The seafaring life is an adventurous one, but everyday existence aboard ship sometimes becomes quite routine and, perhaps, a little lonely.For the mariners aboard the SIU-crewed SP5 Eric G. Gibson, that routine took an upturn with the arrival of two furry visitors.
On July 6, as the Gibson was in the Caribbean en route to Guam, the captain received a request at 1:20 p.m. from a U.S. Customs plane to check out a sailboat that appeared to be adrift. When the Gibson pulled up alongside the stranded boat three hours later, AB John T. Williams went aboard with Chief Mate Timothy L. English. The cabin was cluttered, they noted, and there was evidence of water in the bilges, but no one was located.
Williams and English did, however, find a dog. And, after searching some more, they found another, smaller dog.
“They almost did not find the little dog,” said Capt. Yngvar A. Krantz III, master of the Gibson. “She was hiding under the cockpit seating and barely visible unless you looked very carefully. If we had not sent English and Williams over, the second dog would not have been found.”
Once the dogs were brought aboard the RO/RO vessel and housed in the wheelhouse on the bridge deck, where there is a mate on watch 24 hours a day, they were immediately adopted by the crew. Everyone wanted to feed them, but “the food was too rich,” said Krantz, so the third mate finally was designated the official dog feeder.
“The whole crew has gone to some lengths to save and care for the dogs,” noted Krantz. “The morale on board has already improved considerably with the two new additions to the crew. We have debated on many names, but refer mostly to the big dog and the little dog. The big dog is rather thin and lethargic. She seemed close to shock. The little dog is definitely the alpha’ dog. It has shown little, if any, ill effects of its ordeal . . . The little dog is a dachshund mix and is a little on the excitable side. When she gets excited, she wags her whole stern section and jumps up and down. The bigger dog is very subdued. To get up and wag her tail is about all the emotion she exhibits. She does, however, like attention and affection. She is just not demonstrative about it.”
It turns out the owner of the sailboat, a French national, was sailing from Curaçao to Venezuela when he lost his main engine and sail. He and his two dogs were adrift for 21 days with little food and water, and the seas were very rough. A passing Panamanian ship threw him a rescue line and brought him aboard ship, but there was no way to save the dogs. The survivor was taken to Houston, and the French consulate there contacted Osprey Shipping, which operates the Gibson,, to help the owner retrieve his dogs, whose names he said were Captain (the little one) and Ti Ti. But further communication wasn’t forthcoming, and the dogs were still aboard the Gibson when it landed in Guam last month. A military veterinarian has examined them and given them health certificates, which are necessary in order for the animals to be shipped back to the States.
“The cost for shipping both dogs, including the kennels and a stopover in Hawaii overnight in a kennel is about $800,” stated Chris Nette, director of operations at Osprey Shipping. “We are already starting a fund in the office. The next problem is to find a home for the dogs when they get here.”
Printer Friendly Page