William N. Trumbull.
William N. Trumbull rermembers...
I started as an ordinary seaman as a sixteen year old with no experience. Clem took an interest in me (I am sure that it had nothing to do with the fact that I was his boss's son!) and taught me navigation, ship handling, rope and wire splicing, and all other aspects of seamanship. Over time, he assigned me greater and greater responsibility. None of this, of course, was official. I had no certifications of any kind. It was the wild, Wild West! The fact is, I stood watch as a mate and did more and more of the navigation.
Often, he would leave me to handle the navigation until we were on station. Then he would take over until the work was completed and then leave it to me to return the ship home. Pretty heady experience for an 18 year old. But there is no record of my being anything but a worker bee. So call me a ‘Seaman’.
BTW, there were several research vessels: SHL, T- boat, and some others which serviced Argus Island. In the summer after my first year of college, in 1971, at the request of my father, I flew down to Little Creek, VA., to meet one of the Argus supply boats, which the Navy had hired to do a survey of the Potomac. There had been a ‘problem’ with the navigation during the crossing. I had the mate show me the navigation equipment. It didn't take long because there was nothing. No sextant, no chronometer, no real charts. Nothing! They got there literally by heading west from Bermuda and stumbling into the US. The mate told a story of coming up to the bridge in the middle of the night to discover that they were in the middle of shoals. They got out of there and then flipped a coin, which told them to head south. They had no idea where they were. This, of course, works if you are going from Bda to the US, less useful for the trip home. This was scary. I called my father, who fired the skipper and sent Clem to take over.
There was one summer assistant who was there only one or two summers – David Williams. He was one of my buddies and I recruited him. He came to the job knowing nothing. Clem taught him (and me) a lot, including navigation. David then left for Australia when he was 17 and went to work on prawn boats, quickly rising to captain. These are large ocean going ships that trawl for a month at a time, not the sort of shrimp boats you see in coastal towns in the US - and the money was really good. He even met his wife, a fellow captain there. Clem and the SHL had quite an impact!
Speaking of ‘impact’, mostly, in my experience, SHL did work with submarine missile testing – where the missiles landed (impacted) in the ocean. (I was navigator on the last Poseidon missile test). But there were other projects. My favorite was when scientist from the University of Rhode Island (as my fading memory recalls) hired us to measure the "bow wave" formed as the Gulf Stream flows by (or I guess more accurately the Sargasso Sea swirls past).
After my second year at the U. of Miami, I took a year off and shipped out as an OS on the RV Robert Conrad for nine months sailing down the West Indies and South America. That was quite an experience. Transformed my life, actually.
William N. Trumbull.
Dec. 8th. 2013
I started as an ordinary seaman as a sixteen year old with no experience. Clem took an interest in me (I am sure that it had nothing to do with the fact that I was his boss's son!) and taught me navigation, ship handling, rope and wire splicing, and all other aspects of seamanship. Over time, he assigned me greater and greater responsibility. None of this, of course, was official. I had no certifications of any kind. It was the wild, Wild West! The fact is, I stood watch as a mate and did more and more of the navigation.
Often, he would leave me to handle the navigation until we were on station. Then he would take over until the work was completed and then leave it to me to return the ship home. Pretty heady experience for an 18 year old. But there is no record of my being anything but a worker bee. So call me a ‘Seaman’.
BTW, there were several research vessels: SHL, T- boat, and some others which serviced Argus Island. In the summer after my first year of college, in 1971, at the request of my father, I flew down to Little Creek, VA., to meet one of the Argus supply boats, which the Navy had hired to do a survey of the Potomac. There had been a ‘problem’ with the navigation during the crossing. I had the mate show me the navigation equipment. It didn't take long because there was nothing. No sextant, no chronometer, no real charts. Nothing! They got there literally by heading west from Bermuda and stumbling into the US. The mate told a story of coming up to the bridge in the middle of the night to discover that they were in the middle of shoals. They got out of there and then flipped a coin, which told them to head south. They had no idea where they were. This, of course, works if you are going from Bda to the US, less useful for the trip home. This was scary. I called my father, who fired the skipper and sent Clem to take over.
There was one summer assistant who was there only one or two summers – David Williams. He was one of my buddies and I recruited him. He came to the job knowing nothing. Clem taught him (and me) a lot, including navigation. David then left for Australia when he was 17 and went to work on prawn boats, quickly rising to captain. These are large ocean going ships that trawl for a month at a time, not the sort of shrimp boats you see in coastal towns in the US - and the money was really good. He even met his wife, a fellow captain there. Clem and the SHL had quite an impact!
Speaking of ‘impact’, mostly, in my experience, SHL did work with submarine missile testing – where the missiles landed (impacted) in the ocean. (I was navigator on the last Poseidon missile test). But there were other projects. My favorite was when scientist from the University of Rhode Island (as my fading memory recalls) hired us to measure the "bow wave" formed as the Gulf Stream flows by (or I guess more accurately the Sargasso Sea swirls past).
After my second year at the U. of Miami, I took a year off and shipped out as an OS on the RV Robert Conrad for nine months sailing down the West Indies and South America. That was quite an experience. Transformed my life, actually.
William N. Trumbull.
Dec. 8th. 2013