On Thu, 27 May 2004 15:39:47 GMT, "Sharon" wrote:


"Don White" wrote in message
...

"Sharon" wrote in message
senet.com...
snip
He worked on Minesweepers while in the Navy
(from my understanding they're wooden ships -- according to my mother
they
were constructed that way, in case they received a blast -- the entire
ship
wouldn't be damaged). The Navy has a saying "Wooden Ships, Iron Men".
snip

** As I understand it...the minesweepers used wooden hulls to guard
against
magnetic mines.

Thanks for that information. I didn't know about the magnetic aspect --
triggering an explosion.
I'll have to read up on that.

I'd sure like to see one of these minesweepers. The closest thing we've got
around here is the Battleship Memorial NC in Wilmington.

My dad spent his life in ships -- I did only on the occasion of going
fishing inland and safely along the coast (on occasions when Dad had time.)


We had quite a fleet of the old mine sweepers here in
Halifax in the '60s. ( Royal Canadian Navy)
4 or 5 years ago a new fleet of mine sweepers/costal patrol boats were
built
but this time out of steel.

That old saying of wooden ships/iron men came from the days of sailing
ships.




My old XO on the Cimarron in Hawaii got to be CO of a minesweeper.
Somehow the CINCPAC thought it was due to decom, they had that baby
stripped to the bare nothings befoer SECNAV got wind of it and fired
up a ton of butts. Seems that ship wasn't on the decom list, and the
decom list hadn't even been approved yet.
That was 1980-81 timeframe if my ancient brain can remember right.



--

Retired military and damn proud of it.