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Memories of John
Huszai '50 - '53,
TM3
I was the silent torpedoman that
no one remembers. I went ashore in Panama when everyone else was
back on board, but don't ask me how I got ashore, that fence wasn't tall enough
to hold me on base. G. S. Edminster, TM1, got really boozed up
and wrecked the cab by pulling the door off the hinges because the cabby refused
to take him to the ship and he took on the shore patrol also and took them apart
too, He got busted down to 2nd class when we got
underway. Anyway I came back to the ship by going over the fence
again, with all that went on that night nobody even missed me..
While a few of the TM's lived in
the Forward Torpedo Room, I hid out in the After Torpedo Room, where it was
quiet and we always got word when someone was coming aft. That had it's
advantage because nobody found our still in the Maneuvering Room.
The photo in this picture was taken after the ship came out of Philadelphia, PA
shipyard as this is after we got the new sail and snorkel system and the mine
clearing cables. The cable up forward came from the tip of the Bow
Plane and had a spring assembly inside Bow Buoyancy Tank and back aft cables
attached to the hull ran out to the Stern Plane on each side and one from the
hull out to the bottom of the Rudder so that mine cables would not get fouled in
the Propeller. These mine clearing cables were three inches
thick. In this picture I was topside with the telephone as
this was my anchor detail assignment. Those Mine clearing cables
were always ready when you had the Bow Planes rigged out and running submerged,
also by the Bull Nose (That's the hole that you see up at the extreme point of
the bow.) there was a heavy metal cage to protect mine cables from being snagged
on that detent around the Bull Nose which is mainly used when being TOWED by
other ships.
John
To return to memories of the SS 320,
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To return to the main page of the SS 320, click here.