USS Parche, 1983, First underway, provisionally qualified…

So there I was in 1983 as a Petty Officer 3^rd Class.  Part of the crew that had reported onboard after the boat returned from the ’82 mission and were provisionally qualified underway watches, that is qualified on paper and never have truly operated the systems underway for real.

I found myself on the Maneuvering Watch (getting the boat into and out of port) as a line handler on Line 3, which is immediately aft of the sail.  The guys in This Video are going up the Forward Escape Trunk and are working Line 3 as the USS Columbia (I’ve worked on that boat Several Times) pulls into Yokosuka, Japan.  After the Maneuvering Watch was secured, I took over the Helm.  All of us rotated through the helm to help lose the provisionally qualified status (still had to drive submerged).  After getting relieved as Helm, I suited up and went to the bridge as Lookout.

When I got to the bridge, we were just approaching the Golden Gate Bridge.  The OOD (Officer Of The Deck) pass the order to “Rig Ship For The Shoals”, which among other things; place the Fairwater Planes in full rise.

Little Know Fact: When leaving Mare Island Naval Shipyard, we had to time our exit of the Napa River mouth at San Pablo Bay at maximum high tide which resulted in maximum ebb (going out) currents at the Golden Gate Bridge. With the currents at the Golden Gate equal to or exceeding 5 knots (kts), and with us going 10 kts through the water our speed over ground could be 15 kts (outbound) or 5 kts inbound).  Speed Through The Water Does Not Equal Speed The Over Ground.

So there I am, in the Lookout Pooka (a Hawaiian word meaning hole or opening, and every boat, Pearl,  West, or East Coast calls it a Lookout Pooka), which is an opening about 2’ X 2’ monitoring the traffic.  We had just passed the Golden Gate and were almost at the Potato Patch Shoals.  I Think I was looking aft at approaching traffic, when the OOD yelled “WAVE”!  As he said this, we were passing a small pleasure craft on our starboard side, so I waved.

And got nailed by a wave that broke over our sail.  I think we were actually submerged for about 5 seconds.  Just as a point of reference, the top of our sail was 20’ above topside, which was running about 1’ – 3’ above the water line.  On other Underways on USS Parche and other boats pulling into the Bay Area, I’ve actually heard the Head Valve Cycle and when the Snorkel Mast is fully raised, it’s another 17’ higher or about 30’ above the waterline.  We’re taking 30’ – 40’ waves.

The Head Valve is a simple Clapper Type Valve (think of the valve in your toilets water tank) that is controlled by two electrodes that control a valve that opens and shuts the head valve.  The purpose is to prevent ingesting water into the ship’s ventilation system and destroying the Low Pressure (LP) Blower, the Emergency Diesel Generator (EDG) or the Main Induction Fans, Fan 1 and Fan 2.

The LP Blower is used to perform a LP blow of the Main Ballast Tanks on the surface, which blows out residual water or changing the atmosphere of the boat out at a rate higher than the Main Induction Fans, but less than the EDG, and can be started and stopped by one switch (sort of) at the Ballast Control Panel (BCP, a panel that controls the movement of variable ballast, mast and antennas (minus the periscopes), various critical ship systems, and monitors most of the ships systems and hull openings) in Control. 

The EDG is just that.  Need emergency power (say, for a Reactor Scram), just crank up the EDG.  Not as easy as starting a truck engine.  Takes a lot of man power to align the systems, start the engine and keep it running.  As for ventilation, it will change the air out in the boat about twice as fast as the LP Blower, which is about twice as fast as Fans 1/2.

When I was relieved by the on-coming lookout watch, I made it below and was soak/wet as hell.  I found out that the “other” part of “Rig Ship For The Shoals” was to shut the Lower Bridge Trunk Hatch.  The rational was that if we did submerge for a minute or two, we only lose the bridge crew and we don’t threaten the rest of the crew or risk of damaging the equipment.  This trick helped me out on USS Gurnard and USS Asheville while conducting a BSPs (Brief Stop for Personnel) while on Gurnard and during a typhoon on the Asheville..

Welcome to the Submarine Force!!!