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Thread: The Snipes Lament

  1. #1
    Boolit Master
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    The Snipes Lament

    How many of you spent your time in the navy down in the hole?. Was on you tube and they had a poem called the "Snipes Lament". If you were a machinist's mate,boiler tender or auxiliary mm or engine man. this poem is written just for you. So take a look at the poem on you tube and just type in Snipes Lament. Bunch of pics showing what snipes do or did. Snipes Rule!!. Frank

  2. #2
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    I spent ten years with seven of those years at sea in the USN as a FC. I have always held the engineering department in the highest regard of all sailors for their outstanding work ethic and commitment to the crew to keep our ships moving through the water and focused on their mission.
    Without their expertise in maintaining the power plants and auxiliary systems such as the electrical plant, septic (CHT), potable water, and steam for the showers and galley, our warships would be nothing more than a berthing barge with topside decorations.
    R/
    FC1 (SW) J. Griffin
    USS San Jacinto (CG-56)
    USS Moosbrugger (DD-980)

  3. #3
    Boolit Master

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    From the "Eyes of the Boat", you have my respect. I was in Navigation, a QM rate in the Coast Guard. We pointed us to where we needed to be and kept us off of the rocks. Those two are also important.

    We had an incident at a fuel dock in Alameda, CA. We had just arrived at the dock. The Bridge Crew (Steersman, QM Watch Stander [not me], OD, Captain, etc.), had "secured" and left the bridge. The OD was on his way below and in the process of moving the bridge watch to the Quarterdeck at the gangway.

    Fuel lines were being prepared by the Engineering Gang to cast ashore. The Deck Crew had secured single line mooring to shore bollards. The gangway was being prepared to go to the dock.

    I looked over the bridge railing and noticed there was INCREASING tension in the mooring lines. The engine order telegraph on the bridge was positioned to ALL STOP, but for some, as yet, unexplained reason the ship STILL HAD WAY ON that NOT ONE Officer had noticed before "securing" the bridge watch!

    The 269-foot, Coast Guard Ice Breaker's, twin, 17-foot diameter, fixed pitch screws were STILL TURNING. The engines were was STILL ON LINE turning the shafts. The ship has the power to break mooring lines with EASE.

    I hit the button on the 1MC (Ship's All Call) and announced, "Engine Room! Engine Room! SECURE the engines OFF LINE - Now, Now, Now!", which was a highly unusual and never before (nor since) heard request coming from the bridge. Everyone on board, and the dock, heard it, the Captain included. The Bridge phone exploded...figuratively speaking.

    The engine room immediately responded to halt the ships forward progress. The OD was angry at ME for not informing him first (though he had yet to set the Quarterdeck Watch below), but the Captain gave me his nod for keeping the ship safe and got the OD's blood pressure under control when confronted by his OWN failure to assure the ship's motion was in fact stopped before leaving the bridge.

    I had thought the engine order telegraph was directly connected, as a speed controller, to the engines. Now I suspect it is a mechanism TO REQUEST the engine room to follow suit.

    I never fully understood the overall Chain of Command "thing" where - for example:

    1.) the Captain orders the OD, followed by
    2.) the OD's order to the Watch Stander, followed by
    3.) the Watch Stander's order to execute the command, followed by
    4.) a verbal acknowledgement and execution of the command by the lowest man on that Totem Pole.

    It is a "military thing" and I assume directs the reverse line of progression for shooting those that fail to respond. Anyway, sometimes the most direct method works fine too. All is well that ends well.
    Last edited by Land Owner; 06-06-2020 at 10:30 AM.
    If it was easy, anybody could do it.

  4. #4
    Boolit Buddy
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    Love that story, Land Owner!
    Current active duty CG NAV ENG Warrant here but black gang through and through. Made MKCM prior to becoming a turncoat Warrant.
    The only time I’ve had to take actual control from the engine room was during BECCE drills or power trials and the cutter I left last year was over 50 years old!
    Which boat is your story from?

  5. #5
    Boolit Master

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    Shhhhhhh. Not so loud. The story never made its way into the ship's log.

    The (Hurtin') Burton Island, WAGB 283, now decommissioned.

    Wikipedia USCGC Burton Island (WAGB-283)

    I made QM2 there between Feb. '75 through Feb '77 with North Slope and Deep Freeze tours (2X both ways) and everything in the Pacific in between. True deep water cruising in those.

    I/we could tell Sea Stories here all day, but many would be Off Topic from the OP's Engineering Crew.
    Last edited by Land Owner; 06-06-2020 at 11:04 AM.
    If it was easy, anybody could do it.

  6. #6
    Boolit Buddy
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    That’s awesome. We could use more like the BURTON ISLAND now. We are hurting for breakers at the moment. And yes, off topic.
    Thanks for your service!

  7. #7
    Boolit Master
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    On my ship with 4 enginerooms the engine order telegraph went to main engine control or #3 engineroom and from there went to all other enginerooms. USS Franklin D. Roosevelt CVA 42 one of the three post WWII aircraft carriers. Frank

  8. #8
    In Remembrance bikerbeans's Avatar
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    I was a Nuclear Machinist Mate assigned to the California (CGN-36). The engine order telegraph only received the requested speed and direction from the bridge. The main turbines were controlled by the throttle watch opening and closing manually operated steam valves. The reactors on this ship were kinds high tech, the rest of the engine room would have been familiar to a WWII machinist mate.

    BB

  9. #9
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    The Snipes Lament

    Hey, Land Owner...Capt. Paul Ecker, CO of CG-56, didn’t like the COC delay after he ordered “batteries release” from his chair on the bridge, so he gave the MK 86 console operators permission to bypass the CSO and TAO and fire the 5” guns immediately upon hearing his command over the tactical command line. He was a man of few words.

  10. #10
    Boolit Master

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    Shipboard life is a symphony of inter-related activities, any explanation of which is lost in preaching to this choir. The engine room is blind without the Bridge. The Bridge is Dead In The Water without the engine room. In between the bridge and the engine room is a bee hive that is active from dawn to dusk.

    On a Buoy Tender, we had a Machinist Mate from rural Georgia, who rarely left the engine room while we were underway. He was DEDICATED and his Chief was clearly at ease with the manner in which the man provided service to the ship.

    On "entering the lane" going out to sea, I would find this man topside, with (probably unknown to his Chief) a pocket full of steel nuts and a wrist rocket. He stationed himself on the after-bridge by the stack where signal flags were hauled, where few, if any, of the officers, chiefs, or "higher ups" ever visited, out of sight, and shot at EVERY seagull until his lust was sated or he was out of ammunition. I didn't check, but there was probably a line of dead and maimed seagulls following passage of the Tender. He rotated off of the ship two months after I arrived from Basic.

    In retrospect, CG Tender life (Deck Crew) was freakin' AWESOME duty! I got STORIES from Tender Duty. Perhaps on another thread...(or by the OP's permission to deviate).
    Last edited by Land Owner; 06-07-2020 at 01:22 PM.
    If it was easy, anybody could do it.

  11. #11
    Boolit Buddy
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    I was a Machinist Mate on the USS Monticello, LSD 35, from 75 to 77. Our ship carried Marines, their equipment and landing craft. They say Marines are tough, ha. The Marine discipline problems were sent down to us. I will not regale you with what we did to them, suffice it to say, none ever came back down for a second time.

  12. #12
    Boolit Master
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    Occasionally we would get a few malcontents down in the engineroom and after doing what the Chief had them do, we never saw or heard from them again. Word gets out pretty quick even on a ship with full crew and the air wing assigned to us. There was always a little friction between the ships company and the airdales (air wing). Was eating mid rats after coming off watch and a bunch of airdales walked into the mess decks. they yelled a few very improper words about the snipes. Unfortunately they failed to see that the Chief Engineer was also with us. Sufficed to say names were taken and told to report to the master at arms shack next day at 0800. Our chief told me to go up there and get 4 of them. While I was doing this, the guys had taken off the steel cover off the contaminated tank and got a huge bale of rags,dust pans and a small shovel. Snipes on most ships had to occasionally clean this tank by hand and not something you really wanted to do.Coffee grounds, body waste and all sorts of strange stuff. The 4 victims were all decked out in starched chambray shirts,dungarees and spit shined shoes. So clean the contaminated tank they did. So much for their starched and pressed uniforms and spit shined shoes. Never another derogatory word about the snipes was heard in the mess decks.Frank

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