Sir, there is a ship in sight

The year was 1971. I was 22. I was a Sub-Lieutenant (Enseigne de Vaisseau de 1ere Classe) on my first post on a landing ship, the "BDC Trieux", roughly equivalent to the American LSTs of World War II.

The Trieux was stationed in Papeete, Tahiti, and we were transporting various goods between Papeete, Mururoa and Hao.

The Commanding Officer had recently changed after I arrived to take my post in July 1971.

On every French Navy ship, there is a document called "Ordres Permanents du Commandant" (Permanent Orders of the Commanding Officer). This document is modified from time to time by each successive CO, to adapt to the regulations, the circumstances, or to the preferences of the current CO. In this document on the Trieux, it was prescribed that whenever there was a ship in sight, the watch officer was to tell the CO. The reason is that the South Pacific is an empty part of the oceans and it was very rare to cross another ship, Nay or merchant. Obviously, for the previous CO, it was a rare entertainment to see a ship in these empty waters.

I was the watch officer and at around 2AM, we detected a ship on the radar, then we saw its lights. So, as prescribed, I took the telephone and I called the CO. He came to the bridge, took his binoculars and saw that indeed there was a ship in sight.

Then he asked me why I had called him. I indicated that I was following the permanent orders.

The next day, in the morning, he changed the permanent orders so that he would not be waken up for every ship that we would cross. I am sure that he also read carefully the permanent orders document, that obviously he had not done previously.