Rich Howlett; Engineering Department My first winter onboard was a very cold one, and our sleeping quarters were forward and below the water line. Our compartment had a Modine steam space heater to keep us warm, whenever it would work. It had a bucket trap to carry away the condensed steam. this would hang up at night { it seems like it would only do so at night, possibly because the ship would tie up and secure for the night where-as while under way the movement of the ship would keep the trap free}. When hung up it prevented steam from going to the heater. While the crew slept, the place was freezing cold by morning, then some brave soul would craw out of his rack and wack the trap to get it working again. Those days were so cold that one day they made me the "Oil King", which meant that I was to see that we always had enough fuel and water onboard. Every day I was to hook up a 1 1/2" water hose to the pier water supply to fill our storage tanks before we got underway to go out to the mine field. On this one very cold morning after I got the hose hooked up I found that the line to it was frozen up and could not get water to the ship. I figured we had 3/4's of a tank left from yesterday and that should get us out and back into port. Well, guess what? It got us out OK -- but half way through our days operations someone reported to the Skipper that we were low on water and would have to return to base. It didn't take long before I was called to see the Skipper and explain. I told him my story and being new to the job, he was very understanding. He left me off easy and { I'm sure after a detailed explanation of the importance of every task, no matter how small } said the next time to inform him of any problems in person. From this I learned a very Good Lesson.

We would go out to the mine field every weekday from 0800 to 1700 hours to replace mines and cables { Each group of mines had a cable run out from the shore to a distribution box and from there a cable went to each mine. } The mines we layed were not armed with explosives, but, were used for detecion. When a ship would come within range it would trip { an electronic sensor } and send a signal thru connecting cables to a monitor on shore at Ft Story, Va. They would then decide what actions to take. The mine field was very active back in those days from ships entering and leaving port, it kept us busy during the week replacing them. Working below deck, I didn't pay much attention to how everything fell into place as a deckhand would. But, this was the general idea of the operation.

Crew members in front of one of two cable reels. c1953
@RHowlett

One ( dark,) cold and stormy night, we were awaken at 0-300 hours, which was very unnatural for us, unless there was an emergency of some sort. We were told to get underway as quickly as possible and get to the mine field at full speed. None of us in the engine room knew what it was all about, until we got there. I went up on deck to find out. The weather was real bad and the ship was rolling. I saw we were along side of something VERY-VERY big (and gray). It turned out to be an aircraft carrier which looked monsterous in the rain and wind. Then I heard our Skipper call up to their bridge with a bull horn and told them to move out of the area, their reply was "By WHOSE Orders ?" { After all, a carrier has an Admiral, who was this poppy-cock on a tiny vessel telling them to move.} The Skipper told them they were anchored in a mine field, and the carrier crew immediately got busy and got underway. As they proceded to get underway, we hoped our next problem we could have faced did not occur. The possibility of their anchor snaging a mine or mine cable. They would have torn up the whole field. Luckly for both ships and crews, everything work out OK and no damage was done. In a way it was sort of funny to watch as our little ship was telling an admiral to move several thousands men. The carrier was the USS ROOSEVELT, CVS-42.

In the summer of 1953, we were operating off Virginia Beach using a graffling hook to retreive a cable to a mine when our line took a heavy strain and caused the ship to back down. They thought they hooked a sunken vessel, and, after a few try's to get free, something broke loose and the line was able to be hauled in. What a surprise we had at the end of the line. Our hook had snaged a very old anchor which must have come from a sailing ship of the past. We got in on deck and saw it was covered with barnacles and mud which we did our best to remove. We were unable to find any lettering or dates. We took it back to the base for them to look at, there it stayed on the pier for several days and then suddenly it was gone. After that everyone just figured it would end up on an admiral's lawn. One day, after standing watch in the engine room, I was on deck watching the deckhands trying to retrieve a cable to a mine by draging a grappling hook along the sea bottom to snag it. It caught on to one and was brought to the surface. When it was in view and out of the water, the hook sliped off the cable and whipped back towards the ship, where it struck one of the seaman in the calf of his leg with one of its spikes. This caused such a bad wound that all operations had to be halted and the seaman returned to the base to receive hospital care. This was the ONLY bad accident I saw in my two years onboard.

Seaman John lowering a mine off Virginia Beach c1953
@RHowlett

Working at sea in the mine field, one day while I was on watch in the engine room, the ship had a port engine crankcase explosion which caused a lot of smoke but no real damage. The bridge was notified and the Skipper told the XO to take over the helm while he went below to inspect the problem, while down there and being informed of what happened they decided to restart the engine, again it blew and this time we blew out an inspection door which caused more smoke. It was just at this moment that the XO entered the hatch to decend the ladder into the engine compartment. He saw a flash, along with the smoke; he thought the worst had happened. He rushed back to the bridge and radioed the Base that he though the ship lost the Captain and some of the crew and would need assistance. Well, by now the smoke was clearing and the Skipper said we would just use the starboard engine to return to port, and, then he returned to the bridge. He passed the word to the pilot house, where the crew waited for the XO to tell the Captain of his call for help; when, all of a sudden they saw a fleet of boats heading for our ship. The Captain was surprised and was starring at the crew when the XO entered te pilot house almost fainted with shock, and was red faced to say the least. The crew and base personel talked and jolked about it for weeks to come.

The YMP-2's Egg Beater Compartment was accessed thru a hatch on the fantail of the ship. When due to get underway, I would don my phone headset and go into this area to grease the two units with a very heavy coating before contacting the Bridge. Each unit had a plastic Bull's-eye dome on it that contained a pointer. The Bridge could move the pointer and I would respond back to them where the pointer was on the Bull's-eye. When their controller was lined up with the pointer in the bullseye, as close as possible, they would lock it in position. It took several try's to get lined up. The compartment was very cramp to work in and you were always bent over at the waist, it took only a few bumps on the head to learn not to stand up. Like Jim Walker stated it was only 4 feet high. After things were in place, and we were underway, I got out of compartment and returned to the fantail deck until I was told to secure by the Bridge, after that, I either went on engine room watch or to a work detail.

In he early fall of 1953, a hurricane headed our way which was thought to be of no danger; but yet, to bad to do our work at sea. Our orders were to stay in port tied to the pier until it passed. We were pretty much safe inside Little Creek, Virginia.

I THOUGHT! Our first day in, it was cloudy with winds that were lite but gtting stronger as the day wore on. That night I had the mid-watch ( 0-000 to 0-400 hours) and by this time we were doing a lot of rocking. A Second Class (Boatswain) Mate Petty Officer was the highest rate on board and told me to keep an eye on the mooring lines, and, to awaken him if they became too tight during my watch. I was to pass this on to my relief. Well, here I am the only one up and about and had to go out every half hour to make my rounds, outside the safety of the ship's galley. Things were getting scarry after a couple of hours into my watch and I couldn't wait for it to end. By this time I didn't know if I should wake the Second Class or not, and kept putting it off. At 03:30 hours, when I {and everyone else on board} heard a very loud bang, another and another. I tracked it down, going out on the deck with a battle lantren, and found a bunch of telephone poles had broken loose from a barge and were slaming into the hull of the ship. My next move was to go below and wake up the crew. They were all awake from the noise, anyway, and wanting to know what was going on. The deck hands then took action with boat hooks to move the poles away from the ship, while the cook started the coffie pot. My watch was over at 04 hundred and when things settled down, I did manage to get a few hours of shut eye before breakfast. The wind was really blowing strong by now and we were told to stay inside of the ship, and, not to go outside unless it was necessary. Those of us who were yound and dareing found it necessary to test the storm. While out there and hanging on to the hand rails, you could not stand up straight or dare let go. We soon got tired and retreated inside. It was exciteing while it lasted and the next day our routine was back to normal.

One evening, after the ship was relaxing from a hard days work, I decided to do my laundry on the fantail, where we had an old wringer washing machine. This was secured to the galley bulkhead right under a port-hole looking into the mess area. Anyway, I got the thing set up and going. While my clothes were washing, I went into the galley to join the guys for a game of cards. After a half-hour I told them I had to go and wring-out my laundry. Well! while doing so I had my sleeves rolled up two turns above my wrist, and, feeding the clothes into the rollers, when it caught my right sleeve and pulled on my arm. it was acting as a turnequet and I was in trouble. I started to bang on the Port-hole for help, but it was so thick, that the crew could not hear me. By this time my arm was swelling up and I had all I could do to reach far over to my right with my left hand grab the wire and managed to pull out the plug. My arm never got thru the wringer and it was really hurting while I was freeing it. I then rushed into the galley to give those guys hell for not hearing what happened and when I showed them the results, which was black & blue and ugly to look at, they were shocked. It took a good while to get the circulation back and almost a week before the bruises started to fade away. After that, I sent my clothes out for laundry pick-up. It slowed me up a little that week, but, I could still perform my duties. Another lesson learned, the hard way.

Routine Duty Day - 1952 Reveille starts at 06:30 when we would dress in our work dungrees and try to be the first to get to the head which there was only one, for enlisted men, then returned to the sleeping quarters to square away our bedding before going to breakfest, which was from 06:30 to 07:30. By 08:00 we were ready to get underway for the mine field located off Virginia Beach, I can still remember passing the Maryland and Virginia Pilot boats anchored at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay each day as we headed out. I stood watches in the engine room during this time and would be relieved by the next watch at 11:45 to go to lunch, after that I would go back below so he could eat and then he stood watch till 16:00 hrs. when we would finish for the day and return to base. After securing to the pier, we may have the two week food supply waiting for us to unload from the truck. We were allways happy to see it because this ship had what they called an open ice box, we could use it freely in the evenings while watching TV. Whenever I had the 04:00 to 08:00 watch, which was stood in the galley, I would get Breakfest started before wakeing the cook to finish it. I got to eat first and it also helped him out. I would have the TV on at 07:00 tuned to the "TODAY SHOW" with Dave Galloway and his co-host, Hugh Downs, to get the first news of the morning. We allways liked to watch them while we ate. The food was very good and plentiful and nothing was wasted, but, at times we did without untill the next truck arrived. Each non-rated man had to do a tour of mess duty for two weeks at a time. His duties were to wash dishes, clean the galley after each meal and dump the rash. Whenever we pulled in at the end of a work day, a good part of the crew lived ashore and would go home to their family's just like a 8-5 job. This made it easier for the rest of us to enjoy the peace and quiet and allowed us more space. After dinner things would settle down as those who had liberty would go ashore most often into East Main Street bars in Norfolk to enjoy the night life. Most of our off-duty travel was by bus unless we were lucky enough to catch a ride with someone, back in those days hitchhikeing was the way to go, but the Shore Patrol ddn't want to see you use your thumb or they would haul you in. The two officers we had were not too strick with us as long as we did our duty, on deck we could go without shirts or hats while working as you can see in the photograph of us laying a sonar bouy.

Laying a sonar bouy in the mine field. c1953
@RHowlett

As for the weekend's, we only kept six to eight crew aboard and things were really lax except for standing watches. Looking back on those days, it was sort of like "McHale's Navy". Lots of freedom from a military style; but, yet we still honored the Navy traditions.

Jim Walker even told me a story of the time when the ship had it's home port at "Fort STORY", Virginia. They would be at sea all day and when heading in they would have their civilian clothes on and be ready for liberty as soon as the ship finished tieing up to the pier. In the evenings after dinner, and not having the duty to stand watch, I would go up to the bridge, where it was a good place to write letters home or be alone to read or study for my next rateing. It was always quiet there and you had a good view of the pier, the YMP-1 and the base. After that, it was close to tap's at 22:00 hrts. and light's out for those turning in for the night, if you wanted too.

Ship's Plan The lay-out of the ship, as I remember it, from the fantail forward was: Lower deck; -- the stern with the eggbeater units (called "Cycloidal" by Lt Hayes, YMP-1) under the main deck which was entered by a small hatch -- these units were connected to the shafts from the ship's two main diesel engines, which were in the main engine room, along with a steam boiler which was located on the starboard side of the ship -- there was also two or three smaller Cumming Diesel engines for aux. equipment and electric power. Going forward, on the port side, was a tool and repair room which led into a storage and crew locker room. Next to this was the crews' sleeping quarters, with about sixteen racks, and on each side of this compartment were two storage areas for ship and engine parts. Main Deck: Back to the main deck aft, going forward was the galley with a long table which seated 14, a TV on he starboard bulkhead, the port side was the sink and in the middle of galley was the stoves, refrigerator and serving area. Going forward on the port side leaving the galley we had a shower and head to the left of the passage way and to the right was the uptake area with a ladder to the bridge. This area also led down to the engine room on the port and starboard sides, there was also a deck hatch leading to the shaft alley. I can't describe all the machinery on deck other than the two big cable reels and the ship's boom, but there was a lot, as you can see in the picture.

Getting Ship in order for return to the pier. c1952
@RHowlett

We only had one life boat with a few rafts. During my time on-board we only had one Life-boat Drill and I was lucky to be in it, while we rowed it fifty yards away from the ship; and, it was all over in a half hour. Something for the Skipper to put in the log to keep our image up. Can't ever remember a fire drill. All & all -- "It was good duty!"