loading ammunition on naval ships

Both,  plus anchored with a lighter alongside

Of course, while docked and serviced by the dockside crane. 

The US Navy perfected underway replenishment (Unrep) during WWII.   While originally it was just fuel, by late in the war supplies and ammunition were transferred while underway.   Definately by Korea.   I have a set of photos showing my father's ship, a WWII era attack transport, highlining 500 pound bombs to a carrier.

Also ships would go to a protected anchorage and have a weapons lighter come alongside.  The ammo would be manhandled aboard & stowed.  This would likely be done more for the lighter stuff -- 5-inch and smaller.   Although on larger ships the boat or plane handling cranes could handle the heavy stuff.

In today's Navy, bombs, rockets, beans, and mail are all delivered via helicopter to the deck of the receiving ship while underway via Vertrep (vertical replenishment)

Thank You for the information.  Hank  Support the troops  Garry Owen

While assigned to USCGC VIGOROUS, a 210' WMEC, we made a trip to the Earle Naval Weapons Station in NJ to offload ammo prior to our 1988 yard period.  We tied up at a very long pier.  A USN railroad switching locomotive spotted a 50' boxcar on the track.  There was no crane, all 3"/50, .50 caliber, and small arms ammo was off loaded by our crew forming a bucket brigade.  Being the senior Damage Controlman, I was in charge of a ready fire party consisting of myself, the DC2 that worked for me and a non rate.  We had both of the installed fire pumps running and a fire hose laid out and charged as a precaution. 

 

During Vertrep, the ship will have at least one charged fire hose manned by a fire party near the Vertrep landing zone.  The fire party will have between 3-8 people in it.

Back in my day, we would do the weps vert rep on the fantail with at least one P-16 firetruck and crash crew, including myself, on stand by and that was mainly in case one of the helos crashed on deck. If any of the weps were involved, we had a "fair" amount of time before any would cook off. Plenty of people to man hoses and the flightdeck sprinkler system could always be activated. Here's a wepons onload on the Midway back in the late 80s.

   Eddie

   My first unrep, started at zero dark thirty, and lasted til twenty dark thirty! Alongside for fuel, move to the AE and highline ammo, move to the AF and highline frozen goods etc. etc. five inch rounds(projectiles, 5" is semifixed) were hand carried one at a time, from the highline station to the magazine. My last unrep, some twenty years later, started at 08:30, and ended at 11:45, with everything struck below. NATO probe refuelling, and vertrep, eliminated the "move and re-rig", we took on fuel while vertrep was going on, on the fantail. We still handcarried five inch rounds, one at a time to the magazine. One of you cruiser guys can chime in on the art of underway eight inch rearming. My tour in USS Newportnews, CA-148, was too short to have experienced the joy of unrep. I do remember testing a rig for highlining missiles, but vertrep quickly made that rig unnecessary.

Don't forget to fly Romeo on the facing yardarms of ships UnRep-ing weapons--it's a subtle detail but worth it.

UnRep is a tough time to be on the Bridge, you are manoevering dangerously close to another ship--around 150' to 200' apart.  In any other navigation evolution that's pratically a collision (just ask the QM if a CPA of 50yds is "too close").

Manning the on-deck points is not much better.  It's a bit like working in a tire shop, though.  Not exactly rocket surgery--but it has to be done exactly right at the right time, every time. 

CapnMac, you are 100% correct on that CPA (closest point of approach), back in the olden days when I was a QM standing UNREP helmsman watch, I would steer using only my fingertips on the wheel near the hub. No more than one or two degrees of rudder ever. The highlines would tend to pull the ships together while at the same time the bow waves would try to push them apart. That was some intense driving! A CVN and an AOE are a couple of mighty large objects to be colliding at 15 knots.

subfixer wrote:

That was some intense driving! A CVN and an AOE are a couple of mighty large objects to be colliding at 15 knots.

Now, picture how much more fun that would have been in, oh, a County-class LST, with all of that bow "sail area" to set you off the rhum line.  On the Anchorage, that was not so bad, but you were "wide" for the shallow draft.  That, and we had the unique situation of being on both sides of "big boy" v. "little boy" (well deck a fun place in a contrary chop while playing musical chairs with landing craft).

I wish I saw more ships at the correct seperation in dios for that very reason--but, then the diorama gets real empty real quick, too.   

Wish we had more kits of workhorse like AOE and AOF and the like.   If only for the cool potential of dios with them in the center.

 

CapnMac82 wrote:

Wish we had more kits of workhorse like AOE and AOF and the like.   If only for the cool potential of dios with them in the center.

I built a JAG Sacramento for a former crewman.   It was a fairly simple build.   JAG outlined the position of all the deck machinery so that it was easy to locate the positions.   Some lead wire for the hoses looked good.   Fortunately I didn't have to do all the UNREP rigging.

JAG also makes a Cimmaron

.   It features the same engraved locating system as the Sacramento

Since the subject of un rep came up, I thought I'd share some of the photos I took back in my days in the USN.

   Eddie

For a fun unrep take your DD to the PORT side of an angle-deck carrier in a choppy sea.  The outboard corner of that angled deck comes real close to your main mast yardarms and radar antennas.  Our ship was the screen flag and the commodore always "volunteered" us for the port side.  Our skipper believed in the scheduled OOD doing the unrep.  About every third day you could find the JOs praying for an unrep time that DIDN'T include their watch.  Never scratched the paint.  The ship did have an unrep collision some years prior when it was still in the Atlantic fleet.  Tore up some splinter shield, railings and the Captain's Gig.  Glad it was before my time.

We had a steering casualty once that didn't allow for all the lines to be withdrawn in time. One line snapped and took a man's legs off. Very sombertime on the boat for a while after that.

eddie miller wrote:

Since the subject of un rep came up, I thought I'd share some of the photos I took back in my days in the USN.    Eddie

 

eddie those are some of the coolest pictures I have ever seen, The one with the three ships side by side really conveys the scale of the aircraft carrier and also the the other one that shows how small that cutter looks in the high chop.

Very cool pictures, eddie miller. Thanks for sharing. I especially like the one of the Perry class frigate with that HUGE wave breaking over it, glad I was not on the receiving end! Is that the Davis?  

Thank y'all very much! Yes, that's the Rodney B. Here are few more, but a bit lower in quality. The last one was my favorite. The on load of beer for Beer Day!

   Eddie

With all due respect for the many other fine topics, I vote thread of the month for this one, at least!

Great stuff, people.