(no subject)

From: <Christopher>
Date: Thu Oct 09 2003 - 09:38:00 EDT

>Any stories about the guy that got forgotten in there/fell asleep and ended
>up being unintentionally part of the project in a way he never intended?
>Hell, if there isn't one, make it up.

The first made-up version I heard was about the riveter and his helper who were supposed to be trapped in the double hull of the _Great Eastern_. The ship was the biggest ever until the Titanic but not a success economically because it was so damn big. The idea was to carry passengers to Australia without re-coaling and the ship was also fitted with sails in case they had trouble finding coal for the trip back. She was a technological marvel with a double bottom and both side wheels and screw propellers, but her size kept getting her into trouble and getting people killed, starting with the launch when she stuck partway down the ways. Supposedly her hard luck was due to the trapped riveting crew, but that never happened. When I was a kid I read an article in Reader's Digest (I think) that said two skeletons were found when the ship was scrapped in the 1880's, and I believed it for years. The legend is still current but still untrue.

Christopher Wright P.E. |"They couldn't hit an elephant at <a href="/group/PipingDesign/post?postID=C8E_gZBrQ09mWOTVbOyY8YP9kbMuhu74twXepSnWlWmu1liThZnmMTaUPWHmyU64NGjSmrS4270A1gosfA">chrisw@skypoint.com</a> | this distance" (last words of Gen.

___________________________| John Sedgwick, Spotsylvania 1864)

<a href="http://www.skypoint.com/~chrisw">http://www.skypoint.com/~chrisw</a> Received on Thu Oct 09 09:38:00 2003