I remember a time back in 1975/76 when the Dirty 30(USS San Anofre), a floating dry-dock stationed at Point Loma, had an SSN out of the water for various repairs, then along came another SSN for emergency repairs.
I don’t recall the names of the boats, but they were of the same fast attack class(just because they're of the same class, don't make them the same.) The one boat already on the blocks had to be pulled out and taken alongside the Sperry temporarily. The newly damaged boat would take her place in the floating dry-dock. That was the "Plan of the Day".
Scuttlebutt was that our stricken SSN had collided with a sub, of another nationality while on maneuvers in the Southeastern Pacific. The other guys couldn’t submerge because of their damage so they had to limp back to wherever they had to go on the surface. Our boat could be submerged, but her damaged outer hull made too much noise in the water to continue her patrol, so they brought her in for emergency repairs so she could continue on her way.
After the yard tugs drug the first one boat covered in zinchromate (yellow primer and was it ever so purrty) along side the Sperry, they drove the cripple into the Dirty 30 well deck. Both boats were of the same class so they didn’t have to reset the cradling blocks. Right? Wrong! The cripple was a newer sub that had some critical design upgrades. The major difference was that it was some 20' longer, because of the added electronic apparatus she had. So half way through the Dirty 30's de-watering evolution, the boat fell off of it’s cradle blocks and dug a really big hole, and buried itself into the side of the Dirty 30's ballast tank with a lead-filled diving plane. The boat shifted the center of gravity of the dry-dock and had everyone thinking that the whole enchilada was going to capsize (I bet the boys in the sub had a real sinking feeling.)
It was all grommets and elbows from then on. Everyone in Dixon's Repair Division had their liberty canceled until both of these boats were gone! Dixon and Sperry (both sub tenders) had three shifts working on both boats now. This was a real cluster-f***. Even so repairs were being made in quick order.
One seriously funny thing did occur though. Dixon's Repair Division Officer, Commander Collins, allowed his personal office coffee mess to be lowered down in the well deck of the Dirty 30 for our use. It was such a fine affair. That sucker held several commercial grade Bunn coffee makers, and all of the accouterments needed for making tea and hot chocolate. Each piece of it, custom made out of the finest stainless steel and labor of love our Dixon’s sheet metal workers could muster. This monstrosity had to weigh in at 300lbs.
Then the real trouble began. There were some valve alignment problems between the sub, dry dock and the pier. Of her umbilical power supply, sewage, and fresh water hook ups; the sewage was not flowing so well. So the sailors on the broken sub had to tinkle and dump in the Dirty 30's head ‘till the problem was resolved otherwise you got flapped in a big way. Meanwhile pressurized air was leaking by a valve on the boat and it kept building up in her sewage lines and holding tanks. Pressure in the sewage line kept building up all night long Too bad a very important valve on the pier happened to be closed, instead of open.
At approximately 5 minutes into morning Quarters muster; as on-going and off-going shifts were assembled beneath the bulk of this submarine . The weak link in the problem sewage system became breached. An eight inch corrugated, rubber/steel belted, sewer hose had all it could take. We heard this ungodly loud KA-BOOM! that emanated from above. About 900 gallons of the rankest, raw sewage came raining down on our parade, from about forty-five feet up. Down into the well deck below it did go! Everyone broke ranks and ran like hell. But it did no good. I’m standing there, like everyone else, covered head to toe in mother natures finest.
Everyone was cussing and thoroughly displeased. Then I looked over at Commander Collin's cherished coffee mess. Burners were all on full bore cooking up the meanest, nastiest, smelling coffee you ever did see. I guess everybody(soon to include me) booked to the showers and neglected to shut the thing down. So it just sat there and cooked.
Commander Collins finally came over to survey the damage. The Commander thought the whole ordeal was pretty funny 'till he saw his beloved treasure covered in deep smoldering piles of submarine shaped excrement. In quick order, the coffee mess managed to find it’s way off of the Dirty 30, into the bowels of the nuclear cleaning room on USS Dixon, for a thorough decontamination. It was never to return to the well deck of the Dirty 30.
The crippled sub was on her was repaired and on her way in 72 hours. "Dixon-Ready for Service"
dz
I don’t recall the names of the boats, but they were of the same fast attack class(just because they're of the same class, don't make them the same.) The one boat already on the blocks had to be pulled out and taken alongside the Sperry temporarily. The newly damaged boat would take her place in the floating dry-dock. That was the "Plan of the Day".
Scuttlebutt was that our stricken SSN had collided with a sub, of another nationality while on maneuvers in the Southeastern Pacific. The other guys couldn’t submerge because of their damage so they had to limp back to wherever they had to go on the surface. Our boat could be submerged, but her damaged outer hull made too much noise in the water to continue her patrol, so they brought her in for emergency repairs so she could continue on her way.
After the yard tugs drug the first one boat covered in zinchromate (yellow primer and was it ever so purrty) along side the Sperry, they drove the cripple into the Dirty 30 well deck. Both boats were of the same class so they didn’t have to reset the cradling blocks. Right? Wrong! The cripple was a newer sub that had some critical design upgrades. The major difference was that it was some 20' longer, because of the added electronic apparatus she had. So half way through the Dirty 30's de-watering evolution, the boat fell off of it’s cradle blocks and dug a really big hole, and buried itself into the side of the Dirty 30's ballast tank with a lead-filled diving plane. The boat shifted the center of gravity of the dry-dock and had everyone thinking that the whole enchilada was going to capsize (I bet the boys in the sub had a real sinking feeling.)
It was all grommets and elbows from then on. Everyone in Dixon's Repair Division had their liberty canceled until both of these boats were gone! Dixon and Sperry (both sub tenders) had three shifts working on both boats now. This was a real cluster-f***. Even so repairs were being made in quick order.
One seriously funny thing did occur though. Dixon's Repair Division Officer, Commander Collins, allowed his personal office coffee mess to be lowered down in the well deck of the Dirty 30 for our use. It was such a fine affair. That sucker held several commercial grade Bunn coffee makers, and all of the accouterments needed for making tea and hot chocolate. Each piece of it, custom made out of the finest stainless steel and labor of love our Dixon’s sheet metal workers could muster. This monstrosity had to weigh in at 300lbs.
Then the real trouble began. There were some valve alignment problems between the sub, dry dock and the pier. Of her umbilical power supply, sewage, and fresh water hook ups; the sewage was not flowing so well. So the sailors on the broken sub had to tinkle and dump in the Dirty 30's head ‘till the problem was resolved otherwise you got flapped in a big way. Meanwhile pressurized air was leaking by a valve on the boat and it kept building up in her sewage lines and holding tanks. Pressure in the sewage line kept building up all night long Too bad a very important valve on the pier happened to be closed, instead of open.
At approximately 5 minutes into morning Quarters muster; as on-going and off-going shifts were assembled beneath the bulk of this submarine . The weak link in the problem sewage system became breached. An eight inch corrugated, rubber/steel belted, sewer hose had all it could take. We heard this ungodly loud KA-BOOM! that emanated from above. About 900 gallons of the rankest, raw sewage came raining down on our parade, from about forty-five feet up. Down into the well deck below it did go! Everyone broke ranks and ran like hell. But it did no good. I’m standing there, like everyone else, covered head to toe in mother natures finest.
Everyone was cussing and thoroughly displeased. Then I looked over at Commander Collin's cherished coffee mess. Burners were all on full bore cooking up the meanest, nastiest, smelling coffee you ever did see. I guess everybody(soon to include me) booked to the showers and neglected to shut the thing down. So it just sat there and cooked.
Commander Collins finally came over to survey the damage. The Commander thought the whole ordeal was pretty funny 'till he saw his beloved treasure covered in deep smoldering piles of submarine shaped excrement. In quick order, the coffee mess managed to find it’s way off of the Dirty 30, into the bowels of the nuclear cleaning room on USS Dixon, for a thorough decontamination. It was never to return to the well deck of the Dirty 30.
The crippled sub was on her was repaired and on her way in 72 hours. "Dixon-Ready for Service"
dz
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