USCG's 180-foot Seagoing Buoy Tender

[LTGunner]

Always wonder about a ship like that...all the stories that were shared by guys...yes guys, on board...fun/work/crappy days, friendships made, personal traumas, etc...a ship has a soul I think but it is spread amongst all who served on her and when they are all gone, there is still something about her that makes you think she could communicate if you listened closely.

Sparky,

They do talk.  And regardless of what happens to the steel, they live.   In you and me, and all of us, as long as we tell the stories, of the ships and the crews that manned them.   They will never die in our minds, or in our stories, the true ones and the sea ones.  I often tell my kids, that if they get a chance, take a cruise, and at sunset go to the fantail, and when it's quiet, just listen, Watch the sunset.  You'll hear, the ship, the ocean and something else, perhaps the voices of the crew, .


Just my thoughts.

Happy New Year.

Hawk

Well said Hawk.   

[CGRDCS]

Thanks Gunner.

Hawk

[BuoyJumper]

Sparky,

They do talk.  And regardless of what happens to the steel, they live.   In you and me, and all of us, as long as we tell the stories, of the ships and the crews that manned them.   They will never die in our minds, or in our stories, the true ones and the sea ones.  I often tell my kids, that if they get a chance, take a cruise, and at sunset go to the fantail, and when it's quiet, just listen, Watch the sunset.  You'll hear, the ship, the ocean and something else, perhaps the voices of the crew, .


Just my thoughts.

Happy New Year.

Hawk

You are so right-on Chief.  I still get a little choked up when I read the piece I did on the BLACKTHORN TRAGEDY.  Regarding how ships can posess a feeling, in an interview regarding the MESQUITE (WLB-305) grounding, retired Cdr Jimmie Hobaugh former C.O. of the WOODRUSH (WLB-407) when she was in Duluth said, "I have a theroy or a feeling about the personality of ships.  To me they are a living thing.  I have walked aboard ships and felt totally comfortable.  And I have walked aboard ships and felt totally apprehensive.  I have also walked aboard ships and there was just a blah feeling.  MESQUITE to me, and I never served aboard her, she was not an outstanding-feeling ship.  But keep in mind I never served on her.  I walked aboard WOODRUSH and I felt totally comfortable, the same for TANEY (WHEC-37), FIR (WLB-213), GENTIAN (WLB-290), IRIS (WLB-395) and UNIMAK (WHEC-379).  MESQUITE had a reputation, no matter who the skipper was.  You could put the best officer in the world in her or the worst and the reputation stayed the same.  I felt she had an iffy reputation.  It's a gut thing.  There's nothing you can take to the bank."  (Ref:  Shipwreck of the Mesquite, Stonehouse, Page 92)

While I don't totally agree with the Commander's assessment of the MESQUITE, had he served on her with the late Lcdr Gordon ****man he may have had a little different insight, I do agree that ships do posess a stigma or a feeling.

[EX-CG-GM]

The Barataria was a ship that always made me feel apprehensive.  Since we ended up having a fire and explosion on an Alaska patrol I guess it was justified.

After that, anytime we were at sea and lost power in the middle of the night the entire crew would wake up.  Got to the point where they would have to get on the 1 MC to tell us what happened and get us to relax.

Once we decommed the Dexter (and cross decked to the B) we had to go back to the Dexter to get some parts from the ammo hoist for replacements.  It was a very weird (spooky) feeling to walk through a ship that was dead silent.

[sparky]

The only really bad or creepy feeling/experience I had while serving on board the Acacia was when we picked up bodies from the DJ MORRELL sinking...but that really didn't have anything to do with the ship, just the emotional experience of a first time thing. It was just an eerie experience with the steam/fog coming off the lake, the wind blowing, and seeing a lifeless form highlighted in the searchlight and then being lost back into the night because of the wind and waves and then seeing all those dead sailors laid out on the buoy deck.

I never felt anything negative from the ship itself even as afar as being out on the buoy deck at night underweigh or anything.

I guess all I'm saying is that Acacia had/has a good spirit about her regardless of what she went through and who was in command. Just my thoughts.

[JerryM]

The Sherman always had a good feeling to me. Consider that she went to the combat zone, did a full tour, apparently ingested some bad fuel in Hawaii and literally made it to the pier in Panama on the last gasp of her last engine. After lots of work by experts from both HQ and Pratt & Whitney we got back to Boston, & after some more work they took us out for "testing" in Buzzards' Bay. During a full day of testing everything worked fine until the entire engine room crew (and experts) went to the control booth & the gas turbines were shut down. Instead of shutting down, a turbine over speeded & flung turbine blades everywhere, cutting through fuel lines and adjacent live electrical wiring.   
The resulting damage, I would say, virtually totaled the engine room (I think the damage came to about $1.5 million). At any other time during that day, most of the engine room crew would have surely been killed. Sherman guided that disaster to take place at the instant when everyone could get out safely. She was (and, I trust, still is) a good ship.             

On a personal note, when the blowup happened, I had just sat down with a cup of coffee in the wardroom - only a few paces from the access to the engine room. I heard a sound I could only relate to sticking a coat hanger into a high speed electric fan. An instant later, I saw a door open and snipes boiling out like disturbed fire ants - followed by lots of black smoke. The GQ alarm started BONG BONG BOOOONG and then the power went totally off line. My GQ station was on the bridge with an AN/PRC-59 portable FM transceiver, so I got the only opportunity in my entire career to send a Mayday. A "state of the art" pride of the fleet ship calling for help with a 1/2 watt hand held transceiver.         

It worked & we were towed in - and I would have happily stayed right there for the rest of my career, but No, I had to go to CCGDOne (eee). They were good people over there, too, but not my cuppa tea.

[sparky]

I've been reading some new bulletins on Fred's Place on the ACACIA page from Nancy about the ACACIA in Chicago etc, just wonder why the AAI acacia page hasn't been updated with that info? Or, how can we link all of the sites dealing with the ACACIA in one spot...just thinking out loud, no solutions only questions as I sit here pending my next big adventure

[BuoyJumper]

New photos of the ex-BITTERSWEET (WLB-389) now the Estonian Naval Ship VALVAS (PVL-109)

The Commanding Officer on the bridge and the crew gathers on the Mess Deck for a hot meal

VALVAS moored at her homeport and target practice from the buoy deck. 

 

[sparky]

Happy looking bunch.

[EX-CG-GM]

The mess deck view....are those square things behind them (left side of pic) windows?  And was the bridge all paneled like that before?

[BuoyJumper]

The mess deck view....are those square things behind them (left side of pic) windows?  And was the bridge all paneled like that before?

Those square things are the frame around the porthole.  Look at the photos above of the BRAMBLE (left) and the WOODRUSH (right) the portholes are inset into a square frame.  The Estonians when they paneled the mess deck aparently just put a fancy frame around the porthole inset.  The bridge was not paneled like that before when the VALVAS was the BITTERSWEET.  The entire bridge has been completely reworked and enclosed.  You can no longer walk out on the port or starboard bridge wings or in front of the wheelhouse, that has all been enclosed.

[EX-CG-GM]

Can't walk out on the bridge wings?  That's kinda weird! 

[sparky]

Estonian Navy has more money to spend on comforts than the US Coast Guard?

[vftb]

No bridge wing???  Where the hell does their navigator sleep 

 

[vftb]

Or where would the "Old Man" get a suntan

No, no, a 180 without a bridge wing just won't do