50 Years Ago - Mullinnix In Her 1st Extensive Drydock Period

Excerpt from “The Last Gun Ship - History of USS Mullinnix DD-944” - A Historical Novel By Frank A. Wood

She had calm seas the rest of the journey (from the Med). At 0623 on a the 26th with a morning sky that was a clear pale blue above a narrow smudge of grey clouds, the Captain ordered the stationing of the navigation team. The special sea and anchor detail was set 29 minutes later. Anticipation grew as the ship slipped past Thimble Shoals Light abeam to starboard 720 yards. Then past Fort Wool at 0816 followed by Sewalls Point at 0831. By 0840 she was maneuvering to go alongside pier 20 (starboard side, berth 201 in a nest with Stormes and Lowry) at Destroyer-Submarine piers, amidst the cheering crowd of family and friends.

The captain secured the special sea and anchor detail at 0905 and set the regular in port watch. Before the top of the hour, RADM H. G. Knoll, COMDESFLOT 4, paid an official visit on COMDESRON 32.

No rest for the weary. At 0505 the following morning the electrical load was shifted to the engineering diesel generators and shore power was secured. Underway on a dead plant, with the assistance of YTB 536 and 222, Naval pilot Captain L. W. George guided the ship to W-1 anchorage at Hampton Roads, Virginia. The crew commenced to unload all 5”/54, 3”/50, small arms ammunition, hedgehogs, and other miscellaneous ammunition on board.

6 hours later, the crew had empty the ship of all explosives. With the guidance of Naval pilot Captain Rice and YTB 502 and 501, she headed to berth 30, pier 4, Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, Virginia. The next couple of weeks were for preparation for entering dry dock for the first time. After a new ship’s first significant voyage, it is common practice for her to enter into a rather short dry dock period to insure that everything is still shipshape and watertight.

The day had dawned wet and dreary. At 0650, Mullinnix was undertow from berth 30 in route for Dry Dock #4. By 0725 her bow had passed over the still. The crew was somewhat in awe as a vast majority of them had not sailed through the Panama Canal in their careers. With the caisson in place, shipyard personnel began pumping water out of the dry dock. Slowly but surely, the big ship settled onto the keel blocks until, at 1306, she was completing out of water. A strange site indeed, to see your ship out of water - literally.

With the ship on the blocks the focus was in preparation to receive wave after wave of shipyard workers. These workers would inspect, test, repair, re-inspect, and fix anything and everything that needed it. A near-new ship arriving would leave as a brand new one in short order. Everyone headed to their regular duty stations.

In route to his duty station, FTG2 Howard McGee stepped in the mess decks for some coffee. Pulling two mugs from the collection, he poured them full of coffee that was nothing more than high-octane sludge and dumped five heaping spoons of sugar into his. Setting the other one in front of FTG3 Brian Smythe, “You didn’t want sugar did you?”

Smythe answered, “How do you drink that shit?”

“Gives me energy.”

“How much energy do you need to run preventive maintenance on a computer all day?”

“Good point.”

Though the crew remained berthed on the ship, during shipyard working hours, the ship took on a new and unusual look. Un-uniformed masses of humanity were everywhere, working on everything, acting like the crew were annoying gnats. There was no doubt, they had a plan and a schedule, but it was invisible to the crew. To most, they felt like they were working for civilians. A feeling that simply went against the grain.

To be continued...
Cheers,
Woody

NOTE: Next post will be on 9 May, when Mux comes out of drydock - or does she? Stay tuned...