time is money. the captain, jackie stephens, knew of the forecast as we passed long point, our last refuge, before continuing towards lackawanna to discharge iron ore. he was hoping to get to the dock before the storm so to not catch as big a delay. it did not work out, the blow slammed in maybe 2 hrs out of the harbor. its quite a tale. coming in the opening of the breakwall we were dragging all three anchors on long leads. backing full astern. during the ensuing battle we ran over tugs, yachts, docks, barges, bouys, all the time out of control. after a few hours we caught a break, the wind dropped to maybe 60 for around 15 minutes and we were able to spin the ship into the wind and put back down both bow anchors and with the engine at 1/2 speed ahead she held. the old man then said he would be in his cabin drinking whisky if any thing changed.
i was 23 and the bosun that day. too young and stupid to be scared. in hindsight, it was like living in a spielburg movie. it was so over the top of what you might imagine.
