During Operation Deep Freeze, The USCGC Glacier landed for fuel and supplies at one of our ports-o- call, Wellington, New Zealand. I was, at that time a sport diver, and I brought my gear aboard. It was imperative for me to seek diving opportunities at the ports I visited and Wellington was no exception. I scoured the town looking for dive shops to no avail. I finally spotted a scuba tank in a sporting goods store and questioned the employee behind the cash register about possible dive shops where I might find a dive charter. I explained who I was, but it was fairly obvious with the Glacier pulling up in the harbor and a bunch of young men with American accents swarming the downtown area. He said there just were not any, but he gave me the phone number of the President of a local dive club. I contacted Ron and he was very friendly and curious about America and Americans. He arranged a dive, and I recruited another diver from the ship to go along, and Ron came and picked us up. We arrived at a boat ramp where a fleet of 10-12 16 ft ski-boats I would call them, was preparing to launch. The Armada made way several miles off shore, when the lead boat began throwing an anchor overboard, after they had lined up some landmarks, near and far in two directions. The old school way of finding a reef that was a desirable lobster spot. That was the mission we found out bagging spiny lobster, similar to the California species, no claws. After several attempts to find the reef, (the anchor line was marked at the depth of the known reef and if the anchor failed to catch at that depth, they would try again.) There was about a 3 knot current, so once the anchor caught, the remaining boats in the fleet just tied off to each other. The reef started at about 90 feet, so this was no joke, I got the feeling the Kiwis were trying to impress us with their macho dive, but after I finally pulled myself down to the bottom with the anchor line, I barely had enough air to look under a couple rocks, so I really was not very happy. Ron could see my displeasure and took us to a shallower easy spot which was cool. I will say one of the club members caught the biggest lobster I had ever seen before or since. Standing holding the tail, the antennae touched the ground, a dinosaur. After the day Ron invited us to his home where his wife and kids were getting ready for dinner, and we had lamb stew (of course) After Dinner he asked a lot of questions about the States and was proud of his record collection where the Rock-n-Roll he played was The New Christy Minstrels, I didn't have the heart to protest. Ron was very gracious and drove us back to the ship, without even charging us for the outing. My diving experience notwithstanding, I was preoccupied with the girls of Wellington. They seemed very attractive and very attracted to us. Being the conservative cultured girls they were, they resisted being blatantly obvious regarding the former. At least for the most part. Denise Sheehan more or less picked me. She would just sit with me at the various bars, clubs and restaurants we frequented, not saying too much, but always seemed quite content to be in my presence. She followed me everywhere, not that I objected, she was 17, of Lebanese decent and very attractive. She came from a traditional Catholic family, and had done some modeling and was pursuing a career as an airline stewardess. She still lived at home with her parents, so finding a private spot was a little challenging, but she managed to persuade her friend to allow us to use their bedroom. My experience in this area was limited, so when my attempts resulted in cries of pain, I withdrew, as I did not want to hurt her. When I relayed that experience to some of my shipmates, they laughed and ordered me to "close the deal" insisting that "size" could not possibly impede me from the task at hand. They threatened to leave me in Wellington unless I was successful. Not that that would be a bad thing, but I would have some "splaynin to do", when I was caught. Meanwhile when I was not spending my time with Denise, some of my buddies met these " less than savory" girls that were convinced that we were going to stow them away, in the ship for our 5 day voyage to Sydney Australia. I found it hard to believe these very attractive girls were going to sell us their bodies for passage to Sydney. However during the tour of the ship we were giving them, they made it clear that they were only going to "pay" just me and my two shipmates. I felt a little troubled that they got the impression that many more than us would be involved. We showed them after cargo which was about 5 levels down in the bowels of the ship, where they would be kept, hidden from the officers as they rarely ventured down there. We explained they would have to wear appropriate attire, as they were really, dressed up during the tour. Mainly jeans and some foul weather clothing. It was not my intention to actual carry out this ruse, at least not the part where we would actually have to follow thru with "our " end of the bargain. I cant really say if my shipmates were on the same page, regarding that serious violation of the Universal Code of Military Justice. I was only half halfheartedly part of the conspiracy, since Denise was "waiting in the wings " I suppose the girls had good reason to expect a successful voyage as, the previous year a girl actually made it all the way to Seattle aboard the Polar Star, before they were found out, and she was quiclkly deported. Scuttlebut never did reveal what the consequences were for the perpetrators. It just so happen this particular individual was identified, and her picture was posted aboard ship, with strict orders to avoid. Apparently she was not deterred in her efforts as she was seen (by me and others) strolling the dock. Ironically some 30+ years later I ran into a Coast Guard Veteran who happen to serve duty on the Polar Star.. When I relayed the story to him about the stowaway, he informed me that there is a plaque displayed aboard the Polar Star commemorating the event.. He also said that apparently this girl ended up being a very successful physician, after sowing her wild oats, that will forever be part of the Icebreaker lore. * As for our potential stowaways we conveniently gave the girls a later departure time that left them in Wellington. I felt a little guilt about the whole thing, but that went away when I was successful with Denise and I did not have to return to the ship a failure. She was very keen on marriage, but I was so young I was not sure, but I did tell her one day, that on my return trip the following year ( tour of duty was normally 2 trips south) if she still felt the same way, I would marry her. Oh my God! she started telling her parents all her friend, they were celebrating popping champagne bottles, congratulations, the works. I said to myself uh oh, what did I do? As it turned out, directly after our voyage completed the Glacier was due for Todd Shipyards in San Pedro for overhaul, dry dock....misery, if you happened to live on the ship which I did. If it was not for the fire watches, which consisted of crawling into a small hot space with little ventilation with a union welder, while he went about his welding task , I might have resigned myself to suffer the violation and indignity of having union welders and workers sleeping in the enlisted mans day room. Not to mention the noise smoke dust and overall torturous living conditions. But all those put together, I was looking for a way out. Divine intervention saved me, at least that was my go-to explanation for the events that were about to transpire. One day I was informed by the senior chief petty officer that Small Boat Station Channel Islands Harbor had an opening for a full Seaman. He announced the opportunity to the deck force and I thought to myself 'this is my way out' Looking back, in more ways than one, as that my "engagement" would be in jeopardy as well. One other seaman was interested as he was from the area, about 50 miles north of San Pedro, in Oxnard. The Chief decided the choice would be made with a coin flip. My destiny was sealed when I saw the head of George Washington on the quarter in his hand. *After submitting this story and posting it to my blog, I received an anonymous comment, revealing to me the name of the stowaway I mentioned above. Dr. Lauren Roche. Before I continue about the good Dr. I want to add that have no idea why the anonymous person that revealed the doctors identity to the comment section of this blog entry, would wish to remain anonymous. I replied with several theories, not to the identity of the individual, but where this person would come upon the information that only a small group of people could have known about (That turned out to be an erroneous assumption, as will become clear in a moment) I received no response and the person is still a mystery. I did a Google search and found the whereabouts of Dr Roche. I emailed her with my story and inquired if she indeed was the stowaway I wrote about. Her e mails follows www.laurenkimroche.com www.laurenkimroche.com Hello, Mike Yes. It’s me. I wrote my story in the book ‘Bent Not Broken’ and am just beginning to write the screenplay for a proposed movie of the same name. I always wore clothes under my coat J I’m an author now, have a novel with an agent and another with a mentor. Life is good. Lovely to hear from you. I’m happy for you to use my name. Bent Not Broken is out o0f print, though can be bought second hand on many Kiwi sites – Trademe is a good one. I’ll reprint if the movie goes ahead, Best wishes, Lauren PS There is a plaque on the Polar Star, will hunt out a pic of it when I’m home, am at work in my General Practice at the moment. Lauren RocheJune 17, 2019 at 2:39 PM Hello. I am Dr Lauren Roche and can confirm I am the woman you write about. I didn't go aboard any ship naked under a coat though :-) I can think of one or two of my acquaintances that might have done so. My story is told in my autobiographical book Bent Not Broken. If you can track down a copy you might enjoy the read, Laurem www.laurenkimroche.com :-) ReplyDelete Lauren RocheJune 17, 2019 at 2:41 PM also, I managed to hitchhike around the USA for 3 months before being caught, spending two nights sleeping on the Glacier as I passed through Long Beach. All those years ago. :-) I don't know how close Bushroad Co NZ is to the resort, but I'll recommend it to the Dr, and perhaps she will meet a fellow urchin diver for an appropriate ending to this bizarre tale. at June 15, 2017 Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest 5 comments: UnknownJune 13, 2019 at 3:56 AM Dr Lauren Roche is her name !!! ReplyDelete Replies Michael ThomasJune 13, 2019 at 5:44 AM Now how in hell could you know that??? If you dont want to reveal your identity, you could at least give me some kind of generic scenario that would explain how you would have that information. I suppose I could make a guess. You were probably stationed aboard the Polar Star, during that time, or were the spouse of a crew member. I am thinking you were an Officer,and fraternizing with enlisted personnel, is verboten, or were among the guilty crew members who pulled it off.Either way I am a little disappointed that we could not connect and compare notes Delete Reply Michael ThomasJune 13, 2019 at 5:40 PM I shared the story with a friend and she said only 1 person could have sent that comment......Thank You Doctor ReplyDelete Lauren RocheJune 17, 2019 at 2:39 PM Hello. I am Dr Lauren Roche and can confirm I am the woman you write about. I didn't go aboard any ship naked under a coat though :-) I can think of one or two of my acquaintances that might have done so. My story is told in my autobiographical book Bent Not Broken. If you can track down a copy you might enjoy the read, Laurem www.laurenkimroche.com :-) ReplyDelete Lauren RocheJune 17, 2019 at 2:41 PM also, I managed to hitchhike around the USA for 3 months before being caught, spending two nights sleeping on the Glacier as I passed through Long Beach. All those years ago. :-) ReplyDelete
No comments:
Post a Comment