A rats nest of different connector cables. All relatively common and still
useful except it will take several minutes to disentangle any single cable from
the mass. There are some cable ties in the middle holding the whole mass
together. About half are frayed or broken in some manner. A few are for
connecting to equipment that no longer exists.

	A box of data storage devices, except none of the computer terminals on board
accept the interface for them. Each has some writing on it that indicated it
contains data that may be important, probably. Jump drive repair manual,
computer OS backup, Jump Tapes, wilderness survival guide, and the like.

	A box of a dozen holoprojector lenses. The engineer was going to build a
theater quality projector for the common area. Still in the planning stages.

	Four clear glass bottles. No labels or closures, but clean and empty. No one
remembers if they had anything in them originally or were bought that way.

	Half a dozen bottles of over-the-counter medications for uncommon, but only
annoying, medical conditions. Each bottle is opened, and about half the
medication missing. The medication is expired by between 6 months and 10 years.

	A watercolor paint set in a nice wooden box, with the paint long since dried.
But the simple application of water and they would be good again. There are no
paint brushes included.

	A chunk of hardened fiberglass resin in the shape of a jar with an embedded
applicator brush. The steward thinks they make interesting table centerpieces.

	A box for a small personal electronic gadget. All of the packing material is
there, manuals, cables, except the device is missing. Everything is otherwise in
pristine shape.

	A medium shoulder bag with many compartments designed for carrying around some
piece of equipment with many, somewhat fragile, parts. The bag is otherwise
empty and home to a family of spiders.

	A dark brown bottle, sealed, with a hand written label "cleaning solvent". It
is half full of some viscous liquid. Opening the bottle emits an aggressively
pungent scent that everyone finds repulsive. It really is an important solvent
for cleaning parts of the drives in engineering.

	What apparently looks like an otherwise dead thorn covered stick in a small
flower pot. The engineer's assistant says it brings them luck.

	A transparent 5 cm sphere of some nigh indestructible material (e.g. industrial
diamond or transparseel) with a Cr100 coin in the center hollow.

	A graduated cylinder about a liter in size marked with a dozen or so different
measurements. None of which are in common use, and mostly unknown.

	A sealed tin. The outer markings are either an unknown alien language or some
drug induced marketing image. Either case it is completely indecipherable, and
the contents are otherwise unknown.

	A 10 cm high kinetic sculpture, with a half a dozen brightly colored arms
gently rotating. The rumor is if the battery in the thing dies, so does some
important piece of equipment in the ship. The battery is replaced every year
when the ship is in port for annual maintenance.  It's on the checklist.

	A box labeled "psionics detector". Inside is what looks to be a wand made of
cheap plastic made to look like wood. There are two studs on the thing, pressing
them does nothing. There is no battery access or charging port.

On 10/13/2020 7:30 PM, Jeff Zeitlin wrote:
> On Mon, 12 Oct 2020 08:53:42 -0400, I wrote:
>
>>> The Ship's Locker is the storage area that just ... collects stuff. Stuff
>>> that a crew member thinks might be useful. Someday. Maybe. Stuff that
>>> nobody can think of a use for, but which can't be totally useless. Stuff
>>> that nobody quite remembers what they were thinking when they bought it.
>>> Stuff that used to be useful, but is broken now, and was just tossed in the
>>> Locker until someone remembers to clean the Locker out and toss out all
>>> that junk. Stuff.
>
> OK, people have been posting a very eclectic combination of things. I'll go
> through what's been posted, but it occurs to me - based on something I've
> gotten from tc - that maybe organizing these in some way would be useful.
> So, I'd appreciate it if any future contributions would be labelled with
> one of the following categories:
>
>       1. Used to be useful, but isn't now (broken, missing parts, etc.)
>       2. I have no idea what, but it's gotta be useful for something...
>       3. What was I thinking when I got this?
>       4. I don't think I want to ask...
>       5. Don't toss that; ________ will get upset!
>       6. Should be useful, but...
>
> If you can think of additional categories, add them!
>
> While some "bare identifications" are OK (because obvious), a sentence or
> short paragraph about the item could easily add color to the entry (even
> for the obvious ones). For example:
>
>     A hand-torch (US: flashlight): If you manage to find the odd-sized power
>     cells (batteries, in an uncommon size) that it requires, you'll find
>     that the power button controls a three-way cyclical activation routine:
>     from the off position, one press causes it to emit a bright 'white'
>     light, the second press changes to a dim red light, and the third turns
>     it off again.
>     [Category 6; in theory, the red light is useful for reading things
>     without destroying your night vision... but you have to go past the
>     night-vision-destroying white light to get there.]
>
>
> ®Traveller is a registered trademark of
> Far Future Enterprises, 1977-2020. Use of
> the trademark in this notice and in the
> referenced materials is not intended to
> infringe or devalue the trademark.
>

--
         Thomas Jones-Low
Work:	xxxxxx@softstart.com
Home:   xxxxxx@gmail.com