by Bert Royster

As I recall it was around 1965, on a stormy sea, when the USS Ernest G. Small DDR 838 steamed down from the Tonkin Gulf for an “Unrep” (Underway Replenishment) for some ‘Beans & Gas’ from a Carrier Task Force that consisted of the USS Kersarge CVA 33 and several other ships. My Unrep duty station was at the 01 level Midships Highline. A noble view of my posterior can be seen (doing my job) in our ship’s 1964-1966 Cruise Book photo that accompanies this story…that’s my back side on the right side of the picture.

My job at the Midships Highline station was to secure any dangerous objects as they came aboard, such as a very big ‘pulley block’ called “The Hook”. It was a very large metal object, about 2 1/2 foot long, one foot wide and 1 1/2 foot thick. Thick cables were attached on either end and a hefty sized hook was attached to its bottom. It had two big metal rollers in it (shaped like a car’s tire rim) that rolled on the Highline Lead cable. To help people hold onto this large heavy metal object, handles made of two metal rods (about 1/2 inch in diameter) were welded on either side. The Hook was used to attach large nylon webbed nets (loaded with various types of cargo) for transfer from one ship to the other. To transfer a net load of cargo from the supply ship to our ship; First the Highline lead cable was made taunt, next The Hook carrying a net load of items was winched across (rolling along the highline lead cable), once the net was positioned over our deck the tension of the Highline lead was released, the load was gently (?) deposited aboard and the net with it’s cargo load dragged way…in preparation for it all to happen again.

At the Midships Highline station I would also help to secure other things, such as the pictured large metal cage that was used to transfer men back and forth between ships at sea. To secure items, I used a ¾” nylon line that was tied to a nearby bulkhead eyelet. Using that line made an object much less of a hazard to the men working on our station and would also keep something from possibly being accidentally pulled overboard…in case the two ships moved apart slightly as they traveled along side each other. Please note, in the same picture, there’s another of our crew holding what looks like a Ping Pong Paddle. That was used to send signals to the winch operator on the supply ship, who was the man that actually controlled the movements of The Hook and the Highline Lead tension. These signals included; ‘avast’ heaving (to not move The Hook in either direction), to loosen or tighten the tension on the Highline Lead Cable or to signal when we were ready for The Hook to be winched back to the supply ship. Lastly, as you can also see in the photo, our ships lifelines had been removed, which made it a dangerous place to work…especially in stormy seas!

When we joined the Task Force, the crew manned our Unrep stations and with Geno Schotte, Torpedoman Seaman manning the helm we lined up on a supply ship to start our day’s work. Schotte knew how to steer a fine line, even through there were large waves bouncing back and forth between our two ships…all went well. That is, until we took aboard our last load of ‘Beans & Such’, then commenced to secure our mid-ships Highline station.

To secure our Highline station, we needed to stuff all the large nylon cargo nets that had come aboard back into one net, for return to the supply ship. When that was done, The Hook (loaded with the nets) would winched back aboard the supply ship, the Highline Lead detached from its fitting (located directly over my head) and the work at our station would be over. When that was completed, we were scheduled to go cozy up to another supply ship and do another Unrep evolution. This type of Unrep work was something every one of us had done many, many times.

The problem began when the seas got a little rougher, while the last load of nets was being prepared for return, this caused the empty hook to swing around on our station.