We Keep It Next To The Board Stretcher

My father served in the US Navy on aircraft carriers; he was part of the air wing. He told me about one of the gags “old salts” would pull on newcomers.

Old Salt: “Go get the left-handed monkey wrench back from [Other Old Salt who is in on the joke]. He’s working in [somewhere else on the carrier].”

Of course, no such tool exists. Carriers are huge and newcomers often get lost. The poor newbie would go from location to location asking for the wrench and get told that it had been borrowed by someone else to use somewhere else in the ship. They’d run him all over the ship for hours until he either caught on or someone took pity on him and told him.

Now, that’s hazing. But at least they got some exercise and learned their way around the ship.