Sea Stories
I met an old school friend from S. Milwaukee,
WI in Norfolk. He was on the USS Missasinowa and was headed to Rhodes Greece (the med) and Valencia Spain to deliver produce. I met Ray in Rhodes and had fun in a bar drinking OUZO. Tastes like licorice. Drink enough and you go blind. We got drunk and threw a jukebox out a window and a fight. We ran out, climbed up on the jukebox to the roof and jumped from roof to roof till we fell through into a living room on a table. Then we ran out a door without opening it. Ray had 22 days restriction and I got eighteen. This was Rays first liberty.
A warrant boson one night came up for fresh coffee. Ask for a cup and an SN had made coffee with saltwater not fresh water. They heard about that for days.
My most memorable event would have to be my last med trip. I arrived home to Norfolk just before becoming a father. Our baby was not due for another two weeks. My wife was at the pier along with other wives and sweethearts for hours. They were invited aboard for a brunch served by our galley.
Submitted by John Train EM2
"Train" Fire in Number 2 Hold !!!
During one of the 11 "Med cruises" I went on, one of the electric forklifts was malfunctioning. It turned out to be all the way down in the bottom level of #2 hold. Lucky me - EM3 Train - got to work on it. I was down there so absorbed in what I was doing I lost track of time. The huge cover to the bottom level had already been lowered and as it turned out, the afternoon had slipped right away. While I was working, or sleeping on the pallets and pallets of rags down there (no, I wouldn't have done that!) I heard the 1 foot thick door that closes over the only ladder out of this hole close. Not just close, but dropped as if it was slammed.
The next thing I knew I could hear the second level door being slammed shut as well. As luck would have it, there was no inside door release for me to push to make my escape. Being ingenious, and a smoker at the time, I took my cigarette lighter and set off the high temperature alarms for the lower level. Since I couldn't hear a thing being so deep in the ship, I lit off another one and then a third. None of them made any sound that I could hear. As one after another were setting off, the IC people were reporting a fire in the #2 hold bottom level. You guys (the entire crew!) all went to General Quarters while I was making a bed out of rags. I figured I would be sleeping there for the night. About half an hour after I had set off the alarms, I cold hear some stirring from above. finally the door over the ladder opened and I was right there looking at BMSN Walls. He simply turned towards main deck and said "it's only Train EM3!" A moment I'll never forget, and the XO said, "what, no fire?"
By the way, the exposure ration of brandy was worth it! This is one of my favorite stories to tell. I'm just glad the CO2 system wasn't functioning!
*Submitted by Glenn "Tiny" Train EM2
I’m French Foreign Legion
We pulled into Oran, Algeria and were there for several days. I had drawn Shore Patrol Duty and the French Foreign Legion came to the ship to take us to the Shore Patrol Headquarters. Due to the dangerous conditions, we were ordered to stay in groups of no less than 4 at all times. I had drawn Shore Patrol before in many different parts of the world, but this was one of the scariest experiences of my life. I was never so glad to get back aboard ship.
*submitted by: No name on story.
This is from Ship serviceman 3rd class, Robert c. Queen I Served aboard the Denebola from Jan, 1956 until around sometime in 1959.
Started on the deck force 1st division under boatswain mates Baker and Magacinni. Learn to operate winch on #2 hole, which was a whole lot better than handling the cargo by hand. Remember making first sea cruise to Puerto Rico, getting seasick and swearing to fly back to the states which was totally impossible. Made all the cruises to the Med. My best ports of call were Spain, Greece and Lebanon when it was peaceful. Remember losing out on our liberty in Germany due to the crisis in Lebanon. Our plane guard duty for Pres. Ike up in the Artic waters was cold as was the stop over in Boston. Worst liberty was in Cherbourg, France and the NATO cruise liberty in Rothsay, Scotland. Strangest encounter was in Argus, Denmark. The waitress in the bar had never seen a (negro) at that time and had to touch my skin and hair to satisfy her curiosity. Also remembered having a near collision with a tanker while I was in the shower and ran topside with a towel wrapped around me just in time to see the fantail of the tanker just slide by us. I could , tell some more tales but I'll saved them for another day. so remember this ; Reveille, Reveille, heave to and thrice up, clean sweep down fore and aft.
A Hell of a nice Guy!!
I am new to this group, even though I served on board, I was in the engine room as an MM2 under the tutelage of a guy by the name of Francis D. Kuhn, MM1, . He was a likeable fellow, however he very often pushed my buttons, making me draw out and learn all the major systems (steam, condensate, vacuum, lube oil,etc) in the engine room. If I made a mistake. he would tear up my drawing and tell me to do it again until I got it right. . Needless to say, I learned all the viable systems necessary to make the "Dirty D" operational. I also had to learn how to light off and shut down the plant by myself. Kuhn died after we returned home early, from one of our Med cruises. I know he was preparing me to take charge of the engine room after his death. He sure was relentless in my training, but a hell of a nice guy otherwise. I was one of the pallbearers at his funeral. But that's another story
I later made MM1, and was placed in charge of the refrigeration plant. I seem to remember the electric shop was just above the reefer plant. (I may be wrong about that. my mind is getting a little fuzzy these days).
If I remember correctly, the reefer plant contained 13 Carrier 5H80 cargo refrigeration compressors with automatic unloaders, which could be cross-connected to almost any refrigerated cargo hold.
I had the reefer crew polish the refrigerant receivers and copper control lines on the compressors so they would sparkle when the Chief Engineer conducted the occasional field day inspection.
I also remember installing a rack (bed) on the bulkhead in the reefer plant and sleeping there rather than in crews quarters. It finally met with opposition and I stopped using it.
I really loved duty on that ship. It was like family.
*submitted by:
I think the Ship is sinking...... Cracked Hull
Cracked Hull While the ship was in port there was someone who was always up and on the sounding and security watch. It was a roving patrol and you had to open small caps in the deck and send down a 100-foot spool tape till it hit bottom. You would reel in the tape, watching for water to show up on the tape. You would record that measurement. On your next round you would do it all over again and record the measurements.
Someone didn't trust us to rove so they came up with this idea of buying a time clock that you hung around your neck and welded to the bulkhead at various spots throughout the ship were stations. The idea was to take a key from inside the station and place it into the time clock and turn it. This registered the time that you were at that station. I think that there were some 15 stations. Each station box had a key that was chained to the box. Boy oh boy, no trust here at all.
I had the watch and on one particular night I happen to enter number four cargo hold and found lots of water on the lowest level, too much water. The Chief Engineer was still on board and I informed him that I thought that we might be sinking. What! Where? I told him lower level number four hold. He said, Show me
(Must have been from Missouri) so I showed him. It appears that the ship had a crack and we were taking on water. I don't remember how it was fixed or if we had to go into the yards to dry-dock and fix it.
*submitted by: John Train EM2
Fireballs out of the DC Generator Board !!!!!
One night I was standing Electrician of the Watch at Main Control in the Engine Room. The seas were running very heavy. The ship was taking the waves head on and she was pitching from stem to stern. I had managed to get a cup of coffee from the pot near the DC generators. Looking down at the coffee, I could see the familiar "oil slick" floating on top of the brew. I sat down between the two DC's and tried drinking the joe while holding on at the same time.
Everyone could feel the ship heave up on a huge wave and I remember saying to myself "This should be a good one". The ship reached its high spot and gravity took over. We fell back down with a shutter and a boom. At that same instant, a huge fireball came out of both DC Generators and bounced across Main Control. I said Wholly Shit and ran over to the switchboard at Main control. Both voltage meters said 240 volts but... NO load. We had lost the DC generators! MM's were scrambling to start steam backups. As most of you know, about the worse thing to happen in heavy seas is to loose propulsion. I grabbed the circuit breaker handle and pushed it up. While pulling it on the way down it should bring the generator back on line. Wam!... Another fireball appeared from inside the switchboard. I looked up after the second fireball and there was EMC Law. There he was....in skivvies and flip flops along with LT. Whiteford, the Chief Engineer. Chief Law took over. Up went the main circuit breaker and back down again. WAM!.... another fireball jumped out at us. Chief Law was sweating when I first looked up. But now, the sweat is pouring off him like a Hollywood shower!. I happened to notice that all four cargo holds were still energized and suggested that we turn them off. The LT. said yes... "turn 'em off". I did. Chief Law grabbed the handle again up then down and ahhh..... the generator purred back on line.
After that, everything went back to normal. Chief Law went back to his rack. The Lt. hung around for a while. I suggested that we could find out what happened by turning on each cargo hold breaker one at a time until the generator goes off line again. He agreed. On went No.1 nothing..., No.2 nothing..., No.3... WAM!...... another fireball bounces across Main Control like a football and the generator trips off line. I quickly shut off the breaker and put the generator back on line.
Submitted by John Train EM2
Barcelona Storm
The following is a compilation of eye witness accounts of the Barcelona Storm April 8, 1973. The DENEBOLA was anchored off Barcelona, Spain. Some crew wanted to return to the ship and were informed that liberty boat operations had been suspended because of high seas. It seemed that while the liberty section was allowed ashore, sometime after that the seas had increased to 8 to 10 foot swells. There were numerous Navy personnel of various ships stranded at Fleet landing.
An attempt was made using the Captains Gig to get back to the DENEBOLA. The usual one way trip took about 15 to 30 minutes but on this night took over an hour. The Coxswain had reduced speed due to heavy seas. The ability to keep the small gig from capsizing was due in no small measure, to the ability of the coxswain in this case a Second Class Boatswain mate, Robert Clark..
The Coxswain had made several attempts at the gangway but having the swells heaving up and down sometimes 8 feet was too dangerous for the Gig. The Gig could be trapped under the gangway and held under, sinking the boat. The Captain at this point made the decision to return to fleet landing.
At 0600 hours, the decision again was to try and return officers and crew to the Denebola. Denebola was made available of the USS America's utility boats that were somewhat larger than the Denebola's. Even with the use of larger utility boats, access to the ship had to be gained by use of the Jacob's ladder from the boom. Each man had to position himself so when the boat was high in the water, he would jump and grab for the rope ladder. He would gain a foot hold and climb up as fast as he could. Then, on the next wave, when the boat came rising up it didn't knock him off. This would most certainly result in an injury. As it was, some crew members did suffer injuries that night, in the performance of their duties.
Everyone was returned to the Ship, many with a story of a lifetime.
*submitted by: John Train from a collection of eye witness accounts.
Fireball Situation
After reading your "Sea Stories", it reminded me of the fireball situation that I had experienced just after I finished writing the engineering log on the mid watch one night. I don't remember much about it except that it scared the living hell out me and others on watch. I don't recall what we discovered as the cause, but it kept me awake for the rest of the night and was the talk of the ship around the mess decks for awhile. That happened just a short while before we went South to participate in the Cuban missile crisis at Guantannamo Bay.
After the 1960 yard overhaul and shakedown cruise, we once again departed for the Med. Somewhere in between the time of the various cruises, we were sent to Guantonamo Bay, Cuba to participate in the Cuban blockade. That pumped us up a bit. We affectionately called the "D" a high speed, night attack cargo reefer, even though things didn't get all that exciting.
submitted by: Earl R. Simonin
Fireballs out of the DC Generator Board !!!!!
One night I was standing Electrician of the Watch at Main Control in the Engine Room. The seas were running very heavy. The ship was taking the waves head on and she was pitching from stem to stern. I had managed to get a cup of coffee from the pot near the DC generators. Looking down at the coffee, I could see the familiar "oil slick" floating on top of the brew. I sat down between the two DC's and tried drinking the joe while holding on at the same time.
Everyone could feel the ship heave up on a huge wave and I remember saying to myself "This should be a good one". The ship reached its high spot and gravity took over. We fell back down with a shutter and a boom. At that same instant, a huge fireball came out of both DC Generators and bounced across Main Control. I said Wholly Shit and ran over to the switchboard at Main control. Both voltage meters said 240 volts but... NO load. We had lost the DC generators! MM's were scrambling to start steam backups. As most of you know, about the worse thing to happen in heavy seas is to loose propulsion. I grabbed the circuit breaker handle and pushed it up. While pulling it on the way down it should bring the generator back on line. Wam!... Another fireball appeared from inside the switchboard. I looked up after the second fireball and there was EMC Law. There he was....in skivvies and flip flops along with LT. Whiteford, the Chief Engineer. Chief Law took over. Up went the main circuit breaker and back down again. WAM!.... another fireball jumped out at us. Chief Law was sweating when I first looked up. But now, the sweat is pouring off him like a Hollywood shower!. I happened to notice that all four cargo holds were still energized and suggested that we turn them off. The LT. said yes... "turn 'em off". I did. Chief Law grabbed the handle again up then down and ahhh..... the generator purred back on line.
After that, everything went back to normal. Chief Law went back to his rack. The Lt. hung around for a while. I suggested that we could find out what happened by turning on each cargo hold breaker one at a time until the generator goes off line again. He agreed. On went No.1 nothing..., No.2 nothing..., No.3... WAM!...... another fireball bounces across Main Control like a football and the generator trips off line. I quickly shut off the breaker and put the generator back on line.
Submitted by John Train
Reporting on Board
.I remember the first time I got to Norfolk as a boot landing at the airport. I took a taxi to Norfolk Naval Base and was let off in front of AF 56. It was night time and the ship looked huge riding high in the water. It was berthed at Pier 4. I lugged my sea bag up the gangway and asked permission to come aboard. Granted. The duty Master of Arms brought me down into berthing and gave me a rack for the night. Most of the crew was at a ships party. This was now my ship.Submitted by John Train EM2
Problem with the mast
When the Denebola was dispatched to the med, electrician mates rigged the med lights, every time we entered port. While everyone else was getting their showers in and readying for liberty; we were high on the masts rigging these lights over the tops of all the masts and around the bulwark. Liberty call came late for us, except one night, in Lisbon, Portugal.
We started to rig the lights and EM 2 Scott had set the assignments for which mast you were going to go up. I was chosen to go up the most forward mast. This was the mast the had all the antenna going to it.
I started up the forward mast and I had been up there more than a few times when something caught my eye as strange, I could see through the mast! I climbed back down and Scott asked where was I going. I said the mast is cracked more that half way through. I said, Maybe you want this mast. Scott climbed up till he got to the break and he too came back down.
We entered the Chief Engineers (Jim Whiteford) office and explained the situation to him. He couldn't believe it. Maybe on an old tug boat but not a ship of this size. Jim climbed the mast, got to the break and back down again. Secure from rigging Med lights. Liberty Call
Later that night, the Captain was with some Portuguese dignitaries and was explaining in the car that when they round the next hill, you would be able to see his ship, "ALL LIT UP", in the harbor. Needless to say, it was pretty dark out there in the harbor and the Captain was not too happy. At least our liberty was sooner that usual.
*submitted by: John Train
Zimmerman was mediocre,
Buckley was fantastic. As the story goes he was JFK's PT Commanding Officer during WW 2. Was a rising star in the Navy and should have retired because of a heart attack but the Pentagon liked him so much they gave him this Command. He was really the best. If you worked hard for him he let you play hard, great liberty ports because of his connections, went to 5O/50 from 2/3-1/3 when in port, allowed swapping so you could get big chunks of time off, we set all kinds of underway replenishment time records and he rewarded the crew with 24/7 casual dress, Levi's and Football Shirts. On deck sunbathing allowed and no dress whites, which got wrecked all the time, unless they were necessary. One of the few officers I served with that was truly a leader, highly motivating and no chicken @*#@.
Submitted by L. Twill