- The Stern Captain
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A cargo ship is travelling from the US to Europe with a cargo of various consumer goods. The journey is proceeding on schedule, until suddenly, right in the middle of the Atlantic, they encounter a bad squall and some of the containers at the rear of the ship get washed overboard.
Quite aside from the loss of the cargo, this is also a problem because the ship's load is now severely unbalanced and in these rough seas they can't take on enough ballast to compensate.
The captain orders his crew to move all the forward containers of beauty soap aft, which should get them back to level. The crew get to work, and when they're done the bo'sun reports in.
"Did you move it all?" asks the captain.
"Aye, sir, we've left no Tone unsterned."
- Submitted by: David Frier
- Category: Shaggy dog stories