Chapter 4 USS Mississippi 6 June 1936 to April 1938

USS Mississippi 6 June 1936 to April 1938

From JHC resume

June 1936

Ensign John Carmichael arrived for duty on the USS Mississippi on June 1936. 

Shipmate 

June 1938 Life on the Mississippi

“My first duty station was in USS Mississippi, a newly modernized battleship – the queen of the fleet.”

“The first ship in the new Ensign served with a revocable commission, which meant that the commission could be terminated without ceremony. At the end of two years a new lineal position was established based 20% on fitness reports and 80% on class standing. I do not believe more than one commission was revoked.”

“The event in Mississippi that stands out was the time the BBs were sortieing from Pearl Harbor – Mississippi was tenth in the column. Now the channel out of Pearl was a trough cut through the coral about 40 feet deep. There was little water under the ship and, by the time Mississippi came to turn into the channel, the nine preceding BBs had caused a wash down to the channel into which Mississippi had to turn. The ship did not answer the wheel, and the ship headed for the port shore. The engines were backed full, the wheel put over full and the ship did not respond. I was on the port wing of the bridge taking bearings on a buoy – almost straight down. I knew we were going to hit. The Captain let go an anchor and 135 fathoms of anchor chain rove out (we had only 150 fathoms of chain) before the ship stopped. We had passed between the buoy and the shore – but did not touch. The laundry had extra business that day. Finally we backed down, the wash down the channel had subsided and we were able to steam out to sea.”

“How many of you remember our first two apprentice years at sea?  Six 36ers reported to Mississippi BB 43: Henry Arnold, Robert Bonin, Jack Carmichael, Ralph Embree, George Grider, and Moffitt Trayner.  During this period we rotated through the various departments adding practical experience to our four years of study at the Academy.”

Provisioning the ship

End of Article

Shipmate October 2004

The Mississippi sea tales continue in this issue.  

Photo II U.S.S. Mississippi BB41

My first assignment was in the Gunnery Department, the 5-inch secondary broadside battery.  However, the first major gunnery operation after our class reported was the Main Battery (14 inch guns) annual long range target practice.  There was great activity readying the main battery for the exercise.  The senior gunnery department officers gathered in the ward room to compute the ballistic correction, a compilation of the many factors that affect the projectile trajectory; such as atmospheric conditions, powder temperature, windage, and average rounds fired.  The result of this equation was the ballistic correction, in yards either plus or minus, that was applied to the rangefinder range in the Mark I computer. There was even a further refinement.  A study of previous long range exercises disclosed that the ballistic correction did not guarantee that the first salvoes would straddle the target in range.  With the battery properly aligned there was no problem with lateral deflection.  The range errors in yards of past firings averaged 500 yards; I don’t remember whether it was plus or minus. This Arbitrary Correction to Hit was combined with the ballistic correction.  As Mississippi approached the target all hands with ‘heads up and tails over the dash board’ were confident of victory.  The first salvo straddled the target. The post firing report disclosed that the 500 yard ACTH was applied in the wrong direction—the fog of war.

Sortie from Pearl Harbor

 When Pearl Harbor was established as a naval base the exit to seaward was blocked by a coral reef.  Passage over the reef was limited to shallow draft ships.  A channel was cut through the reef for wide and deep draft ships. It was a long trough, much like a sluiceway with out a sluice.  The course from the harbor required a right turn to enter the channel.

One day ten battleships sortied.  Mississippi was at the end of the line.   As the nine lead battleships steamed through the channel the wash from their propellers created a gully washer flow of water towards the harbor.  As Mississippi started her turn she took the full force of this torrential flow on her starboard bow. The ship could not make the turn but continued ahead toward the reef. There was not enough water under her hull for even full right rudder to take effect.  The Captain ordered “Back Full!” But the propellers also could not slow the ship that continued onward toward the reef with considerable way on.  The last chance to prevent grounding was to drop the anchor. It got a good hold for after reeving out 135 fathoms of chain stopped the ship.  15 fathoms were left in the chain locker.   When the ship came to rest she lay between the wrong side of a buoy and the reef, but did not ground.  While the above excitement unfolded, I was manning the port alidade taking bearings on buoys. We passed so close to one red buoy that my pointer was almost vertically downward. 

After all hands had regained their composure and the gully washer subsided the Captain slowly and carefully eased Mississippi into the channel and joined the other battleships that caused our dilemma.

J.O. Mess Treasurer

Holy Stonning

Most junior officers have served as mess treasurers.  This sea tale is about Bob Benin’s and my experience operating the J.O. Mess in Mississippi.   We 36ers started our naval career during the Great Depression.  Pay was cut; our monthly take was $125.00 plus a ration of $18.75. A mess bill that varied from 18 to 30 dollars per month made it hard to budget our income. Further the quality and quantity of our Mess menu barely met minimum requirements to sustain life. For example I recall the menu of one noon meal that consisted of a watery soup with one green pea floating about, a salad of one leaf of lettuce topped by one half of a canned pear, issue bread and if there were a desert it didn’t leave an impression.  On leaving the mess I looked into the pantry and saw mess attendants enjoying steak, potatoes, and vegetables.  Bob Bonin and I decided to see if we could kick the menu up a notch and stabilize the mess bill so we ran for mess treasurer.  No one else would touch the job.  We were elected unanimously.  We promised a mess bill of $20.00; the menu would be adequate for growing men and newspapers and magazines would be included. 

In those halcyon days officers’ messes purchased staples from the general mess augmented by supplies from local caterers.  A few years before our time there was a kick back scandal involving mess stewards and caterers. We visited several of these merchants to convince them that our relations would be strict business.  Several offered us drinks that were brusquely declined. We informed the steward that mess attendants would eat the same menu as officers.  On a Saturday inspection the Executive officer, Commander Waldon (Pug) Ainsworth 10, inspected the J.O. Mess.  Every thing was fine until he saw our favorite over stuffed lounge chair.  ( I will admit it was an unsightly mess, much like a dying elephant that returned to an elephant grave yard to die.)  The Exec wasted no words, he ordered,  “Throw it over board!”.  We replaced it with Mess funds.  Bob and I lasted about six months the mess bill averaged $21.00

Fleet Days In San Francisco

Do you PacFlt types remember the annual Fleet visits to San Francisco for Fourth of July and Armistice Day?  During Fleet Week there were all sorts of activities including: parades, parties, receptions, shopping and sight seeing.  Once I led a platoon of blue jackets dressed in white leggings and with fixed bayonets.   Rifles were carried at port arms, across the body.  As we marched the rifles were moving back and forth in cadence across the body.  As we marched down a very narrow street our moving bayonets almost reached spectators lining the side walks. The fearless did not move; the cautious stepped back. 

While at the Academy I was a member of the fencing team and Lieutenant Commander Leonard Doughty 17 was the officer representative.  In 1936 he received orders to Mississippi BB 41 as gunnery officer and managed to get met on the list of 36 graduates.   He wanted a fencing partner.  On one Fleet Week we attended a large KT party.  After a couple of libations we left for a session at a local fencing club.  Enroute we became hungry.  The only place to get food was a drug store.  At the fountain we had a chocolate milk shake and oatmeal cookies.  At the club while changing into my fencing gear suddenly I felt ill.  I was alarmed at the thought of being sick in a fencing mask.  Once on the mat I broke out in a cold sweat that soaked my fencing suit and ended my sickness.  My match went well.

One morning while homeward bound from Frisco the Navigator was up bright and early taking his morning star sights to fix the ship’s position.  He was perplexed that the ship had made little way during the night.  It was a mystery until a boatswain’s mate peered over the side and saw a whale impaled across the bow.   The captain had to back down to dislodge the animal.  Apparently the whale’s blubber had absorbed the impact for no one felt the shock.

Shipmate March 2003

This sea tale is about Mississippi BB 41 conducting a military inspection of Texas BB 35 (commissioned 1914) after she had rescued expatriate American refugees caught in the Spanish civil war of the late 1930s.  Hank Arnold, George Grider and I were part of the gunnery team.  George and Hank were in the lower handling room of one of the turrets and I check sighted one of the 5 inch waist guns.  They were observing the crew passing powder bags up the hoist to the gun room of the turret.  During a firing run something happened up above.  The turret sprinkling system was activated and water flowed down the hoist.  The hoist filled with powder bags was reversed causing the bag at the lower end to burst open.  Water and powder was spewed through out the lower handling room.  The crew did not panic but seemed uncertain what to do.  So Hank and George gathered up the loose power.  George was sitting on the lower platform of the hoist.  He felt something under him and discovered the object to be the small black powder bag that was attached to the rear of the bag to ignite the smokeless powder.  As you know black powder is rather flammable, he was lucky not to get a hot seat.

My job on the five inch mount was to make sure that the trainer was on the sled target not the tug.  This the trainer accomplished.  During a firing run one round did not fire.  Safety precautions state such an incident is either a miss or hang fire (the firing pin was struck but the cartridge did not fire) or the gun captain did not insert a cartridge into the breech.  In either case the breech block must not be opened for a specified time.  I made certain that the gun captain did not open the breach block.  The ammunition in the pipe line from the ready lockers to the gun was simply dropped on deck.  I ordered it returned to the lockers.    

Editor’s Note:5"/51 caliber guns (spoken "five-inch-fifty-one-caliber") formed the main battery of the first United States Navy light cruisersand the secondary batteries of United States Navy battleships built from 1907 through the 1920s. United States naval gun terminology indicates the gun fired a projectile 5 inches (127 mm) in diameter, and the barrel was 51 calibers long (barrel length is 5" × 51 = 255" or 6.4 meters).

To give the devil his due, the evacuation of refugees was not a pleasant experience for Texas.  Women that were housed in officers’ staterooms left them in an odious condition when they disembarked.  After returning to PacFlt there was little time for the crew to fumigate and clean up the ship and restore readiness in preparation for the inspection.

Mississippi (BB-41) and New Mexico (BB-40) during the Fleet Review staged outside Los Angeles Harbor. Dec.,1938.