AP-11 / APA-5 Barnett

[frankmcneilll]

Go to: http://www.navsource.org/archives/10/03005.htm
She wasn't a steamer— propulsion was by diesel engines assembled by bolting eight two-cycle, single cylinder engines together in a row. There were two rows, one for each screw. Approximately four foot bore by six foot stroke, about ninety rpm max, started by compressed air introduced into some of the cylinders to get the others going. Reversal provided by starting the engines in reverse. There were originally two ships. The other one was torpedoed so all the spare parts were carried onboard. Barnett sank one vessel before I met her, a tug in San Francisco Bay. The only Barnett casualty was in a forward head with his pants down and was catapulted from the potty across a riveted deck. According to the "folklore" about his crash landing, stitches were required to repair the resulting skid marks.A large dent in the hull was not repaired. Instead, the forward head and ship's brig were sealed off from the rest of the ship.
I left her in Boston Harbor just before she went into "mothballs" that looked more like a really big spider had covered everything topside with a large web. I didn't get a medal, or ribbon, for my services as hash slinger, potato peeler, and superintendant of the one-man garbage disposal department.