Sand Pebbles

[Arminius]

Steve McQueen takes charge of the engine room of a gun boat up river in China while Chiang and the Bolshies are feuding. The lazy crew has given up working and enlisted coolies to operate the machinery. Young McQueen takes back hands-on responsibility disturbing the status quo. The locals have observed Americans performing routine tasks and can imitate them perfecly while ignoring essentials. However, they lack a basic understanding of machine engineering. They seem to believe there is a ghost in the steam engine which can be mollified with religious custom. The moral of this story is up to you. Superficial care is better than no care. I've sold a few boats now and the superficial care is awfully important. Not much fun to talk about though. Steve takes a bullet from Mao in the end.

 

[alnav]

As late as the 1990's, U.S. Navy ships visiting Hong Kong would engage locals to paint the ship. Payment consisted of a brass fire nozzle or two, maybe a couple of used mooring lines and the right to take out all the ship's trash (so they could go through it). The workforce consisted entirely of young women. They could paint the hull of 6K ton ship in four days at anchor from small boats. That would be at least a couple weeks' work for the crew, pier side with cranes and specialized paint floats. Anything that wasn't easy to paint with a brush or roller they would use bare hands dipped into the paint. But, they didn't know or care about how to deal with rust so it behooved the ship to take care of prep before the ladies got started or deal with the running rust later.

 

[Skybolt]

@alnav that's incredible, I had no idea. Great story.

 

[Arminius]

As late as the 1990's, U.S. Navy ships visiting Hong Kong would engage locals to paint the ship. Payment consisted of a brass fire nozzle or two, maybe a couple of used mooring lines and the right to take out all the ship's trash (so they could go through it). The workforce consisted entirely of young women. They could paint the hull of 6K ton ship in four days at anchor from small boats. That would be at least a couple weeks' work for the crew, pier side with cranes and specialized paint floats. Anything that wasn't easy to paint with a brush or roller they would use bare hands dipped into the paint. But, they didn't know or care about how to deal with rust so it behooved the ship to take care of prep before the ladies got started or deal with the running rust later.

In the "Sand Pebbles" every native had a con or angle known as their "Rice Bowl." The painter gals had probably promised the "fat man" 50% of their take for the opportunity to wave their butts in front of the round eye sailors .

 

[GypsmJim]

Aren't we talking about a movie? In other words, fiction? So, why is this a topic of discussion?

 

[Nater Potater]

Aren't we talking about a movie? In other words, fiction? So, why is this a topic of discussion?

For the same reason having a piece of plywood on the front of an open-bow boat could go on for seven pages.

 

[Blueone]

What is happening here ?

 

[Nater Potater]

What is happening here ?

I'm wondering the same thing. I mean, people are getting their boats back in the water, @Hoplite808's troubles are drawing to a close; why a thread like this now?

 

[Bill Curtis]

Oh no, Here we go again.......................

 

[Blueone]

Anything that wasn't easy to paint with a brush or roller they would use bare hands dipped into the paint..

Ok come on….. what part of a ship would you have to dip your hands in paint to paint….. that you couldn’t use a brush or roller…… or are you just making this up?

 

[alnav]

Ok come on….. what part of a ship would you have to dip your hands in paint to paint….. that you couldn’t use a brush or roller…… or are you just making this up?

Good point. I should have said "large brush". The girls would use their hands for stuff like overboard discharges, vents and scuppers. I also remember them painting an accommodation ladder by hand. Navy Sailors would have broken out a variety of small trim brushes for that kind of detail work. The Chinese didn't want to mess with all that, which is one reason they did it much faster.