On 28/09/2013 5:46 PM, Vic Smith wrote:
On Sat, 28 Sep 2013 09:17:27 +0300, injipoint
wrote:


I hope you have this stuff written down for your family etc.
I never tire of hearing tales of how things actually ran and what
happened in the workplace. You get more than enough of the political
history - we should hear more of the stories of the people who did the
jobs.

No, I'm not a diarist. That's Skip.
Most people would find it all boring and inconsequential.
You kinda "have to be there."

I failed to mention something about operating a boiler during
maneuvers. The opposite of steam demand.
When the skipper is sending full astern and flank speed demands,
demanding all the steam the boilers can produce, and heating
all the refractory materials, tubes, headers and drums to the extreme,
he might suddenly telegraph stop.
If the burnerman isn't very fast in cutting out all but one burner,
you can pop a safety. On my ship, the first one popped at 1320 psi.
Never saw that happen on my ship, but some close calls.
The results of that are consequential, because it requires some safety
valve maintenance, and blows many clumps of soot from the stack,
scattering it topside, and royally ****ing off the deck apes, who have
to clean it up.
I've popped safety valves as part of testing them, and the sound is
deafening in the fireroom, but the fireroom is very noisy anyway.
Once you get to steaming with 4 burners it's all shouting.
One time I was coming back from liberty and a ship similar to mine
popped a safety at D&S piers in Norfolk as I walked by, maybe a few
hundred yards away. Don't know why.
It was the most horrendous sound I ever heard.

I'd wager that my mates have forgotten most all of it.
Many took no interest in steam, and just did as they were told.
I consider all that a bit differently, and remember all the jobs I've
done, however lowly, their purpose, their high and low points.
I've felt satisfaction at sweeping a floor well. And utter boredom in
tedious jobs.
Sometimes I've felt humbled by standing on the shoulders of "great
men" whose combined work could assemble something like that ship I
served on. And proud to be an important part of its operation.
And sometimes I've witnessed utter stupidity.
For example, I had a damage control assignment where my task was
practiced by finding the obvious chalk markings put on the ASROC deck
by the Weapons officer.
Those chalk markings represented something I was to pick up, put in
normal water bucket, and dump over the side. My only garb besides my
skivvies, shoes,socks, dungarees and white hat was a pair a rubber
gloves.
What was I to pick up and carry in a bucket to toss over the side?
Plutonium.
The scary thing is I probably would have done it.

I think many here have their own good tales. And of an age to tell
tales that just don't occur any more. Time moves on.
And the most interesting tales to me are the ones that no longer can
happen. Old steam machinery is an example.
I'll relate later when I was a Lilliputian in U.S. Steel, dealing with
an 800 pound slugging wrench, using a 2000 pound hammer.
I do believe I'm now the only man alive who can tell that tale.
And the only one to write it down.


I still maintain that it's important that these things are recorded from
the "doer's" point of view. In my day job, I travelled extensively to
relieve manager's on leave. Whenever I went to a new town, I went on
day one or two to the local newsagent to find books on local history
written, usually, by the children of older citizens who related the
tales verbatim or close to. I found them fascinating and still do.
You don't need to be a diarist, just a teller of tales!

I have a friend who used to frequent this group who lives on the
east coast, perhaps SC or NC. He has wonderful tales of his exploits
in the Navy and he only worked in support ships. They were interesting
times for sure. You could get away with a lot more **** that you'd get
sued for today.

On Saturday, September 28, 2013 8:41:17 PM UTC+8, wrote:
Thanks gentlemen; very much appreciated.

Although not mentioned in this documentary, a little known fact is that Malaysia's Penang Island was home to a fleet of long range German submarines that preyed upon Allied shipping during WWII. They shared a Japanese submarine base. Apparently the submariners of both countries despsed each other, inly due to the Germans' arrogance and sense of racial superiority. A private outfit has cleared the overgrown jungle that has hidden most of the site and it is now open to visitore.

Hmm ... German subs used a few parts of Penang for ports. The main port was a few pens on Pulau Jerejak (aka Pulau Jerjak). Those pens were subsequently converted into a shipyard. And the shipyard still exists, owned and operated I think now by Boustead, a government-linked company that among other things does contract work for the Malaysian navy.

The other areas were Sweetenham Pier (the main port) and a couple of temporary pens on the northern coast.

The U-boots involved were the Monson Gruppe [Monsoon group] working the Indian Ocean and, occasionally, the Pacific. Wikipedia has a page about the Monson Gruppe.

Just N of Penang, one of the Monson Gruppe was sunk in 1945 as she was carrying a load of mercury to Penang, to deliver the mercury to the Japanese. The U-boot went down in 13 m of water. Twenty of the crew got out alive. One wrote a book about it (look for U-858 by Baudzus). Most of the mercury was retrieved in 1972 (a small legal suit was run: Malaysia recognised that Federal Germany owned the mercury). The wreck is still there and is marked on charts (and surrounded, when I last sailed past it by a dozen bamboo stakes driven into the seabed so trawlers don't snag their nets).

So ... (1) the facts are not little known. They're well documented including on the internet and books; (2) the pretense that the so-called Penang War Museum at Batu Maung ("a private outfit has now cleared the overgrown jungle") is just that - a pretense for commercial reasons to suck in the gulls)..

Bil
Penang

On Saturday, September 28, 2013 2:15:23 PM UTC+8, wrote:
Hi Vic,



I am curious as to the origin of "flank speed".

The concept of 'flank' in that usage dates back to the US Civil War and is recorded as an 'Americanism' or 'US slang' from 1872.

During the Civil War, journalists, civilians and soldiers all picked up the use of flank with its strategic meanings to outflank and attack the flanks, and to defend the flanks. As not used by the generals, 'flank' gained the additional meaning in US English of 'to dodge, to slip by'. Hence the usage recorded in 1872 of: "When the men wished to escape the attention of pickets and guards by slipping past them, they said they flanked them; drill and detail and every irksome duty was flanked, when it could be avoided by some cunning trick. Soon‥the poor farmer was flanked out of his pig and his poultry." (from Schele de Vere, Americanisms.)

And 'flank speed' became a defined USN term - which Bruce nailed correctly - as one quarter more than standard speed or +10 knots. The speed necessary to protect the flanks of a convoy, the speed necessary to outflank a convoy, etc.

Bil

Greetings,
Was that friend who used to frequent this post one "Larry"?

I have been wondering what has happened to him a I haven't seen his name and he was a frequent poster.

I much appreciated his very useful and practical advice.

Ciao
Peter

Thanks Bill for the info,

I only recently heard about the German subs from a Japanese friend, an old flatmate from university days. His uncle was based in Penang for a while during the war.

When I get back home to Penang, I'll check it all out. On my short trips home by plane, I get little time for myself and am usually busy with my kids, work and friends.

Are you living there or just passing through?
Cao
Peter

On 29/09/2013 3:14 PM, wrote:
Greetings,
Was that friend who used to frequent this post one "Larry"?

I have been wondering what has happened to him a I haven't seen his name and he was a frequent poster.

I much appreciated his very useful and practical advice.

Ciao
Peter

Called in on him on our way down the ICW and spent two wonderful
days eating laughing and generally enjoying life. He's lived
several lifetimes already and his adventures are extraordinary.