His name was Dana Crumb. My grandfather. And his life was no less than extraordinary. He served in WW2 as a marine engineer. He was awarded a bronze star for armoring a bulldozer with striped tank plate and under fire using it to clear a runway so reinforcements could land in the Pacific.

When he returned from the war he met my grandmother. A tiny sweet lady that was the only one he ever met that could out shoot him. Though he hated to admit it.

He went to work for IBM and helped to develop the first magnetic storage hard drive. Took early retirement as he sent the last of 7 children off to college. After that he sold almost everything they owned and bought a 65ft catamaran (3 hull sailing ship) and on it with my grandmother took 10 years to go all the way around the earth. I actually have two things he left for me when he passed that were on that boat. The barometer so I will always know when a storm is comeing. And the brass plaque from the bridge that says “to my crew, please be reasonable and do it my way – the captain “. That always made me grin.

On his voyage they had a few close calls. They had docked in Iran to take on supplies and had their passports confiscated and were not allowed to leave. After two days of waiting my grandfather had enough of it and decided it was time to go. My grandmother cut the phone line to the guard station in the middle of the night. My grandfather stormed In yelling and when the two guards stood up he clocked them both with a crowbar, picked up their passports and they were gone In half an hour.

He was a bold and intelligent man. He knew that the sea could be dangerous in some parts of the world. He also knew security ships would often board looking for guns. So he contacted a navy buddy and got a naval flare gun. As a distress call device on a ship no one would even look twice at it. What they didnt know is he had powdered the flares. So instead of shooting a flair that burned for several minutes, it shot a 50ft cone of blazeing phosphorus. Ten seconds of burning hell for anything unlucky enough to be anywhere near the muzzle.

So when a speedboat full of men with ak47s tried to pirate his boat…. heh… here’s the thing about speedbosts.. they use a lot of gas. So the pirates keep a stock of gas cans at the back of the boat.

He politely told them to go fuck themselves or he would kill them all. One had the gaul to laugh and take a shot at him. So he set their whole boat on fire. And because of the gas….

He didnt look for survivors. Just raised the sail and off he went, cleaning the char out of the barrel of his flare gun.

And then there was my birth. My grandmother flew back half way around the world from some tiny island in the Pacific to be with my mom. My grandfather stayed with the boat.

April 25th, 1979. A hurricane hit the island at almost the same time as I was born. He knew it would be bad. The Island was only a few feet above sea level and had only one building that may survive. So he knew there was no safe place on the island. He docked the ship on the downwind side of the island and chained it to the biggest rocks he could find. The. He dumped all their scuba tanks overboard in 40 ft of water. He tied rocks to water bottles and dumped them in as well.

Right before the storm hit he dove in. He spent 2 days underwater watching the waves crash overhead. When the storm passed he spent a 3rd day decompressing slowly and then hauled himself ashore.

The island natives had checked the boat for him after the storm and not finding him thought he had drowned. So when he emerged from the waves a day later they thought he was a ghost. It took him hours to convince them he was alive and explain what he had done. Finaly he got them to let him use the radio on the island to contact a friend in the states to call my grandmother and let her know he was ok. She told him he had a grandson. And he had his grandfathers eyes.

When they finished their sea voyage my grandparents sold the boat and his stock from IBM (by then worth a lot) and bought 150 acres of mountainside in Washington state. My grandfather rented a portable mill and used the timber he cleared to build a house. It was so picturesque that the town gift shop still sells pictures of the house perched on the mountain side on mugs to tourists.

I never got to spend as much time with him as I would have liked. I grew up In Texas and they lived in Washington. I did make a few trips to see him and spend a week with them a few summers. He was the best example of a hardworking honourable man a shy grandson could ask for. He died when I was 14…. and i miss him still. I was unable to go to his funeral but my grandmother came to see my family soon after and brought the barometer, and with it a note. “If you are reading this, then I have passed from this world. I no longer need this but it saved my life the day you were born. May it always warn you of the comeing storm”.

It has hung on my wall every day since. My grandmother passed 4 years ago. The whole family made the trip for the funeral. 6 children, 10 grandchildren, and 2 new great grandchildren. We mixed their ashes and scattered them in the sea that they loved.

He was… is… will always be.. my hero.

Best wishes.. -SirHanz