Rainlockers were designed by an undertaker who buried Munchkins, or some bastard who turned out phone booths for the relatives of Snow White's dwarfs! You had to Vaseline your butt to turn around in one of the sons-a-bitches!! Water squirted in your ear at the rate of a blue jay taking a pee and the Boiler Techs in the Engine Room who made the freshwater, would threaten to kill you and all your unborn children if you took more than sixty seconds to satisfy your immediate personal hygiene needs!!!
This was just enough to satisfy the sizable mildew crop in our sour towels!!!
When making fresh water, the evaps produced heat at twice that of Dante's inferno, which in turn produced hot, sweaty, foul smelling Crackerjacks! The ugly bastards down in the Engine Room kept watch on the use of fresh water tighter than parents keeping an eye on their seventeen-year-old daughter's virginity!! You could take a quick 'douche-down'… A birdbath for armpits, face, and that was about it!! Going without regular showers was one of the rough adjustments you had to make in the ol’ Canoe Club!!!
-Bob Armstrong
-Bob Armstrong
Glad all my ships were new, never had water hours and always plenty o' water for anything we, the crew needed.
ReplyDeleteOh my God, sounds rough. https://youtu.be/fn8khDO2XLA
ReplyDeleteBT's making water? On Missouri the fresh air snipes, machinist mates (MMs) could make up to 100K gallons per day. And woe be to me, A Division Officer, if we needed water hours!
ReplyDeleteBT's making water? On Missouri the fresh air snipes, machinist mates (MMs) could make up to 100K gallons per day. And woe be to me, A Division Officer, if we needed water hours!
ReplyDeleteSnipes always had a shower even on water hours...rigged a garden hose right off the side of the evap and took a holiday shower. The rest of the crew could never understand why the snipes smelled so good on water hours.
ReplyDeleteOnly a Snipe would think that other snipes smelled good lol
DeleteYou had FRESH water !
ReplyDeleteI was a stewburner. I got all the showers I needed.
ReplyDeleteI was in the shower one of those ones with the hand held shower nozzle which was like spray painting yourself with water, I soaped myself up really good then they called GQ and turned off the water! Had to get out of the shower wipe the soap off my body with a towel and then proceed to CIC to my GQ station for 4 uncomfortable hours. Then I had a allergic reaction to the soap and was miserable for about 2 weeks afterwards!
ReplyDeleteYeah, Tarawa's showers were like that, too (except the water pressure was a little better.) But, speaking from an SH's point of view, I knew better than to get on the bad side of A-Gang, since it was your friendly EN who saw not only to our freshwater (so everyone could have clean clothes) but maintained the machines, too!
ReplyDeleteHad water rats once in the IO on the Big E as we were Engineering well you get the meaning glad I wasnt an airdale LOL
ReplyDeleteAs a career EN, every time the ship went on water hours we did too. What I really hated about the rainlockers was the POS water heaters scattered about the ship. The thermostatic valve that controlled them would always fail into the "let's make steam" mode and they failed all too often. And if parts were needed, the supply was always "parts not available".
ReplyDeleteI will admit I still have a water key in my toolbox, Little t-handle with a square nut that fit the water valve. When we would go on water hours the snipes would close all the valve's in berthing. I served on cv-67 Big John and FFG-39 The Beast of the Fleet.
ReplyDeleteThank you for all the sea stories, I was also lucky enough to Earn my Shellback. Fairwinds and Following Seas Shipmates.
Even a CVN could be reduced to water hours, when they needed it all for catapult steam and washing planes :(
ReplyDelete