Fabulous post by Dr. Jim R! Thanks much and will follow up, in the same manner as others have mentioned.
OK, w/the MM ref, I guess I can go slightly off point.
If you can, its best to have a good DO aboard. In the early sixties (use Excel to calculate how long ago that was), I deckhanded on a 118' steel yacht. When under way West of the Mackinaw Bridge, near Waugashance Pt., we encountered a 40' or so sail boat that had a damaged rudder and/or control and had lost its ability to maintain headway. So we agreed to take them under tow. We were in the process of backing down to throw a line to their bow, in about 1-2' seas, so they were bouncing slightly.
As we were backing, the other deckhand, George was his name, reached out to stop their bow from coming down and striking us on the fantail where the transom and aft deck joined; long story short, he was unsuccessful. His arm quickly looked like a broken bat single.
As luck would have it, we had one of the finest DO's from the Detroit area, most likely Grosse Pte. and he attended to the arm. When you're young, you don't notice all you should, so all I remember was that the Capt., Jim Mertaugh of the Mertaugh Boatworks family, (Great Lakes trivia) was a very unhappy camper about the arm. Towing...don't remember any of it and the splinted arm...don't remember. Oh, George didn't sail with us the next summer.
