After I left the USS Forrestal (CV-59) I received orders to this little beauty. I want to stress little here. The Forrestal was 1,067 feet in length with a 252 feet beam (width) and displaced 81,000 tons. When I reported aboard in January 1983 the USS Samuel Eliot Morison (FFG-13) I found her to be 453 feet in length with a 45 feet beam and displaced 4,100 tons. She was tiny! I soon found she was also a vomit producing machine!!! I can't adequately describe that feeling, but for the ladies it is similar to morning sickness...or any motion sickness. I stood watch on the ship's bridge as helmsman and ship's navigation plotter/recorder. I had to tie a plastic trash bag to my belts for emergency use; and that is not all. It would get so bad that I actually had to lie on the deck between the times that I was required by duty to perform some action. Once, the Commanding Officer cussed at me for being lying down on the job. He had stepped on me as he was looking at the plot (the chart showing the ship's positions and future track) and firmly ordered me to brief him. However, the Captain soon change his mind when he witnessed the employment of the trash bag. I don't want you to think that is the only experience I took from this ship. I would have to say that she had some of the best chow I ever had (plus some of the worst...we ate chicken for nearly every meal for 30 days due to a budget problem. Have you ever had creamed chicken & toast?) and she had some of the nicest berthing spaces (think cruise ship room, but for 60 people). The Morison was quick...as quick as my Mustang is from 0-60 only in ship terms. She could accelerate so fast that you could feel g's. Her official top speed is listed as 29+ knots (knot = 1.15 mph). Well, she produced 41 knots at builders trials before they added the sonar dome. After that she could still push into 38 knots territory if the engineers over rode the shaft torque limiters in "Battle override" mode. She wasn't the first ship that I sailed into "harms way" with, but she was the first that I faced a enemy at close had. The was during "Operation Urgent Fury" off the Island of Grenada in the Caribbean Sea. Apparently the Cubans artillery could reach out and touch us and almost did! I departed the Morison in June 1984 (I was in the middle of the Persian Gulf cruise) after I received orders to the USS Hunley (AS-31). I will post some photographs of the USS Samuel Eliot Morison (FFG-13) in company with the USS Saratoga (CV-60). We were on our way to the Middle-east during foul weather. I just wanted you to get the sense of the size difference. The Saratoga was the same size as the Forrestal.
We were refueling at sea during these photos. QMSN Langenberg and I were the Master Helmsmen that day. It was very difficult to keep a heading when a huge wave would pick the ship up and set it down 3 to 10 degrees off course...yet as Master Helmsmen we were required to keep the ship within 1/2 of a degree at all times. Yeah...right!
Let us see if any of the ship's Officers can do it!
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