Thunder Chicken
Fine Threads since 2008
My favorite story happened on a training cruise a couple of years ago. I wasn't on the particular cruise, but I knew the cadet, really funny kid.
Said cadet was returning to the ship in time for his curfew. He had a few beers but was otherwise under control. We have a tiki hut at the end of the gangway where you check in with the watch to get back on the ship. He checks in, and starts up the gangway, but is stopped by the watch.
"You can't bring that chicken on board" they said. Sure enough, tucked under his arm is a live, clucking chicken.
Now, when the ship is underway, a lot of the cadets fish using handlines off the fantail, and if they catch something, they can bring it to the ship mess and the stewards will prepare it for dinner. It's an accepted tradition on the ship.
So the cadet responds to the watch, "I caught this chicken and was going to bring it to the mess for dinner tomorrow night." This caught the watch cadets short - sounded legit, and before they could protest the cadet walked up the gangway with his live chicken.
Meanwhile, in the engine room, since they're in port, they have a short staff on watch. Some of the old timer engineers take this watch because it is easy and quiet. The engine room is 5 stories of pipes, cables, steam lines, valves, etc...rather hot and noisy.
The hot and noisy engine room can be rather upsetting to chickens.
One of the watch engineers, making his rounds, comes face to face with a rather freaked out chicken that had been released by our prankster. It is flapping and running all over the place, generally causing mayhem.
So the engine room watch engineers get up and start chasing the chicken, finally corralling it between the boilers and trapping it in a locker. The fate of the chicken is unknown but I believe it was released.
The event was commemorated thus:
Said cadet was returning to the ship in time for his curfew. He had a few beers but was otherwise under control. We have a tiki hut at the end of the gangway where you check in with the watch to get back on the ship. He checks in, and starts up the gangway, but is stopped by the watch.
"You can't bring that chicken on board" they said. Sure enough, tucked under his arm is a live, clucking chicken.
Now, when the ship is underway, a lot of the cadets fish using handlines off the fantail, and if they catch something, they can bring it to the ship mess and the stewards will prepare it for dinner. It's an accepted tradition on the ship.
So the cadet responds to the watch, "I caught this chicken and was going to bring it to the mess for dinner tomorrow night." This caught the watch cadets short - sounded legit, and before they could protest the cadet walked up the gangway with his live chicken.
Meanwhile, in the engine room, since they're in port, they have a short staff on watch. Some of the old timer engineers take this watch because it is easy and quiet. The engine room is 5 stories of pipes, cables, steam lines, valves, etc...rather hot and noisy.
The hot and noisy engine room can be rather upsetting to chickens.
One of the watch engineers, making his rounds, comes face to face with a rather freaked out chicken that had been released by our prankster. It is flapping and running all over the place, generally causing mayhem.
So the engine room watch engineers get up and start chasing the chicken, finally corralling it between the boilers and trapping it in a locker. The fate of the chicken is unknown but I believe it was released.
The event was commemorated thus:
