Penguins |
The penguin leader assessed the situation. She concluded that their undersea boat was trapped in the ice. Several hours of pushing buttons and pulling levers to get the boat going again had proved fruitless. She recognized the irony of a group of militant penguins getting caught in a patch of ice.
"We have to melt it!" she announced.
Her second-in-command, a young penguin who showed tremendous promise, asked "How?"
The leader thought for a minute before shaking her head. There wasn't anything on-board they could burn and penguins didn't have any use for items like lighters or hair-dryers. Then she looked hopeful, "There should be a few butane torches in the mechanics deck. Wrangle a team and set them to work in the front of the boat."
Two hours later, a team of thirty penguins had maneuvered half a dozen butane torches into position. Whoosh! The flames ignited and were aimed at the ice alongside the undersea boat. It begin melting immediately, but it was a particularly thick sheet. The whole process took another three hours, but eventually enough ice was melted to free the boat.
"All aboard, penguins," shouted the leader.
The brig was alive with bodies scattering every-which-way to their appropriate stations. Lights blinked on as and the engines started to hum. The body of the undersea boat shuddered and then dove beneath the ice.
Finally freed of the ice, the leader was able to pursue her primary objective for the day: a fishing expedition. A school of tuna were tracked South-south-east of their present location and the boat's nets would easier be able to catch several hundred pounds of delicious fish. The penguin army would eat for weeks with that much tuna.
"I have a position on the tuna," announced the radar technician. "Divert course six degrees north. Ready the net deployment."
The net engineer said, "We have not run our deployment test!"
"Skip the test," commanded the leader. "We need these fish!"
The undersea boat veered course directly at the school. The penguins switched it motors into "Silent Mode" and sacrificed a bit of power for the ability to sneak up on the tuna.
"Now!" shouted the radar technician.
The net engineer pressed the deployment button. Outside, a net was cast in front of the boat. The tuna were helpless to avoid it's massive size. Dozens were caught as the net's rigging closed itself into a loose cage that encircled the fish. The net engineer reeled the catch into the boat's holding bay.
"Success!" announced the leader. "All in a day's work, penguins. We can return home now."
The undersea boat made the necessary turn towards the penguin navy port. When they arrived later that night, they were greeted with cheers from the other penguin hunters and soldiers.
Original photograph by Petty Officer 1st Class Tiffini M. Jones of the U.S. Navy. The image is also available on Defenselink Multimedia with VIRIN: 090321-N-8273J-409. The photo was taken on March 21, 2009. It depicts the US Navy attack submarine USS Annapolis (SSN 760) resting in the Arctic Ocean after surfacing through three feet of ice during an two-week training exercise to test submarine operability and war-fighting capability in Arctic conditions. As the creation of US employee while performing official duties, the image is available in the public domain. Maximum filesize is 3,000 × 1,993 pixels and 1.04 MB.
posted by Rob Van Dyk | Monday, January 23, 2012
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