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N7KTP > NAVNET 20.08.04 02:59l 231 Lines 14174 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 19170_N7FSP
Read: OE6DFD GUEST
Subj: USS YMS-74 (Part 5/5)
Path: DB0FHN<DB0RGB<DB0AAB<DB0FSG<I4UKI<IK5CKL<IZ0AWG<HB9OK<IK1ZNW<N7FSP
Sent: 040818/2252z @:N7FSP.#SEA.#WWA.WA.USA.NOAM West Seattle, WA. on 145.010
The following article is the fifth of 5 parts depicting life aboard a
minesweeper during WW II. Written by Shippen Willing, a descendant of
the first XO of the YMS 74, they were published in the Naval Undersea
Museum newsletter "Undersea Quarterly".
Bob, N7KTP
------------------------------------------------------------------------
YMS 74 IN WORLD WAR II CONCLUSION
Mines, particularly moored contact mines, can fire at almost any
time apparently without reason. Even if no reason is obvious,
minesweeping crews learn to accept this, and they hope it doesn't
happen when anyone is close around. This happened to my minesweeper,
the YMS 74 when a mine being brought in exploded just off the stem.
Luckily there was only minor damage to the ship and none to any of the
crew. We lucked out!
It was fortunate that the 74 did not show-any signs of serious
damage. Through the late summer of 1943, she was able to continue with
her assignment on Hatteras Bank with only such repairs as we could make
ourselves underway. She was holding up very well, as were the other
minesweepers on sweep duty with us. The sub chaser-the SC-managed well,
too, in the difficult and demanding work which she was assigned to do.
The motor launches performed handsomely in the difficult job of buoy
laying and sinking drifters. Late one day, though, while running the
inlet, one of them got pretty well swamped by a typical unpredictable
sea sweeping in from astern. Her own men, with help from the other
boats, got her pumped out just short of real trouble, and with a line
from the SC she made it in to the base. Everybody at the base worked
all night to dry her out, and she made it back out for the next day's
sweeping. About the time of the Equinox, we made the last run to
Morehead City for fuel. The Officer in Tactical Command, OTC, made a
regular trip by land to Washington D.C. to give his report. He returned
to the ship with fresh scrambled eggs on his cap, a smile on his face,
and an additional piston ring on his shoulder boards, with the good
news that we would be leaving soon for Little Creek, near Norfolk.
There was still some clean-up to do.
At last we got the word to stow all loose gear below and to secure
everything else on deck. We lashed an old broom at the main truck and
headed for Little Creek where we layover a few days and then headed up
the York River to the Mine Warfare School. The purpose of that call was
to give the students a chance to see a real live minesweeper. She was a
little scuffed up, to be sure, but pretty sassy, too. Students and crew
all learned a bit. It was great to see the school from a new angle.
After a week, we were under way for Section Base, Newport where the 74
would be permanently assigned for duty monitoring the approaches to
Buzzard's Bay, the Cape Cod Canal, and Narragansett Bay, including
swept channels as far west as Fisher's Island.
In early November, the 74 went into the shipyard for some badly
needed repairs and new gear. We had been hoping for radar and sonar,
but nothing like that was available for minesweepers yet. Everybody got
a little leave, though. Mine came over Thanksgiving, and my Mom and Dad
were very glad to have me home. Mom's Red Cross unit was busy knitting
olive drab sweaters for GI's in Europe. I remembered her doing this
when I was very small during World War I. Now here she was at it again
for another generation. I wondered aloud "How come sailors weren't
mentioned? Why not shift to navy blue yam and knit mufflers for a few
sailors on a small minesweeper out on the North Atlantic?" The hint was
taken and I returned to the ship a few days later with an old sea bag
stuffed with mufflers-enough for everyone on board. The Boatswain's
Mate, Boats, handed them out on Christmas Day. There was never a more
welcome present. Every one of us made the best of them for the rest of
the winter. It was even mentioned that some of the men from below the
Mason/Dixon line slept in theirs. The knitters got a big kick out of
this.
The 74 was back on patrol by New Year's Day, 1944. The first day's
job took us out the swept channel, coastwise west to Fisher's Island
and back. We anchored for the night in Block Island harbor. The next
day we checked out the main channel to the seaward end where the
Nantucket Light Ship used to anchor in peacetime at the edge of the
Continental Shelf.
At this time in the beginning of 1944, there was still a great
likelihood that U-Boats could be sneaking in to East Coast ports via
the major shipping channels to lay mines. Sweeping these channels was
very seriously maintained by our Navy. Moored contact mines could be
expected as well as magnetic impulse mines. These were carried by Nazi
U-Boats, transported in their torpedo tubes and dropped in strategic
spots to lie in wait for incoming merchantmen.
We switched to magnetic gear on this run. Here to fore we had not
used magnetic gear much and then only in sea trials after fitting out,
and a few short runs for training. The gear itself is quite simple to
use. Explanation of what it does isn't too difficult. How. it does it
is something else. It requires some background in electricity and
magnetism. Everyone who has ever played with magnets knows that when a
magnet is held near another magnet something goes on between the two.
It is easy to observe what happens. To explain it is more difficult.
Assume we are using two identical bar magnets. Magnetic lines of
force emanate from one end, outward into space from one end, curve
around, eventually making a 360 degree change in direction and entering
the magnet again at the other end. These lines of force together form
what is called a magnetic field completely surrounding the magnet. The
lines of force lose strength with distance from the magnet. As two
magnets are brought together, the geometry of the magnetic fields
changes. What goes on can be felt because in some positions the magnets
will be attracted to each other. In others they will repel each other.
Obviously there are forces at work. This work can be harnessed in
useful forms, like pulling the trigger in the firing mechanism of a
mine.
Actually magnetic mines are not magnetic. But very important
components of their firing mechanisms are. The mechanism which
detonates the mine can be "excited" by the presence of the approaching
magnetic field generated by an approaching ship, causing the mine to
explode.
That really is all there is to magnetic mine sweeping. All the
minesweeper needs to do is to tow a magnetic field close enough to the
mine to excite its firing mechanism. But let's look at what the
minesweeper is towing-the magnetic gear.
The gear starts with a huge gen-set, consisting of a 540 KWH
generator powered by a 500 HP diesel engine. The diesel on the 74 was a
straight 8 Cleveland, 8-268A, as were in fact the two main engines. This
engine is integral with the generator and has no other function than
sweeping magnetic mines. This gen-set occupies its own engine room aft
of the main engine room. It furnishes power only to the gear. The rest
of the gear is on deck where the reel carrying the electric cables is
mounted and handled when streaming.
There are only four parts-one long cable; one short cable; two
identical electrodes. A little more description will be helpful. The
only difference in the long/short cables is length. One measures 400
feet, the other 300 feet. They can be plugged into the generator. They
are about 5 inches in outside diameter. They are hollow, hence buoyant
and they float on the surface of the water. Cast right into the wall of
each tube are a number of conductor wires, all carrying the same
current, making this a monoconductor. At the outboard end of the cable
the conducting wires are brought together into a bare tail, 40 feet
long, which trails behind the buoyant section of its cable. These two
legs-the buoyant parts-are married together and bound by specially made
canvas collars spaced about four feet apart. Between each collar and
the next the cables are alternately crossed and secured. In other words,
the last collar will be equidistant from the first collar along each
part. When the cables are sweeping the "tail" on the short leg will drop
down below the surface. The unbound length of the long leg will continue
on along the surface alone. At the end of the long leg its tail will
sink down, as did the short one. What is happening here will become
clear when we consider the passage of current through the circuit. If we
set the control panel for D.C., the current will pass away from the
generator; out one leg to the end of that leg; through the electrode;
into the salt water. Salt water being a conductor, the current will be
picked up by the other tail and will be transmitted through the other
leg to close the circuit in the generator.
Any ship, including minesweepers, has a magnetic field and a
magnetic signature. It is possible to change (and reduce) the magnetic
field of a ship by degaussing and deperming. And we all hope our
degaussing and deperming are working when magnetic mines are expected.
We hope to imitate a ship's magnetic signature with the electrical
current flowing between the tails of the gear. This is an electro-
magnet. The flowing current produces a magnetic field surrounding the
wire. This signature will excite a nearby mine's mechanism and cause
the mine to fire, hopefully in the distance.
Here is where the control panel in the pilot house comes in. By
adjusting the output of the generator, the magnetic signature being
towed along by the ship beneath the unmatched section of the long leg
can be manipulated to produce a signature which hopefully will present
signals to the firing mechanism in the mine laid by the U-Boat and
cause it to fire. The magnetic gear is very simple to stream. It
doesn't even need much attention. The tail on the long leg goes through
the massive roller fairlead on the stern and into the water. The reel
man pays out the unmatched section of the long leg, then the tail on
the short leg, then the short leg, then the rest of the doubled section
to the bitter end. The deck crew shackles the stopper to the pad eye on
deck; the reel man eases out a little more slack to take the weight of
the gear off to the pad eye and eases the reel. The electrician's mate
connects the gear to the generator, and the bridge can proceed with the
sweep. In this way the 74 spent the winter of 1943-4 patrolling and
sweeping.
Early in February, 1944, we were lying along side at the Section
Base catching up on miscellaneous chores to be done. The Captain handed
me a letter-"Orders for you," he said with a slight smile. The usual
preamble directed me to report to USS Osprey AM 56 in Norfolk as First
Lieutenant and Minesweeping Officer. Orders were due at our level, we
figured. It seemed likely that he would be ordered to new construction-
to take command of one of the new 180' AM's currently coming off the
ways rapidly. He was a logical choice for skipper there. And I seemed a
logical one to relieve him on the 74. But, instead, I was being ordered
to another ship; he would stay with the 74. He was a little
disappointed. Not I. I was on my way in a few hours for a completely
new life.
But let's skip 60 years. Not many old YMS's are still around. I
have learned that after I was transferred, my YMS 74 saw active duty in
the Pacific. After the War ended, she was decommissioned in Subic Bay
and sold at auction as surplus.
A few have had exciting times. No new ones have ever been built.
Two in particular have been very active into modern times. Their
stories have been thoroughly and carefully documented. One is
Greenpeace. The other is Jacques Cousteau's Calypso.
In September, 1957, my family and I were enjoying a vacation on
Vancouver Island when we came across a little advertisement that a
local shipping company was offering day passages on one of their ships
on a routine run from Port Alberni down Barclay Sound to logging camps
and villages to the Pacific. There were no roads to get there. Just
what we wanted. We were aboard when the ship left the wharf in Port
Alberni. Her name was Uchuck II. All day we poked in and out of little
villages and logging camp landings. The friendly crew had lots of good
stories to tell between stops. By late afternoon, with business done, I
gravitated to the pilot house, where I was made most welcome. The
Captain was proud of his little vessel, beautifully found and in tip-
top shape. He and I were discussing navigation in fog in these waters.
Not everybody had a depth sounder. Radar was just making an appearance
in the civilian market. GPS didn't exist yet. "Ach," he said, "all you
need is a whistle and a compass." I mentioned that I had had minesweeper
duty during the war (not very far behind us at the time). He became very
interested and asked a lot of questions. It turns out that his firm was
currently negotiating with a Vancouver broker for the purchase of a
surplus YMS. This turned out to be the YMS 123. She had been stripped of
all metal-everything but the fastenings-but the owners of the Uchuck II
knew a good ship when they saw one, and she had not had time to rot.
They eventually bought back more suitable gear to reinstall in their
purchase-even a new engine, a GM Cleveland just taken from a new arrival
at the salvage yard. They towed their new ship back to Port Alberni to
refit her completely for her new role and christened her the Uchuck III.
Their new coaster has served them well since the late 1950's. She has
changed hands, but she is still earning her keep on Nootka Sound. I made
a tourist trip on her ten years ago. She works hard, looks great, and
she is smartly run. And, I am told, she is still active in the fall of
2003. There is no mistaking her genesis and there could be no greater
tribute to her small class of great little ships.
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