Navy Stories 9: The Deck Division

September 30th, 2009 by Ben Moreno

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So, after completing the necessary procedures to check in I went to my first morning quarters.  Quarters is the term used for role call in the U.S. Navy.  We all line up and someone calls out the names of each person.  Once everyone is accounted for we, discuss what we will be doing for the day.  If you are late one minute you are considered UA (Unauthorized Absence) and could face captains mass.  If you are late 1 day it is the same punishment.  This will come into play later on in the series when I reveal some of my dirt about some bad things I did when I was in.

When the ship is in port we usually work like a regular 8-5 job.  However, each person is assigned to a duty section and is required to stay on board the ship for a 24 hour period to perform a variety of necessary job functions.  So, the more duty sections there are, the less often you will have to stand duty.  On duty days you are required to stand watches and provide security for the ship.

The purpose is so that the ship is never left unattended and on duty days we did a lot of training to be prepared for any situation that might arise, such as sneak attacks, fires, security drills and more.  Every Navy ship will have people on board it from the day it is commissioned to the day it is decommissioned.  Quite an amazing thing in my opinion.

So now on to the deck division.  This division is responsible for a wide array of elements.  It has one of the most diverse jobs in the Navy.  One of the main things we learned how to do well is teamwork.  Almost everything we did required teamwork.  As a Boatswainsmate in the Navy I got to indulge in the following  jobs:

Shipboard Preservation

Shipboard preservation is the art of keeping a giant metal object that is sitting in salt water from rusting out.  Steel does not do too well with salt and water.  It creates rust very quickly which means weakening the integrity of the ship’s hull and bulkheads.  We were constantly on a battle to keep the rust at bay.  The ship is very large and there is a lot of area to keep on eye on.  So painting, chipping rust and cleaning were a constant in our lives.

I became a really good painter.  I could cut lines free hand like it was no body’s business and I could cover a lot of area very quickly with rollers.  I once painted almost one entire side of the ship all by myself in just under an hour.  We were pressed for time and I didn’t want to slow us down by managing people to do it.  So instead I just knocked it out with one roller and a couple of extensions.

Rigging

All over the various weather decks of the ship were various tackle, chains, ropes, turnbuckles, etc.  They were used for various things such as tying down small boats, anchors and more.  We were required to know how to keep everything secure using all the types of rigging available.

It gets pretty rough out there in the ocean and the ship gets tossed around a lot.  So it was very important to make sure things were secured to the deck so we wouldn’t lose them out to sea.

Anchoring

Anchoring the ship was always a very exciting but very dangerous operation.  The anchor chain and anchor were very heavy and if not secured properly could end up being disastrous.  If we are pressed for time we can drop the anchor and let it free fall to get anchored quickly however, if not careful and you drop the anchor in too deep of water you could lose the anchor.

Like everything else we were required to maintain the health of the anchor and chain by chipping, sanding and painting it often.  We once dragged the whole anchor chain out onto a barge and refurbished the entire chain.  Let me tell you how NOT fun that was.  It was a long and tedious job.  Glad I never have to do that again.

Sometimes, like many times in the Navy, you get to do some very adventurous and dangerous tasks.  For example, I once had to go out on the bow during a big storm and tighten down the anchor chain stops.  The water was very rough so the ship was getting tossed all around and the wind was blowing really hard and it was pouring rain.  So I put on a harness and shackled myself to the rails and other objects and literally had to crawl and climb up the bow to get to the anchor and tighten the stops down.

I always volunteered for jobs like that because it was exciting and dangerous and fun.

Mooring

Mooring is the art of using giant lines to tie the ship to the dock when we went into port.  It is just like how you tie your fishing boat to the dock but on a much larger scale.  The lines were wrapped around a mechanical winch called a capstan and pulled tight to keep the ship next to the pier.  Then once the ship was into position we tied the lines down onto things called bits.

Imagine a multi-billion dollar war machine just drifting away freely out to sea.  So, basically mooring was pretty important.  It was also dangerous.  If one of the lines were pulled too tight and snapped, the snap back could easily dismember or kill someone.  They showed us some videos of this happening to help sink safety into our head.

Towing

You guessed it.  Sometimes we would have to tow other ships that were broken down back to port, etc.  This required the deck division to use special rigging to achieve this task.  I was only able to see this happen once in my 3 years on board the old O’ Bannon, but it was pretty interesting.

Underway Replenishment

This was by far my favorite duty in the deck division.  Underway replenishment is an amazing feat.  To be able to refuel a giant ship while out at sea and moving just blew me away.  Not just the idea itself but the technical process of doing it is what amazed me.  In fact I loved it so much that I ended up being the leader of the whole operation.  The leader of an unrep can even boss officers around.

The whole thing starts with a small rope we call a shot line.  One of the gunner’s mates will shoot a ball connected to the line across from the fueling ship to our ship.  The shot line is connected to a slightly larger line called the messenger.   This line is connected to a metal cable which is connected to the actual refueling hose.  Once we get the cable we attached it to a refueling station.  The fueling ship will then put tension on the cable to make a nice path for the hose to be pulled across to our ship.

Once we start pulling the hose across the cable we have to run with the line to slam the hose into place.  Once this happens we begin refueling and then break away when the fueling is complete.  Keep in mind this is all done while both ships are moving.  It is amazing!

Check out this article I found which shows the details of how an unrep works.  I did probably over 20 unreps in my 3 years on the ship and loved every moment of it.

Small Boats

Being a boatswains mate gives you the opportunity to drive small boats during your time in the Navy.  Once you get coxswains training you will get the opportunity to drive small boats.  My ship was equipped with a rib boat and a captains barge.  When we ported in other places we sometimes had to shuttle people to and from land using the RIB boat.  I always enjoyed driving small boats.  One time I got to just cruise in the RIB around the coast of Puerto Rico for a few hours.  It was a nice taste of paradise.

Small boats were also used to rescue people during man overboard emergencies.  We trained for this often.  Once we trained for it during a storm out to sea.  It was a nice real life test to show us just how difficult it would be to rescue someone who falls over board during a storm.

Standing Watches

This job overall sucked in my opinion.  Standing watch was one of the things I hated the most in the Navy.  It seriously does not fit my personality at all.  To stand in once place for 4-12 hours at a time just drove me crazy.  As a seamen I stood many many hours of lookout.  Lookout watch is when you stand on the bridge wing and look out for contacts with binoculars and communicate to the bridge what you see.  No doubt an important watch but it was boring and uneventful.

Bridge watches such as helmsmen were quite interesting.  Helmsmen is when you drive the actual ship.  Now this can be quite an experience.  Sometimes you get to go really fast and turn wildly during drills, and other times you just sit there and cruise at 5mph for 4 hours.  It really depended on what was happening at the time.  I became quite good at both helmsman and lookout after the first year.

Once I became a Boatswains mate I was able to perform some different job functions such as manning the 1MC.  Manning the 1MC means you are in charge of the ship’s main loud speaker system which we use to communicate to all of the crew.  We used to blow a special whistle called a boatswains pipe before announcements.  Check out some samples here of what it sounds like.

There were other watches we stood such as peer sentry and reflash watch and more.  Peer sentry is basically you guarding the peir and checking id’s for people who are coming and going to and from ships.  In all my hours of watch I never had to draw my 9mm and shoot anyone.  Too bad, I always hoped some moron would try something stupid so I had a reason to shoot him and make the watcvh much more fun.  Hey, at least I admit it lol.

Re-flash watch is what you stand after a fire was extinguished.  You were watching to make sure the fire does startup again and is really out.  Boring.

Other Duties

Boatswains mates probably have the most dynamics in their duties than any other job in the Navy.  We handled a lot of things and worked very hard.  Yet we were only one part of a very large team of people who all have important duties.  The ship required all of the teams to function properly.  Even though we used to always talk trash on each about our jobs and make fun of each other we all knew that when the shit hit the fan we worked together or we would fail.

To get into the deck division in the Navy is simple.  You only need a minimum score on the Navy entrance exam to qualify.  Of course that does not reflect on who you are as a person or how smart you are.  Let me tell you, I met some of the smartest people I have ever met in deck division and also some of the dumbest.  It really depends on where you are at and who you meet.

Being a boatswains mate has a label of being lower than other jobs because of the amount of labor you do and many parts of the job can be tedious and boring.  However, I thought overall it was a great job and was fulfilling often times.  Of course it all depends on the person.

In the next episode I will introduce you to some of the characters of this whole Navy life experience.

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Tags: deck division jobs, first division, helmsman, mooring, navy boatswains mate jobs, navy jobs, RIB boat, rigging, standing watches, towing, unreps

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 at 11:47 am and is filed under Navy Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.