Years ago when I was first working as a marine mechanic, I worked for a shop where the owners were close friends with a commercial diving business on the West Coast. The diving company was located in Sausalito, CA, which is just across the water from San Francisco.
The dive business was on a job in San Fran, cleaning the hull of a large boat or small ship. Two guys were underwater, and the owner of the company was topside keeping an eye things. An aggressive female from the USCG came aboard and told the crew to put the engines in forward. However there were signs posted all over the helm to not put the engines in gear, as there were divers working underwater. The engines may have been running to keep them warmed up.
Remember when you were young, and a supervisor or authority figure could tell you to do something that did not sound right. However, being inexperienced, you complied?
Well the bitch told a crew member to put the controls in gear, he strongly protested, but eventually did what the authority figure told him to do. The owner of the dive business felt the boat move, and he sprinted back to the helm and yanked the levers to neutral. Next he ran to the stern, and the water was full of blood. Both divers were sucked into the propellers, and cut to pieces. The divers were both friends and coworkers of his.
The USCG quickly sent attorneys to the spouses of the divers, apologized profusely I expect, and told them if the sign this agreement to keep their mouth shut, they would be given xx amount of money. The .gov was quick, to keep the story out of the press. Now I do not know if the USCG officer was a dyke or not, but judging by her actions she was a full on man hater. She knew that the divers would be killed, but this was her chance to get away with murder.
This would of been before 1990 when I worked for the yacht repair business. In current times they would most likely not be able to sweep the deaths under the rug. But back then, they did.
