Word: lifeboat
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Aboard Apollo, the astronauts remained remarkably cool. Once Mission Control gave the order to begin the "lifeboat mode"?a procedure that had been rehearsed numerous times in ground simulators?Lovell and Haise drifted, like mariners abandoning ship, through the darkened tunnel connecting the command ship with the lunar lander...
...final separation maneuver. Climbing into Odyssey, they switched on its oxygen tanks and batteries and sealed the hatch shut. Then the crew exploded the small bolts connecting the command module with the LM. Propelled by the release of air in the connecting tunnel, the Aquarius drifted rapidly away, its lifeboat function reliably and amply fulfilled. "LM jettison," reported Apollo 13. "O.K.," replied Mission Control. "Farewell, Aquarius, and we thank...
...hold were 4,525 tons of explosives, a mixed load of 500-lb. and 750-lb. preassembled napalm bombs consigned to U.S. Air Force units in Thailand. Secured on deck were 50 tons of live detonators. While the men, some in their skivvies, were tearing at the lifeboat covers and at work on the davits, Second Mate Robert Stevenson called to the bridge: "Is this for real?" Third Mate Herbert Gunn shouted down: "Cast off and stand clear. There's a live bomb aboard...
...roost? The Jewish life of his Chicago boyhood? Wonderful! A spell as a thief? Why not? The university? That too. The book ricochets about the Chicago of Bellow's own young manhood; but if the author has a wild yarn to tell about a madman in a lifeboat, he ships Augie out on a tanker; if Mexico appeals to author or hero, off they both...
Though the crews have a grandstand view of the military fireworks, their biggest enemy is boredom. To while away the time, they take part in lifeboat races and play soccer on the broad deck of the largest ship, the British bulk carrier Jnvercargill. They attend church services on the West German motorship Nordwind and watch movies on the Bulgarian freighter Vasil Levsky. The Polish freighter Djakarta even prints stamps for the marooned vessels. Egyptian postal authorities graciously allow the stamps to be used as legal postage; they have become collector's items. Immense amounts of beer are consumed...