As a Retired Tin Can sailor I can assure you there are still hammocks in use, there no longer issued but in 23 years I was on 3 different Destroyer's and still have my hammock. BTW I retired in 2001. Great Job. Thanks 👍👍🇺🇸🇺🇸
Ex Diesel Boat sailor here, qualified in 1971, USS Sirago(SS485). I slept in the forward torpedo room just below the ladder from the escape trunk, middle bunk, center on the skid. This bunk was given to the junior guy in the compartment because it was the worst bunk. Always lit, center of the room, no privacy, especially when in port when the forward hatch was left open on cold nights and the crew was returning from liberty half in the bag.
X diesel dinosaur guy here 78. 93. I couldn't tie my hammock properly as a 16 year old so I slept on top of the mark 8 torpedoes. used sacks of cotton gash bags to fill the void between each fish it was cold damp and clammy sleeping in the fore ends I was told by the captain when I received my dolphins that I was the youngest ever junior seamen to qualify at 17 and 3 days a record that won't be beaten because you've got to be 18 now to join the submarine service (Royal navy). Good luck to you my fellow sun Dodger regards from the UK
Thanks for your service. I spent some time in "Barrow and Furness" sorry about the spelling, in 1972 and the crew of the HMS Churchill were our gracious hosts at "Peale Island" for to many pints. @@exsubmariner
My dad slept in a hammock on an escort carrier during WW II. I slept on a mattress on a sub tender built in 1964. We had metal bunks that opened to store your belongings. I don't remember how thick the mattress was but we covered it in a sheet and had a gray wool blanket. You could also get a second sheet to cover yourself up to prevent the blanket from itching your skin. As a rider on a SSBN for a shakedown cruise they had run out of bunks so I was setup to sleep between the aft 2 missile tubes. Great sleeping and quiet.
4 on 8 off seems like a ton of down time. You would think back then it would have been 16 on 8 off or even 12 on 8 off..... idk, i guess if you not in battle and cruising theres not much to do...
8 hours was not "down time" to those submariners in WW2. While not standing your 4 hour watch you were working on equipment, studying for quals or promotion, or many other duties. And since these boats were on war patrol they spent a great deal of time at battle stations so all hands were on duty.
Hammocks were still issued in boot camp to sailors through and past WW2. During the war, as the air threat was such a big thing that all ships and subs were getting more and more AA guns, and all of these guns needed more men to operate them. So many of these guys ended up sleeping in hammocks because they ran out of racks. Postwar, with proximity fuses and better fire direction systems, the 20 and 40mm mounts were pulled off and replaced with fewer larger caliber guns that needed fewer crew.
The green canvas/vinyl flashing cover for the mattresses look identical to the ones we used for torpedo room berthing on Tinosa in the 80's (zipper and all).
Youve got it upside down . The grids are from the springs. That is the bottom. The smooth side is the top. Also, the entire mattress would have been enclosed in a fart sack, which served as a bottom sheet. Best thing about fart sacks was you could go twice.as long with out having to wash them you could just flip the mattress over and instant clean side. Usually used in cases of inspections.
It was stored for about 50 years upside down... hence the grid scuffing from the bunk. The zipper is always on the top. And you should turn the volume up... we talk about the (absent) fart sack.
I think I remember New Jersey’s video. Ryan said the normal crew had the pipe racks & when they were really packed with people on board they’d use hammocks.
The Navy was proud that the 1930s "gold-plater" destroyers didn't have hammocks, but had upgraded to racks. Of course, once WW2 started and crews increased, hammocks re-appeared. The WW2 era plans for the USS Patterson (DD-392) even show 3 hammocks in the general workshop.
If you were in the British, or Canadian navies in WWII as enlisted men, you slept in a hammock, as did my father-in law. Once you got used to it, it was very comfortable.
The ratio for hot bunking on 688s were also typically 3:2. 3 sailors for 2 racks. The problem was knowing who was in which rack and when. Sailors would often be woken up mid sleep when it wasn't their time to stand watch by the roving watch stander.
I was in the marine corp from 75 - 80 and our blankets just had the letters US stamped in black about 4 - 6 inches in height on one end of the blanket.
My first night on a sub was on the Dogfish in 1971. We reservists from Cleveland flew to New London for our monthly weekend. I slept in the after torpedo room, come the middle of the night when I tried to turn my head I couldn't, I was too squished by the rack above me that had been lowered by another sailor so he could sleep. I had to shimmy down half the length of the rack and reverse my position so my feet went where my head had been. Tight fit to be sure. When I went on active duty my rack was usually in the 'after battery' on Broadway. Always had barracks when in port.
To be buried in a fart sack? What a way to go, One curator long & tie it up. The battle Ship Jew Jersey gets its funding from.... Just takes one 5" shell..... The Battle of New Jersey Cod.
Great video which we never see or read about in the books. I slept on some hand me down mattresses similar to this in the Montana wilderness in the 60's. They had been in the forestry camp for decades...and aired out in the summer for 6 wks/year. You had sheets but funk was hard to lose. Spent months sharing my own funk with the mattresses. My worst mattress story was visiting my sister and my wife said ' don't take your clothes off' when we went to bed. No nasty critters but we left just after daylight....
Luxurious accommodations! An awesome Airbnb destination. I do not know if there is a video on garbage. Saw in a WW2 movie the garbage was supposed to be weighted down. Is that true? The Pacific seems large.
@1648Christopher - Of course you weighted down the garbage so Tokyo Rose would not mention your sub and your sub would not be sunk in the Bungo Straits.
Actually, Paul, the proper phrase in the days of iron men and wooden ships, was "Show a leg." They mentioned this in a tour of HMS Victory. Shake a leg means to hurry up.
Regarding the old flash cover, the pattern on 'top' of it clearly shows that it had been used as the bottom adjacent to the metal springs. The 'bottom' of the cover shows no such pattern. I served aboard diesel boats in '60, '61, and '68. At that time the fart sack was provided by the boat, sailors were not issued then in those days. It was common to sleep on the fart sack, not the flash cover. The flash cover was not turned back if you were diving in for a quick snooze. The flash covers were kept closed except when you were in the skid. One of the main reasons for this was to protect the bedding from water leaks and condensation drips.
"Fart sack" in WWII US Army terminology was a thin wool sleeping bag- made of the same material as the blankets- which was basically a mummy bag with about an 18 or so long zipper, and was full head to toe, with a face opening above the zipper. They were reviled as cold in cold weather, and if you pulled the zipper all the way up, it was just as likely to jam as not when you had to exit in a hurry- be that in case of call of nature or to respond to attack. A lot of guys kept a sharp knife inside with them as an emergency escape tool... More than one GI died in his army issue fart sack. Hard to get into, hard to get out of, about the only good thing ypu could say was it was better than nothing. Almost... They were also used as sleeping bag liners- when a quilted sleeping bag was issued.
I didn't know anyone slept *inside* the flash cover. I thought everyone had linen, fartsacks, blankets, and pillows, that went on top and in the case of hotbunking, you switched it out and stowed yours away.
In the movie Down Periscope you see the crew flipping their mattress (encased in a flash cover ) on the first day on the boat. I bet that those mattresses were stored inverted to keep moisture from leaking into the flash cover along the exposed zipper. If so that is a rather amazing detail for such a whimsical movie
I think the actors were told to simulate getting things stowed aboard a sub. Having been aboard Pampanito for the filming of the movie I can say they didn't take quite that level of accuracy .
One of the reasons I enjoy visiting these old boats is the fragrance, that diesel smell is very much alive in these great vessels. You can sense what these men went through.
Not that I recall. Working in an engine room an 'oiler' would get filthy. I remember scouring my knees with Lava soap on my first shower when back in port in the barracks.
Shoot, i grew up sleeping on that kind of mattress all summer long as we traveled the country! Sheet of plywood across the back of the truck bed shell made a double wide bed with a homemade tube sheet. How does that boat stack up as a alien attack platform running close to the Missouri?
I was onboard the USS Nassau (LHA-4) in the late nineties. I can tell you, from the Nassau to what I've seen of the COD, I'd rather rack out on the COD. Hot bunking, that would be something I'd have to work through, but from what I've seen of the space, give me the submarine versus an amphibious lander. We're just talking of sleeping here though. By the way, GO GUARDS, was there today, 5-4 in 10, exciting game.
