To What is Your Ship Anchored?

The ship was a shallow draft, Fetcher class Destroyer (USS Marshall, DD 676).  She was a left over from World War II and the Korean Conflict.  Now she was relegated to the somewhat less than glorious task of training reserve sailors.  That is she had a skeleton crew, which was to be completed by a reserve crew (Rescrew) that could be called up to man her in wartime or in time of national need.

However, most of all she served as a floating school house for dry land reserve sailors on their two weeks of annual training.  She deserved more than that but in the wisdom of the Department of the Navy that was her lot in life and certainly better than more of her peers who had been sold for scrap.

Oh, yes, she was a she, not an it, because she like most ships had personality and much more, that defined her.  You see you could have two ships built from the same plans and both would have different ways about them.  That is why most sailors speak of one ship that they road and to which they relate, as if she was a spouse of sorts.

This cruise had been to take her from Seattle to Treasure Island, San Francisco Bay, California so the Rescrew could attend fire fighting school.  After all at sea, you had better take care of your ship for it was a long swim home.  

On the way back to her homeport, we made a stop for "Liberty" in Vancouver, B.C.  However, as it turned out the channel master could not board us until the next morning so we anchored just outside the harbor to await his arrival.  That is when the following took place.

Sometime earlier the Bridge had called for the "special sea and anchor detail."  So it was that now she is in the hands of those who not only had great skill at the helm but knew best how she answered the helm.

Soon the Bridge called, "All stop" and the constant vibration of the engines slowed to quiet and thus without power  she gradually lost her "way."  There we were "dead in the water" and soon the call came from the Bridge, "Release the anchor."  The anchor chocks had already been removed in anticipation and so at the call of the Bridge, the chain brake released.  It was then the air of the fo'c'sle  was filled with the clatter as the anchor chain which had been stowed under deck in the chain locker, ran out.  

Before long the anchor caught the bottom and once again the chain brake was set.  It was then that the Bridge called for "reverse engines" and slowly if not imperceptibly the anchor was made secure to the bottom.  Most of the slack was then taken out of the anchor chain.  When all was secured, the special sea and anchor detail was secured and since it was late in the afternoon much of "ship's work" was also "knocked off" for the day.

That night as those thing that happen aboard naval ships happen, evening chow, "Sweeper, sweepers, man your brooms, sweep down...," evening call to colors, the movie on the mess decks, lights out, the tides came and the tides went.  The ship rose and fell, as she rode that anchor chain some 360 degrees.  She was secured to her anchor and her anchor held to the bottom. 

This of course brings up a question.  It is a question that one is wise to ask.  To what are you anchored and how secure is your anchorage.  In the ebb and flow of life, various tides and currents seek to drive us in this direction or that. You see we live in the midst of a post-modern, secular, ego-centric culture where truth if it exists at all is seen as relative and ever changing.  Again, to what are you anchored?

Could it be that our skyrocketing suicide numbers, overflowing mental hospitals, counselors with full to overflowing case loads, etc are related to our disconnect and even disdain for God and His values?  Indeed are not our western societies populated by people who are confused, insecure, and easily victimized because they have no secure anchor point. Nothing which will weather the storms and uncertainties of life.

For most of the 10,000 years or so of recent history, western man has been stabilized by a belief in a god of some sort.  To cast off from that notion, as we have in the last 150 years or so since secularism has gained traction, is to leave one adrift and vulnerable as the winds of life blow and the tides of adversity run.

You see that ship avoided drifting into the shallows or the shoals that night and thus suffering damage or loss because her anchor was secure in that which would not move.  It was secure enough except that for a few sailors on deck watch fore and aft and others on watch throughout the ship, little concern was paid to her drifting.  She was as secure as that to which she was anchored.