"Now, that's a blivith son................"

CA-35

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When I was a young boy my old man used to use a phrase whenever he saw something that was jammed packed and splitting at the seams..........He would say "Now, that's a blivith son". His meaning of a blivith was "600 pounds of crap stuffed in to an 8 ounce bag".

The largest cargo ship ever to visit ports on the U.S. East Coast is so long the Statue of Liberty and Washington Monument could fit end-to-end along its deck and still leave room for Big Ben.
The Cosco Development arrived Thursday at the Port of Savannah after cruising past dozens of onlookers who cheered and took photos of the 1,200-foot (366-meter) vessel from Savannah's downtown riverfront.
Former ship's officer Andrew Evans exclaimed to his wife: "It takes up the whole river!"

The giant ship, en route from CHINA, stopped in Norfolk, Virginia, earlier this week. From Savannah, it's heading to Charleston, South Carolina, before returning to Hong Kong.
 

adorshki

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So I was wondering if he got that term as a variant on the word "Blivet" as in the rubber fuel bladders the Army used in Viet Nam, when much to my surprise I find that was originally a slang word itself!
From here:
https://infiniteprobability.wordpress.com/2010/06/14/blivet/

"In traditional U.S. Army slang dating back to the Second World War, a blivet was defined as “ten pounds of manure in a five pound bag” (a proverbial description of anything egregiously ugly or unmanageable); it was applied to an unmanageable situation, a crucial but substandard or damaged tool, or a self-important person. In Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses, Rawlins defines a blivet as “10 pounds of **** in a 5 pound bag”. During the Vietnam War, a heavy rubber bladder in which aviation fuel or POL (petroleum, oil, and lubricants) was transported was known as a blivet, as was anything which, once unpacked, could not be replaced in its container. The usage of blivet for a fuel container is still current. A recent request for quotation (‘Solicitation number W91B4P-07-Q-0615 titled “Fuel Point Bill of Materials”‘) in Afghanistan includes a line item for “10 50,000 gal. blivets”.

Anyway, world commerce, pretty mind-boggling, eh?
Do you find yourself hoping the stack'll get knocked off by the bridge while you're watchin'?
:biggrin-new:
 

adorshki

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Hopefully it's not going back empty!

Guaranteed not, they gotta get paying freight both ways.
One of our biggest exports is pulp and waste paper to be re-pulped and used in paper-making "over there".
And just realized, Charleston is real close to a lot of paper mills.
It would be kind of interesting to see what else was on the manifest "going back", though.
I'm thinking grain/foodstocks would be big, and possibly certain brands of cars not being made over there yet.
 

sailingshoes72

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Whenever my father would drop me off at the train station, as I headed back to college, he would wave at me and say "Hold 'em in the road, son!". It was an expression leftover from the era of wagons and teams of horses. It is funny how memories like that stay with us.

Back on topic... how many square feet of buoyancy in the hull is necessary to keep that behemoth afloat? Also, I take it that this is the size freighter that the Panama Canal was widened to accommodate. :pirate:

Bill
 

Bill Ashton

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Our state haz mat teams used to have these gigantic "portable" rubber bladder-tanks, which we carried on the trucks to reclaim the contaminated water following a mass-decon situation. As one could expect, these were not used routinely, and as such were stored in the highest, most inaccessible shelf in the back of the trucks...one of which I was manager for. About the year 2000, I had brought my piece in for an inventory, and it was after lunch, and the little chicklett (sorry for those I offend) who was going over the truck with me got back late. In the meantime I had pushed and pulled and grunted and swore at that stinkin' bladder, but got the case so that the serial number could be read from the ground level. Blondie shows up, all pissy and whatever (lousy lunch?), and wants the number. I read it to her. She says she needs it on the ground so she can read it. I protest some, saying you can see it right here..."Well, if we got some co-operation, we could get through this faster." I said "OK, stand right there" and proceeded to throw it at her on the ground. My aim was off, I missed. I didn't feel any better. And it cost me an inguinal hernia :crying:

A few years later, thankfully, these bladders were declared surplus and were taken off the trucks. In the meantime, I knew that the state Forest Fire Service was trying to phase out their ancient canvas portable water tanks...probably as heavy as these suckers...but had no other options. Told our Director where he could unload this great pile of things and they (the forest fire people) were ecstatic to be able to get them...a sort of sideways transfer from one agency to another. They kept calling them "blivets," and we didn't know where they were getting that term from...of course, the Vietnam Vets!

I saw a photograph at one point, so that most of you have a point of reference, these things nearly filled the back of a deuce and a half, and several were just used to make up surplus army trucks as 1000-gallon tankers with an added portable pump and hose. Not very elegant, but...

And yes, just like the definition, once out of the bag they were the devil to try and get back in!
 
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