Sea
Stories from the Mighty “I”
Late ‘77 to early ‘78
By R. L. Schmidt
I
was sorry to hear that the Ingham, also known as the Mighty “I”, was
retired, but I was glad to hear she’ll now be a floating museum. Not fast, but
a good riding ship, way better than the 378's I served on after her. Ingham has
a long history to her, and here’s my little chunk of it.
A
Deckie on the Mighty “I”
A
deckie’s life on the Ingham basically revolved around two things: standing
watches, and painting. I figure I slung enough paint while I was there to
personally repaint the ship two or three times, stem to stern.
An exaggeration? Not by much. One warm day I and another SA worked from
the camels next to the pier, and also from a floating stage to repaint 3/4 of
the hull all by ourselves. We even had food and drink passed down to us as it
was easier than going back aboard.
Once,
‘cause I exhibited an artistic flair, I got stuck with the job of making big
stencils for the CG shield on the racing stripes, then sitting in a bosun’s
chair painting the damn things.
Ever
tried painting in snow? Virginia doesn’t get a whole lot of the white stuff,
but when it does, it DON’T mess around. A few of us were down on the camels
trying to roll out a coat of white on the hull when the snow began. And it kept
right on coming. My chief, BMC Dan Munroe, says “ keep on painting.” Well,
even he had to admit enough was enough when the paint tray had enough snow in it
that the roller froze up solid.
Then
there was the time we were going to the Azalea Festival. Just back from patrol,
rust leaking everywhere down the white paint, and we have one week to make her
pretty again. No time to chip, wire brush, or needle gun, then blue death, red
lead, and top coat. Chip and wire brush the very worst, slap paint on the rest
of it. ALL of it. Egads.
And
I almost forgot the time we chipped a hole in the ship. Yup, you heard me right.
Working from the camels (again) on the starboard side we chipped a hole right
through the hull. It was located inside a DC locker, right where the deck and
bulkhead (hull) came together. A little cut and weld by the DC’s and we kept
on painting.
Watches
were very neat sometimes, especially to a 17 year old kid who’s been nowhere
before now. Standing up on the flying bridge in all kinds of weather, sometimes
eating salt spray from the bow, was a kick in the shorts. Fog watch, though, was
the absolute pits. Nothing to see but gray from up there, constantly walking a
beat around the QM shack so you don’t miss anything. And the fog horn.
(EXPLETIVE!!!). Fortunately, you got a half second warning hiss as the horn came
up to pressure before sounding. Time
your walking wrong and you’d end up directly in front of it when it goes off.
Rattle the fillings in your teeth it did.
Helm watch was a bear in stormy weather. Constantly throwing that big wooden rimmed brass wheel around trying to stay on course. Sometimes it was hard rudders all watch, just trying to stay “close” to the course. By the end of it, you were definitely ready for chow and some sack time.
Underway
is the Only Way (my aching arse!)
The
North Atlantic, up around Martha’s Vineyard, George’s Banks, and Nova
Scotia, can be beautiful in the extreme. I had my first taste of “smooth
sailing” up there, the sea flat as glass and visibility to forever. That was
also where I saw my first “green flash” as the sun set below the edge of the
world. But a lot of the time the North Atlantic was just flat out nasty.
Fortunately,
the Ingham was a good ride most of the time. She’d lay over easy, then up to
vertical, and over the other way. A roll
you could time to a nicety when walking the decks, green plastic coffee cup in
hand. But sometimes, well, it got really interesting.
My
pit was in the portside forward berthing area, bottom bunk of the freestanding
ones in the middle of the compartment. One night, seas are running really high,
and we’re making just enough turns on the screws to keep her bow-on to the
waves. You’d feel the THUMP as we stuffed the bow under, then the shuddering
as she came back up. Not so bad until they piped “prepare to come about”
That
one wave must have caught us square on the beam. Ingham rolled hard and fast to
starboard, catching more than a couple folk by surprise. One of those was a cook
whose pit I could see from between my braced legs. He was propelled out of his
pit and into the bulkhead, followed by a CO2 extinguisher that had come off its
stanchion. He was OK, if shaken a bit. I went after that extinguisher
before the valve got snapped off and it became a missile.
I
corralled the extinguisher and crawled over to the stanchion with it. Managed to
get the valve on the hook just as
Ingham rolled again. I’m hanging on to the stanchion with my left hand, trying
to keep the extinguisher from coming off again with my right. Took a couple
tries to get the restraining cable clipped in properly again. Gets MY vote for
an E ticket ride!
Smallboat
ops and boarding parties are part of the game. Well, on one patrol we managed to
break the hulls on BOTH smallboats. We’d had them rigged out and fendered so
we didn’t have to keep playing with those damned hand-cranked davits. Turned
out to be a bad idea. Between thumping against the hull when rigged out and
during launch/retrieval both boats developed leaks. We patched them up, but two
weeks into the patrol we were screwed. Both had long cracks and damage that only time in the shop at Portsmouth was going to fix. We went home
early.
Speaking
of those davits.... We’d had a request for a medevac from a fishing boat,
Polish I think. One of the crew had taken a header and was in a bad way. So, we
get the portside smallboat rigged out and ready for launch. I happen to glance
past the aircastle and here comes the fishing boat, its big black hull about
THIRTY FEET off the port bow and coming on. The bosun 1st is yelling ,”GET IT
IN! GET IT IN!”, and working in relay we set a new world’s record for
cranking in a smallboat davit. What the skipper of the fishing boat was thinking
we’ll never know.
And
then there were the Russians. I hated ‘em at the time, but now I can just feel
sorry for them. Small fleets of ill-kempt, nasty smelling rust-buckets, along
with their processing ships which stank even worse, and the ubiquitous
“minder” ship, a spy trawler or tug. Ohhhh yeahhhhh .... watching them
watching us watching them. Peeping out ol’ Ivan through the binocs and giving
him the one finger salute, and getting a suitable reply back.
One
morning I’m standing on the starboard bridge wing when GM1 Dudley ambles over
to share a smoke and shoot the breeze. I point out the “tug” off our
starboard side, with its small forest of antennas on the wheelhouse and mast. I
also pointed out the suspicious “thing” atop the after mast wrapped in a
tarp. We figured it was either a 12.7mm machine gun or a 20mm cannon.
Guess they didn’t want any of their comrades getting the idea of
running for it. Just fun and games in the North Atlantic, Cold War style.
Search
and Rescue
Some
of this part is a little blurry, so anybody else that was there during this time
can correct me if they want. After the first couple of patrols they all kind of
ran together in my mind. One in particular does stand out, though. Nasty
weather, working port & starboard for a week, and 7 SAR calls in 7 days.
For
those of you that never had the “pleasure” of working port & starboard
let me tell you........it SUCKS! The main impression I retain of that week is
one of great fatigue. At the end of that week, right after breakfast, port &
starboard was cancelled, and deck force got the day off except for watchstanders.
Myself, and two other young fools, ended up passed out on the fantail until
someone came around, kicked us awake, and sent us to our pits.
I
don’t remember what all of the SAR calls were during that time, but I do
remember one very clearly. Seas were rough, but not horrible, typical North
Atlantic. The radio room reported picking up the signal from an EPIRB, so we get
dispatched to find it. Back and forth across a small section of ocean until we
spot it. No debris or survivors, just the orange beacon bobbing in the waves. We
put over the cargo net and SN John DeBaun (or was it BM3 Varner?) in his dry
suit tries to snag it while clinging to the net. I think he finally had to swim
out and get it. Anyway, we get the thing aboard and call in the serial number.
Turns out it had washed overboard during the storm from a fisherman. The boat
itself was safe.
The
rest of the week was more of the same. Every day a SAR call. Can’t remember if
that was the patrol with the Spanish fishing boat or not. This fisherman had
bumped its nose rather hard against a tanker during the night. When we saw it
there was a good 10 feet or so of the bow mashed flat, and two injured from
falls during the collision. We got them heloed back to shore.
And
then there was the NOAA buoy. Got the call that a weather buoy had snapped its
anchor chain and was drifting loose. Our orders were to find it, and sink it
before someone ran it over in the dark. No little buoy this one. A red floating
platform, maybe 20 feet across, with a mast and antennas on it.
We
pull up about 100 yards from it and the GM’s unlimber one of the 20mm’s from
the armory. BOW BOW BOW BOW BOW BOW
BOW!!!!! Kinda pretty watching those tracers skip off the water and disappear in
the distance...... Did we sink it? Hell no! Couldn’t get the rounds to hit low
enough to pop the flotation chambers. If you ask me a couple BL&P’s from
the 5" would have done it nicely, but who asks a deckie’s opinion? We
ended up towing the thing back to Portsmouth where it sat tied to the pier for
awhile. The last I saw of it was in the buoy graveyard on the base.
The
other truly memorable SAR came right at the end of a patrol. If I remember right
we were close to the mouth of Chesapeake Bay when we were told to turn around.
An HH-52 had gone down at sea. The crew had already been rescued, but we had to
babysit this bird until it could be picked up.
When
we get there we find the helo is being kept afloat with flotation collars. For
those of you that don’t know the HH-52, when new, it was amphibious. Over
time, and lots of air hours they slowly became leaky, and if you put one down on
water it would turn turtle and sink.
So
there we are, cutting lazy doughnuts in the ocean through that day and night,
placing bets on when this thing would swamp and sink so we could go home. Even
had more than one person volunteer to swim over and give it a little help on its
way.
Finally
a Sikorsky Skycrane comes out to airlift the wreck back to shore. An impressive
bird, the Skycrane. Looks like a dragonfly on super steroids hovering there on
those huge rotor blades.
John
Boy goes over to the downed helo and climbs on top to hook up the cable to the
salvage ring on the rotor hub. He’s miserable, getting hammered by the
propwash from the skycrane, and trying not to fall off. It takes maybe twenty
minutes before he can hook up and clear off.
The
Sikorsky takes the strain, rotor blades arcing upwards as the weight comes on. A
cheer goes up as the HH-52 clears the water and starts toward shore. But.......
we can’t go home yet. The Sikorsky hits bingo fuel well clear of shore and has
to drop the 52 back in the water. Dammit! More lazy doughnuts in the ocean. Next
day the Sikorsky is back, hooks up no trouble, and hauls the bent bird ashore.
Hooray! Now let’s get in to port. I NEED A BEER!
Now
don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t ALL bad. Sometimes the weather got so rough we
couldn’t do boardings, so the skipper would point us toward Cape Cod. Once
there, we’d drop the hook and wait it out, sometimes we even got in a little
fishing. But, every silver lining has its dark cloud. And on one patrol, I got a
turn in the chain locker.
Faking
down chain as it comes into the locker using the grab hooks is one of the worst
details I have ever pulled in the Coast Guard. The chain locker is dark and
cold, the links under your feet sucking the heat right out through your boots.
Remember I mentioned Cape Cod? Well, the bottom there is a gray, stinking ooze
that smells like any beach at low tide times 100.
The
first few fathoms of chain were fine as they hadn’t been on the bottom. Then
the nasty stuff started coming in. It was everywhere, and it got to the point
where my hands were so slimy I couldn’t use the grab iron any more. Wrestling
all those heavy links by hand just got me covered in gunk. I called up to the
foc’sle to see if they could clean this crap off before sending it down to us.
The answer came back, “We ARE hosing it off!”. Jeez. You know those
lightweight jackets we were issued in boot for spring and fall? Mine was so
covered in that stinking goo that there was NO way I was putting that in with my
laundry. I wadded it up and threw it in the trash. My shirt and pants got
stripped off, thrown in the shower, and at least rinsed a bit.
Snapshots
and Good Times
Here’s
a few bits and pieces I recall from back then, of no particular importance other
than that I was there
The
night I had quarterdeck watch and Taney was coming in to the pier deadstick. I
ran through the ship banging doors and making noise trying to get everyone up
& out should Taney hit us. They did. Not hard, but they got us. Wasn’t the
first time Taney had broken down, but I won’t go there.
The
day that Mohican’s engine room caught fire at the pier. Helping to lug P-250
pumps off the Ingham should they be needed at the Mo. Looking at the stern of
Mohican the next day, paint all burnt and peeling
down to the waterline.
The
time I goofed and didn’t secure the painter on the floating stage correctly.
Made the grab too late and off it went. Had to launch Ing2 to get it back. Oops
Driving
in the snow with Ben Crowell in his van. Pulling people out of ditches, and
cutting lots of doughnuts. Virginians don’t know NUTHIN about driving in snow.
Streaking
while underway. <grin> Yup, armed only with watch cap and a pair of socks
to keep the teak splinters out of my feet I streaked the deck of Ingham one
night . One full turn about the deck from the port aircastle, round the fantail,
up the starboard side to the bow, past the 5" mount, and back to the hatch.
And of course those arseholes wouldn’t let me back in!
Learning
what the “purple dick” is. I still laugh about that one.
The
first time I saw dolphins playing in the bow wave.
The
first time I saw a whale spouting.
The
phosphorescent wake we’d trail behind us at night.
Water
so clear and blue that you could lean over the aft rail and watch the screws
turning.
And
finally, my departure. Tradition had it that a deckie who was departing the ship
gets chucked off the bow at the pier. Varner, John Boy, Bumpy, et al., thanks
for the sendoff to ET school! I miss you guys.
R.
L. Schmidt became an ET2 before he was discharged from the Coast Guard