Meanwhile…
At about the tail end of the oiler’s saga, an AB claimed that “someone or something” (his exact words) was entering his stateroom while he was sleeping taking his clean towels, and putting dirty towels on his clothes line.
The first strange part of the AB’s story is why does he have a clothes line in his stateroom? There are washers and driers and even a clothes line for those who wish to use them, the AB informed the Chief mate that he had a clothes line in his room because his clothes “got sick in an electric drier (no idea if the clothes are OK in a gas drier) and that “they feel more comfortable on a clothes line they are used to”
It was pointed out to the AB that the towels were actually company towels and the stewards department would give him as many clean towels as he wished.
The AB claimed that this would not do, these towels were used to him (no idea what happens when he leaves, does he swipe company towels?)
But while this solved the mystery as to why the AB had a clothes line in his stateroom, it of course left the mystery of the “someone or something” that was changing his towels at night while he slept.
The mystery took a dark turn one morning when the AB claimed that the “someone or something” shoved him by the door to his stateroom and he almost fell, several people pointed out that the ship was rolling heavy 20-30 degrees and he may have just lost his balance, he insisted that no, he had been shoved by a crew member capable of being invisible or some other entity, he did offer the opinion that it seemed far-fetched that a crew member could render themselves invisible, so therefore he was of the opinion that there was an other worldly entity on board.
The Oldman asked the AB if he had these issues at home, and the AB said that he had in the past but had learned ways to protect his home.
Then the AB’s shower backed up, actually several showers backed up, the AB’s just happened to be the lowest in the system, he claimed that this was proof of a small demon living in the pipes, I cut the pipe open, and sadly found no demon, but only rust and dirt, I had been looking forward to finding a demon as I have never seen a demon, but alas, only rust.
I welded in new pipe, as this was happening a meeting was taking place in the oldman’s office, it was decided that the AB, besides being a bit odd was basically OK, so he would be retained.
It was not known to the people at the meeting that the AB had sent an e-mail to the company HR person, complaining about the demon.
He got an e-mail back CC’d to the Oldman that stated that company policy has not to discriminate and that this include other worldly beings as long as they had seaman’s papers and were members in good standing of their respective unions.
This was very strange as HR people are not known for having a sense of humor.
For some reason the demon stopped harassing the AB, no one knows why, perhaps my cutting and welding the pipe scared it off, but more likely as the ship made Honolulu, the demon simply went on vacation in Hawaii (that’s my theory anyway).
While in Honolulu something far worse than a demon harassed the company, the office was served by the oiler’s lawsuit, which was not even the strangest part of this story.
To be continued…