Patterson (Pat) Taylor^* Musings And Photos.....

^*Captain USN Retired (Ex. CO USS Grampus SS-523)

(click on images to enlarge and for info)

UNITAS X was a great cruise....a good year to spend half of it a sea....at least for me.....acting independent from my home base, Submarine Squadron Six in Norfolk....we were pretty "foot loose and fancy free"....It might have been a little "tighter" on Leahy during that Unitas X cruise...being the flagship with Admiral Dare and his staff on board...but for me...I just recall being able to thumb my nose at a lot of "Z-Gram" traffic that came in all summer and into the fall...where our new CNO was changing the face of our Navy around a good bit....or at least, trying to.

The two "wooden men" carvings that I bought in the town square in Ecuador...(I didn't have "two packs of American cigarettes" to barter)...I think I paid this little mountain man...a barefoot indian carver - I paid him 360 Sucres....I think I figured it out at the time to be about $20….

I mentioned our "junket" trip out to the Galapagos Islands when one of our port visits got waylaid by our State Department. When Admiral Dare, our TF Commander alerted all of his US ships that we were not to enter (Cali, Columbia?) until they - State- ironed out a matter over which two US fishing trawlers had just been "captured" off the Baja peninsula, and towed them into one of their home ports. My recollection was that then, Admiral Dare said to his skippers.. words to the effect, "...you are on your own until you hear from me as to the disposition of the conflict. I intend to 'go fishing' off the Galapagos, having been advised by State that this matter hopefully will be resolved within the week...and we can continue our joint exercises. Please advise me of your daily noon positions - I similarly will keep you advised."
Well, with that- I took a straw poll on board..."do we sit out here and have one long swim call, and BBQ on deck?....or do you want to go fishing in the Galapagos?....(we'll stay out of the Admiral's way!)?".....So off we went - some 800 miles out off the coast- and dropped the hook in three different little island coves....spent two days fishing and treating the locals to beach Bar-B-Ques each nite.
The image below shows a piece of driftwood, from the Galapagos, one of the Ecuadorian natives carved from a piece of driftwood...the piece was his version of The Madonna...

(click on the image above to enlarge)

One quick sea-story....

Your Flag, Admiral Dare, had been on the Unitas IX cruise the year before....so he knew of the good "fishing spots" in the Straights....
He approached me, saying he was sending Grampus thru a day and a half ahead of the task force- and would supply me with a few anchorages, bait and instructions on some "Magellan Crabbing". I was issued a cargo net.... almost 20' x 20' square...about 20 pounds of horse-meat....and a small chart with two "X's" marked as overnite anchorages. My orders were to use my divers (the admiral had seen us go over the side and check our hull for "foreign matter" at every port site ) - to lay this cargo net on the bottom, near my stern- while at anchorage...about 55-60 feet of water. They were to "bait" the net with 5 or 6 pounds of horse-meat....and tether all four corners of the net up to my after capstan. Each nite - at the two different sites I was to anchor - he asked that we tie down the signal arm of our high-powered signal light, and shine some 800 watts back astern over the netted area. He instructed me to have my divers go back down to the bottomed nets around 0600 dark those two mornings...and signal the hydraulic capstan operator on the stern to start hauling in, slowly.
We "netted" 4 of the biggest King Crab you ever imagined - on the first nite adventure....got 5 whoppers on the second nite. These crabs....sort of kin to Alaskan King Crab....had a "wing-span" or close to 4 1/2 feet - outstretched.....shells at least 20 to 24 inches in diameter. A couple of our torpedo-men would come up the after ladder to the main deck, bringing our torpedo-room fire axe....and do justice to our catch, before they tried to reach the edge of our teak deck and back into the water. One Crab.....just one....fed my entire crew of 83...(there were maybe a total of 8-10 'good ole' boys from Omaha or Oklahoma that decided they were not about to start eating crab for the first time in the bowels of submarine in foreign waters!)......The Admiral - aboard Leahy, showed up in port at Tierra del Fuego a day after we arrived....and we transferred his nets and 6 giant crab......

More artwork and some trading....