Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] The Kinder, Gentler Side Of Psubs

[Steven Mills <cirtemoeg@juno.com>]

On Sun, 21 Mar 2004 19:08:34 -0800 (PST) Chris Nugent  writes:
>    Most of you guys probably know very little about me, besides what 
> you can glean from my occasional post about this or that.
>
>.................................. snip .......................
>
> are....here ya go:

Hey Nuge,

Not bad !

' Thought about writing a submariner's prayer ?

There have been several references to how some of us got interested in
subs.  Verne [ and the 1954 Disney film ] were common references. It
points
out that most of us are dyed-in-the-wool romantics.  I have an old
paperback
of Verne's short works. In the preface it gives an account of an 8 [ 10?]
year old
Jules Verne who ran away from home to become a stow-away on a merchant
ship for a life of adventure.  His first night hiding on a docked ship
was cold,
wet, and miserable.  He longed to be back at home with his family. He was
discovered by one of the crew and turned over to the police who returned
him
to his family.  He vowed never to attempt this again and later wrote
"Twenty
Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" from the warm comfort of  desk and chair.
[ I assume this was an accurate account. I will try to dig up the book
and author ]
He never built a submersible let alone the Nautilus, yet, he's
responsible for
why some of us are in this forum and perhaps many others who take to the
romance of the sea and the deep.  However, this is not to say that Verne
was
an unlearned person. In fact, he was quite knowledgeable and knew and
corresponded with some of the notables in oceanography, explorers, and
military.
Much like some of us here are blessed to have such individuals in this
forum.
Thank goodness no one discouraged Verne from writing "20K" just because
he didn't build his own submersible.

Keep writing,  --Steve

>  
>                 Deep Submergence
>  
> 
>      Come slip her surly waves with me,
> 
> As we stir courage to descend,
> 
> To depths unplumbed by lesser souls,
> 
> Cry havoc, set the ballast free.
> 
>  
> 
>      Ten feet, twenty, soon eight score more,
> 
> Will see the day?s light fade from view,
> 
> But we have Volta?s strange device, 
> 
> Electrons rush to Edison?s lights.
> 
>  
> 
>    We drop and drop, there is no knowing,
> 
> From whence we came or where we?re going,
> 
> A tiny vessel in a great green scheme,
> 
> Deploy the manipulator to greet the unknown.
> 
>  
> 
>    And now let?s arrest this deadly plunge,
> 
> Commence a hover, bring her about,
> 
> A thruster churns a brew of plankton,
> 
> Eight hundred feet, let us look without.
> 
>  
> 
>       All I see I?ve ne?er before,
> 
> Glimpsed when I didn?t breathe canned air,
> 
> Gangly eyes on flimsy stalks, 
> 
> Spiny weapons, eels with shocks.
> 
>  
> 
>      But keep in mind, the pressure?s great,
> 
> A man can?t stay, and bide his time,
> 
> Ever She searches for a means,
> 
> To introduce you to Davey Jones.
> 
>  
> 
>  Men of Scorpion, men of Thresher,
> 
> Whose bunks now lie in twisted steel,
> 
> We pay our tithe with a silent prayer,
> 
> To a sea begrudging of our ascent.
> 
>  
> 
>     So, now, my friend, 
> 
> If you?ll turn that valve,
> 
> Unsere U-Boot kann nicht mehr sinken,
> 
> We make our haste from yonder deep,
> 
> The whitecaps above call us home.
> 
> 
> Nuge
> 



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