"Big Grey Ship..."

So there I was... on the good ship USS Topeka (SSN 754) in December 1992. We were anchored off Phuket, Thailand, at the start of the third day of our port visit. We'd had the harbor to ourselves the first night, but then the next night the cruiser USS Jouett (CG 29) had pulled in, and their crew immediately rioted in the streets of Phuket. I had duty that night, and got all the stories from the crew coming back aboard of the skimmer crew's generally loutish behavior. As a result, their whole crew was stuck back on the ship until they had some "training" on how to behave yourself on liberty.

So, I got relieved, and headed in on the liberty launch. Based on the great reception we'd gotten from the townspeople the first night, I expected more of the same -- it hadn't sunk in yet that the idiots from the cruisers may had "poisoned the well". How could a town whose people had been so friendly, and whose young females had offered to do amazing and imaginative things to us for 500 baht, ever turn against us?

Therefore, I was surprised to be on the receiving end of the "evil eye" from the first shopkeeper I saw -- he was sweeping up the broken glass from his front window from the sidewalk. It slowly dawned on me why he wouldn't be happy to see a Sailor, so I told him I was from the submarine. His face brightened immediately, and he said, "Ah, submarine numbah one." His face then contorted with anger and sadness as he punctuated his next sentence with jabs from his finger pointing towards the harbor. "Big grey ship, NO GOOD!"

Truer words were never spoken...