| Left
on the Bridge During a Dive by Mike Henry, QM3(SS) |
|
When I was on the USS Raton (AGSS 270) in 1969, we
were overseas doing sea ops with the Korean Navy. I was the duty QM, so it was
my job to open the Conning Tower hatch and be the first man up when we surfaced.
A young lieutenant junior grade, "Mr. Take Her Down", was the OOD. We surfaced at full speed into the seas. Mr. Take yells "quartermaster up" and I cracked the hatch and went to the bridge, which was about half way from the top of the sail on the Rat. A wave caught the bow and the ship's momentum started the ship going back down! By this time about 3 feet of water was on the bridge and the ship was taking on water through the hatch, so the helmsman shut the hatch - with me still on the bridge. Good call by the helmsman, because otherwise the ship was going down for the last time. The ship was still going down, so I started climbing the outside ladder-rails on the sail. Another wave came over the ship, and I was under water for a moment while on my way to the top of the sail. I had to decide whether or not to let go, and decided to hold on because: (1) the ship's twin screws tended to suck everything into them; and (2) the fact that we seldom found the milk cans we threw overboard during man-overboard drills. I can still remember being on top of the sail, at sea level, with only about a foot of the sail being visible - the rest of the boat was under water. The guys in the control room later told me they were "blowing everything but the old man" trying to surface the boat. When they finally surfaced, I was still on top of the sail. I climbed down through the ladder inside of the sail. Mr. Take tried to blame the helmsman for not forwarding his "ahead 1/3" order to the maneuvering room (You're only supposed to surface at 1/3 speed), but my log verified that he never gave that order. The old man believed my story, especially when he noticed that my boondockers (remember those boots?) were sucked off when I was climbing the sail - holding on like an underwater flag. |
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