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Old 10-19-2019, 07:38 PM   #81
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I write nautical thrillers under the name Christine Kling that some of you may find entertaining. The first series is about a woman who has a tug and salvage business in Fort Lauderdale. Her tug is a one-off 40-foot bare aluminum boat with a dry exhaust - based on the little tug HERO that still works Lauderdale's New River. The second series, called the Shipwreck Adventures, is about a solo sailor and a maritime archeologist who are searching for WWII shipwrecks (all based on real missing ships from that era).

I posted a while back that I would check out one of your books. I just finished reading “Circle of Bones” the 1st book in the second series you mentioned above. I enjoyed it and have now got the second book in the series to read.

I really appreciate that you actually know what your writing about when it comes to sailing and boating in general. There are a few details that would make many TFers happy (anchoring, gasoline engines, use of radar, etc...). The genre is not normally one that I am drawn to (conspiracy theory mysteries) but it is well written and fun.
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Old 10-19-2019, 08:01 PM   #82
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I posted a while back that I would check out one of your books. I just finished reading “Circle of Bones” the 1st book in the second series you mentioned above. I enjoyed it and have now got the second book in the series to read.

I really appreciate that you actually know what your writing about when it comes to sailing and boating in general. There are a few details that would make many TFers happy (anchoring, gasoline engines, use of radar, etc...). The genre is not normally one that I am drawn to (conspiracy theory mysteries) but it is well written and fun.
She is on Kindle now. I am in the middle of one of hers "Surface Tension" at the moment and enjoying it immensely.
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Old 10-20-2019, 09:55 PM   #83
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I have found the fiction enjoyable , but the early sailing adventures like the Hiscock books are as interesting , and much can be learned about small boat voyaging.

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/Eric and Susan Hiscock
An enthusiastic two thumbs up for the Hiscock recommendation. They were impressively salty mariners who shared their experiences with modesty and a spare but eloquent narrative voice. When a young sailor, I bought and read their entire ouvre. The Hiscocks' thoughtful reflections on boatbuilding and seamanship offer a lot for anyone to think about. Though we never met, I was saddened to learn when they had passed away
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Old 09-03-2020, 10:35 PM   #84
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If you enjoy historical novels you should try the Sharpes series by Bernard Cornwell. Not a nautical story but really well written. In one of the books he gives homage to Forester by using one of his characters, Rifleman Dodd.

Tom Hanks is working on a movie based on Foresters “The Good Shepard”. It will be called Greyhound. WW2 destroyer on convoy duty. Can’t wait!
Okay, I just saw Greyhound, and read the book it is based on earlier in the year. I enjoyed both and recommend them without hesitation. That said, for the nitpickers and nautical buffs, yes, I am one of those, here are some observations.

Despite what was in the film, the book is more believable from an anti-submarine warfare point of view as of February 1942, the period of the film. Our destroyers and crews were PITIFULLY behind the power curve without radar and inadequate SONAR without the adjunct gear like sonar recorders and other peripheral equipment rapidly developed and placed aboard the ships as the war progressed – these pieces of gear made tracking and attacks more successful. The whole operation was carried on by the bridge personnel with reference to the guy in the SONAR “closet (it was tiny) at the back of the bridge – no CIC with under-lighted dead reckoning trace (DRT) table with people plotting nice submarine limiting lines of approach and all that handy stuff. That any subs were sunk at all in the early months of the war was a miracle. I was actually trained on some of that WWII equipment in ASW officer school because we still had some ships equipped with it in 1970.

The Fletcher class “can” is too early in Feb 1942 because the first Fletcher was commissioned four months after this movie’s time, and they were not routinely involved in escorting merchant convoys, but using museum Fletchers was what the filmmakers had to go on. CS Forster posited a more likely Mahan class, but I believe they all served in the Pacific anyway. We had mostly WWI four-stackers on the east coast at the beginning of the war, probably lacking any SONAR at all.

Uniform. The underway uniform for US Navy officers would have been based upon wash khakis with “organizational” i.e. foul weather gear worn over the khaki. Those black shirts in the movie were not brought into service until many years after the war. NOBODY wore a combination cap at sea like Hanks did, and the dress blues Hanks has on at the end (my favorite uniform) were definitely for shore-going.

GQ alarm. An “aoogah” as in a sub’s diving alarm, really? The surface ship GQ alarm is a gong, gong, gong.

CIC or “combat.” This concept was not brought about until well into the Guadalcanal campaign in late 1942-43. XO in CIC at GQ was probably a good practice then, but when I was XO, the captain placed me on the bridge and fought the ship from CIC where all the information was.

Radar. The few radars fitted to our ships in early 1942 did not have PPI scopes but rather A-scopes which were extremely difficult to use and even involved actually stopping the radar antenna from scanning and sweeping it left and right across the suspected bearing.
Radar range in heavy seas is ridiculously long in this movie in one case seeing a conning tower at six miles.

40 mm gun mounts. First, quad forties were not aboard any destroyer in early 1942. I was most amused by the low sound level clicking in the sound track as the mounts were trained. They were electrically driven and did not “click.” The radar dish seen on one of the quad mounts was a fire control piece of gear I had on 3-inch guns in the 1970s but were doubtless put on 40’s in the 1950s before they were phased out in the mid-fifties by the 3”/50 .
The conning officer and helmsman/lee helmsman order and response dance aboard a naval vessel has a VERY strict sequence, cadence, and rhythm to which no captain will brook any violation. Rudder commands in the movie are all over the place and messy to my ear. Commands like “meet her” without a follow-up course to steer or being steered by the helm and just ordering “reciprocal course” were just plain wrong. The order to zigzag followed by a rudder angle – just wrong. Zigzag plans were very specific and timed. There were lots of others, but I just let them wash over me as I watched the action on the screen.

U-boat hubris. I never read of a U-boat crew taunting escorts over the voice radio - they were too busy sinking ships or being sunk to engage in idle radio banter.

White flashlight on a nighttime bridge for captain to read message – whoa!! NO!

Springfield 1903 rifles used as firing squad – accurate.

The crowded and compact red-lighted bridge with all the talkers and the complications of listening to and comprehending three or four people and radios at once, especially in the darkness in the lead up to firing guns and depth charges put me right back on several destroyer bridges during ASW exercises . The tension and just palpable bit of potential confusion developed by the filmmakers was accurate if not all the teeny tiny details were.
Coming off the bridge after many extra hours nearly crippled by shin splints, even as a young officer, if not the bloody feet like Hanks, was so realistic to me, my legs ached all over again. Hell, I was doing that on destroyers until I was 59 years old. Some people never learn. Duh.

When the movies we were issued by the Navy Motion Picture Service came aboard before each underway period or we swapped with other ships at sea, we always checked out whatever the previous viewers had thought of the flick as indicated by scribblings in ink on the three- or four-reel olive drab cases they came in. Those marked with “GFF” (standing for good f____g flick) were snapped up first, usually by the chiefs’ mess. I give Greyhound the high accolade of GFF.

Here's a photo I took of one of those Fletcher beauties in 1968 pulling away from the ammo ship I was on. That's the mountainous terrain of Vietnam in the background. Note mount 53, the middle one has been removed from this ship.
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Old 09-04-2020, 06:11 AM   #85
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Rich, a very good read.

The book could have been based on the author's knowledge of British ships, so perhaps they overlaid the equipment those ships had in 42 onto the US ship?
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Old 09-04-2020, 11:10 AM   #86
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Rich, a very good read.

The book could have been based on the author's knowledge of British ships, so perhaps they overlaid the equipment those ships had in 42 onto the US ship?
Given the confusingly rapid pace at which change was being effected on British and US ships, Forester can be forgiven some his technological errors. Many of the errors committed in the movie could have been ironed out with some technical consulting early on before they got into the graphics development. All in all, a fine movie and book. On the non-technical front, I noted that they lifted the added grind of a divorce from the poor guy's mind as written by Forester and gave him the hope of what appeared to be a second chance at love. That guy's life was GRIM.
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Old 09-04-2020, 11:47 AM   #87
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I like books on tape because I can listen to them anywhere and any time..
I have suggested to them, put is a sleep timer so I can drift off and immediately start where I left off. I'm still waiting.
Rick Campbell is the author I have enjoyed. He has written a few books involving nuc subs.
Only minor mistake when it comes to activities aboard the subs. The rest is most definitely fiction.
Now, if they had audio for books like Voyage under Power..... SIGH
Maybe a book or two on RADAR instruction and the operation of a sextant etc, the world would be a better place. Great for 'following along.'
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Old 09-04-2020, 11:54 AM   #88
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Clive Cussler has written many paperbacks, most with a nautical theme. My favorite is his 'Oregon' series, that being the name of a tramp steamer for appearances-sake that is really a high-tech spy ship. Yes, the story lines are predictable, but the books move fast with lots of action, great reading when you're on the hook. And the main character always gets the girl, which is the most important.......isn't it?
A lot of CUSSLER'S are books on tape too.
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Old 09-04-2020, 11:59 AM   #89
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I need to learn how to absorb audio books on technical subjects through earbuds while sleeping!
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Old 09-04-2020, 12:05 PM   #90
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Boat books - fiction

I also loved The Cruel Sea by Monsarrat. Have read it at least 3 times over the last 40 years, first time as a teenager.
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Old 09-04-2020, 12:10 PM   #91
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I need to learn how to absorb audio books on technical subjects through earbuds while sleeping!
Never worked for me in college.

The do have USCG rules on tape but, puts me to sleep immediately.
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Old 09-04-2020, 12:29 PM   #92
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Second the recommendation of A Voyage for Madmen, about a 1968 round-the-world sailing race in which one contestant really did go mad.
The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst (the guy who went crazy or maybe crazier). Good reading for anybody who boats solo. It goes into some detail on his "public log" that he was transmitting via radio to the outside world and his "private log" that was found on his abandoned boat.

I picked up a copy of The Caine Mutiny, thinking that having seen the movie the book might not be too interesting. Nope, much better than the movie and another with a lot of psychological intrigue. Turns out that Capt. Queeg (the Bogart character) might not have been the one with issues.

Time to make a list and hit my favorite used bookstore.
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Old 09-04-2020, 12:56 PM   #93
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I also loved The Cruel Sea by Monsarrat. Have read it at least 3 times over the last 40 years, first time as a teenager.
40 years ago you were a teenager? Nice! I was the executive officer of a guided missile destroyer. Time flies when reading good books.
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Old 09-05-2020, 08:49 AM   #94
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Rich, my son was a CTT First Class aboard the USS Gridley, DDD 101. He is now a Chief aboard the Cape St. George, a CG based in San Diego but slated to be towed to Seattle within two weeks for a two-year refit. I once did a three-day Tiger Cruise from Puerto Vallarta to San Diego, a terrific experience. My dock neighbor (retired) was the assistant commander of a San Diego destroyer squadron. One Christmas he and my son had a long conversation. They used so many acronyms that I gave up trying to follow along.
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40 years ago you were a teenager? Nice! I was the executive officer of a guided missile destroyer. Time flies when reading good books.
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Old 09-05-2020, 11:29 AM   #95
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Rich, my son was a CTT First Class aboard the USS Gridley, DDD 101. He is now a Chief aboard the Cape St. George, a CG based in San Diego but slated to be towed to Seattle within two weeks for a two-year refit. I once did a three-day Tiger Cruise from Puerto Vallarta to San Diego, a terrific experience. My dock neighbor (retired) was the assistant commander of a San Diego destroyer squadron. One Christmas he and my son had a long conversation. They used so many acronyms that I gave up trying to follow along.
I was riding destroyers for work until 2012, maybe 2-3 a month since 1996, and I hafta tell ya the acronyms they used just because of the shipbuilders' nomenclature were often bewildering. My favorite thing about that period was quickly conning the ships into precise position for the tests we were conducting and watching the look on the young officers' faces as the rudder orders flew and the ship magically performed. I had a lot of commanding officers thank me for showing their officers how it was done - the shame of it was that they simply did not get the opportunity to do much of that sort of thing in the ordinary run of ops. I had an ensign tell me one day that he thought I had the coolest job in the world, and lieutenants asked me how to get a job mile mine. Try thirty plus years at sea first.
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Old 09-05-2020, 03:20 PM   #96
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Rich, my other son was a BM aboard an LSD. He became very skilled effecting course changes. He was able to spin the wheel toward the new course and then bring it back a bit to smoothly hit the new course with much precision. He liked the Navy but he got out sometime in the mid-ninties because the sea duty rotation for BMs was five years sea duty, two years on shore. For CTTs now the rotation is three and three. Here's a Navy thing. I mentioned that my son the Chief is going to Seattle with his ship for a refit. He is getting sea pay for the two years the ship will be in the yards but, yet, his three-year sea tour will not officially begin until his ship is back in the water. Go figure.
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I was riding destroyers for work until 2012, maybe 2-3 a month since 1996, and I hafta tell ya the acronyms they used just because of the shipbuilders' nomenclature were often bewildering. My favorite thing about that period was quickly conning the ships into precise position for the tests we were conducting and watching the look on the young officers' faces as the rudder orders flew and the ship magically performed. I had a lot of commanding officers thank me for showing their officers how it was done - the shame of it was that they simply did not get the opportunity to do much of that sort of thing in the ordinary run of ops. I had an ensign tell me one day that he thought I had the coolest job in the world, and lieutenants asked me how to get a job mile mine. Try thirty plus years at sea first.
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Old 09-06-2020, 09:35 AM   #97
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Sea duty, whether the ship is underway or not, is far more arduous than shore duty - it just IS. As a boat owner, just consider the time you spend keeping the boat up versus your boatless next door neighbor. So it is with a Sailor assigned to a ship in refit. In fact it is some of the worst duty in the Navy because if you are not off the ship at some training course, you work your butt off on the ship with many non-technical tasks that the Navy would not pay the expensive yard workers to do, and you don't even get the chance to take a moment to lean over the rail and watch the sea going by. So as far as I'm concerned, sea pay is highly deserved ANY time you are assigned to a warship.
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Old 09-06-2020, 10:23 AM   #98
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Rich, thank you for that education. When the Bonhomme Richard caught fire in San Diego a couple of months ago, two nearby destroyers got under way with just their duty sections and no tugs to help. All hands, regardless of rate, helped the deck crew with line handing. The smoke was so thick the work was done blindly, testament to duty and training. These kids sometimes do amazingly dangerous tasks that are unknown to most folks. Are these kids suckers? Sorry, I just couldn't resist a political comment when I think about the dangerous jobs in every service branch that are done routinely and without objection. Makes my blood boil when I know that my son would unhesitatingly put his life in danger to save a shipmate.
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Sea duty, whether the ship is underway or not, is far more arduous than shore duty - it just IS. As a boat owner, just consider the time you spend keeping the boat up versus your boatless next door neighbor. So it is with a Sailor assigned to a ship in refit. In fact it is some of the worst duty in the Navy because if you are not off the ship at some training course, you work your butt off on the ship with many non-technical tasks that the Navy would not pay the expensive yard workers to do, and you don't even get the chance to take a moment to lean over the rail and watch the sea going by. So as far as I'm concerned, sea pay is highly deserved ANY time you are assigned to a warship.
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Old 09-06-2020, 04:37 PM   #99
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Despite media reports, I am certain in my soul that we all, President on down, have the greatest respect for those volunteering to serve in our armed forces.
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Old 09-06-2020, 05:07 PM   #100
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Despite media reports, I am certain in my soul that we all, President on down, have the greatest respect for those volunteering to serve in our armed forces.
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