#6 Pinpoint Maneuvering




Navy Story #6

Pinpoint Maneuvering

I don't remember what body of water we were sailing in, nor the year, but I remember one fine, sunny afternoon in a wide expanse of water, when the Captain said he wanted to do some target shooting with his new pistol. It was a revolver with a long barrel, at least 5", and was at least a .38 caliber gun, maybe .45; and it had pearl handles.

Anyway, I was the Junior Officer of the Deck and the conning officer. That's the officer who gives speed and rudder/course orders to the engineering room and the helmsman, respectively. We were by ourselves out there in the wide blue water, which was a bit unusual. We usually sailed with other ships in a task force. Come to think of it, I bet this was during that trip to the Caribbean that I told you about, when we took the NR-1 research submarine down there, because on that cruise it was just the Pensacola (with the submarine aboard, in the well deck).

One of the deck hands tossed overboard an empty metal barrel from the forecastle, and the Captain shot at it a few times before we sailed past it. (The forecastle, pronounced 'FOEk sul', is the very front deck where the anchors are controlled from.) Here is a picture of Pensacola's forecastle:


Then the Captain said he wanted to shoot at the barrel some more, because he didn't sink it the first time we sailed past it. So I ordered a sharp turn around, and proceeded to do a maneuver that is normally used to come back alongside a man who has fallen overboard. There was a bit of a wind, not a strong wind, but some nonetheless, and the Captain wanted to pull alongside at a very slow speed. That was tricky, because a slow-moving ship is hard to steer. But I made use of my physics courses in vector addition, my knowledge of the geometry of the ship's gyrocompass sights, and a good dose of common sense, and was able to bring us directly alongside the barrel. I mean, the barrel went smack dab under the wing walk that the Captain was standing on. I don't think I have a picture of the wing walk, but it is an extension of the bridge on both sides (both starboard and port), that sticks out over the water. The floor is expanded metal grating, so you can see down through it. On Pensacola the wing walks are about 70 feet above the water.

As the ship glided slowly by the barrel, the Captain proceeded to fill it full of holes, and the barrel sank. He turned to the rest of us, who were also assembled on that side of the bridge, and with a huge grin asked, "Who did that maneuvering?" The Officer of the Deck said, "Mr. Link, sir"; and the Captain said, "Well done, Mr. Link" and gave me a thumbs up. I felt pretty good about that.