Extracted and edited from the 2004 SLATER SIGNALS Newsletter Tim Rizzuto, Ship's Superintendent The full account can be viewed online at http://www.ussslater.org When the USS SLATER arrived in Manhattan in 1993, there was an appreciated treasure aboard, a US Navy 26 foot motor whaleboat. The Navy Historical Center estimates that 26,000 of these boats were built between 1927 and the late 1950's when the fiberglass boats were introduced. The SLATER volunteers in Manhattan began the initial restoration of the boat by using a floating crane to lift it from its stowed position on the SLATER to a nearby covered barge. Various fittings and the engine were removed for restoration, and paint on the outer hull was stripped off. In 1997, when the SLATER was moved to Albany, the fittings were hurriedly rounded up, and a crane was used to set the boat back aboard the SLATER, diagonally on the 01 level, just forward of the stack. When the SLATER arrived in Albany, the whaleboat was low in the priority list of things that had to be accomplished to get the ship open to the public. Scarano Brothers Boatyard agreed to offload the boat and place it in covered storage as a donation until funds could be found for the boat's restoration. It took two years to obtain restoration funds, but we finally received a $15,000 grant from the New York State Senate to restore the boat. The prime movers in the project were three people. SLATER's Board President Frank Lasch was instrumental in getting the funding. Roy Gunther was a retired Supply Corps Commander who loved woodworking and wooden boats. And Lawrence "Rocky" Rockwood was a former DE sonar man and retired businessman who had spent several years working in boatyards in Maine. It was Rocky and the folks at Scarano's who provided the real working knowledge to get the SLATER's boat restored. The first part of the restoration was a yearlong process that took place aboard the SLATER to free and rig the radial davits. In May of 2000 Roy just rigged the davit guys for the whaleboat and began working on freeing them. During one of the field days, Roy took advantage of the twenty available men from the Michigan Chapter to swing them free. We rigged the fall with one-inch nylon as opposed to inch and a half manila so rot wouldn't be a problem. In July 2000 work actually started on the whaleboat. Project manager Roy Gunther met with Scarano Boat Building, and they worked up a plan to rebuild the boat. Roy also located and purchased an engine and transmission for the boat. The plan was to get the hull watertight at Scarano, repaint it, and do as much exterior work as the funding allowed. We then planned to float the boat, tow it to the SLATER, hoist it into the davits and do the interior work ourselves. We hoped to have the boat back aboard for a big Destroyer Escort Sailors Association Convention that September.
They didn't make it in time for the DESA Convention. Larry Rockwood and the gang at Scarano's worked their tails off to try to have the boat ready. Roy Gunther had the rigging ready to go, Clark Farnsworth came down with his boat ready to tow the whaleboat up, and Hack Charbonneau spent two days aboard prepping, but it wasn't to be. Time ran out, so we decided to wait until after the Convention. It probably turned out to be a blessing as now Rocky and the crew could take their time to finish her up right.
The arrival came in late September 2000. On Thursday, September 28th, our whaleboat went back into the water. We were indebted to the folks at Scaranos' Boatyard who got the job done and within budget. However the real hero of the job was Larry "Rocky" Rockwood, ex-sonarman off USS COONER DE-172. He put in as many or more hours than the Scarano folks did, caulking, sanding and painting. The boat would never be in the shape it's in without him. He did most of the tedious time-consuming stuff, leaving the Scarano crew to utilize their time on the finish carpentry. As a veteran of many years working in boatyards in Maine, Rocky provided the technical expertise we needed on the project. Even Rick Scarano, who was at first a little reluctant to let our volunteers into the yard said, "We couldn't have done it within budget without Rocky." They even gave him a "Scarano Brothers" tee shirt when they finished the project. We only hope that they don't try to "hire" him away from us. On launch day Clark, Gene Cellini, Rafael Suarez, Chuck Ray and Tom Moore headed down to Scaranos' in Clark's famous 1912 motor yacht, a boat much older than the antique it was to tow. Clark's boat is more affectionately known to us as the "Minnow". The whaleboat was relaunched without ceremony at about 1100. The crew took her in tow with Clark at the helm of the "Minnow" and Raf and Gene in the whaleboat. Raf used her rudder and tiller to keep a straight course behind Clark and the trip took about 45 minutes. They tied her to between the SLATER and the seawall adjacent to the aft camel. There she sat under watchful eyes until Saturday. That morning the crew began to gather to hoist the boat aboard. We had done a lot of research as to how to do this. All the ex-DE boatswains we asked said "We just used to put 25 seamen on each fall and let them run down the deck with it". We didn't have fifty young able-bodied seamen. We had twenty old codgers, each of whom had a different idea on how to go about the job, and none of who remembered exactly how it had been done on their ship. Key men on the job were Roy Gunther, who rode the boat up, and Hack Charbonneau and Larry LaChance, who ended up being our rigging experts. We fairleaded both falls up to the foc's'cle and took four turns around the windlass with each fall. The deck controller didn't work, so they needed a good man to operate the winch from below in the bosun's locker. I volunteered for the job. We started taking up slowly, and it took a couple of tries to get the wraps wound where they didn't bind together in the windlass drum. Once that problem was solved, we hoisted the boat about a foot over the water. Roy did a dynamic stress test by jumping up and down in the boat. Everything looked good so we hoisted away. That was the dull part. Once rigged right, everything went fine. In slow speed with a fourfold purchase, everything goes so slow that not much can go wrong. The only snafu was that when it came time to swing her in, the aft davit guy didn't clear the top of the rudderpost. We had to drop her down a little, and picked her up with muscle power. She then swung in and we set her on the blocks. The welders went to work putting in chocks, and about an hour and a half after we started, she was secure. I just can't imagine going through that evolution in the middle of the Atlantic with a sea running.
Everyone who has seen the boat agrees that all hands involved did a great job. The tour guides were especially grateful to have it back as its presence fills a real void in the tour (Now imagine there's a boat hanging in these davits...) We had a deck blue canvas cover made for the boat. Roy cleaned out the boat's bilges so we could paint them in the spring. The boat didn't go back into the water until the following year, Saturday, September 1. We lowered the whaleboat into the water. Rocky and Roy wanted to give the seams a chance to swell up, so we let her hang in the falls for a few days. The following Wednesday, Clark brought the "SS Minnow" down from Schenectady with Chuck Ray and Don Shattuck. In the face of a strong north wind and whitecaps, they lashed the whaleboat alongside and towed it down to Scarano's Boatyard for the engine installation. They planned to keep it over the winter. Rocky was back down there every week, painting and sanding. Doug Tanner fabricated two new stainless steel diesel fuel tanks for the boat, of which we only actually installed one.
The boat came back to us with engine installed the following July. On Thursday, July 11th, the whaleboat motored back from Scarano's Boatyard under its own power with Rocky Rockwood, Roy Gunther and Beth Spain aboard. It was a great sight to see and the culmination of a dream we'd all had ever since SLATER arrived here from Greece back in '93. We hung the boat off the falls in the water initially to let her swell. After a few days we moved her around to the starboard quarter and tied her off the fantail bitts and the pier. We accessed her with the Jacob's ladder. Rocky and Roy continued to work on her, installing the running lights and doing the permanent piping for the bilge pumps. Dick Walker did the legwork to get her legally registered in New York State. We believe it is the last operating whaleboat in the country restored to her original Navy configuration. If you know otherwise, let us know. The boats debut was at the dedication of the Hudson River Way pedestrian overpass in August 2002. The dedication included bands, speakers, fireworks and at dusk, a lighted boat parade from the Albany Yacht Club. Participating in the regatta, for the first time, was our very own USS SLATER 26' motor whaleboat with our very own BM2 Beth Spain at the tiller. The whaleboat was now fully functional, and Beth, Roy, and Rocky baby it like a yacht. It is the pride of the SLATER. We kept it moored diagonally and accessed it from the Jacobs ladder on the fantail. Beth had gotten permission from the Coast Guard to carry up to six paying passengers. We thought this would be a nice touch for reunions, but insurance is the problem. The liability insurance would cost twenty five hundred dollars for the rest of the season. We put that plan on hold.
At the end of October we pulled the boat for the season. We planned to pull it while the weather was good, but the last half of October and November were as cold as anyone could remember. Not only cold but the day we pulled the boat, it poured rain. Just like the real Navy. This time we rigged the boat falls to the capstan based on a photo of the operation Pat Stephens had put on the DESA website. Those guys must have known what they were doing, because it came up like a dream. Only problem was we couldn't get it to sit right on the chocks. The following Monday, Roy Gunther, who was smart enough to stay out of the rain, came in and with the help of Rocky and Bob Lawrence, straightened us right out.
The follow year things were getting pretty routine. In July Rockwood and Roy Gunther had been putting the finishing touches on the whaleboat in preparation for our seasonal launching. We put the boat back in the water on Saturday, July 19th. The boat ran fine and bobbed up and down proudly under the gangway tethered to the fantail and the seawall, in the water where she belongs. They check their baby dutifully every week, keeping her clean and dry. With the boat out of the davits, they went to work restoring wooden blocks on the davit guys and doing a complete rebuilt of the big blocks for the boat falls. These were all getting pretty rotten.
Since the boat wasn't getting exercised as much as we wanted we began a new program. They started taking the whaleboat out every Tuesday to keep it running smoothly. Tuesday is our slowest volunteer day, so we were hoping the chance for a whaleboat ride would get more workers to show up. We've also trained additional crew how to handle the boat so it will get more use next season. Frank Lasch and Dennis Nagi, both small boat owners, were the first takers in our training program, and both proved to be pretty adept boat handlers. The first qualification was being able to get up and down the Jacobs ladder, since we don't have a regular accommodation ladder. Roy Gunther completely rebuilt the lower blocks for the boat falls, fabricating new cheeks out of wolmanized oak. They should outlast all of us. And Rocky donated a brand new Ruhle self-checking electric pump to make sure his pride and joy stays afloat When we pulled the boat out at the end of the 2003 season the weather was unusually warm and sunny. Not like the cold and rain we usually experience on such evolutions. Rocky, Roy and Dennis tried a new trick. They hoisted the boat up backwards, so that the starboard side was now is now facing inboard and will be easier to paint and caulk in the spring. This led to a lot of jokes about who doesn't know forward from aft, or, "The whaleboat is okay, the SLATER is backwards!" And then the inevitable confusion on the windlass crew when they said "Hold the stern and raise the bow!" "You mean the whaleboat bow that's facing aft or the stern that is now facing forward?" Anyway, we learn a little every year and this year she came up with a minimum of kibitzing and without any trouble. The 2004 season began with a little excitement. Rocky and Roy painted out the starboard side of the whaleboat (Now the inboard side in April and early May. Then with the help of the USS HUSE crew and Hack Charbonneau, we lowered the boat, reversed it in the falls, and brought it back aboard (Now properly facing forward) so Rocky and Roy could caulk and paint the portside. I was the man who was elected to go down with the boat to turn it and swap the falls. It looked like a scene from "Mutiny on the Bounty" with the whole crew leaning over the rail shouting "Cast the SOB adrift!" But fortunately more loyal heads prevailed and they brought the boat and me right back aboard. I guess they weren't ready to lose the whaleboat after all the work they put into it. We knew we had a problem with the boat's cooling system at the end of the 2003 season. During the Michigan field day week in April, the crew removed the heat exchanger from the motor whaleboat diesel, and working with Russ Ferrer diagnosed the coolant leak as a bad heat exchanger. Russ couldn't repair the original and the replacement was expensive - $300 for a used one, $800 for new. We'll see how this develops. Then during the USS HUSE field day week, one of their volunteers really came through for us. Bill Camp, a former engineman off the J. RICHARD WARD DE243, had previously worked on the SLATER when she was in Manhattan. He is well connected and thorough, and managed to acquire a complete set of SLATER blueprints on microfilm for us last year. Now retired, Bill spends most of his time helping his son Barry Camp, who happens to run a marina on the Jersey coast. Always the opportunist, I was sitting across from Bill, having coffee with him when the light bulb went off. The conversation went like this. "Bill, doesn't your son own a boat yard?" "He sure does" "You guys do engine work?" "Yup" "You wouldn't happen to know where I could get a spare heat exchanger for a thirty horse Westerbeke diesel cheap, do you?" "I think I have one on my workbench." Bill had Barry FEDEX the heat exchanger to Albany. It arrived Wednesday. Bill and Doug Streiter spent Thursday and Friday installing the new heat exchanger and making other repairs to the boat engine. They set up temporary cooling out of a bucket and tested the diesel and it ran beautifully as the boat hung in the davits. The only problem they had was some squawking from the deck crew when they first started the engine and the overboard discharge spit coolant all over the freshly painted boat deck. By June 2004 with the engine repair complete Rocky and Roy Gunther had the whaleboat looking beautiful, and she was ready to go in the water. The whaleboat went into the water for the season on the 26th of June. Hack Charbonneau, Frank Beeler, Barry Witte, and new volunteer Nelson Potter handled the anchor windlass and the falls. At the boat we had talker Alan Fox, Bob Lawrence, Stan Murawski, Joe Breyer, and the boat crew Rocky Rockwood and Roy Gunther. It was a small crew, but we didn't have any real problems. We got all the lines fair led, and picked her up, swung her out and lowered away. That simple process took about two hours. If we were rescuing a pilot, he didn't have a chance. And it was flat calm to boot. Can't imagine putting one over in fifteen foot swells. Roy rode the boat down, and we towed him around to the fantail. Then he and Rocky secured the boat off the port quarter as we let her sit for a few days to swell up. Meanwhile the deck gang got all the lines secured and restowed all the tackle. Thus, I left the ship that day at 1700 feeling things were in good hands. We had an overnight encampment aboard with twenty Girl Scouts with Gordon Lattey, Paul Czesak and Penny Welbourn supervising. And we had the radio gang aboard in force conducting their drill. The ship was well manned, and it was a good thing. I had just gotten home, taken off my shoes, put on my shorts and propped my feet up when I got a call from Gordon Lattey. The whaleboat was sinking. Down came the feet, on came the shoes, and I was back on the ship fifteen minutes later. The electrical cord to the bilge pump had pulled apart and she was taking water. Down in the boat, while the rest of the crew was discussing the risk of getting their uniforms dirty, ET1 Jerry Jones had climbed down the rickety Jacob's ladder and was pumping furiously with the hand pump. At this point, we might want to say a word about ET1 Jones. A highly skilled technician with both computers and electronics, physical activity is not his forte. You may recall this is the gentleman whose answer to "You need to get into shape" is "Round is a shape." His nose can detect fresh pizza at a thousand yards, and he never met a donut he didn't like. He is currently under treatment by seven doctors, who "Never talk to each other" for a heart condition, and is taking twelve medications. In other words, he has about as much business going down a Jacob's ladder as his wife has climbing Mount Washington. But that's another story. We got the pump plugged back in, got some buckets, and it took about fifteen minutes of continuous bailing to get the water back down. After that the pump seemed to keep up with it fine. It is interesting to note that the whaleboat has a backup bilge pump hooked up to the 12 volt battery that should have come on when the 120-volt pump failed. It didn't. Jerry's only comment was, "I'm sixty-five years old, and I've never lost a ship. I wasn't about to go down in SLATER's whaleboat." And he made it back up the Jacob's ladder okay. On Monday August 17th, we made the final preparations for the arrival of the historic fireboat JOHN J HARVEY. Part of the planning included having Dennis Nagi take the whaleboat out and meet the HARVEY. We thought it would be nice to have the one part of the SLATER that can get underway actually get underway. Dennis showed up about 1030 to get the whaleboat ready, but low and behold, Roy Gunther and Larry Rockwood had beat him to it by an hour. They had just checked out the engine and headed over to the Albany Yacht Club fuel dock to fill her up with diesel. I hadn't paid much attention to the time as there was a lot going on, but around noon, Dennis mentioned that the boat had been gone an awfully long time, and was nowhere in sight. Now I started to worry. In this day of instant communication between continents, we had a boat out with no radio or cell phone, because it never ventured out of sight of the mother ship. I suggested that they might have gone down river to Scarano's Boatyard to show the whaleboat off and look around. Dennis gave them a call, and no one knew anything about our whaleboat. Another thirty minutes passed and the County Sheriff's boat went by with the Albany Police Boat nearby. I flagged them down and casually mentioned that there was probably no problem, but if they happened to spot our whaleboat while on patrol, I'd like to know where those guys were. Rocky and Roy aren't the type to park at the Riverfront Bar and Grill and drink lunch. I was up in the office when fragmented reports started coming in. Rocky appeared briefly in the gift shop to get his car and go back to Scarano's to pick up Roy. The boat was stuck at Scarano's. Rocky brought Roy back and Roy took off. Rocky called his wife and he took off. All I knew was Rocky and Roy were gone and the boat was at Scarano's. Doug Tanner, who always happens to be in the wrong place at the right time, was there that morning, a Monday, rigging the accommodation ladder. He volunteered to take Dennis and his truck down to Scarano's to find out what the story was. About thirty minutes later Doug was back without Dennis. Yes, the boat was at Scarano's. It wouldn't start. Electrical problems. They had flagged the HARVEY down, and HARVEY was towing the whaleboat upriver to us. Just about the time Doug finished with his report, the HARVEY appeared down river, plumes of water shooting from all her fire nozzles, making her usual grand entrance. There, behind, in tow, the large American flag flying proudly from her stern sheets was our whaleboat. At the tiller was Professor Dennis Nagi gritting his teeth as he was soaked by the HARVEY's spray. The HARVEY made her approach promptly at 1400. We pulled the whaleboat around to the portside and got the HARVEY secure. When they got around trying to diagnose the problem, they went through the whole electrical system. They ended up pulling the starter apart and surprise, it was full of rust! Remember how we flooded the whaleboat! Maybe that had something to do with the problem. Anyway Roy Gunther took it home, did a cleaning and overhaul and got it running again within a week. That summer, Doug Tanner and the SLATER's shipfitters made a couple important improvements to the whaleboat. First, they fabricated a new steel coxswain's stand that is much sturdier than our original. Second, and most important to the boat crews, we fabricated an aluminum accommodation that was rigged on the port quarter to allow easier access to the whaleboat. The days of the Jacobs ladder are now history. The 2004 season ended for the whaleboat on Saturday the 23rd of October. This was the first time we were without the help of several key volunteers, notably Hack Charbonneau, Frank Beeler, Bob Lawrence and Dave Floyd. This was the first year we were actually able to get the boat underway and motor around from the port quarter to the falls on the starboard side. Roy Gunther brought the boat around for the last run of the season. We had a good crew turn out including all the shipfitters, Tim Benner, Doug Tanner, Chuck Teal, Rocky Rockwood, Chris Fedden, Gene Jackey, Barry Witte, Stan Murawski, Ron Mazure, and Erik Collin. The evolution is always an adventure. Years ago, I read an account of how the old four piper bosun's used to handle the boats by fair leading the falls forward to the anchor windlass, because they had so few men. Being familiar with the double drum boat winches in the FLETCHERS AND GEARINGS, I remember thinking, "What an ungodly complicated nightmare that must have been." For once, I was prophetic. Here we were again, rigging the falls forward to the capstan and taking turns around like we did last year. The boat never seems to come out of the water evenly, and every year we are faced with the problem of holding one fall still while we take in on the other. This is not an easy task when two tons of boat is hanging off the falls, and both of them are wrapped around the same capstan. I vaguely remember spending a day in nautical science class learning about how to make and use the "rattail stopper," but my memory of the subject was quite vague and I left it to Doug Tanner to put a hitch on the fall we wanted to hold. All the old bosuns I questioned on how to hold one fall and raise the other said, "Hell, just tell the 25 sailors on the aft fall to hold fast, and tell the 25 sailors on the forward fall to heave!" Every boatswain's mate I have ever known has always said, "Make sure you have three wraps around the winch. That makes it damn hard to surge one while holding the other, and the falls keep fouling each other on the drum. Army guy Chuck Teal had the idea of moving the double fairlead block to the pad eye on the hawse pipe cathead, and that gave us a more horizontal lead to the windlass and that seemed to help keep the lines from binding. The other answer turned out to be two wraps on the windlass, and the third wrap around a bitt. That made it a whole lot easier to hold one and slack the other when the time became necessary. And finally, it's important to remember to swing the boat in while it is still eight inches from being two blocked. Otherwise the aft davit guy won't clear the rudder head. Swing her in most of the way, two block her, swing into the chocks, and drop her down. If you're a retired Chief Boats, this may make sense. If it doesn't make sense, I don't give a damn, because it makes sense to me now. I only hope it still makes sense when I'm rereading this next October when I'm trying to figure out how to do it again. Maybe pictures will help. Once we had the boat secure, Stan Murawski got out his pressure washer and pressure washed the bottom to remove all the marine growth and grunge while it was still soft. Roy and Rocky got the gear out of the boat and winterized the engine in short order. Which makes us stop in awe and admiration. Doing this evolution twice a year in the flat calm Hudson, and taking an hour to do it, makes one realize just how tough and skilled the whaleboat crews had to be in years gone by. Our deepest admiration goes out to any of you who ever had to launch a whaleboat at sea from a pitching deck, leave the safety of the ship to recover a pilot, survivors, wreckage, or a man overboard, and then come back alongside the crushing hull, hook up the Raymond release hooks and hoist her back aboard. I can't imagine an evolution at sea more dangerous that didn't involve the enemy actually shooting back at you. Must have been a lot of bruised knuckles and worse. Here on the SLATER we do what we can to keep the memory of their technology, effort and sacrifice alive.
|
