Around The World Submerged
KILLING TIME
There's an old saying that submarining is boredom punctuated by moments of stark terror. It's pretty clear this is not one of those moments. In this photo, Dave Boe plays the harmonica while Joe Tilenda (top bunk) and Charles Pawlowicz critique his performance.
Boredom is the sailor's curse and killing time was a problem on the circumnavigation. Nearly everyone stood 8 hours of watch and slept 8 hours a day. But then there were those other 8 hours to deal with. Everyone had work to do, but there was still time on our hands. The unqualified traced pipe and wire. The artistic painted, tooled leather and so on. The intellectual read those heavy books. The writers wrote in their diaries and logs. The gamblers played cards, acey-ducey or cribbage (and maybe a little 5 card stud now and then?) And the dreamers prepared for careers as movie critics by watching every movie on board 6 times - or more. One way or another, we made those 84 days pass, but some days were harder than others.
By the way, ever miss those bunks on Triton? Here's how to handle it: have a fluorescent light installed on the bottom of your coffee table and lie under it to read.