On nicknames and aliases at sea

I just walked past Boots, whom I have known for probably a decade and a half. I can't tell you what his real name is because I don't have a clue. I do not even know his last name but he is a damned good man at what he does. Few people know his last name and I suppose the only person in the entire company that knows his first name are the payroll people and maybe someone in personnel.

I heard some one of the office people get chewed out by him several years ago and I suppose it was one of those people in the office that had access to his file because part of what Boots said was, "My own mother doesn't even call me that!" so I suppose the office person had addressed him by the name on his paycheck.

There are more people like that working on the water than there are ashore. Nicknames and aliases are somewhat common out here and unless I am told otherwise I simply do not ask as for the most part it is none of my business. As captain I have to check documentation, but when I do I am careful not to address the person by anything but what they tell me to call them. If Thaddeus J. Quirckenheimer tells me his name is 'Ripper' than that is what I will call him. It ends there.

A while ago I got a call from someone looking for someone by the name of Joseph Longman. I told the person that I had never heard of him. A few minutes later an insistint call was made telling me that this Joseph Longman was on the vessel tied up next to mine and they wanted him and would I be so kind as to wander over and tell him to call the office.

I wandered over and asked for Joseph Longman and a guy I know named Clank looked up with an angry look. I knew it was him so I passed on the message. I stuck around to see the results and I have to admit that it was amusing.

"Hello, this is Clank. Piccolo said you want me for something...Yeah, that's me. Clank....Don't call me that...Yeah, I've known Piccolo for about ten years...It's Piccolo. I don't know what it says on his driver's license, it's Piccolo to me...Yeah, the name's Clank. Make a note of that. My mother even calls me that."

I would imagine the office goes nuts once in a while over that sort of thing, but I'd bet it isn't all that difficult anymore with technology. They look the guy up, pull his company ID up which has the person's picture on it.

Then they go to a coworker that's been there a while and ask, "Who is this guy?"

"What? David L. Coughlin? That's Sharkbait. It's also OK to call him Sharkey."

"Thanks."

Maybe they even have notes made because I haven't seen too much of this kind of confusion lately.

my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/