In this episode we're getting down into the details and talking about lockers! To support the battleship's efforts to drydock, go to: 63691.blackbau... For the most recent updates to the project, go to: www.battleship...
My first engineering job in 1973 was at a small company that got a contract for building 40,000 of those new lockers in which you could hang stuff. The were needed because Admiral Zumwalt had changed the Navy's traditional dress uniform, which was designed to be rolled up, to a "Bus Driver" type outfit that had to be hung up. It wasn't just for civilian clothes. That contract kept the company goingr long enough for me to get to another job before it folded. Thanks, Zumwalt! Too bad they named such an awful ship after you.
Shipboard storage for the “new” uniforms was one of the biggest gripes I remember from the sailors who rotated through our shore installation. Storage and the expense.
Country music star Barbara Mandrell's husband was a naval aviator. I once heard a story (which I can't find mention of online now) that she jokingly requested permission from the Navy to accompany her husband on a cruise. The Navy responded that spouses weren't allowed due to space restrictions. To that she pointed out that he was allowed to take along "recreational equipment".
Digital media has been revolutionary with this. You can have one hard drive the size of a pack of cigarettes with thousands of family photos, home movies, legally downloaded music, and backed up DVDs. Whereas in the past, you'd have to try and cram those physical objects into a locker.
@@EmrysImmortal I have a 12TB portable hard drive I bought at Walmart. Yes, 12TB I'll never be able to fill but I can sure take a _lot_ of stuff with me.
With 26 years in the Navy, I had it all. Canvas Racks and 3x3 lockers to coffin lockers and the hanging lockers for our Salt & Pepper uniforms. Chief's quarters were a huge improvement in storage space and bunk comfort and that was on a Perry Class Flite one. The Chief's Quarters on NJ must be a treat for the Chiefs..
I was a Sea Bee and we had footlockers and some metal lockers. We didn't actually need much. But there is and was always another reason for limiting personal space and possessions and that was maintaining class distinctions and preventing envy and thievery and thus disturbances to discipline and order. And, by the way, the primary use of Marines on ships was control of the crew, by force, if necessary. That is the root of the rivalry between the Grunts and the Squids.
they are not called coffin racks because they are closed on 5 of 6 sides. they are called coffin racks because the storage area opens like a coffin. on most ships, if you have a coffin rack , you also get 1 tall skinny locker, if you have a top rack (many top racks are not coffin racks), you get 1 tall skinny locker, and 1 square locker to store all your junk.
I was on two aircraft carriers and on both my division bought some additional stand-up lockers so we could have more storage. Mostly for hanging items and other things we didn't use often (peacoat, raincoat) and for items we acquired while deployed. On one ship we were able to locate all or most of the extra lockers in our berthing by moving the preinstalled Navy's standing lockers. I think a couple might have been in a fan room we were responsible for. On the other ship we had them scattered amongst our various equipments spaces. I think in that case it was usually two people to each of those lockers. It was nice having the extra space especially in the time when physical media (CDs, books, etc...) took up a fair amount of space and you still had to have all of your required seabag items. Then try to find space for your civilian clothes. Personally, I always had too much stuff. Which was really fun when transferring on/off a ship during a deployment. Two seabags and and a garment bag worth of stuff is fun to schlep around airfields and up and down ship ladders. At least at that time airlines were cool enough to not charge me for my bags being over 50 pounds. 😀
Ponce had very similar racks to what you showed. The issue we had is, while sailors got more space with the coffin racks, we also got more uniforms! Dress Blues, Dress Whites, Working blues, Working whites, Utilities x 4, Coveralls x 2, Peacoat, Overcoat, Utility Jacket. No way to fit all of that mess in a coffin rack and one narrow locker. We kept one dress uniform, utilities, coveralls, and one set of civies in our lockers and racks. Everything else was stuffed into your Sea Bag and thrown into a storage locker.
I think it was a totally different mindset in WWII regarding personal space. My grandfather served aboard a heavy cruiser in WWII. He never mentioned anything about personal stowage space. What stuck in his mind about everyday life aboard ship was the quality of the chow. He often said that the only meals he missed while serving in WWII were when he was on shore leave. He said the chow wasn't always the best, but it was always edible, and there was always plenty of it.
All we had on the wooden hulled minesweeper was a small square locker with and aluminium venhted door. Canvas stretched across the aluminium frame withna "thin" mattress. No coffin lockers. We learned to pack that locker neatly. Dress uniform, whites or blues depending on the season, was stowed between the canvas and the mattress. Turned inside out to keep the creases, kept them pretty well pressed. Fresh water was always a premium on the ship underway. Priority was the engines first (to keep those (4) Packards cool), galley second and crew third. Never any restrictions on saltwater showers though!
At least in my case on a modern ship as an ET my division owned a bunch of locked equipment spaces that our chain of command allowed use to store totes or other containers in to increase our storage space. This is an ad hoc arrangement that not everyone will get but it was a nice addition of space.
I was USAF 1981 - 1987. I had plenty of space. :). I went to the foreign language school in Monterey, CA. (washed out after 1.5 years). We had carpet and curtains. Army, Navy and Marines had tile floors and Venetian blinds. Frankly, I felt kind of guilty.
There was also the seabag locker. Generally you put your off season clothing and uniform items in your seabag and got with the Master at Arms who put it into the seabag locker for longer term storage. When I was in during the 80s, we hd coffin lockers for everyone, and everyone got a skinny hangup locker. many sailors also hung their peacoat in their workspace which freed up a lot of room in their locker. My father, who was on a destroyer during the korean war, he told me about locker clubs in San Diego. Basically they would rent out a small locker to sailors long term to keep their civilian clothing and such personal items they didn't want on the ship. When they went on liberty, they went to the locker club, changed to their party clothes, and reversed the process on the way back.
On the Hermitage we'd gotten our coffin racks from another ship that had recently been mothballed - I believe it was the Bryce Canyon. Because the Herm was an older ship (1956) we didn't always have room for all coffin lockers. Some top bunks had coffin lockers, some didn't. The top bunks that didn't have coffin lockers had the old big square lockers. Everybody had a hanging locker. BTW this was in the late '70s, when we had the "coat and tie" dress blues, and summer whites, and winter blues, all of which needed to be on hangers. The Marines still had the pipe-and-canvas bunks, IIRC they were five high, in the same identical compartments on the opposite wingwall. I don't think they had lockers at all. BTW, Ryan, when you talk about "rooms" on the ship, they are "compartments", not rooms. A "room" is a name for a specific compartment, like "radio room" is the name of the compartment where the radios are. "Hallways" are "passageways". Civilians, sheesh LOL. I really do enjoy your videos, Ryan! Keep up the great work!
I was on the USS Merrick, AKA97, 58 - 61. Our racks were pipe frames - about 6 1/2 feet by 2 1/2 feet - and the canvas 'bottom was lashed onto the frame. The racks were hung on pipe uprights on each end and there were, I think, 6 frames with only 3 being used. When we were working cargo, the spacing would be reduced to allow bunking for the grunts. We each had 1 locker - about 3 feet by 1.5 feet to store all our goodies. We were out of the Port of Long Beach and would take the necessary goods all around the Far East to our military bases. The overseas tour would be about 6 months long.
Memories flood back - years aboard various frigates as an HSL Aircrewman. Then the delight of going aboard USS Kitty Hawk and living in the Goat Locker - THEN making LDO and getting a stateroom
As a Cub Scout many years ago, we stayed overnight on the Iowa in San Pedro ca. They showed us the officer quarters first, which made us 8 year olds excited before we made our way to enlisted cabins similar to those on the New Jersey. I remember that there were other packs not being considerate and making too much noise at night. They woke us up abruptly at 0600
Accommodations while staffing for the Boy Scouts Of America vary camp to camp, but are generally a lot nicer than what campers get. Ours we had 4 person cabins with 2 bunk beds, a first pick in mattresses, electricity, usually a small communal desk and clothes rack, and insulation in the walls (a must have in northern camps). Although ive seen staff accommodations built much like a basic training bunk house with lines of bunk beds and footlockers. Campers had enclosed adriondack shelters with bunk beds, and thats all there was
That space pretty huge compared to what I had on a Tin Can! What we had was pretty similar to those 80's era locker and coffin racks. No breathing devices of any kind late 70's to mid 80's on my ship.
On HMAS Diamantina (at the Queensland Maritime Museum) when the ship was commissioned in 1945 sailors were still issued with hammocks. They had lockers for their personal items but would share the mess they were in with a number of other sailors. Each time they'd finish sleeping they would have to roll up and stow their hammocks for the next bloke to hang his
What about a sea bag locker that held larger items and heavier winter uniforms , you had access on specific times to access usually right before entering port
When I was serving on an Adams-class DDG, I would have killed for that much space. All we had was that square locker and a ditty bag that hung on your rack.
on the Wainwright Dlg28 in 69, racks were the same-no curtains but a reading light; small vertical lockers in birthing space and we had 'sea' lockers in engineering spaces for excess storage
Yeah, did Canadian cadets as a kid, we did just stay in old barracks or even mod tents at some bases, and all we had was a slightly larger locker and a barrack box. Pretty similar amount of space
I was on the USS Sphinx in 1986-7. A four stack of racks and I had second from the top with no coffin locker. My stowage was a tall locker for uniforms and a broader squarish locker for everything else. My EEBD was attached to the underside of the above rack at my feet. Thanks for the video.
The last racks you showed were what we had on the USCGC Dallas in the 70s. We called the 'Northampton Racks', because they were first installed on the USS Northampton. We never had locker inspections, and I occasionally kept a six pack in my locker.
In the theme of mundane daily life stuff, how does lunch work for sailors on duty during war time? Not necessarily in the middle of battle (lunch can wait) but when most of the crew had to be manning their posts 'just in case'. Do they have to go down to the mess deck & rush back? Feels like that would work fine on a destroyer or even a cruiser. But that can be a long walk on a battleship or aircraft carrier. Are there scores of people going around with a bunch of sandwiches bringing a lunch out near the working spaces? Were there bagged lunches you could grab in the morning?
In Boot Camp I had a three drawer locker, two of which were subject to inspection. I also had a hanging locker about the size of those you showed us. I had no civvies so it was more than enough.
On the Yorktown CG48 the EEBD's were an add on, they were installed atthe top of the foot end of the rack, actually had one fly out of the box and hit me in the head while we were on Northstar 89, 3 stitches
Mid 90s had coffin racks with the drawer. The breathing devices were stored in a locker outside of the berthing. Had a shared wall locker style cabinet for hanging uniforms.
In marines we had steel racks (bed) we could hang wet items on the rack except during inspection's and we had everything else in our sea bags this was in barracks in mcas iwakuni In 79-82, they built new barracks in the mid 80's because when I redeployed in the later 80's we had regular rooms with generous lockers 2 to a room nco's got their own rooms
When I was in a youth group for troubled teens and later as an assistant counselor everything was in your pack, each trip depending on age and build would determine how the gear for spending two - three weeks in the wilderness would be divided up, at that time I would never have made it in the military, I had a huge problem with authority figures.
Regarding CCTV: My uncle was on the Big E when it was deployed on short notice to the middle east. They had a CCTV channel that showed the ship's position, speed, and a view of the flight deck. They always turned it off during combat maneuvers. Well, they forgot to turn it off for a hour or so. Loose lips sink ships, but, needless to say she was a fast ship.
From a middle rack, you risked opening your curtain to a full-on view of your shipmate's "unsecured gear" or "stern aspect". I always preferred the bottom rack.
My ship was commissioned in 1970 and it had coffin racks with curtains for the first two racks and lockers for top racks. Plenty of room for both uniforms and personal gear.
USS Kansas City (AOR-3). Mid-80's. Rack locker and a skinny stand-up locker. EEBD was at the foot of the rack bolted to the bottom of the rack above. I'm puzzled at all of the complaints that there wasn't enough room, as EVERYBODY in the USN was quite aware of the solution! If you folded everything exactly as you were taught in boot camp, the entire regulation "Seabag issue" of required uniforms would easily fit in just about half of the rack locker. If I was going to be ashore for any substantial length of time, I'd fold my sheets and blanket and stow them along with my pillow in the rack locker as well. Civvies were in the stand-up locker. As far as inspections go, there are regulations, and then there is what is deliberately ignored/overlooked during an inspection. FWIW, I never had my lockers inspected. Berthing inspections were restricted to what was out and visible. Actual locker inspections were restricted to "for cause" and were conducted by an officer and the MAA with the member present. On my ship, the "ignored" list was pretty much limited to dress uniforms between two sheets of cardboard under the mattress, a small alarm clock attached with velcro out of direct sight, a small penlight with magnet or velcro out of direct sight, and a reasonably-sized Bible or other religious book under the pillow. My clock lived inboard of the rack light, and my flashlight was magnetically attached to the back of the EEBD compartment. I'm unsure why anybody would keep contraband items in their personal locker where the culprit is obvious. If you can't figure out a good stash place on a ship, you aren't trying very hard. Personally, I kept my drinking ashore, only smoked cigarettes, and didn't take any drugs that weren't handed to me in Medical....Easier that way, and kept me from needing to look for hiding spots. For those who need the advice: The top of tall things and the bottom of low things rarely get looked at. Magnets are cheap. The interior 1MC enclosures are much larger than they need to be. Grills come off of vent ducts quickly and easily. Desk drawers have space behind them. The QD watch isn't going to dump your 12-pack of cola out if the flaps are glued and they see cola cans when they open the end. The list is endless.
I always got the top rack. So I could sit up. More airflow and my boots could sit on top of my light. I still have my camouflage rack curtains in the closet.
On my german frigate (built in 1983), we had a similar coffin bunk as the iowas, but without the drawer underneath. instead we had a square locker, like a meter by meter. In this you have to squueze all your underwear and other belongies inside. As well we had a hanging locker but we have to share it with another comrad. And we have a small locker for the valuable belongies, such passport, money, etc.
You get 1 coffin rack, and one stand up locker. The division or department also has a sea bag locker, where you can put your duffel bag(s). Most career sailors have more than 1 seabag, because having emergency underwear/socks on the ship is _always_ a good idea. Depending on your job, you also might be able to bring a backpack onboard and store it in your office, which I was able to do for most of my career. You can fit quite a lot in a coffin locker, I usually had enough working uniforms to go at least 2 weeks between laundry, enough underwear for same, and at least 4 days of civilian clothes for port calls. Dress uniforms went into the stand up locker, as you didn't wear them often. Because the Navy alternates between whites and blues as the seasons change, you can put the off season uniform in the seabag locker to save space in your berthing storage. Inspections of the _contents_ of a rack are called a bunk and locker inspection, and are _not_ done on a routine basis.
I was on 2 Perry class frigates in the 80s and early 90s, racks and lockers were very similar to what you’ve shown. The racks on the frigates had a/c vents in each rack. The racks I had on USS Spruance DD 963 did not at the time I was on board. We always found various places in our workspaces to stash stuff.
I wonder how this compares to the personal space alloted to missileers in silos! From a perspective of crew considerations, they can be VERY similar to warships in many ways! More bunny slippers and sweatpants, but overall they seem alike
I was on the USS Piedmont. from 1974 to 1977 .We had the small lockers , canvas racks four high .In 1977 they were changing out to what they called sub racks.
when i was in the Air Force we started with two to a room, sharing a shower and toilet with two in an adjoining room. this was 1985. i moved out in 1986. when i was reassigned, my new base was one per room, two rooms sharing a shower and toilet. seems somewhere along the line the Air Force decided that each Airman should have 110 sq ft in a room. the rooms were 14x14 (i think) so total sq ft of the room was about 200. 40 sq ft shy of the amount needed for two people. my last room on base had a twin bed, two wall lockers that could be moved, a desk, a chair, a dresser and a night stand. i moved the wall lockers so that they opened towards the bed and made them into a wall dividing my bed area from the rest of my room. small and cramped but this way the bed wasnt the prominent item in the room.
Going into the Army in 1984 we had ' wall lockers ' .... I think they were 6 ft tall and 3.5 to 4 feet wide. The very top was a divided shelf, the main part an area for hanging uniforms, then 2 drawers in the bottom. That was basic, my 1st duty station had the same lockers, but we were 3 guys to a room, with a little area that included our own desk. I had the same thing in Korea in 87, although one platoon was in the old quonset huts with open squad bays ...
Early 70's dress-blue transition period: See USCG dress-blue. The Navy adopted this style too. It required special "P-shaped" lockers to hang suits, etc. We hated it and the Navy never really enforced it so you would see a mix of dress-blue styles. The Navy eventually eliminated it, but it appears the USCG retained it.
As you spent more time on ship , you acquired more and the thicker blue curtains and weave them up to 3 sets on the rail to keep the noise down and block more of the light, one set was just not enough
A "Coffin Rack" in NOT one that is enclosed on most sides. It is one that has the sailors storage under his bunk. You lift the top of the bunk (like a coffin lid) to get to your storage. It will also have a small pull out drawer. The other type, like in the early part of the video, will get a separate square storage locker, which is also the type we had in Boot Camp. Everyone will also get a tall thin locker for their dress uniforms.
after sailing in the canadian merchant marine, and now the canadian coast guard, i have no idea how these guys did it, and how guys still continue to do it. ill keep my own cabin, bunk, washroom, and shower any day.
ah well... I was with a naval aviation air wing, but shore based. that meant we had lots!! of space, real closets to put navy and civvy stuff in. once, we visited a squadron of fast patrol boats, to learn what the "real" navy looked like. man were we glad when we returned back to base!
Depends on the ship I guess just like barracks. If you left your lock off in basic training I tell you what 😅 we had shaving cream everywhere from the drill sergeant’s 😂
@@SerenityMae11 the crew from the Tuesday and Wednesday group has just finished up or about to, just a head of the encampment season. I am part of the sat group that volunteers, when I have a sat off.
@haljames624 that's very admirable of you. I would love to volunteer, but it's not in the cards right now. I live in Gettysburg PA (long drive each way) plus I'm averaging 55-60 hours work each week...and I'm slowly preparing to go back to school for my masters in EE. Maybe some day I'll get there 👍
HI RYAN ,, GREAT VIDEO!!! IN THE MILITARY ARMY,, WE DIDNT HAVE MUCH SPACE EITHER JUST A CLOSE TO CLOSE ARMY BUNK AND METAL BOXES IN FRONT OF THEM.. BUT IT WAS GREAT TO GO HIGHER UP (RANK) YOU GOT MORE SPACE OR YOUR OWN ROOM,,.. MY SON MAX 8 YR.S OLD SAID TO ME THERE IS WRITTING ON THE LOCKER IS THAT OK ,,I SAID ASK RYAN 2:09??? THERES NAMES TONY FM 1988 .....MORE,, GOOD EYES!!! CAN WE TALK ABOUT THIS.. HA!!! THANKS RYAN...
Put it this way- I ALWAYS locked my locker when I was living in barracks. I didn’t trust any of my fellow Soldiers with my stuff. When I visited USS MIDWAY, in the enlisted berthing, they have a recording of someone snoring.
You don't get a coffin on top (at least from the 00's on,) you get one of those WWII type lockers he showed in addition to the skinny stand-up locker he mentioned as being common from the 80's on. Noone wants top rack because you gotta climb up there and jump down in the morning. I liked being able to sit up, just make sure you move your head around the reading light when doing it.
I was on three ships in my Navy time in the 70's. One was a pre-WWII ship...It had pipe style racks, and seperate lockers, like those square ones you showed. The other two were built in the mid/late 60's. They had coffin style racks, but no separate lockers. You had to keep EVERYTHING in that coffin rack. Our standard uniform allotment was three sets of everything. By the time you loaded up the bunk locker, there wasn't much room left for more than a couuple sets of civies. EEBD's? No such thing existed on the ships I was on in the 70's. Curtains on the rack? Nope... all we had was a light on the bottom of the rack above us, for reading. Fancy locks on the coffin racks... Nope. We has basically a hasp to lock the top cover to the bottom locker. Those guys on New Jersey had lots of space, compared to what I had 10 years earlier.
I was on a WW2 Submarine Tender (AS-19) 1990-92 and besides our coffin locker and narrow upright we had extra bulk lockers outside our berthing for our Pea coats and extra civilian clothing. Not everyone on the ship had that so it was a quiet privilege.
Thanks. I always wondered where bulky items like pea coats fit. I imagine there must have been some bulk storage for winter clothing during summer as well.
@@ChloroxBanana Older ships built with the pipe and canvas racks didn't have hanging lockers, they had storage areas for pea coats. Ours was a fan room just forward of the berthing compartment and next to the ladder going down to the forward machinery room. The door tag said "Pea coat storage". By the late '79s when we all had hanging lockers, that room was mostly used for hiding in and smoking weed in. Lots of weed and other drugs on Navy ships at that time.
We had lots of space under the rack. And a very narrow 1/2 height locker. Never had an inspection of our lockers. How much space? We had to fit everything in a sea bag. So not anything extra was brought on. Might be different for others. I was assigned to an air group. We weren't ever on board more than 6 months.
I was at a boy scout jamboree at the USS Massachusetts and all we had were the old world war 2 style racks and I don't ever remember seeing any lockers or anything like that anywhere at least not in the area that they put us it was just a wide-open space with racks hanging from chains on one side and two poles on the other unless you were up against the bulkhead like I was
I used to tell people that i have been in just about every county jail in Eastern Washington. I once worked for a company that maintained/repaired the inmate phones....
well we can dicuss lockers extensively ( my lockers have shrunk even if it is 2020s, and those lockers are ok as long as Iowa are near ther equator. If Iowa goes north the outside crew need long warm coats. The obvious solution is to separate coats from sailors own gear and have them hanging somehwere else as "ship equipment". That is my guess cause they do not fit in those lockers.
well imagine you do not have a coat and you are up north .... and you are one of the inside crew and manage to jump you probably die, unless you find a suitable victim, punch their face and take their gear. ( serious but trying to joke when thinking of bad things )
I have a question ? ( not related) How does the motion picture industry get access to shoot movies on the battleships . Do the production companies have to get permission from you the museum's or do they have to get permission from the Navy even though it is an inactive ship that is no longer in the registry. Movies like under siege etc do the navy help with staffing as far as for operations especially for the guns. (I know the movie battleship a lot of that was digital edits but there are still some shots on location) ???
When shooting on a museum ship, they do not need clearance from the navy, just the museum. As museums, there isn't anything on board that the navy doesn't expect the public to see. If they fire the guns (though its usually cgi) its because the museum has permission to do so from their local law enforcement, we do it all the time. Each ship has a different contract with the navy about what they are and aren't allowed to do, but filming doesn't make a difference.
When in the field you only have a bergen (rucksack/pack) you have to live out of, but the room on Barracks is much larger. On a ship it must be horrendously cramped
I would have liked to have half the space in the walk in closet that my wife had built for herself in our home 25 years ago. That is on top of the big closets that came with our home~! PJ
The racks and storage we had on the Elliot were similar to those, but I don't remember there being any drawers. Also, those are the same privacy curtains we had.
As a part of the whole limited space thing, was theft a problem with people being this close and their belongings, apparently not being all that secure?
Boot camp... Secure that locker! Another recruit chucked my cover out the second story window , Me being young and dumb ran to recover my cover , In less time to get to ground level all the contents of said locker were deposited in the snow. Why the locker didn't follow the contents was beyond luck, The window latch got hung up with a locker shelf or it would of gone too,
I believe that 3 full sets of dungarees were issued. Laundry was taken down every other morning, and returned that afternoon. Worked out to a set on your back, a set in laundry, and a set in your locker. Ditto for whites. Dress uniform laundering was up to you. Dress Blues were dry-clean only. Most guys had a set of Dress Blues which they actually wore when required, plus a second set which only saw the light of day for an inspection.