You could not pay me enough money to do what Geoff Dyer does in Another Great Day at Sea: Dyer spends two weeks aboard an aircraft carrier. Dyer tells us about the maze of passageways, the noise, the stress, and the exhilaration of life on an aircraft carrier. Dyer is a Brit (although he now lives in Venice, California) who is saddened by the fact that England does not have an aircraft carrier. But Dyer is more that willing to praise the staff of the USS George H. W. Bush. Dyer captures he danger of life on an aircraft carrier as well as its excitement. As a guy who has a love/hate relationship with water, the thought of living on a floating city freaks me out. If you ever wondered what life aboard an aircraft carrier was like, Dyer’s book tells all. GRADE: B+
I’m with you, George. I’ve been on an aircraft carrier during Fleet Week in New York but no way I’d ever be on one at sea.
Jeff, Buffalo has a Naval Park with a Cleveland-class cruiser, USS Little Rock, the Fletcher-class destroyer, USS The Sullivans, and a Gato-class submarine, USS Croaker.. Nothing as big as an aircraft carrier, but scary nonetheless.
Could not even bring myself to go aboard docked on the one in San Diego.
Patti, I could take a tour of a docked aircraft carrier. But no way would I take a trip on one like Dyer did.
I heard this guy on NPR a couple weeks ago. Very interesting. I wouldn’t want to do it either but I don’t mind reading about it.
Beth, I enjoyed Dyer’s adventures on the aircraft carrier. But there’s no way I would do what he did.
Since I crossed the Pacific on a WWII-era troop ship, a carrier would be like The Love Boat for me. You guys are a bunch of landlubbers.
Bob, guilty as charged. I frolic at the pool every day, but I’m not comfortable with water. To me, it’s scary stuff.
Cap’n: both of us get seasick. Fortunately, there is no necessity for us to take ocean voyages.
My father was on a troop ship to and from England during WWII (The Big One). The story he always told was that after several years in England he ate green peppers for the first time, then was sick as a dog all the way home.
Jeff, my Dad served on a destroyer in the Pacific during WWII. When he returned home, he told my Mom “I never want to be on a ship again!”
Being on a tin can in Jap-infested waters might put me off of sailing, too. Your father had dangerous duty, George. My mother, sisters, and I once sailed out to go on my father’s oil tanker, somewhere outside the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. A storm was brewing so eventually we were put on a launch and met a ferry crossing the water on its way to Norfolk. The ferry tossed 45 degrees from side to side as it made its way to port. I had a ball running through the sitting room with its large doorways on either side.
Bob, the destroyer my Dad was serving on was hit by a kamikaze plane. Eight sailors around my Dad were killed and my Dad was injured. That incident may have colored my Dad’s opinion of life aboard a warship, too.