Captain of the Nathaniel B. Palmer Fired for Fighting
Feb 27th, 2008 by Nick
This is old news, but I’ve been trying to sort through the gossip, as there are a variety of stories milling around.
When the Nathaniel B. Palmer, a science research vessel, (and, notably, a dry ship), docked at the Ice Pier in McMurdo a few weeks ago, the captain went on a bender and raged through the dorms banging on doors, looking for an old nemesis working in McMurdo. Unable to find the chap, the captain returned to the ship, where he punched one of his crewmates and then fell down the stairs, breaking his fibula. The captain was treated, promptly fired, and flown from the most dangerous continent on the first available flight. The first mate then took over as captain of the ship until a replacement captain could be flown down, and the NBP continued on its mission of no-nonsense scientific investigation.
(Captain, this is classic USAP shenaniganism. If you’d like to paint your side of the story, drop me a line at nick AT bigdeadplace.com.)
Apparently, the ship’s ice pilot suffered a broken nose, and it took several crew members to subdue the cap’n. It seems that his falling down the stairs resulted from being decked by the chief engineer (or so I assume from a summary of the whole deal I got from someone on board).
Having worked with the now-fired captain, I thought he was a helluva guy, but I definitely wouldn’t want to be on the wrong side of his drunken rampaging. I was actually supposed to be on board at the time, but opted out of that cruise for various personal reasons. I’m almost (but not quite) sad to have missed it.
Just a clarification, for those who know the crew – the guy who got fired was the relief captain, not the official / head captain of the NBP.
More fighting! this time, on the boat! Ok, so that means that Palmer must be next.