Five Inch (gun) frolics

[jimlongley]

So as not to further a previous thread hijack.

In the late 60s I was a Gunner's Mate 3rd Class in the US Navy, and had a lot of funny/wierd experiences with guns of various sizes, up to five inch bore.

One time we were having problems with one of our guns in a five inch twin mount, frequent misfires (as defined by the Navy a "frequent misfire" is two or more incidents in a relatively short period of time. We Had had two misfires in two consecutive shoots, and were getting into troubleshooting mode.

After the second misfire it was determined that the two powder cases had come from the same lot of ammunition (lot numbers were always recorded as ammo passed through the handling room) and it was thought that the ammo or primers might have been defective.

As part of the troubleshooting procedure, the sight setter, who sat between the guns forward of the projectile hoists, was told to check the firing circuit cutout cam to make sure it was not jammed in a non-firing position. The firing cutout cam is a face cam with a diagram of the ship inscribed on it, that a follower rides on and opens the circuit if the guns are pointed at ship's structure, and sometimes the cam can jam in the off position. The cam is also mecanically linked to the percussion firing mechanism, which was used as a backup and for firing "short rounds" to clear a projectile from the bore after a misfire.

I perhaps should explain that the ammo used in those guns was "semi-fixed" having a separate projectile and powder case with primer, and that a short round is a black powder filled case shorter than a standard smokeless case.

The "funny" part is coming, I swear.

During this particular evolution we had the misfire and it was announced that all but the gunner's mates should clear the mount. Well the sight setter just had transferred into the gun gang, so he figured he didn't have to leave with the rest. The other gunner and myself cleared the gun, following a procedure that consisted of the first gunner dropping the breech while the second caught the shell, then the first stood in the doorway and had the shell passed to him, then the second went out on deck by an alternate route, and received the shell and tossed it over the side with as little ceremony as possible.

The sight setter, not being involved in this evolution, dutifully sat at his post through the whole thing, and may not have fallen asleep (although there was some question about that) and the person who took the roster of personnel from the mount never noticed he was missing, which seemed to be a pastime with this guy.

After the round was succesfully disposed of, we now had a live projectile in the bore of a gun that had been fired enough times to declare it a hot gun, so we then loaded a short round, and trained the guns to the safe area in preparation for ejecting the round.

The fuses on the projectiles are set by recoil and spin of the projectile, and short rounds are designed to not provide enough setback or spin to arm the fuses.

So there we sat waiting for authorization to discharge the round, and in the meantime, the command was taking advantage of the lull to move some ammo from mount two's handling room, down the port side of the ship to mount three, it being mount two which had suffered the casualty and was now idled. Of course this was a serious violation of safety protocols - handling ammo on deck while there was a clearing evolution underway - but that didn't seem to bother the captain or gunnery officer.

BTW, the safe direction for discharging the short round had been determined to be off the port side at 270 relative and depressed at 5 degrees, so that was the direction the guns were trained, right over the heads of the people carrying ammo aft.

OK here it is.

Suddenly, while the other gunner and I were relaxing in the mount, with the short round in the breech and waiting for permission to fire, which was a manual procedure with the percussion system, and blissfully unaware of the ammo transfer evolution going on below, the right gun discharged, followed very quickly by the sound of the HE round detonating at water level about a hundred yards away, and a sound like a handful of gravel thrown onto a tin roof as fragments rained down.

Of course this was very upsetting to the people who were out on deck with live ammo in their hands, although nobody was injured beyond a few bruises from dropping heavy things on each other in the mad scramble to clear the deck.

And of course the other gunner and I were immediately held responsible for the premature discharge, at least untl the sight setter sheepishly 'fessed up.

Seems as though he had, somewhat belatedly, decided to check the cam mechanism, and when he pulled on part of it, which he was not supposed to do, the gun fired. The mechanism, as mentioned before, is part of the percussion system as well as the electrical system, and what he had done is pulled the one part that acted like a trigger, and BANG!!!

His name instantly and forever became "Short Round," long before Indian Jones. I talked to him on the phone about ten years ago, the actual incident occurred in 1968, and he still responded to Short Round.

[DoubleJ]

awesome!
Jim, you should write a book.

[57Coastie]

Jim,



Jim, too.

PS My having been in similar situations, as you know from the other thread, Jim, I must admit that my initial reaction to your story was mixed. I recall your saying earlier on the other thread that you had a "semi-funny story" you could share with us, so I am sure your reaction was also mixed -- most likely you didn't start laughing for some time after the incident. If your gunnery officer was the same klutz who featured in your other story, I suppose you realize that you were lucky to get off that ship alive.

On the other hand, I have always found that an accident, particularly one which might have caused a fatality, was very effective as a training aid, when nobody was hurt. It makes the training something other than hypothetical. The training can be even more realistic when there is a comedy of errors, from top to bottom, as in your story.

Another sea story example, way off topic.

Once upon a time adrift on a lazy day in smooth waters I had the task of giving a safety lecture to a muster, the subject being man overboard. We had just had a couple of very successful drills using a dummy as the man over the side, and I was casually reviewing the exercises and complimenting the men on how well they went. We were all very casual at the time, and I was leaning back against a wire rope boarding rail on the quarterdeck with my hands in my pockets, just chatting before going on to something else. All of a sudden the combination of my weight against the rail and an unexpected swell pulled a fiji fitting out of one end of the wire rope and, helpless with my hands in my pockets, yours truly went tail over teakettle over the side. I actually came up under the ship, with barnacle scratches to prove it -- but I never lost my hat. Military all the way.

When I finally bobbed to the surface, there they were, practically still in quarters at the rail, with their mouths and eyes agape. Not a life-ring in sight. They appeared stupified.

After they woke up and hauled me back aboard we renewed our training session, this time devoted to not being stupid enough to lean back against a rail like I did, particularly with my hands in my pockets, and particularly against a rail like I picked. I left to change my clothes and had someone else continue the training session, knowing that my absence would permit him to make his comments more vivid than if I were there listening to him. I learned later that his lecture was quite effective.

The point once again -- a potential tragedy worked out OK, and the crew now knew that the possibility of a real man overboard -- no drill -- was not merely a hypothetical situation conjured up by the brass to keep idle hands busy.

To this day I sometimes wonder whether I was a living example of the old sea story familiar to anyone who has gone to sea for a living. Up on the bridge the OOD walked over to the lookout and asked him, "Seaman, what would you do right now if you saw a man fall overboard?" After a little thought, the sailor's answer was, "An officer or an enlisted man, sir?"

Jim

[jimlongley]

awesome!
Jim, you should write a book.

I've been working on it for years, I just never seem to run out of stories.

Man overboard in my next one.

[DoubleJ]

lemme rephrase that. books.

[stevie_d_64]

We should collaborate...

A working title could be:

"You're not going to believe this...But..."

or

"Seabag Full of Stories"

Can't believe I missed this thread for so long!

I must be slackin'

[stevie_d_64]

BTW, there's got to be a "booger hooker off the trigger" joke in this story somewhere...