Tour- Constellation, a sub, Coast Guard Cutter

Sunday, August 25, 2002
Baltimore, Maryland, United States
*Monday, August 26, 2002
Weather: Partly Cloudy, looked like rain often
Temperature: In the mid 80's

Breakfast: Au bon Pain on Redwoods
Lunch: Bonaparte Breads, an authentic French bakery, established in Paris 1788. at Pier V hotel on the inner harbor near the Coast Guard Cutter that I toured. Susan had pate & had a ham & cheese sandwich. We had fruit tarts for dessert. Both very good. The owner is short, like Bonaparte and had the personality to match. He had a darling red headed grand son who was about 5 or 6 years old. www.bonapartebreads.com
Dinner: Room service @ 10pm

People met: While touring the Tanin Coast Guard Cutter I met a former seaman who served on it in the 70's after Nam. He gave me a guided tour and told me some stories. One involved somehow breaking into the kitchen to liberate late night snacks. Another was after returning from shore leave that included heavy drinking and drugs. he woke up the next morning in somewhat turbulent sea and making it up to the top deck only to throw up on the deck instead of over the side. Yuk what a mess! Now he had to clean it up, so he went below deck to get a bucket and long rope to attach it to and drop into the ocean to get water. One of the cleaning mates told him to not loose the bucket! Infuriately, since the boat was moving ahead and a nice pace combined with his weakened conditioned, the moment the bucket hit the water and filled. It jerked the rope out of his hand. Another story was when relieving another ship, as they passed, they would stop and exchange items such as videos and magazines. He also related having to volunteer to check out some noise on the deck at night in a winter storm with ferocious wind, freezing water from the large waves and sliding around on the icy deck.

We encountered a register to sign make comments in if you had sailed on this class ship. He was very moved by some of comments and added a few of his own.
The boiler room is of course, in the bottom of the ship. For the mechanics to escape in an emergency, there was an escape tube they would climb up inside all the way up to the deck. The crew had painted the exterior of this long tube with very renditions of a coke, Pepsi and other soft drink cans.

S and I toured the Constellation. I also toured the Torsk US submarine and the Tanin Coast Guard Cutter christened in 1936 that served up to the Vietnam war.

The submarine was very interesting to tour. You walked from stem to stern going through different sections. took photos of the front and aft torpedo tubes and torpedoes.
The whole thing felt like a Rube Goldberg plumbing project. The only disappointment was not being able to climb up into the conning tower and actually operate the periscope. After I finished touring the boats I met S at a Barnes & Noble where she was having coffee and a roll and reading. We sat there for a awhile and then returned to the hotel.
I relaxed in the whirlpool.

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