[CW] What's the value of listening to vintage Maritime CW Recordings??

[sbjohnston at aol.com]

One morning in the late 1980s I emerged from my broadcast transmitter site on Newport News Point to catch the dawn after a maintenance session.  I looked out at Hampton Roads harbor and what did my wondering eyes see?  The giant SS United States stuck in the mud right off the Point!  

The day before the ship had been moored next to the James River coal loading piers as usual awaiting her fate.  But during the night somehow that big ship got loose and floated by itself down to my location.   

I think it was being kept where it was because the storage fees had not been paid up, so I wondered if someone 'freed' her from her captivity.  The news covered it later that day but I never heard an explanation.  Several tugs put her back where she was supposed to be.
 
If I had waded out to the ship could I have claimed her as abandoned salvage?  Or I could say that put my hand out and stopped her from floating out into the Chesapeake Bay with the tide - that should have been worth a reward, right?.  Of course, the ship probably had more debt than value at that point.

Since it was the first light of predawn when I came out of the transmitter building, as far as I know I was the first person to see what had happened.

 
Steve WD8DAS

sbjohnston at aol.com
http://www.wd8das.net/http://af4k-crystals.com
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