From: Patrick V Kauffold <cga66@ihlpy.att.com>
Subject: Re: Liva aboard a tall ship?
Organization: AT&T
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 20:46:58 GMT


From Patrick V Kauffold <cga66@ihlpy.att.com>




From Patrick V Kauffold <cga66@ihlpy.att.com>

I made four cruises on the USCGC Eagle, 1962, 63, 64, and 65.
Cruises went to Europe, Caribbean, and Pacific coast.

In those days, the cadets slept in two amidships berthing com-
partments which also served as mess deck, rec deck, and class-
rooms.  Underclass cadets (fresh/soph) slept in canvas hammocks
slung from hooks on the overhead -- a bit tricky at first, but
very comfortable.  Hammocks went into bins during daytime working
hours.  Upperclass cadets (jr/sr) had regular "racks". Cadets
had one standard locker; everything else went in the seabag
locker.  Officers had staterooms.

I think the accommodations have been improved, partly due to
general enlightenment, and partly due to the presence of
female cadets.  I don't think the hammocks are in use any
more.
Food was great.  We always had very good cooks and commissary
NCOs.  One good job as an underclassman was to work with
the baker; you would start at about 0000, work until about
0600, then off until noon, bake again in the afternoon.  The
benefits were eating your fill of fresh bread and sweet rolls
as they came out of the oven, plus slipping a few to your
buddies.

A training cruise would have two year groups; freshmen (SWABs)
to do the jobs of non-rated enlisted men, and second-class
cadets to do the jobs of officers and petty officers.  The 
other arrangement was with third-class (soph) and first-class
(sr) in the same jobs as the other setup, respectively.

Accommodations were somewhat primitive. The Eagle was built in
the 1930's (ex-German Horst Wessel) and still had a lot of 
original equipment which was constantly in need of repair.
The main engine was "open lubrication," meaning that oilers
spent an entire watch running around with oil cans squirting
oil onto the bearings and timing gear.  We had an old Junkers
free-piston air compressor (HP) which worked pretty well, but 
make a hell of a racket when lit off.

To make things exciting, the electrical system was DC, and had
a manual control board (the "idiot board").  

Watches were on a 4-and-8 rotation, and everybody worked a full
day. With a lot of people aboard (training mission), there was
a lot of "busy-work" -- we usually painted the entire ship, in-
side and out, two or three times in the course of a cruise.
Decks were teak, and were washed daily, plus holystoned and 
bleached once or twice per cruise.

We worked aloft without any safety belts (they use them now).
The rule was "one hand for yourself, and one for the ship."
It was an upperclass privilege to be allowed to slide down the 
backstays (very salty). Setting/furling sails and manuevering
under sail were all-hands evolutions.  No power equipment, all
done by hand.

The Eegle was great under sail, very stable, very quiet.

Most of the REALLY funny anecdotes involve things which are either
illegal or immoral, and happened on the beach, and were
very non-military. Use your imagination.

One source of amusement was to test the main lube oil pressure
alarm on the midwatch.  This was an extremely loud siren, which
would usually bring the EO dashing down the engineroom ladder
at 0200 in a mild state of panic. "Just testing, sir!" 

Officers staterooms sinks drained into a holding tank in the
engineroom.  This thing had to be "blown" during each watch,
by (a) securing the drain from the staterooms (b) putting
air pressure on the tank, (c) opening the discharge valve
and the air pressure would blow all the **** overboard.
At least once or twice a cruise, somebody would screw up, and
open the DRAIN valve instead of the DISCHARGE valve, which
would blow a good part of the **** back up into officers
country.  This was always amusing.


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