the coast operated 2 or 3 frigates and several "p" boat types.

The Sea of Cortes is probably still one of the most fertile fishing grounds in the world.

[Goldie fish]

Do you know Forrest Gump? He has a Shrimp boat too...called "Jenny".

Less of the shite talk please folks.
If you are naval I want to know. If not,or you are not sure what you are,click the fourth option.

[macca]

There's nothing wrong with shitetalk, that's by far the most entertaining post I've read on these pages in some time, well done lordinajamjar! It's far better than reading some vitriolic bile about the charms of our capital city from PROC fiens with an inferiority complex...

[Goldie fish]

I must point out that my "shite talk" comment was not directed at the Shrimp Boat operator.

[armedboarder]

Contributions arent great in the Naval Section Goldie, and there are a few NS members.

[Goldie fish]

I'll have to get that rectified...

[golden rivet]

Ex navy here as well. 21 years of it.


There are satellite broadband connections now on all the ships. That's what the extra sat domes are for. You get a certain amount of time online during the day but I doubt a message board would be on the "approved list", although I am not certain.

first video was on grainne 1979.. hired from maddens,, we thought we were the bees knees then ( showing my age again) a top loader an a nco in charge of it (now in pss).. what was the first film.. The life of brian,, banned at the time in holy ireland ,, as for television .. the qm on deck was instructed to twist the aerial hopefully to get rte 1.. happy days.. then a large pot of tea was made....

[Goldie fish]

Toploader in 79?

That would be the same as a Blue Ray today... I wonder was it Betamax?

[golden rivet]

Toploader in 79?

That would be the same as a Blue Ray today... I wonder was it Betamax?

:wink: thats the one ..as for a blue ray give us info

[Goldie fish]

Blue ray, fancy new dvd replacement, apparently....

[Laners]

first video was on grainne 1979.. hired from maddens,, we thought we were the bees knees then ( showing my age again) a top loader an a nco in charge of it (now in pss).. what was the first film.. The life of brian,, banned at the time in holy ireland ,, as for television .. the qm on deck was instructed to twist the aerial hopefully to get rte 1.. happy days.. then a large pot of tea was made....

I remember it well , and a certain L/Sea who was responsible for getting it , and the first night it was used . the V C R was located in the radio cabin and he was running back and forth from the rec space to the radio cabin getting the picture right and howls of slagging from all assembled waiting for the film to start . My bunk was located in the rec space so after cleaning the galley and maybe getting a shower I would have to tip toe trough a crowd watching a movie with a towl around my waist whilst being subject to various cat calls and whistles , even the Skipper would bring his own chair to watch a film . Looking back it seems like a scene from an episode of M.A.S.H.

[moggy]

Jaysus, the old videos in the messes. Now everyone has portable dvd players, playstations, xboxes and what not in their cabins. You never see anyone in the mess these days.


I have fond memories of getting up for 8-12 in the morning and passing thru the mess to get a cuppa while various pornos were on. People watching the goings on while eating their corn flakes. That's hard core!

i remember being in drydock in the base and verome the dockers went crazy for blue movies had to lock them up when in port

[hptmurphy]

i remember being in drydock in the base and verome the dockers went crazy for blue movies had to lock them up when in port

just struck me..the video was in the com cen and ultimate control rested with Comms branch...

care to expalin how we ended up watching the 'Green Dildo 'for 6 weeks soilid while in the Alexander Basin... but then again you weren't there..or were you? Nah it was Wardy....

[A/TEL]

just struck me..the video was in the com cen and ultimate control rested with Comms branch...

care to expalin how we ended up watching the 'Green Dildo 'for 6 weeks soilid while in the Alexander Basin... but then again you weren't there..or were you? Nah it was Wardy....

Ah thats d Giraffes, all very ..............................

[moggy]

just struck me..the video was in the com cen and ultimate control rested with Comms branch...

care to expalin how we ended up watching the 'Green Dildo 'for 6 weeks soilid while in the Alexander Basin... but then again you weren't there..or were you? Nah it was Wardy....

no not i - i shall inquire from warde what the delay was was it a good video

[Laners]

That Green Dildo had some mileage on it , it was on the first States trip. An intresting thing I noticed concerning the porn videos was that when we started a patrol it was always the C R A men who where always clamering into the rec room and calling for them to be shown whilst the single fellas could not care less .

[cha the tel]

Hi all first entry on the site but those movies kept the crew happy for a few hours and many a competion was had afterwards ,especially on EMER to see who could fill the egg cup

[cha the tel]

Hi all,watching those movies was one sure way of keeping the crew quite and happy.Even if some people had to bend over going to the heads.

[Nav Trooper]

Eithne had a huge vid collection during early 90s due to the existence of multiple vcrs but then they were taken on loan and never seen again.

Like ye said its all portable dvd players and laptops now and the only time the mess is full is to watch the soccer matches or coronation street etc.

[moggy]

Eithne had a huge vid collection during early 90s due to the existence of multiple vcrs but then they were taken on loan and never seen again.

Like ye said its all portable dvd players and laptops now and the only time the mess is full is to watch the soccer matches or coronation street etc.

CORONATION STREET - JESUS TIMES HAVE CHANGED???

[Test Pilot]

CORONATION STREET - JESUS TIMES HAVE CHANGED???

Same in my time - everything stopped for Coronation St. and ships were known to make it a point to be inshore for events like the world cup, where they could get good tv reception. Different now I expect as they have SAT TV now,

[golden rivet]

Same in my time - everything stopped for Coronation St. and ships were known to make it a point to be inshore for events like the world cup, where they could get good tv reception. Different now I expect as they have SAT TV now,

they do not know each other now like we used to so as they seem to stick to their cabins which must be a sad way to spend a patrol this only happened before when our trained alcohol noses sniffed out a private party and we popped a few tins on the sly,, any serving member on imo care to comment on how they pass the time now

[armedboarder]

Its not a bad thing to have entertainment other than the messes. Living in the age modern tech advantages, we had up to 5 xboxes networked on the Róisín for the gamers on the trollop deck, thats ten players in teams of two split screen. Also for the laptops a three way hub for the coxns, engineers and dustys office. Very easy to run cables through the deckheads. Twas like our own netgames café never a dull moment and plenty of square eyes.
Coming soon will be an age of nightclasses for the likes of MIF PMS CAPS ECDL and so on. Instructers in these fields are in seagoing appointments so what better way to pass the time on a Loooooooong rotation ........

[Nav Trooper]

For Those in the Know

HO! HOOOOOOOOOOH!!!