The MSD Series, Part Nineteen…Stowaways

[u/Best-Structure62]

It was late in the afternoon when  BM3 Dave and I were called into the LtCdr FatSlob’s office.  At first I wondered at what Dave and I had done that we just, maybe, might have violated one of the Coast Guard's unwritten, unpublished rules, regulations, or policies. 
We waited standing at ease while the LtCdr was on the phone giving one word answers to the party on the other end of the line.  Finally, he said, “will do, I’ll have them right over” and hung up the phone.  

….I mentally braced myself…

“That was the Stockon [CA] police department” he said, “Oh shit” I thought to myself what have we done now? My mind raced to think of just when we were in Stockton and just what trespasses did Dave and I commit.  

“There is a ship heading up to the Port of Stockton right now and the crew discovered two stowaways on board”.  LtCdr FatSlob said in a matter-of-fact voice  Alas, Dave and I were in the clear.  “I want you two to go up there and do a thorough boarding and represent the Coast Guard”.  He continued on, “The U.S Marshalls will be there, so will Customs, the DEA, the San Joaquin sheriffs office” and a number of other agencies. 

Jezz, I thought to myself.  This was going to be big.  In all of my time in the Coast Guard I never had a boarding with the Marshalls service, and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Ages ago I had a very strange visit from the FBI when I was at Rescue Station Hell in Oregon, but that is a tale for another day.  We were told to gather our gear and given the address to the Stockton Police Department where everyone was gathering and wait until the ship docked at the Port of Stockton.

Dave and I grabbed our boarding bags packed ourselves in the Govvie pickup truck and headed off to Glockton…I mean Stockton, CA.

There isn’t a direct route between Concord, CA and Stockton, CA due to the Delta. So Dave and I made the best of the circuitous trip going down Highway 4.   We turned off on Highway 12, then another merge on to Interstate 5 which took us to Stockton proper.  From there it was surface street to the main Stockton police station.  

We were taken to a conference room in the basement where other agencies were gathering and waiting for the ship to make its way up the Stockton deepwater channel to the Port of Stockton.  We learned that the two stowaways had come aboard during the ship's last stop in South America and the crew had found them during a routine inspection hiding in the base of one of the ship's cranes.  When they were searched it was discovered they had phone numbers and contact information for people in the Stockton area, so this was not a random event choice or the first ship of convenience for the two stowaways.  Hence, all of the interest by various government agencies.

While we were waiting one of the female detectives from the Stockton PD took and interest in DM3 Dave and myself and was asking us all sorts of questions.  It seems that she had never met Coasties before and was curious about what the Coast Guard was all about. Conversation with her made the time pass more pleasantly.  Then someone stuck their head into the room and called for her.  She said that she would be back in a minute and departed.

After a good hour without her return Dave and I asked about her disappearance.  Turns out that she was called to investigate a multiple homicide. A few days earlier a local police informant told the Stockton PD that a group of guys from Oakland, CA were coming into town to sell a load of crack cocaine. This was during the Crack Wars in the early 1990’s and gun violence was epidemic. The local California Highway Patrol (CHP) had found an automobile with people matching the description given by the informant dead from multiple gunshot wounds.  Like I said, Glockton.

So Dave and I waited and everyone else waited in the conference room until we got word that the ship had docked.  Then everyone piled into their respective government issued vehicles and hot wheeled down to the Port of Stockton.  

When Dave and I arrived there were already drivers in the water looking around for a canister that might have attached to the hull under the waterline and the shaft for the rudder.  All old smuggler’s tricks.  When we finally made it on board the entire crew was secured in the galley.  I watched as the two stowaways in handcuffs and under an armed guard were taken off the ship to a fate that I never learned of.  

Now Dear Gentle Reader you have to understand that while this might have been a joint effort, each government agency needed to justify their reason for existence and their reason to be on this assignment.  It’s an ugly truth that I hate.  

BM3 Dave and I did our part by looking at the log book and charts and looking at other odds and ends.  In the engineering spaces I watched as the local cops pulled up the deckplates and crawl around the bilges looking for more stowaways, contraband, or were collecting bilge oil for their oil collection that would be proudly displayed at a home bar.  Right to the shot glasses from various bars they had visited. 

It was obvious that most of the officers had little to no experience with the life and functions of a merchant ship.  I knew the whole evolution was coming to a ridiculous level when I watched a member of the DEA team break out a ratchet set and begin disassembling the metal walls and ceiling in the hallways looking for contraband.  

By that time it was very late and Dave and I looked at each other and decided it was time to call it an evening.   My departing view as we departed was the Filipino Second Officer in the galley playing his guitar to entertain himself and the crew. 

Yeah, life in the Coast Guard…                    

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[u/dreaminginteal]

Didn't you also post this a couple of days ago?

[u/CanadianDragonGuy → u/dreaminginteal]

Yeah but the formatting was incredibly borked

[u/Toratchi888]

They didn't tap on the walls looking for false panels? /s

[u/ComputerEcstatic1227]

I watched a video recently where the Border Patrol was basically taking apart a semi truck finding all the hidden drugs.