Living Spaces and Daily Life

Some of the areas of the ship that interest me most are what I consider to be living spaces. The way I define a "living space" is some compartment where crewmen would spend what down time they had when not at general quarters or on duty section. The Massachusetts was almost always underway with at least a full complement of crew. After the Battle of Casablanca and being assigned to patrolling the North Atlantic, she underwent a refit to increase the size of her anti-aircraft battery and was transferred to the Pacific Fleet. More AA means more crew to run it, and that meant that she had to have more racks put in to accommodate the increase in crew size. After the aforementioned refit, she was carrying more men than she was originally designed to. My point with this mini-narrative is that she was FULL of people. That leaves very little in the way of hangin' out space. On the "Gator-Navy" carrier I served on (USS Tarawa), we were crammed in pretty tight with all our fellow Marines and the sailors, though not nearly as tight as the Massachusetts' crew. On our ship, guys spent their down time in berthing sitting on racks, in passageways, on catwalks, the hangar deck, or on the mess deck. BB-59 doesn't have anything approaching the actual deck space of even a Gator Carrier (small by carrier standards), so I had to make a few educated guesses. Here we go.

This was taken up in Marine berthing on the Massachusetts. I once took a short nap in this berthing space that my fellow Marines of yesteryear occupied. Notice the proximity of the racks to each other. There is an order of desirability to each level in a stack of racks. If you have first pick (from seniority or sheer timing - i.e. you got there first), there is some thought that goes into your choice. The bottom sucks, because you end smelling everyone's nasty boots. Having been through the South Pacific and equatorial regions on a ship, I can tell you that folks' boots do smell pretty bad. The second from the bottom is my favorite for two reasons: ease of entry/exit, and you're not at head level where people talking near you are right in your face when you're trying to sleep. The selling point for the third one up is that although there are people conversing next to your face, those same people are also farting and scratching themselves near the face of the guy on the second rack up. Since farting happens less frequently than talking, I prefer the second, but that's just me. The top rack avoids all forms of human emission (talking or otherwise), but it's a royal hassle to get in, plus you tend to wake folks up during your midnight trip to the head. Berthing is tight. 'Nuff said. Also, notice that long tube in the center of the shot that opens up toward the deck. That is an air vent. More on those later.

This is the berthing area for the ordinance folks in the aft part of the ship at the end of broadway. I really like the gear stowed on the racks along with the blankets, etc. I don't know, but I'm guessing there were more racks stuffed in here originally.

Just for fun, I thought I would post the junior officer quarters. This is an actual room with eight bunks. These are the Ensigns, Lieutenant JG's, and they sleep with a sink, mirror, and private entrance. These spaces are referred to as state rooms, not berthing. I had to visit a major or two while aboard ship, and I can tell you that they sleep, at max, two per ward room, and they get such amenities as a desk and drawers.

The Task Force commanding officer, an Admiral, got these luxurious accommodations. It includes a private head (bathroom) with shower, and a large conference room with couches and port holes to look out of. The Flag officer living quarters of the ship I was on were like staying at a motel. TV, stationary bike, couch, large desk, carpet, etc. It floored me when I saw it, but hey, he has to go down with the ship, right?


The mess deck. That round bulkhead in the center of the shot is the barbett for the #3 turret. The beginning of the port side chow line is on the left in this shot. That ladder leads up to the main deck. Back behind the ladder in the color picture is a hatch(hard to see here) that leads to what used to be the extension of the mess deck where the enlisted crew sat down to eat (those seats around the barbett were likely for early or late chow). With the lines what they are for chow, I'm guessing that the crew spent a fair amount of time here, when not defending the ship from attacking aircraft, bombarding shore installations, or lobbing death upon enemy ships.

An example of an enlisted head. One shower at the back, on the right. The thinking man takes care of business when everyone else is sleeping. Shower at midnight (if you're not on night watch), but water rationing and combat probably limited how often they got to take showers. You have to be careful about hygiene on a ship though, because once disease sets in with a few, it spreads very quickly in such a compressed situation. When the health of the men in a unit takes a dive, morale, then unit effectiveness takes an even bigger dive.



Broadway. Long, straight passageway leading from the bow to the aft of the ship. It's about 3 decks down from the main deck. A lot of traffic here I'm sure, which made it a likely spot to bump into a buddy from another division and get news or trash talk. Look hard; broadway goes even further back than these shots show, as there is a z-bend in the middle.

Where all the sick-call commandos hang out. Medical is all the way at the end of broadway, and that's the #2 barbett on the right.

This is an air conditioning vent. This is like gold in the central and south pacific. Fights develop over these things. Typically, the vent in your compartment is usually branched off of a air line that is shared by several other compartments. If you modify your vent by enlarging it, or opening another vent in the section of the line that goes through your compartment, the air pressure in all the vents after your drops - big time. We punched a huge additional hole in our air vent line, but our neighbors in the ordinance dept got no air, so they sent their Gunnery Sergeant over to chew our buts and order us to seal up the hole.

Everybody needs a haircut from time to time. Most Marines I knew just got a haircut from one of the guys in their unit who happened to know how to cut hair. This type of facility was mainly for sailors. Funny thing is that the guys who "worked" in the barber shop were just other guys who knew how to cut hair (sort of). I would never trust anybody that cut my hair to give me a shave with a straight razor. Fuhgettaboutit.

Food prep area. Most units on a ship have to cough up a guy each month to work in some area of the ship that sucks to work in. Usually service related, like laundry, the mess deck, or supply. You haul stuff, stack stuff, and handle nasty food prep related duties... even haul and dispose of trash. The last one is really nasty. Here's where guys had to peel potatoes. I had to work on the mess deck when my unit pimped me out to ship's company. The chief messman loved to screw the Marines he got sent, but I made some good friends on the mess deck that made sure I was fed a lot of the time when good food got scarce. Great guys. Shared suffering builds really strong bonds.

This catwalk is behind the port side 5" gun battery. It always feels to me like a place I would hang out on my down time, especially when the ship is hitting speeds in the high 20 knots range. You can quickly get to the mess deck from here, officers go the opposite direction to get to their quarters, and there's a great view of the water and other ships.

It would be great to ask one of the vets who still volunteer on the ship where they spent their down time. If I find someone who'll tell me, I'll post it here.