"SHIPBOARD AT SEA" Waves were so forceful the ship would bounce sideways and plummet deep into the openness created as the sea water flew up over it's decks like a great fluid wall. "All hands stand clear of all weather decks due to inclement weather." would come the warning over the 1MC. What idiot would dare go on the main deck in a storm like this? Ships of old were manned on the main deck but not the magnificent steel warriors that so easily skimmed the seas like a skip rock. In the foc'sle (forecastle) you could lay back and enjoy the slow unpredictable movement of the bow pushing through the sea. First the bow would slice deep into the water and you could imagine the great amounts of water being thrown out and away by the hurricane bow. The tremendous weight of the anchors helped them hug the bow with only little help from the windless. Down and suddenly sideways, then up, up, up and in a circular motion the bow would began slowly sinking. You could feel a great swell hit and the ship would be pushed to port or starboard as it plunged and then veer at an angle so sharp you'd swear the bow would twist off from the ship. Six decks down directly above the sonar you could ride the smoothest ride if your stomach could endure. Down, down, down went the bow, then to one side or the other. Suddenly a huge swirling motion, around again and again while the tremendous swells that were cut by the bow seemed to only hinder the ship with nudges. It kind of made you feel everything was in slow motion. It wasn't a hard smack like a small boat flying out of the water only to make a rough landing that could jar your teeth, rather the feel of a million pounds falling endlessy, slowley. Circling motion forever moving upward then beginning all over again. What a ride! You knew the crew up top on the bridge or flying bridge was riding high and easy, only seeing what the sea was doing. Far from any danger and far from the excitement other than the wind that could literally make you grab for the steel deck so you wouldn't fly away. Thank Heaven for non-skid. SEA LEGS Rough weather was scary and exciting. Just going to the mess deck was a feat. One foot on the bulkhead with a roll to starboard, then one on the deck, then the other foot to the opposite bulkhead with the roll to port. Besides knowing how to manuever your dogs you had be equally skilled in grabbing any steel that could equalize your balance. Sometimes you had to be careful what you grabbed. You might just catch something sharp and painful. Somebody should tell the rest of the world that in order for a sailor to get the "Gravy" he first had to learn to walk to mess deck to get it. Sea legs don't come easy! Aft compartments were the most aggravating during these encounters with nature's rough side. The great shaking vibration in the fantail was so strong, bolts and rivets would fly out of racks and hundred pound hatches would fall if they weren't pinned properly or let down and dogged. I always heard that the one of the shafts was so warped, it made the ship ride like a log wagon. There was a time when I went up to frame 118 paying no heed to the warnings. I undogged the water tight hatch that opened onto the main deck. What an awakening! Water was as tall as buildings, but for what ever reason, danger seemed a million miles away. It was kind of like being out in the rain and not realizing how lightning never warns, only strikes. The swell grew 10, 20, 30...feet. I just knew the swell would subside before it hit the great ship. Nothing would dare come so close to our safety and comfort. I waited and waited not knowing that swells grow and grow and grow but never break. They only blast the ship with the force of a missle without the shrapnel. The water was upon me instantly and only one...two feet from dragging me up, off and away. Run! came the feelings. Jump! came the innate force inside. One step, grabbing the hatch lip I swung myself high enough, long enough to jump inside. I then threw the dog as I slammed the hatch. Experience life and live humbly, but with one mistake you could perish hopelessy. I would not have been the first. Sheer fleet, and some knowledge, plus divine intervention stole me from the great "Deep Six"..."86"... Davy Jones' Locker would have to wait on this one. There are two channels that cut under a ship. One fore and aft. They're called Cross flooders or Cross flooding passageways as the correct term goes. These could fill with water as ballast or discharge or flood entire compartments port & starboard. A little over a foot high in the narrowest straight and flanging to a foot and a half at the ends. Summoning me was not unusual in my division. It was not because I had any great knowledge, however, I did possess a knowledge of fear and how to manage it in certain circumstances. I've often thought this was a virtue, and it may well be, but, it could also be plain stupidity if I studied it. Being a thinker and waiter were not in me. With a knowledge of the lesser known functioning parts of the ship and a body of small stature with sufficient strength, I went down to the fifth or sixth deck where the steel covers for the screw shafts were located, one in storeroom "P" and the other in storeroom "O". These shaft covers were approximately six or seven feet in diameter and it felt like you were climbing onto an elephant's back when you slid over one. I went over the steel cover and down lower yet into a small space the size of a void, where I could climb in to the passage upside down, so entering would be head first. A small flashlight held in my mouth and a rope around my ankle were my support in case of problems. I had previously had the pleasure of this experience due to low ranking status and the ability of being able to swing a paint brush. Crawling by using my finger tips and muscles in my back, I was a quarter the way through. Sweat rolled off of me and felt like oil as I crept, lying on my back, through this wet, dark, tunnel. At the half way point I was still at myself and was in total control. I felt no claustrophobic tendencies or other fears but knew never to stop to think of these things in this kind of situation. Fear will make you change your mind to better or worse, and do the same to anybody around you also. I begin believing this was really an exciting adventure. There was no "order" given to on this assignment and like the rookie I've always been, I volunteered. I thought, "anytime this passageway could flood with me in it!" One great swoop of water and the only thing to save me was a rope on my ankle and some striker at the other end trying to hear if it was flooding. I was at the bottom of the ship in a tunnel that was no more than three or four inches from an ocean of water that could flood this small hole in a blink of an eye. Who could have possibly dreamed up such a device and make it so impossible to get to? Still I inched along with only one thing to occupy my thoughts. This was taking too long and I had to get there! Finally, covered in sweat and grease and dirt I reached the other side of the ship. I crawled out head first chest up. I pulled with more strength than I needed to clear the shaft cover. Over the opposite screw shaft alley I jumped entering a locked storeroom with no light. The light switch for this storeroom was outside the hatch and no one had thought to turn them on before I started the journey. I stopped to rest and remembered why I had been asked to come through the cross flooding passageway. Someone had locked the master key inside of this compartment (let me mention that master keys to a storekeeper is absolute integrety and should'nt have been signed out to anybody but the Dept. head). I sat thinking for awhile calming myself. I lit up a cigarette, relaxed and smoked and enjoyed this absolute time to myself, then I snuffed out the cigarette on an angle iron and commenced to climb back over the shaft and through the passageway for my return trip. Far into the hole there came a dreaded sound. Clang...Clang...The valve was giving to the pressure! Sound passing through steel is fast but through water it's faster than you could imagine. This compounded the effect and made me move almost as quickly. I heard the pounding water inches from me on the other side of the hull. I was at the very bottom of the ship and I could hear water, water probably two, three miles deep, gurgling as the giant twin screws churned sea and air and sent it sliding down the hull pressuring the flood valve that lay halfway between the cross flooding passage. Move! Move doggone you...get out of here!!! Water was making it's way in, inside where I was! It began to flood! Slippery, rushing, rising and covering everything as fast as gravity let it. It took twice the effort to push and manuever on my finger tips. It was that or give up. I pushed and shoved and moved my back, sliding and crawling and slipping deeper into the dark water filled hole. I had to go deeper before I could start rising out of the tunnel at the other end. All, while knowing this could be that great last moment that people talk about coming when darkness takes you and then gives way for the light that carries you home. Last moment!? Give up!? No, not now! My cheek, and forehead were bloody. My chest scraped and rubbed against the rusting ceiling of the twelve inch high water tunnel. What if this valve goes all the way? What if I don't get there? "Pull!... Pull the line!" Then I thought,..they can't on the return trip. The rope was tied to my ankle and I would have to be turned completely around to be pulled out. I pushed and kicked and tried to breathe the wet air just at the ceiling of the small passageway. It became cold under the water as I fought and moved and twisted, kicking and hoping that would help move me faster. Get away! A fierce desire to beat this fate flared and I became much stronger and calmer than I thought I could be. Go, go, go... Hands thrown out swimming and kicking and lunging, I was white knuckled when I grabbed the lip of the escape hole and pulled myself out with one muscular lift. Dripping wet and wore I breathed huge gasps like a whale might do as he surfaces from a deep dark dive. Electrically fast, moving and twisting and bending to fit the curves of the steel, I was scraped and bloodied and worn out from the conflict. I finally, slowly climbed once again over the shaft cover. I untied the rope from my ankle with the keys still clipped to my belt loop never worrying where the flashlight or my cigarettes had gone. I did worry greatly though about the invisible line between the here and there that can never be seen until it's crossed. Almost gone I stood knowing what the passageway was like. The passageway that hugs to the belly of the ship and that last, long and lonely passageway, so close, so final to the infinite and forever, that can only be experienced and not just discussed. I knew that it's not a place to work or to use or to send a man for any reason. With the storeroom keys in hand I reached them to the Chief. I knew well that doing the job expected of you garnerned no praise or award and should be that way. There would be no "Thank You" or Good Job." I remember the cross flooding passageway and gained the knowledge that I could tell a younger soul, "do this.", knowing that I wasn't telling them to do something I had not done myself." SEA SNAKES While on the Gun Line there is always somebody ready to tease you or give you a hard time. My first time on the Gun Line lasted about 60 days. I kept hearing about sea snakes. Sea snakes?...I wouldn't grab at that. That would be like hunting for snipe or trying to find a sky hook, but sea snakes? I couldn't stand it. Soon I asked and sure enough someone was ready to fill me in completely regarding sea snakes. "There's these big yellow, brown, green snakes you see and they float around way out to sea or right at the beach. They sometimes roll up in a ball and float. Thousands up on thousands of snakes intertwined and floating around looking for food." I could not believe this. No way was I going to let that hook get set in my lip. It seems also these snakes were deadly poisnous and would come to you rather quickly if you happen to fall overboard. SURE BET...Huh? Sitting one day someone casually said, There's a sea snake. Well right there as I'd been told was the broaded most wicked looking viper headed snake I'd ever seen! Then another and another and then a whole huge floating colony of them, like a thousand pound ball of string. Yes, they do bite, contrary to what you might think or hear, just ask some Vietnamese fisherman. I became a believer that day. There's many times I've conveyed that story, however, like me , they also were non-believers. Hope they don't fall in the gulf if they ever get over there.