Hehe, Nice one
My wife’s uncle was on the USS Indianapolis, called the Sway-back Maru, but never by anyone on the Indy.
Speaking of painting out certian letters on the stern. . .we in the USCG,would put CG bumper stickers on them.
The Navy hated that,especially the sub boys!
Don
Don;
During a stint in Hamilton they (Navy) brought in two of the new MCDV’s (Coastal Defence Vessel’s) and somebody had the bright idea to tie them up stern to stern for the re-commissioning and opening ceremony of the newly built Naval Reserve Station or Stone Ship HMCS Star… well being a ground pounding squaddie (Army) my section and I were giggling like little school girls when they backed into one another with a heavy thud and large splashes of water.
We were invited aboard to the various mess decks (Pub/Bar/Watering Hole) and while onboard we took it upon ourselves to hang bright yellow STUDENT DRIVER placards off the sterns of each and we even provided a ground guide kitted out in full reflective gear giving hand signals for their departure.
Oh what fun!!!
Cheers;
Gregory
USS Constellation (CV64): Constipation USS FDR (CV42): Rusty Rosie USS GUADACANAL (LPH7) Guadalcaditch or The Ditch USS HANCOCK (CVA19): Hand Job
I can’t swear to it but I believe that HMS Invincible and HMS Illustrious are known as “Vince” and “Lusty”.
Of course HMS Penelope was “Pennyloap” and Antelope, “Antellopee”.
Michael
Okay another story.
While flying around the Straits of Juan de Fuca in the trusty HH52 we chanced upon some Canadian vessels practicing underweigh refueling and such. So we loitered a bit to watch. . .man the fun began as a ship the “Battle Axe” began to clear decks and move away from the others. (Being aviators we were impressed that ‘boaties’ could move so fast as we had never seen that before on our vessels), Soon we heard in a thick Canadian accent of British decent; “Aircraft in need of assistance you have a clear deck!”
We were all looking for an aircraft in trouble and soon realized they were talking to us. When we told them we were not in need of assitanceThe huffy reply was “In the Canadian Armed Forces when an aircraft wishes to land they lower the landing gear”
To which our pilot answered, “Our gear is up as far as it will go, She’s old but reliable.”
“Then you yanks need to buy better aircraft.” he came back.
Luckily our pilot was an admirals son and said: “We will, when you stop naming your ships after your mother in law.”
Another international event stopped by the USCG.
Don
I almost forgot the Kitty Hawk,aka Shi**y Kitty.
Hey Don, do you know I actually have hours in an HH-52A???
We had one at the museum, she arrived completely pickled. We wangled a few deals to get the paperwork signed over to us on a permanent basis (not just a loan), and we promptly unpickeled her. We flew her until maintenance costs exceeded our operating budget, then we put the old girl on static display. I fired her up a few times at our annual airshow.
I’ll post some pics tonight when I get home.
Jeff
LOL that’s ironic, a Canadian lecturing Americans on using old equipment! [:-^]
The 3 Boats I served on all had nicknames. Lafayette was the “Laugh a lot”, The RE Lee was the “Bobby Lee” and the Bang had a few nicknames that are not fit for this forum!!! I’ll never forget my Dad’s surprise upon discovering my 1st Submarine was to be the USS Bang… He thought it was a strange name for a Submersiable… I always liked her nicknames better…LOL
The Naultilus was called “Rickovers Barge” or the USS Neversail…
The Spadefish was called “Aces” And my buddy who was aboard the 2nd Seawolf called her “Lobo”
Some boats like the San Francisco are nicknamed their hull numbers like 7-11 etc. I’m willing to wager that the Submarine Service had many more nicknames for their boats than the skimmers did.
USS Columbus CG-12 was often referred to as “the clumbsy bus”.
The Kennedy- Belknap incident was responsible for the creation of the fourth class (Class Delta) of fire. Aluminum, being in the same family as magnesium, will burn, when the ignition temperature is high enough. Like magnesium, water will not put the fire out!
I’m reading Patrick O’brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series (for the third time). I’m on the 4th book, The Maurtius Command. One of the frigates is named “Magicienne”. Not really a knickname, but I like it…the french spelling.
HMS Agamemnon was always Called the “Eggs And Bacon”
Must have been after the movie…:-] We knew her as the Sh**y Shang in the late 60s/early 70s.
Al Ross
In the early 1950s, my Dad was CO of PC1168, which was nicknamed USS TEAKETTLE. Just before he took command, the ship had been used in a comedy (“They’re in the Navy Now”, I think) about an attempt to fit an experimental steam turbine in a diesel-powered vessel. If memory serves, it starred Eddie Albert.
Al Ross
I scraped up a few more off the bottom of my boondockers and would like to share them, too.
USS: Ronald Reagan- The Gipper, Teddy Roosevelt- The Big Stick, Antietam- Auntie M,
Nimitz- Numbnutz, Oklahoma City- Broklahoma City, Harry S Truman- Hairy *ss Truman,
Arleigh Burke- Always Broke
HMAS Tobruk-“toobroken”, HMAS rustoleum.
Ship nicknames:
I did 2 floats on the USS Okinawa,Sept 85-Jan 86, and the forever float Sept 87-Aug 88 around the world cruise. She was an old ship. Her nickname was the " USS “Brokeinawa”. She had a bent screw shaft as the story goes. When she got up to speed (for her) it shook the hell out of the ship.
Ferg
I was on the Oklahoma City ( CLG 5 ) back in 64,65 and 66. We used to call her “the Okkie Shi**y”.We went out for speed trials and on the fantail the vibration was so bad that my vision got blurry . The vibration caused a leak to develope around the rudder shaft and we had to head back to port for repairs. As i remember she got up to 28 knots.
I was a signalman on a fleet oiler, the USS Passumpsic, in the late '60s, and as you old salts know, the probe on the end of a refueling hose looks a lot like a, well, you know. So, the Passumpsic was known by the crew as the “Pissy P”. And, since we dealt primarily in what the navy called POL (petroleum, oil, and lubricants), we crew members referred to ourselves as POLcats. I remember the signal gang had a made-in-Hong Kong flag featuring a likeness of Flower, the skunk from “Bambi” (run up on special occasions), and I’d swear that there was also a painted picture of the same skunk on both sides of the signal shack Of course, as is the Navy way, all good things must come to an end, and a new CO made us get rid of the flag and paint over the skunk, telling us that it was bad for morale for the crew to refer to themselves as smelly mammals–like we didn’t already know that we were at the end of the line.