Under the Bridge with Decks Awash
by Harry "Greek" Shuris, (SN (SS) at the time of the story)

While serving on the USS JALLAO SS-368 (1/58-9/60), I was the bridge phone talker during the maneuvering watch.  Sometime in the spring of 1958 while under command of - I think his name was Carnavan (prior to that he was exec on the Skipjack) - we were returning from a month at sea. 

As you know everyone is anxious to get home and as we were coming up the river to Groton, Connecticut, we saw three "river boats" i.e. out in the a.m. - back in the p.m - lying to just south of the railroad trestle. There was a train on the bridge so they couldn't raise it to let us pass. 

To make a long story short, the Captain continued by the other boats at reduced speed, secured the anchor detail, and sent the engineering officer below to the hydraulic manifold. He then proceeded to cycle the vents repeatedly until the deck was awash. He had all masts lowered, sent the exec to the top of the sail to check the clearance and pretty as you please, we sailed under the bridge with about a foot of clearance. By this time the crews of the other boats and the Fulton (sub-tender) at the state pier were lining the decks in disbelief. 

We beat everyone in by at least two hours and needless to say we would have followed that skipper to hell. I never did thank him for making us proud so I hope he sees this.

[I received the following email in response to the above story - D.G.]

The story about the Groton R.R. Bridge brought back memories of when I was aboard the USS Thornback in '44! We were in & out of New London daily so the frustration waiting for the bridge to open was an everyday occurrence & irritated the hell out of our Capt. Abe Abrahamson! He would flood the tanks, 'till the deck was awash ,and proceed to go under the bridge. More often than not the GxD bridge-tender would raise it just before we passed under, to REALLY get the Captains ass in a Tizzy! I think the Bridge-Tender was playing a game with the Old Man!! It would happen almost every day, and I seldom saw a train cross.

Bill (ski) Filakovsky, SM.2 1943--1946 U.S.N.R.

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