‘Twas the night before Christmas, out there in the Gulf.
The North wind was howling and the seas pretty rough.
The CHICKASAW was lying just off of Fourchon,
eighty miles from location ‘till the weather got calm.
The crew were all sleeping while the cook boiled some beans,
and I was up in the shack just watching the screens.
I stepped out on the catwalk to smoke for a bit,
and the sight that I saw made me question my wits.
There on the helipad was some kind of sled,
.
all trimmed out in gold and painted bright red.
And what might’ve been reindeer were hitched to this sleigh.
They sure wasn’t whitetails is all I can say.
A man was climbing down off of the seat,
with red jumpsuit on and black boots on his feet.
He looked more worried than merry, but his belly was fat,
and the name “S. Claus” was written on his fur trimmed hard hat.
He leapt to the door of my snug survey shack,
and went right on in with out looking back.
He sat himself down is my old worn out chair,
and looked ‘round the room at the survey spread there.
“I’ll get to the point,” he said with a groan.
“Rudolph’s been sick, so I left him at home”
“And I’ve gotten lost flying ‘round through the heavens,
Do you have our lat and long in say, NAD 27.
“ Indeed sir I do”, He replied “Lad that’s great,
read ‘em off while I punch ‘em into my ’48*.
He got them keyed in and then read them back,
I gave him a thumbs up and he dashed from the shack
Then he leapt to his sleigh and called out to his team,
while I stood there awe struck at what I’d just seen.
Then I heard him exclaim as He rose off the pad,
“MERRY CHRISTMAS TO SURVEY,
YOU’VE BEEN HELPFUL, MY LAD!”
Now you can call me a liar but I saw what I saw,
that night off of Fourchon on the old CHICKASAW.
River Rover
surveyor
Merry Christmas to the Kossacks one and all
* The HP 48 calculator-
was the best
survey
tool
since the
plumb bob
was invented
I wrote this while
sittin’ watch on
CHICKASAW
in ‘08. It’s
mostly
true.