Let's give a thank you to the Navy Snipes

[Boats]

I've often thought about the boy and girls who work in the bowls of the ship. This is their duty and they do it well.

I've had some pump stations below decks and when locked up in them I became a little claustrophobic. Manning those stations for 12 or 13 hours a day down in those damn cold areas with a head set on for all that time you kinda get into another world.

In my day not all spaces were air conditioned and a few of the lads died from heat exhaustion.

These snipes are not tanned like the rest of guys who worked the flight deck and during chow you could always spot a snipe. I really appreciate those hard working guys/gals (I say gals now but in my day no women were on board).

The ships today are totally air conditioned and plenty of fresh air is pumped in below decks to ensure a good environment for them.

My hats are off to you guys/gals I say you all did a fine job and are worthy of some atta boys or atta girls for your hard work.

[SparrowHawk62]

Snipes Lament
Now each of us from time to time, has gazed upon the sea.
And watched the warships pulling out, to keep this country free.
And most of us have read a book, or heard a lusty tale.
About the men who sail these ships, through lightening, wind and hail.

But there's a place within each ship, that legend fails to reach. It's down below the waterline, it takes a living toil-
A hot metal living hell, that sailors call the "HOLE".

It houses engines run by steam, that make the shafts go 'round.
A place of fire and noise and heat, that beats your spirits down.
Where boilers like a hellish heart, with blood of angry steam
Are of molded gods without remorse, are nightmares in a dream.

Whose threat that from the first roar, is life living doubt,
That any minute would with scorn, escape and crush you out.
Where turbines scream like tortured souls, alone and lost in hell,
As ordered from above somewhere, they answer every bell.

The men who keep the fires lit, and make the engine run.
Are strangers to the world of night and rarely see the sun.
They have no time for man or God, no tolerance for fear,
Their aspect pays no living thing, the tribute of a tear.

For there's not much that men can do, that these men haven't done.
Beneath the decks, deep in the holes, to make the engines run.
And every hour of every day, they keep their watch in hell,
For if the fires ever fail, their ship's a useless shell.

When ships converge to have a war, upon an angry sea,
The men below just grimly smile, at what their fate might be.
They're locked in below like men fore doomed, who hear no battle cry,
It's well assumed that if they're hit, the men below will die.

For every day's a war down there when the gauges all read red,
Twelve hundred pounds of superheated steam, can kill you mighty dead.
So if you ever write their sons, or try to tell their tale,
the very words would make you hear, a fired furnace's wail.

These men of steel the Public never gets to know
So little's heard about the Place, that sailors call the hole.
But I can sing about the place, and try to make you see
The hardened life of men down there, cause one of them is me.

I've seen these sweat soaked heros fight, in superheated air.
To keep their ship alive and right, though no one knows they're there.
And thus they'll fight for ages on, til steamships sail no more,
Amid the boiler's mighty heat and turbines hellish roar.

So when you see a ship pull out to meet a warship foe.
Remember faintly, if you can, the men who sail below.

author unknown

[Boats]

Whoever wrote that had to be a snipe. Good piece.

[SparrowHawk62]

Originally posted by Boats Whoever wrote that had to be a snipe. Good piece.

Glad you liked it.

I do have to defend my fellow Airedales. Why does it seem to everyone else that we had it easy? "These snipes are not tanned like the rest of guys who worked the flight deck..."
That tan did not come from lounging in the sun. Rather it came as a result of working 12 to 14 hours on deck. Moving birds, scrubbing the deck, on and on.
While in proper flight grear during flight operations we roasted too! In the IO when the temp on the norm was 85-90 the deck was well over the 100 degree mark. Walking on the cat tracks would melt the soles of your boots. Then we add the exhaust from the air craft. A mear few thousand degress, the guys in the hot suits would pour water out of their boots as a result of all the sweat that had collected.
Just my 2 cents worth.

[Boats]

On the line we worked almost 24/7 for days. Tired you laid down in the cat-walk and if cold you crawled into the back end of an F8 after they shut down.

Hot refuels on A4's through the hell hole was fun too. We did just about everything back then. Helped the O2 guys get set up and then the ordinance guys. Push bombs around and/or aircraft.

At night stand on bear cat watch and hot refuels. Go to the hangar bay and defuel or maintenance the equipment.

Later go below decks and check the pump rooms. Stand in chow lines for an hour eat in 5 min. and go again.

Up and down more ladders and hatches each day and you wonder why back then we were all so skinny.

Watched our planes come in all shot up and canope's blown off by sam's. The whole bottom of an aircraft was blown out. Most planes had wing holes or tail sections you could put your fist through.

Pilots flying back with part of their heads blown back by sams and still tough enough to bring in their planes - remarkable.

Guys blown over the side and others walking into props or being sucked into intakes. Wing tip cuts, your shin's alway were black and blue from hatches and tie downs. Walking off the deck into the catwalks is a real thrill too! I've done all of the above.

High speed 120% constant action - and went you weren't working you were on watch or unrep or refueling your escorts.

Those were the days

[BLUEHAWK]

Snipes?

Whence cometh such a word as "Snipes" Boats?

In the name of heaven, I have BEEN a Snipe myself at various times and places in this life.

[Boats]

Here's the Navy's definition:


SNIPES (n)
Engineering staff. (See black gang)

BLACK GANG(n)
The engineering staff aboard ship, (also called snipes). The term arose from the (mid-19th century) days of steamships propelled by coal, when all those working on or near the engines were perpetually covered with coal dust Most modern ships are powered by diesel fuel, and a few by nuclear engines.

[Boats]

Here's another for us Boatswain Mates:

BOATSWAIN (n)
This naval rating (pronounced "bosun") involves many varied duties. Abbreviated BM. The term originally meant the "swain" or keeper of the boats, and the maintenance and handling of the ship's boats is still charged to the boatswain and his apprentices. General ship's maintenance, cargo handling, refueling, line handling, etc., are the province of the boatswain. Sometimes called "deck apes". Several classifications of a Boatswain grew out of this title: I carried an ABF - Aviation Boatswain Fuels of which below deck work and tank stripping duties flurished along with aircraft fueling and pump room management. Other AB's had other chores.

[SparrowHawk62]

Boats, you don't know how many BM's I use to hang out with. They were really Navy! I became qualified to stand the Quarter Deck watch and earned the privilege to carry and wear my Bosun Pipe! I also help with the fancy work on the old man's barge. All came about when I helped out a bunch of BM's on the beach one day. We struck up a friendship that lasted till I got off the boat.
Now about those Flying Shit Hooks, or AB's! The rate is broken down into three major sub rates. ABH's who do the handling of aircraft both on the flight deck and in the hanger bay. If it moves on deck one of us is doing it! ABF's they take care of the fuel, pump rooms, on deck fuelings. ABE's they are the equipment guys, they take care of the cats and arresting gear and all related equipment that deals with it.
We are the knuckle dragging Airedales, the backbone of the air department, they guys who get em to fly!

[sn-e3]

While us deckapes only got agent orange exposure the poor snipes used to mix asbestoes to pack boilers and pipes without protection. alot of my snipe shipmates are now suffering and dieing from lung and liver cancer caused by asbestoes. while us deck ape only have diabetes and skin disorders seems no one was really safe as far a working areas. I pray the new ships are healthyier.