budden@trout.nosc.mil (Rex A. Buddenberg) (10/01/90)
From: budden@trout.nosc.mil (Rex A. Buddenberg)
USCGC Ingham has just been added to the Patriots Point Naval and
Maritime Museum collection on north shore, Charleston, SC harbor.
She joins USS Yorktown, USS Laffey, USS Clangamore and SS(N) Savannah.
Museum has a phone: 1-800-327-5723. Ingham exhibit formally opens
with a reunion 15-19 October.
327s. The Coast Guard built seven cutters of 327 feet length in 1936.
The Alexander Hamilton was the lead ship; she was torpedoed and
sunk off Iceland in early 1942 so the class has been known as the
Campbell class since. Spencer was decomissioned in the mid-70s (?),
but the remaining five cutters remained on continuous active duty in Coast
Guard service until into the 80s with Ingham last to go at age 52.
The ships had 400 pound steam turbine propulsion plants which
were fairly bulky compared to the more modern 600 and 1200 pounders
common in Navy service, but they were dependable. Campbell's turbines
had been opened exactly once between commissioning in 1936 and decommissioning
in 1982 and she never failed to answer bells for me (1977-79).
All the 327s except Taney were on the Atlantic coast at beginning
of US involvement in WWII. Campbell was the first of the cutters
to be 'chopped' to the Navy for convoy escort service -- several months
before Pearl Harbor. Taney was tied up in downtown Honolulu when
the Japanese arrived 7 December. Ingham, Duane, Spencer and Campbell
all sank at least one submarine during WWII.
Campbell's submarine attack occurred in spring 1943 -- caught one making
a night surface approach -- visual detection. XO had the conn, attempted
to ram, caught the submarine's bow in engine room (who's ramming whom??).
U-boat sank although several prisoners were taken in the process.
Campbell was dead in the water and nearly sank herself. Polish
corvette Pozna towed her in to Londonderry. Everything got patched
up and the ship lasted for 40 more years.
Ship construction has changed in the intervening years. Personal
anecdote. We pulled back into Port Angeles, Wa about Thanksgiving
1977 and the Radar Installation Team showed up a few days later to
install a brand new SPS-64 surface search radar. Last job
before Christmas break so the guys had incentive. We needed to
install one of the indicators on the bridge and didn't have a lot
of room to work with. So the DC in the party quickly made up a bracket
to mount the indicator on the forward bulkhead -- about as space-economical
as we were likely to get. When he went to arc-weld the bracket to
the bulkhead frames, the gent got something of a surprise: welder
just wouldn't work ... at any power setting. Finally scraped away
enough paint to discover that the entire forward bulhead on the bridge
was made out of brass!
The Campbell class went through a lot of evolution in installed
equipment over the years, but never quite ran out of space. And
they were the nicest riding cutters we've ever had in the inventory.
Rex Buddenberggeoffm@EBay.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller) (10/04/90)
From: geoffm@EBay.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller) In article <1990Oct1.022059.3143@cbnews.att.com> budden@trout.nosc.mil (Rex A. Buddenberg) writes: >327s. The Coast Guard built seven cutters of 327 feet length in 1936. >The Alexander Hamilton was the lead ship; she was torpedoed and >sunk off Iceland in early 1942 so the class has been known as the >Campbell class since. According to my copy of _The Coast Guardsman's Manual_ (1978 edition), the 327s are known as the Secretary Class, because they were named for past Secretaries of the Treasury. (Of course, considering the fact that this presumably authoritative book spells "alpha" A-L-F-A, maybe that should be taken with a grain of salt... :) If that really is the name of the class it's a bit confusing, since the 378s are also named after Secretaries of the Treasury. ----- >Spencer was decomissioned in the mid-70s (?), but the remaining five cutters >remained on continuous active duty in Coast Guard service until into the 80s >with Ingham last to go at age 52. I believe that the Spencer was used as a training aid for Reservists in Baltimore for several years after decommisioning -- my BM1 on the Morgenthau told me that this was the only surviving facility where MKs could be trained on steam plants. ----- >The Campbell class went through a lot of evolution in installed >equipment over the years, but never quite ran out of space. And >they were the nicest riding cutters we've ever had in the inventory. It was believed among we 378 types that the 327s didn't have much in the way of crew facilities, though: crowded berthing areas, no rec decks as such, etc. But since I never crossed paths with anyone who'd actually served aboard one, I couldn't confirm this. Miscellaneous questions: * How long did it take for these ships to "get up steam" prior to getting underway? * I seem to recall reading that two 327s were sunk as man-made reefs somewhere; the Florida Keys, I think. Does anyone know which cutters these were, and exactly where they were sunk? * What was their rated flank speed? * How was the general reliability of auxiliary machinery such as the heaters, water evaporators, etc. on such old ships? How much of this stuff was original equipment? * Is it true that the oldest ship in the Guard has gold hull numbers instead of black? I read that in _Sea Classics_ in an article about the Campbell's decommissioning, but I've never heard that anywhere else. The numbers sure looked black to me in the accompanying b&w photos. Geoff -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- Geoff Miller | "What can they do, stick me on a geoffm@purplehaze.sun.com | Big White One and send me to Alaska?" -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
cga66@ihlpy.att.com (Patrick V Kauffold) (10/08/90)
From: cga66@ihlpy.att.com (Patrick V Kauffold) > From: geoffm@EBay.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller) > > I believe that the Spencer was used as a training aid for Reservists in > Baltimore for several years after decommisioning -- my BM1 on the Morgenthau > told me that this was the only surviving facility where MKs could be trained > on steam plants. Spencer was decommissioned into "special status" for engineering training in 1974, and finally decommissioned in 1980. It was sold for scrap in 1981. > ----- > >>The Campbell class went through a lot of evolution in installed >>equipment over the years, but never quite ran out of space. And >>they were the nicest riding cutters we've ever had in the inventory. > > It was believed among we 378 types that the 327s didn't have much in the > way of crew facilities, though: crowded berthing areas, no rec decks as > such, etc. But since I never crossed paths with anyone who'd actually > served aboard one, I couldn't confirm this. > By current USCG habitability standards, they had much less space per person; racks (unstead of the semi-private bunks) in large open berthing areas. The older ships required a much larger number of crew to run all of the equipment, none of which was automated. Larger crew means more crowding. > Miscellaneous questions: > > * How long did it take for these ships to "get up steam" prior to getting > underway? >From "cold iron" it could be done in an emergency in about 1-2 hours (not recommended); 8 hours would probably do it with no "extraordinary" measures. Normal practice in port is to maintain a status which lets you get underway in some specific number of hours; B-4 meant that you kept machinery warmed up to the point that you could be underway in 4 hours. > * I seem to recall reading that two 327s were sunk as man-made reefs > somewhere; the Florida Keys, I think. Does anyone know which cutters > these were, and exactly where they were sunk? Duane was sunk as a reef in 1987; Campbell was sunk as a target in 1984. Locations unknown to me. > * What was their rated flank speed? Max sustained is 19.5 knots for 3640 miles. Economic 10.5 knots, 9,100 miles. > * How was the general reliability of auxiliary machinery such as the heaters, > water evaporators, etc. on such old ships? How much of this stuff was > original equipment? Considering the age of the basic equipment, pretty reliable. Most of the auxiliary equipment which could be upgraded was replaced (several times) over the life of the ship; e.g., motors, pumps, compressors, valves. Large items (like generators) could be re-wound or otherwise rebuilt. Boilers and condensers were re-tubed. Reefer equipment was replaced. Much of the machinery was maintained as "original" as long as parts were available (evaporators), but even these have limits, and there were replacements. The 327s had an excellent record of "availability". While these ships (and the 255's) were doing weather patrols, they were in a fairly forgiving cycle of use - 30 days on station, 60-90 days in port. This allowed the snipes lots of time to keep the gear maintained in good condition between patrols, plus on weather station you were making minimum speed and could overhaul some equipment while underway. When they were deployed to WestPac and had to sustain ops for longer periods, at higher speeds, with more gunfire and bad weather, the rates of failure escalated considerably. Gunfire vibration caused a lot of failures in structures and mountings, pipes, valves, electrical connections. It was like having someone with arthritis and hardening of the arteries run a triathlon instead of the liesurely walk around the block. > * Is it true that the oldest ship in the Guard has gold hull numbers instead > of black? I read that in _Sea Classics_ in an article about the Campbell's > decommissioning, but I've never heard that anywhere else. The numbers > sure looked black to me in the accompanying b&w photos. Never heard this one myself. Pat Kauffold AT&T Bell Labs Naperville