Wayne Bauer.

Wayne Bauer has reminded me of an incident that  happened during that infamous Sir Horace ‘TOTEM’ trip to Woods Hole in the Summer of ’67.  (See
  elsewhere.)

It was usual, when visiting foreign ports, for several senior crew members to rent cars for the duration of the visit in order to ‘attend to business ashore’.  A great majority of the use of these cars was, in fact, for legitimate business,
arranging re-provisioning, organizing repairs to equipment, etc. 
It was also allowed that the cars could be available for ‘personal use’
whenever they were not required for ‘official business’.  
As he was top of the totem pole (no pun intended), Clem McCann rented a
car while we were in Woods Hole. 
Woods Hole is quite a lively little town, and being on the seaside,  caters magnificently to the maritime crowd – a bar on every corner, and several in between.  Clem had the smarts to know what was probably going to happen, so he ‘hired’ Wayne Bauer to be his chauffeur, which was great for Wayne, because he had the use of the car whenever Clem didn’t need it.  It seemed to be quite often parked in the lot of a nearby motel where a couple of young girls often frolicked in the pool,  … and that is another story that will probably never be told!!  But I digress.

One evening, after Wayne had been driving Clem around on various
missions of business, Clem suggested that they deserved some refreshment, and they stopped at the nearest bar of a quick one. 
                          … and it happened –
                                                   “Clem + Bar =  Trouble”. 
This was quite an upscale establishment, featuring maritime décor, with artifacts hanging from the ceiling and on the walls.  It is unclear whether there was a bet between Clem and an unknown stranger, or whether
Clem actually just took a liking to a magnificent harpoon hanging on the wall, but the next thing Wayne knew was that he was being hustled out the door by Clem and driving the ‘getaway car’ with Clem crouched down in the back seat clutching his prized harpoon.  

Clem sheepishly returned the harpoon to its rightful place on the wall the next day, swearing that ‘it was just on a bet’. 

Posted June 2014.