There once was an ocean going tug boat (still working,incidently) that, many years ago was the scene of a most unfortunate incident. The chief engineer was electrocuted when using a 220v drill while working in the salvage locker.
This tragedy happened when the tug was well offshore, and after due consultation with the authorities by radio, it was decided that the body be brought home for an inquest; so a space was cleared on one of the shelves in the meat room of the freezer and the body laid out thereon, shrouded in bed sheets.
In due time the vessel reached her home port, and after the official inquiry, inquest, etc. the body was received by the next of kin and was duly interred.
Life went on.The tug went about her appointed tasks, but with one major difference……………she had acquired the reputation of been haunted.
It was said that the sounds of drilling could be heard back in the salvage locker when the hatch was closed, and it was told that the shade of the late chief had been seen in the passageway that accessed the freezer rooms, particularly in the early morning hours, when the ship slept ,except for those of the crew who were on watch.
The tales of the haunting were told to newly joined younger crewmembers with great relish by the older seasoned hands and with each telling the stories grew in number and the embellishments were limited only by the tellers imaginations.It was not a good ship for one who was superstitious
I sailed in that tug as second engineer in the 1970’s and my counterpart in the crew change was a gentleman name of Henry. Now Henry was a very concencious engineer; exacting in his care of all the mechanical equipment that fell under his jurisdiction. One morning, while the tug was making her way over a serene ocean, rolling gently in the moderate swell, her tow following along in her wake, Henry decided to check the freezer unit. He, being the methodical person he was, did this at the same time each 0000-0600 hrs. watch, unless some urgency required his attention at the time; so at 0400 Henry checked the freezer, and on the morning in question, at four sharp, Henry made a round of the engine room, and after assuring himself that all was in proper order he made his way out of the engine room, forward along the passage way to the freezers, stopping by the galley to plug in the kettle for a cup of tea after his inspection of the freezer.
Further forward Henry came to the room that housed the twin fridge units; checking the head pressure, vacuum and cooling water flow and finding everything okay, come out, shut the door and headed for the freezer room itself.
The two freezer rooms were accessed from an ante room which opened off the passage way. It had no door. As one entered the ante room one freezer door would be directly in front of them and the other door at their right hand.This was the “meat room”and was kept at 10 below zero F. The thermometers were under the deck head and located for convenient viewing in the ante room. There really wasn't much need to go in the rooms as they had auto defrost evaporators and the system worked well.
The deck of the ante room was covered with a wooden grating on which the cook kept the salt pork riblets, salt beef and any other maritimers soul food that came in five gallon pails. These were lashed to eyebolts screwed into the bulkheads.
That morning for reasons he would never make known to anyone, Henry decided to enter the meat room, so untying a bucket of salt meat, he unlatched the door, swung it open, propped it in that position with the meat bucket and went inside.
Henry would say whenever he told the story that he was just fairly inside when the tug rolled to starboard, the meat bucket slid on the grating allowing the door to slam shut making Henry a prisoner in a silent frigid cell.
In the first moment Henry wasn't too alarmed, thinking he could open the door with the safety push rod.The gravity of his situation began to sink in when he tried the device and found it to be seized solidly in the latching mechanism, probably from years of non- usage. Henry up boot and “fetched ‘er a good kick,by!” Still no go. It was then that he realized that he was locked up at 10 below zero with the earliest hope of discovery being 0600 hours when the cook would be called by the seaman on watch.
Being dressed quite lightly; wearing only work trousers and shirt Henry knew that death by freezing could well be his lot, so taking out his pocket knife he began cutting up card board boxes and wrapping them around his limbs and torso with butchers twine.When he had used up all the available card board he began to stomp about the narrow confines of the room in an endeavor to keep the blood circulating as best he could.
With the main engine throbbing below the tug made her way through the night, her crew, except the mate and the seaman on bridge watch, plus Henry, sleeping; blissfully unaware that the second engineer was trapped in meat freezer.
The cold began to bite into Henry’s vitals,driving in toward his core; knowing well the gravity of his situation, he began to stamp around and beat his arms across his chest.His ears were extremely cold and Henry knew they would be badly frost bitten by 0600, so he searched about the shelves and found a strip of mutton cloth, which had once been the protective cover for a quarter of beef,.this he bound around his head turban-wise, thus solving the cold ear problem.
The law of thermo- dynamics decrees that heat goes to cold, so did Henry's body heat go to the frigid air of his prison, and the warmth of his breath from his exertions had caused the freezer air to become cloudy with vapor.
In the outside world the eastern sky was paling with the promise of the coming day, and the old mate,who had seen many thousands of sun rises at sea averred to his AB that “It looks like a fine one, you” then he added “I tinks its time for you to call da boys” By this he meant the skipper, the chief engineer, the cook and 0600-1200 AB.”And Jimmy," said the mate,”when youse calls dat cook, you, do it easy like; because you young fellas has got his nerves a shambles,what wit all dese stories youse bin telling him about dem dere hant’s” Jimmy assured the mate that he would waken the cook gently and departed on his wake up calls.It was 0530hrs.
The cook was a hyper individual; always running late, he was a chronic worrier,to boot, and his first thought that morning was “Ohmigod! I wonder if I took out the beef roast that I plan to have for supper!” Bounding from his bunk, he out the door and streaked up the passage way wearing nothing but his BVD’s, he careened into the ante room, flung open the door of the meat room and came face to face with his worst night mare.
Henry materialized out of the cloud of vapor, his eye brows and walrus mustache all a-sparkle with hoar, the muttoncloth turban white with frost as well, and stepped toward the cook---------who promptly fainted.
Colder than he could ever remember of being, Henry ignored the prostrate cook, stepped over his limp body and headed for his beloved engine room,”Because, son, as Henry would tell me later that month when we changed crew, “ me biggest fear when I was locked in, was that me lubricators would go dry on me” (He meant the mechanical lubricators that pressure feed oil to the cylinder walls of the engine at multiple points.These lubricators have reservoirs that must be filled periodically).
When the cook awakened from his swoon the awful apparition had vanished. He scrambled to his feet and made a race for the wheel house arriving only seconds after the captain had made his appearance to take over the watch from the mate.
Now, anyone who has gone to sea will tell you that sea cooks can be capable of some pretty bizarre behavior, and the skipper of that tug thought that he had seen it all, but when cookie arrived on his bridge that morning, he realized that this was not the case.
“Captain, captain!! I seen him! He was in the fridge and when I opened the door he jumped and grabbed me but I got away from him. Take me in captain; I want to go home, sign me off right now, because I’m all done, I’ll never go near that freezer again.!!!
“Whoa, cook, what ails you, man?” said the skipper. He realized that the cook had ,without a doubt, seen something and his first thought was that one of the young seamen had hid in the freezer as a joke,but when he questioned the cook further and heard that this apparition was all frosted up and that seemed a bit extreme for a prank, even by the most dedicated prankster, so he did’nt know what to say to the cook to lessen his terror.
“I’ll check it out, cook, now go down there and start breakfast,because I’ll tell you now, that whatever you seen it was not the ghost of no engineer.Them ghost stories is a bunch baloney cooked up to scare fellers like you, who should know better but don’t.
“ Willy,”the skipper said to theAB on the 0600-1200 watch,”go down with this here cook and hold his hand while he makes our breakfast and get anything he might want from the freezer.”
Breakfast was duly served and Henry sheepishly told of how he had neglected to tie the freezer door back and got locked in.The first thing he did on his next watch was free up the safety device on the freezer door.
The story of Henry’s lock-in took precedence over the ghost stories, and is still recounted with a smile by some of the older hands who have sailed on that tug.
Shanachie
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