Brought back by popular demand.

For two of you
The year was 1957 and I found myself on the USS Chickasaw a navy ocean going tug boat towing three large
barges of asphalt to a far-away place namely Enewetok atoll
in the Marshall islands,these islands are 2500 miles southw-
est of Hawaii,out of the main shipping lanes,in the middle of nowhere.

Having been born inland and not seeing the ocean
until my late teens this was something else again,I had drea-mt about such a place for years fueled by the writings of Zane Grey and Hemingway.

The tow was very slow to say the least which was fine with me not so with most the crew,four or five knots divided
by 2500

Most of the crew saw nothing but water but I and my bud saw life everywhere, the water was full of visitors every-
day,dorado by the scores,sharks even a couple of bill fish,
whales would even stop by for a visit,at night flying fish would bombard us by the dozens,we tryed to show a movie
on the stern one night and were sent running for our lives,
birds would rest on the barges frigets and albatross,the area was anything but dead.

Every morning we had to run around and pick up the dead flying fish then it was show time for the crew,I would
throw a couple out and watch the dodo,s come running,just like feeding the chickens.

Enewetok atoll is nothing more than a circular thin strip of island with a large lagoon in the middle,fifteen miles
in diameter,we entered the lagoon thru a small opening which had been blasted out for smaller ships such as us,the
lagoon was like nothing your imagination could expect,a flat mill pond,not a ripple and clear as a gin jug,so clear it seem-ed like we were floating on air,as you looked down you could see forever,after off loading the barges we made for the fuel dock,only to find they would not let us off,which was ok i guess,probably could,nt walk anyway after nearly a month
of rocking and rolling,after fueling we moved out to anchor
for the next two days,then the fun being more me.

Night time and I got to wondering whats down there?
we had two large lights on the stern for night time work which we turned on and pointed at the water,in a matter of minutes things began to happen! clouds of plankton appear-ed,than krill,than small bait fish,they just got bigger by the minute,we talked the cook out of a block of frozen shrimp to add to the mix........several kinds of jacks began showing
some of the larger ones I think were trevally,s,big brownish
groupers started making passes thru the melee than things
came to a stop out from under the boat comes a fifteen ft.
or more tiger shark with his blunt nose an striped body,a
beautiful animal,we were but a few feet from his head.

After the big boy left things returned to normal,we only had one fishing pole and an hand line which I had rigged up earlyer,no match for these guys,everything was to big and strong for our stuff,if you hooked something small he never made it to the top,always big boys would take him and leave us just standing there laughing.

Much more to the story but you get the idea,also five years earlyer same island the last hydrogen bomb was fired off,the place was hot,what were we doing there?

They did not start to clean up the place until the late 60,s so I quess we were lucky!
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Interesting story !!

Baitcast....

...my dad was in the Merchant Marine (Radio Operator) during 'Double-U Double-U Two' and spent time in the Marshall's and Eniwetok atoll. His crew were also confined aboard ship during those war times to enjoy the tropics from a hot steel deck! On their last trip home, they had all kinds of neat stuff they had 'collected/traded' (Japanese souvenirs) but were forced to toss em' overboard before landing.

I was on a boat delivery from Louisiana to Hawaii in 1992, and we were also a 'slow' vessel - not quite as slow as yours! We had a BBQ mounted on the stern, and were able to snag several Dodo's along the way, crank em' in, fillet em' and toss em' on the Barby within minutes - talk about 'Fresh' fish - we really had some great dinners aboard, in the open ocean!

Sometimes, low and slow isn't all that bad!

Joe the asphalt was for the air strip I believe,they
refused to let us off the boat so no time for snorkeling or anything else which was fine,the standing joke around there was the fish glowed at night,the area was still very hot so I,m glad we didn,t get off the boat
I have often wondered what about the guys working on the island?
Looking into the water at night under the lights was something else,the only thing that comes close is the marine world tank.
Doing any fishing? I still have my heart set on San
Franciquito,saw some pic,s on mexfish of some guys hooked up big time on the beach,real nice fish!!!!!
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S.F. yellowtail