As I rode out to the rig, on a Chinese gun boat, the sailors on the ship started showing me pictures on their iPhones.
They showed me one of a U.S. Coast Guard ship that came into China years ago.
They didn’t know this but my step-father captained the first American government vessel to be allowed into a port of the Peoples’ Republic of China in 1980 since the Communist revolution in 1948.
The Oceanographer. 1980 on voyage to China. My step-father was the captain.
It was a research vessel called “The Oceanographer” and it did research all over the world. I didn’t have any pictures of it when I was on the ship the first time but showed them the second time I went out with them. They loved it.
This is the ship and the link on the NOAA history webpage: http://www.history.noaa.gov/ships/oceanographer2.html
It is worth reading about. My step-father also took the picture and has an excellent eye for photography.