Sea Stories and Fairy Tales

I picked up this old book at a used book store the other day. It was written by a WWII era Marine and the title was Sea stories and Fairy Tales. Author is Chuck Beveridge and Illustrator Gene Packwood. ISBN 0965468801

I could not put it down, the illustrations are a hoot. You remember cartoons like sad sack...well, maybe not. It is 1940 era art. You would recognize it if you saw it. Any way, I thought I would start an off topic thread and see if there were any good sea stories out there.

At Amazon

Abebooks is always cheaper

Now, there is a very specific format to the beginning to a Sea Story or Fairy tale and in fact that is how you can tell the difference. Quoting from the referenced book.

A fairy tale always begins with "once upon a time". A sea story begins with "Now, this is no s#!t" or "You ain't gunnabelieve this s#!t" or "Now this s#!t really happened"

Now that tells you the basic difference but to that I would add that a fairy tale has an ironic and unbelievable happy ending. For example in the book, one fairy tale involves a Marine leaving the ship when liberty was secured (because they were sailing the next day). He missed ships movement ( a serious offense), went to mast, was given a very minor punishment and spent the rest of the war in Maui awaiting the return of the ship and his unit.

Not sure if I can come up with any really good sea stories but I will tell the couple that I have.

Now, this is no s#!t, right out of ET A school, running a trouble call at NAVCOMSTA Stockton, complaint is shredder not working. So the first step in the logical trouble shooting is to confirm there is something wrong with the gear, so I plug it in right there in crypto. The lights go out, al the gear goes offline. The Chief types on the order wire, what was the previous rate of the ET that plugged in that shredder?

Ok, not great. The book is better, go get the book.

In any case post your sea stories and fairy tales here...

reply to post by kawika


are ya ready kids?


ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh









who lives in some obscure fruit under the ocean, well it aint a fairy and it don't drink no potion,
maybe it will grant you a wish.... but it will only do it for fish.

sharkfairywishpants sharkfairywishpants sharkfairywishpants shark fairrryyyyy wishhhhhhhhhh pannnnnnnnnntssssss

reply to post by SoymilkAlaska


Well, your format needs some work, but a good first effort.

This s#!t really happened,

At NAVCOMSTA Stockton again. In the ET shop we were not allowed to have a radio to listen to while working. But they had these perforated metal tiles on the wall that were perfect for hiding a covert speaker. So that was done, and they installed an old car stereo in the back of the workbench such that it popped out and could be easily pushed back in. They even went down in the trench and hooked it into the phone system such that if you pick up the phone a relay would drop out and the radio would go quiet. And they interlocked the door so that would also shut off the radio when someone opened it. And then they added a hidden switch out in the passageway beside the door so if you were one of the ET's you could push the switch and then come in the door without shutting off the radio.

Com officer used to keep bubble wrap under her desk. She would kick off her shoes and put her feet on the bubble wrap because she liked the way if felt. She kept hearing something, and it seemed to be coming from the ET shop, but whenever she went in there the noise would stop. Well, eventually they were caught. They had NIS come in and investigate (they were just NIS in those days, not sure when they changed it to NCIS). We all got a good yelling at but no one got fired or went to jail.

I couldn't put it down into words

reply to post by SarnholeOntarable


That was really confusing. Wasn't that Captn Picard?

reply to post by SarnholeOntarable


Don't be shy.

Sock it to me.

reply to post by kawika


I think so....I'm trying to find the Old man and the sea parody