The O’Callahan Incident

I was a Third Class Petty Officer in the late 70’s and barely 20 years old. My rate, what the Navy calls your job, was an enlisted navigator. The actual name of the rate is Quartermaster, but I don’t tend to call it that when not in Navy-only company. In the other military services, a Quartermaster is supply. There is nothing wrong with that, but that is not what that job is in the Navy. Anyway, we were going to Hong Kong, which was still under lease by the British. It is such a busy port that you had to have an assigned time to enter the port, be boarded by a pilot who, along with tug boats, put you where you are supposed to go. It was much like a busy airport, except for the tug boats. We were assigned to enter Victoria Harbor at 0630. We were somewhat early, and I was the navigator on watch. There are shipping lanes which are like a big highway. The Officer of the Deck on watch is in charge of the ship and is said to ‘Have the Conn’ since he gives the orders as far as speed and direction of the ship. The Officer of the Deck said, “Petty Officer Warnock, get us out of the shipping lane and calculate the speed and direction for the smoothest sailing and the least fuel consumption. I did my calculations, advised the Officer of the Deck what direction to go and the speed. That is one of the few situations I got to tell an officer where to go without getting in trouble, but that’s another story. He commanded the helmsman, “Right full rudder, ahead 12 knots.”

We left the shipping lane, and when we got to a certain distance from the shipping lanes, I advised the Officer of the Deck to come about to the reciprocal of our heading. So that went on for an hour or so, back and forth.

The Captain of the Ship came on deck. “The Captain is on the bridge!” He came over to the chart table and asked, “Mr. Warnock, where are we?” I showed him where we were and advised our direction, speed, and its reciprocal also that we were sailing in clear waters (deep). The Captain looked at the chart and shouted, “Oh, shit! This is the Captain. I have the Conn! Right full rudder, all ahead full!”

The Captain told us that we were too close to Red China, 12 miles, and could have been legally seized. Later that day, after mooring up in Victoria Harbor, the Captain called me aside and apologized for swearing. He said he understands why I didn’t know about the international limits (as interpreted by China) but that there was no excuse for the Officer of the Deck and that he should have been checking. I got the impression that Officer of the Deck was in big trouble. Note: I knew what the distance was in international waters. I did not know China had a different standard. Now I do 🙂

Now it was time to go get into some trouble in Hong Kong, one of my favorite places we visited.

(true story)