BIG BANG FISHING
Everyone has a good fishing story, especially about the one that got away but mine was a once in a lifetime experience that yielded good results.
While serving my apprentiship at the Devonport Naval Dockyard in Auckland I did time in the Internal Combustion Engineering Shop which looked after the Diesel engined tugs, fishery protection patrol boats, the Commodore’s barge and all the miscellaneous small launches. The job in hand was refitting a 72 foot Motor Launch for the Fijian Navy with the shipwrights carrying out the hull and superstructure work while the engine fitter and I extracted the twin “Gray Marine” diesel engines for a complete overhaul, dynamometer testing etc before re-installation and the best part of all, the sea trials.
For some reason a depth charge rack had been installed on the after deck during the refit and when we went out into the Hauraki Gulf for the day’s trials we carried a Gunnery Officer in charge of a solitary depth charge for test purposes.
All went well, a nice day, calm seas and as we approached the area where the testing was to be carried out the engines were put to maximum RPM mode and as soon as we were up to the best possible speed, all of about twelve knots, we were warned that there would be a bit of a bump and that we should hang on. The depth charge was primed, set for depth, and rolled off the stern. It must have been set very shallow or it malfunctioned as it had no sooner disappeared under water when there was a “Cruuump” and the deck under our feet felt as if someone had just hit it with a 24 pound hammer.
Then the sea started to simmer, boil, and finally erupt into a massive plume of water and spray, very spectacular to say the least. The Navy crew obviously knew what to expect as the boat was quickly turned about to return to the drop zone which was by then littered with fish, perhaps a quarter acre of them, no kidding, mainly Snapper and Gurnard plus a few Dog fish.
The small ply dingy was launched and paid out on a line to allow a couple of ABs to gather up as many fish as they could.
We must have had a hundred or more fish on board before many started to recover from the concussive shock and swim away but then disaster struck as the long dinghy painter developed too much slack and was caught by the slowly revolving starboard propeller and several turns were jammed between the launch’s prop and the ‘A’ bracket. No initial panic as we had a trained Navy diver on board but all the gear he had was a pair of goggles and a not so sharp knife so when the weather started to blow up a bit and after he had bumped his head a few times on the rising and falling hull the Skipper set sail for home on one engine.
At this stage we civilians on board were wised up by the well practiced Navy crew, borrowed from a fisheries patrol craft for the day, to take our share of the catch and say nothing to anybody other than “The propeller seemed to have picked up a stray line from trawler fishing rig.” This was the explanation radioed into the base and explaining that our ETA would be around 2100 hrs.
We cleaned and scaled the catch during the slow slog home using a good knife fashioned from a sharpened machine hacksaw blade in the fitter’s tool box and well before berthing we had all the evidence packed away in our bags and the decks swabbed free of any fishy evidence.
We arrived without a welcoming committee, thank goodness, and the diver was able to go under with some proper gear and clear the prop without any further problems
I have since wondered why the Fijians needed this depth charge rack on such a small slow boat, perhaps they had a stash of WW2 depth charges left over and wanted to do some fishing.
Our RNZ Navy boat crew certainly gave me the impression that they had done this sort of test before. Again,
in later years I have wondered about the drop zone, it must have been shallower water to yield such a harvest and not the designated area as shown on the charts as set aside for such testing.
I was late home but when Mum started frying those snapper fillets for my tea the whole family stood in line for an extra meal.
Bob
Everyone has a good fishing story, especially about the one that got away but mine was a once in a lifetime experience that yielded good results.
While serving my apprentiship at the Devonport Naval Dockyard in Auckland I did time in the Internal Combustion Engineering Shop which looked after the Diesel engined tugs, fishery protection patrol boats, the Commodore’s barge and all the miscellaneous small launches. The job in hand was refitting a 72 foot Motor Launch for the Fijian Navy with the shipwrights carrying out the hull and superstructure work while the engine fitter and I extracted the twin “Gray Marine” diesel engines for a complete overhaul, dynamometer testing etc before re-installation and the best part of all, the sea trials.
For some reason a depth charge rack had been installed on the after deck during the refit and when we went out into the Hauraki Gulf for the day’s trials we carried a Gunnery Officer in charge of a solitary depth charge for test purposes.
All went well, a nice day, calm seas and as we approached the area where the testing was to be carried out the engines were put to maximum RPM mode and as soon as we were up to the best possible speed, all of about twelve knots, we were warned that there would be a bit of a bump and that we should hang on. The depth charge was primed, set for depth, and rolled off the stern. It must have been set very shallow or it malfunctioned as it had no sooner disappeared under water when there was a “Cruuump” and the deck under our feet felt as if someone had just hit it with a 24 pound hammer.
Then the sea started to simmer, boil, and finally erupt into a massive plume of water and spray, very spectacular to say the least. The Navy crew obviously knew what to expect as the boat was quickly turned about to return to the drop zone which was by then littered with fish, perhaps a quarter acre of them, no kidding, mainly Snapper and Gurnard plus a few Dog fish.
The small ply dingy was launched and paid out on a line to allow a couple of ABs to gather up as many fish as they could.
We must have had a hundred or more fish on board before many started to recover from the concussive shock and swim away but then disaster struck as the long dinghy painter developed too much slack and was caught by the slowly revolving starboard propeller and several turns were jammed between the launch’s prop and the ‘A’ bracket. No initial panic as we had a trained Navy diver on board but all the gear he had was a pair of goggles and a not so sharp knife so when the weather started to blow up a bit and after he had bumped his head a few times on the rising and falling hull the Skipper set sail for home on one engine.
At this stage we civilians on board were wised up by the well practiced Navy crew, borrowed from a fisheries patrol craft for the day, to take our share of the catch and say nothing to anybody other than “The propeller seemed to have picked up a stray line from trawler fishing rig.” This was the explanation radioed into the base and explaining that our ETA would be around 2100 hrs.
We cleaned and scaled the catch during the slow slog home using a good knife fashioned from a sharpened machine hacksaw blade in the fitter’s tool box and well before berthing we had all the evidence packed away in our bags and the decks swabbed free of any fishy evidence.
We arrived without a welcoming committee, thank goodness, and the diver was able to go under with some proper gear and clear the prop without any further problems
I have since wondered why the Fijians needed this depth charge rack on such a small slow boat, perhaps they had a stash of WW2 depth charges left over and wanted to do some fishing.
Our RNZ Navy boat crew certainly gave me the impression that they had done this sort of test before. Again,
in later years I have wondered about the drop zone, it must have been shallower water to yield such a harvest and not the designated area as shown on the charts as set aside for such testing.
I was late home but when Mum started frying those snapper fillets for my tea the whole family stood in line for an extra meal.
Bob
