Received April 07, 2005 by e-mail from Bill Higgins ( FP2 )
Van:
Told me about the web-site. I was on the ship from 55 to 58 I would
like to add some more
info to when the ship hit the whale. My name is
Bill Higgins FP2 I was a pipe fitter, and a
few of us were in the pipe shop, which was on the fan tail of the ship.
We were moving at about 25 to 27 knots, because the admiral had a heart
attack.
We were playing cards when all of a sudden there was a side to side shutter,
we all thought
that was unusual, so we walked out to the deck outside of the shop.
We saw nothing, except for very calm seas. We went back to
playing cards and after a short
period of time the phone rang. I answered it and
it was the Damage Control roving patrol
and he told me he thinks we hit something, because there is something banging
on the bow.
( I was in R Division and we were responsible for damage control and the
man that was on watch
was a pipe fitter) A couple of us went up to the flight deck bow and went
to the starboard catwalk
where you could look down on the bow.
We put a light on the bow and we could see something wrapped around the
bow.
(we had no idea what it was at the time.) I called the bridge and notified
them of what was going on.
Some one from the bridge came to look and he confirmed our findings. It
took a long time for the
ship to stop, and the rest is history. There was no damage to the ship,
that I can remember.
Whale2 added april 09, 2005