Being a Navy Deep Sea Diver....

Yeah, it's true....from '77-'87, I was in the Navy. I'll be writing more on the subject here later, but for now: I started out fixing nuclear ballistic and fast-attack submarines in Guam, then became a Navy Diver. You know, the old, "John-Wayne" Hard-Hat suit? The lead weightbelts and the lead boots? That's the one. That was a cast-iron SOB to qualify in, and when you finished a 3 hour dive in the mud and climbed up that 20-foot high ladder at low tide, you know you'd done an honest day's work.

Mud? Yeah. MUD. When lay-people think of Deep Sea Diving, they think of coral reefs and playing with the dolphins and turtles. I know, I did too, once.... They don't tell you it's all about mastering your fears in damn dangerous situations in water you can't see your own hands in. Mud. Chocolate Pudding. Nothing but Dark and Scary.

I've had some time to actually play on the Net lately, looking into old hobbies and interests. I found a bunch of cool web pages devoted to Navy Diving of all kinds, and for keeping in touch with old shipmates. People ask me about diving stuff all the time, so I decided to reprint the story of the only underwater propeller change on an aircraft carrier ever done. It's a perfect example of how divers have to work smarter and not harder in order to get the job done AND stay alive. Before I post the original word-for-word story, I'll set the stage with a few details the official publications left out ;-)

Just one more story in the journey of my life.... right place, right time. The facilities are all closed now, but in the Spring of 1983, I was stationed in the Diving Locker of the repair vessel (read Floating Repair Factory) USS Hector, AR-7. Only 8 of us, but we covered all the daily diving workload for 8 different Navy and Civilian Shipping Centers in the San Francisco Bay area. Watching an aircraft carrier return from a 9 month deployment wasn't THAT rare, but we always watched anyway. Along with a big Navy band and 1000's of dependents and several live TV News Cameras, we all watched as the USS Enterprise CVN-65 wound it's way thru the Bay Shipping Channels, reared it's bow up out of the water, and came to a rest about 1/2 mile from their docks.

The Enterprise draws 50' of water from the surface of the Bay to the bottom of the lowest propeller blade. The Bay is only 30' deep on average. Ergo, the Navy dug big channels in the mud about 60' deep to accommodate the big ships' movements. Keep the 3+ football fields of steel and neutrons between the dotted lines and all is well... miss one turn, and it's an Official OOPS. What the News never got wind of was that the Enterprise was entering the Bay on only 2 of it's 4 propellers, AND one of it's big rudders wasn't working properly. After 9 months of 24 hour flight and sea operations, things break. Murphy's Law is waiting around every tired blink, and with the home docks in sight, Mr. Murphy blows a steam line in one of the Engineering spaces, causing loss of driving force on the outboard propeller just as Big Enterprise was entering a major turn in the channel. Fortunately, the bottom if the Bay really is just mud, and the huge ship actually rode right thru the turn and up on the mud-bank of the channel and came to a dead stop.

It was right out of a Monty Python skit: The smart guys in charge literally lined up all available 6,000 sailors on the port (left) side of the ship. They moved all the airplanes they could over to the port side. They scrounged 11 big tugboats, and hooked them up to the port side as well. Then they waited for the next high tide, and on the count of 3, the Enterprise popped out of the mud bank like a champagne cork out of a hot bottle. I really would like to get some of the news footage from that event... The Big E pulls into port 9 hours late, but wives find husbands and the homecoming reunions commence. And all the Navy Big Shots breath a big sigh of relief, as grounding a naval Vessel has been a big No-No since the old days. But, no harm, no foul, THIS time, right??????

So. Whist all the reunions went on and 6,000 sailors and airmen were welcomed home, we got a quiet workorder slipped into our already-heavy work schedule. Go down, swim the entire hull of the Big E with underwater video cameras, and confirm no hull damage. OK, lot of surface area, but a pretty straight forward job. Start at the pointy end, swim down to the keel, and swim up to the surface on the other side. Move down 6 feet, repeat as necessary until you've covered 3 football fields. 52 degree water, heavyweight wet suit, lead weights, video equipment, 2 knot current. Serious 4 hour shifts, 2 divers per shift, 2 shifts a day, every diver dives every day. Muscle cramps you can't imagine. BUT, for the big shots, everyone had a warm fuzzy, knowing their careers were safe. Video of the entire ship showed nary a paint smudge as the Bay really DID have a mud bottom. Everyone partied, right up until the video footage started to surface from the very last propeller... and there it was. The Bay bottom may be mud, but the Big E is the Big E: As the ship came to a rest on the channel mudbank, the weights and pressures involved had turned the 34 ton, 24' diameter, hand crafted, computer balanced, manganese bronze propeller into a 17' diameter bronze pinwheel.

This was a singular event in Navy history, and it was fun being a little worker-bee while all the big shots started sweating their gold braid off. As the word circulated, the USS Hector Diving Officer, the Repair Boss, the XO, then CO, then the Big E CAG Officer, then CO, then the Fleet Admiral- all wanting to see our blurry underwater video and asking the same thing. "Are you SURE????" "Yes Sir, I'm Sure. If you were qualified, I'd take you down to see for yourself, but since you're not, you'll just have to take our word for it... we're SURE."

Remember, this is Cold War Time. The Ruskies were still the Ruskies. A NAVY-BLUE message goes out where ever they all go. 'Enterprise is down for the count. Massive propeller must be replaced. No available drydock of required size available anywhere for unscheduled repair of this scale. No replacement carrier available impacting all aspects of next scheduled carrier deployment.' From a little room in the Pentagon, word reverberates throughout the US Navy Diving Community: CAN IT BE DONE? And, since Hell would freeze over if the Ruskies found out, CAN IT BE DONE WITHOUT ANYONE KNOWING????

What follows is the official US Navy article written 20 years ago, in the official US Navy Diving publication called FACEPLATE. Click the NEXT button below to scroll thru the 11 chapters of this story, AND for some unpublished updates to the "Official" story ;-)

WebMasterBruce