practical jokes: a sailor tradition worldwide

i have an Irish merchant marineman blogbuddy that posts some really interesting stuff about the civilian side of sailing. he posted about practical jokes that brought up a quickie seastory.
on the 575, we had a sonarman that was central to many of the escapades (see this entry) or actually, was the instigator of many escapes on the seawolf. he used to come into the engineroom to shoot the breeze, since i was a gun nut like he was. being a highly trained nuclear watchstander, and an engineering lab. tech to boot, i knew that if we had a BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEGGGGGG (as in, end of the world big) problem, one of the first indications would be that the contamination frisker sitting on the engineroom workbench would alarm for no reason.
bbbbeeeeeeeeepppppp. WTF. run over, check the indication, everything's normal. a little while later, bbbeeeeeeeeeppppppppp. run over, check the indication, everything' normal, but by now the Engineering Watch Supervisor is in the Reactor Compartment Uppper Level checking things out with a meter in hand.
this went on for a couple of days. funny thing was, it was only when Fost** was nearby. Bink! i may be dumb, but i'm stupid too! Seems he had perfect pitch, and after hearing the frisker alarm once, by whistling he could exactly mimic the tone, pitch and volume of the alarm.
sumbich. we made it a rule that he had to clap his hands and whistle dixie whenever he came into the engineroom after that. that way we knew he wasn't touching anything, we knew where he was, and we knew he wasn't messing with this poor nook's head.

for a couple of other seawolf practical jokes, check out my links here and here.