swabbie

There is danger, of course- unpredictable nature, lurking water hazards, quickly rising human squalls but the initial difficulty is language: can they become fluent in the argot of harbormasters, helmsmen, navigators, and the various deck hands, skippers, and swabbies? The language of river people is gloriously colorful and idiosyncratic, and Watson has a gift for capturing it.

As a Seaman 2nd Class I was at the bottom of the heap, along with millions of other swabbies. I had entered a different world, one where we were daily drilled into exhaustion by no-nonsense Marine drill sergeants, where we underwent various physical and medical tests, including "short arm inspections" (don't ask), watched horrendous films on venereal disease and ate Navy chow, which we uniformly criticized but was actually pretty good.

But he would invest in the navy (swabbies rejoice!), bringing the Joint Supply Ship program to a Canadian shipyard near you.

"Listen," says Thomas, "if he'd cut my mother's throat five minutes ago, I wouldn't let those swabbies get their mitts on him." Then he grumbles: "What a break!

The conversion was carried out under contract by Winchester to provide swabbies with a way to conduct marksmanship training on board ship.

Captain Cook did not ask his forecastle swabbies to navigate for him, and Admira Nimitz certainly didn't poll the U.S.

I want them to forget about their disabilities and think about their capabilities." But this captain is no Bligh; he is gentle and soft-spoken with his swabbies, and no one ever walks the plank.

The careers of a few nervous swabbies are nothing next to a $100 billion weapons program.