In my 26 years in the Navy, I slept on all of the various types shown and they all had their advantages and disadvantages. I found in heavy weather the pipe racks were easier to stay in when the ship was tossing you around. But if you had a canvas rack and you ticked some on off, they would either slice the canvas or cut your ropes and the BMs were not about to give you new canvas or ropes to fix your rack in the middle of the night. You would have to find an out of the way space to put your mattress for the night and fix it in the morning. After a while people would just keep some extra line and canvas in their work spaces for emergency repairs. I did find the coffin racks to be the more comfortable racks for the majority of the time though some times someone would put super glue in your lock so you could not get dressed in the morning and you would have to get the Master at Arms to cut your lock and then you had to buy another to replace the cut lock.
I have slept on all three. I liked the canvas ones better and we had about 4 feet of small stuff which, when we were in port we kept taught and when we got underway or generally at sea, we would loosen them to form a dip in the canvas. Not a lot so as to keep from sleeping on top of the one below you, but a slight dip so that you could, in rough seas drape your leg over the isle side of the 4 inches between the racks and your arm around the stanchion and keep pretty well in place. Conversely, in a metal coffin, the whole mattress tended to slide off into the aisle. We had before the 1.5-inch mattresses, had what was called a "fart sack" over an oversized body pillow that was a mess and every once in a while we had to carry them topside to air them out. Why? I don't know, as it really didn't help the sweaty smell. When operating 4 and 4 on the Fram 2 Destroyer I was on, and not on working hours, would just climb out of the Holes (Yup, I am a SNIPE) and sleep on the main deck. Still remember the sailfish slamming into the bulkhead above us and landing on us and or flopping around on deck. Good days.
I was in the Navy from1964 to 1968 and was on a destroyer. All the enlisted slept in the pipe frame bunks with the canvas for springs. The ship was built in 1942 and was decommissioned in1974, and was highly decorated with many battle ribbons of different conflicts. I would do it again if needed, as it was a once in a lifetime experience that I enjoyed.
I volunteered for the Navy and volunteered for submarines. My first year on a submarine as an E-5, I shared two racks between three guys. AKA Hot Racking. One guy on watch, other two using the racks. Once you qualified in submarines (SS), you got your own rack. Lots of incentive to finish your quals rapidly.
Were you on an SSBN? I was on an SSN and only chiefs, first classes, key jobs, and lucky people got their own racks. I was lucky for a few underways but for the most part, I hot racked most of the time. However, I had a reputation for being one of the better smelling people on board and I had heard rumors people tried to bribe the rack bill writers to put me in their hot rack rotation.
@@FlipsyFiona I was on the USS Bremerton (SSN-698). With racks mounted in the torpedo room and people left in port for training, leave, “my wife she”….chits, or other in-port tasks, we had racks for all submarine qualified enlisted to have their own racks. Command policy was anyone E-6 and below that was not qualified hot-racked. I reported aboard as a nuke EM4 and got EM5 and (SS) and my own rack during the same week about 6 months later. To my knowledge, the only time submarine qualified personnel including everyone from the XO downward hot-racked, was on the day Admiral Hyman G. Rickover (only Rickover and CO got their own racks), his staff, plus the Executives, test engineers, and actual workers and builders from the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics and the remainder of the actual crew to her to so for the very first time on Alpha Trails. The only time I suffered the combined distinction of both hot racking AND having my racks strapped to a Mark 48 MOD 1 Torpedo loaded with 647 pounds of High Explosives.
Even on the SSBN's we were get 10 or more extra crew members. Lot's of hot racks. Later on they installed coffin racks in LL missile, which sucked for the juniors who lived there.
When I was still on active duty in the early 1970s as 2nd Class petty officer, my compartment in lower engineering on the USS Raleigh LPD-1 had about 50 guys sleeping in maybe 1300 ft of space. The racks were three High. When I left the Navy in later years and went into the Merchant Marine as an engineer, I had my own cabin with a TV with a built-in VCR and an easy chair , and to top it off my own head and shower in my cabin. In 1981 we were delivering cargo and I got the opportunity after meeting a couple of British Sailors at a local pub to tour the HMS Sheffield. They had four to a compartment and gas turbine propulsion. What a difference. The following year Sheffield went to the Falklands to war. I always wondered if those guys that were kind enough to give me the tour of their compartment and Engineering spaces survived the attack on their vessel by the argentinians.
My 92 year old Dad enlisted in the USN during the Korean War. He served on several vessels during the war. He used to tell us about his time on the battleship USS Missouri. He had a love/hate relationship with the Missouri, but he mostly loved it. He said that the food was great and it was like a floating city with an ice cream parlor, move theatre, and an on board store. What he hated were the sleeping conditions. They still had the pipe racks at that time and his was the top rack out of a stack of 4. Unfortunately, there was a steam pipe that ran along the ceiling just above his rack, so he pretty much stayed hot all the time.
My old man was a CWO4, the Chief Carpenter, on the Missouri from '49 to '52. I wonder if they ever met. This was his favorite ship (he was on quite a few over 30 years). He slept on hammocks aboard the Lexington in '35.
My grandfather was the Missouri during 50's aswell and was on board to decommission her. Before he passed he gave me a velvet bound book that was given to the crew as part of the ceremony.
Tricing pendant? When on active duty my ship had coffin racks. Later in the reserves I was on a Korean Era reserve can, and we had the pipe racks. I was tasked with tricing the racks. I didn't know about the ready-made tricing chains but I knew from the Merchant Marine that a trice was a short length of line, so, I stole some line from the bosun's locker and triced up all the racks using short lengths of line about four turns each on each end. I became the subject of scorn and ridicule. Then the XO asked me to test the racks, I did, and they held fine. Then he held up and handed me the chain trices, shook his head and walked away, cursing the reservists.
Excelent video. I went aboard New Jersey when she ported at Yokosuka in 1969. At that time, her mission was to provide artillery support during the Vietnam War. Jersey was was one of the most beautiful ships I ever laid eyes on.
Revili Revili, heave out and trice up. As a cook on a ship, I usually heard that while I was cooking breakfast for the crew. I finally got a middle rack once I made second class. Third class generally got top racks, and seaman and below got the bottom rack that had to be triced up. I was in during the 70's and 80's so I was used to the modern ones. However, going through rough seas (like the 40 to 50 foot swells we hit in the North Pacifc) we'd have to wedge ourselves in the rack toes at one end and hands on the other to even try and sleep.
I had coffin racks on all the ships I've been on ('75-'95) and they all used the thin mattress like what you show on the Pipe bunk, or at least nothing much thicker. I wouldn't want to have anything thicker as that would have decreased what little head room you already have to deal with. My dad was in the navy during WWII and told me how he had to use a hammock.
I would love to hear more about the magic carpet rides, any and all interviews with vets rarely talk about the end of war transportation and what it was like aboard.
Magic Carpet was a disaster to some and I suppose nice for others. My grandfather who was in the Army Airforce never forgave the Army for making him ride around on a slow and overloaded supply ship for three months after destroying the B-24s he serviced and rolling over them with bulldozers instead of flying them back to the states. Swore never to wear another pair of boots again to and as I far as I know never did. For others such as Marines and Army Infantry far flung across the pacific it probably was a quicker ride then waiting on a transport ship.
My father was at the end of WW2, crew chief. He said so any left over aircraft. They took steel cables and wraped them around the fusalage with two bulldozers. Sliced them up. But he said had lots of fun riding the track driven motor cycles.
I was on the USS Kitty Hawk 70-73 and we had coffin racks and CCTV where I first saw the film Woodstock. Around 1970/71 one of Admiral Zumwalt's Z-Grams allowed all enlisted personal to keep civilian clothes aboard. Which was great.
I remember having to wear undress whites on liberty in Subic Bay during monsoon season. You looked like a mud puddle coming back to the ship in the morning.
I served on two Essex carriers during Viet Nam, both ships (in flight deck divisions) had canvas racks , and I thought they were quite comfortable. I am 6’5”, and basically hung out at both ends, but still, and on my last ship I hung a curtain around my bunk for privacy and because I worked at night and slept during day light hours. I was always thankful I wasn’t in a foxhole like my cousins.
When they built the new barracks or the Medical Education and Training Campus in Fort Sam Houston the barracks where built to air force standards but the airmen where still given extra pay. I guess having to be in close proximity to sailors and soldiers was bad enough to require extra pay.
I can recall my Father's story of his bunk in the Navy being only 18" wide. When we added 4 bunks to my Uncles 26' - 0" cabin cruiser in the 1970's they were only 18" wide due to space limitation's. My Dad said if it was good enough for the Navy it would be good enough for us weekend fishermen !
Not to question your father's wisdom, but I have to disagree with him. The Navy doesn't have to keep the sailors comfortable, only provided for. The beautiful part about having your own boat is that you can choose to be as comfortable as you like!
@@R.J._Lewis I got to sleep in the 18" wide bunk on numerous occasions and it was pretty comfortable. When your boats beam is only 8' - 0" something has to give in order to get four additional bunks. Thanks for the reply.
@@R.J._Lewis if they want to meet retention and recruitment numbers and have willing and focused sailors they need to make them at least mostly comfortable.
@@leprechaunbutreallyjustamidget you don’t even have to get it right each time. Sailors need to know you’re making a committed effort to improve things for them.
@@phillipbouchard4197 During stormy weather, you are less likely to fall out of a small bunk. Onboard HMCS Iroquois, the older sailors had extra straps to hold them in the their bunks during rough weather.
Had the pipe racks with canvas when I was on active duty and slept in coffin style racks in the following years as a sand crab. I found that if you drug the canvas and line behind the ship for a short period of time and then let them air dry until they were just damp. You could then get the rack pretty tight and as the line and canvas fully dried it would then get even tighter. This configuration was far more comfortable than the coffin racks.
My father, in WW2, had a hammock. He told me it took practice to learn how to get in and out without disturbing the other crew above and below your rack.
i started on my first ship in an over flow berthing with the canvas type racks. you dont go adjusting them to be looser, there is no room to have someone with a loose rack, and they are miserable to sleep on after a few days. changed berthings and got a top rack, so no storage, then got a coffin rack, which wasnt too terrible. best sleeping we had a hammock over the MG sets in the back room of the IC shop, so you swayed with the rocking of the LST, and the MG sets a few inches under you for heat.
Our M/G sets were on the other side of the bulkhead in the Emergency Diesel room, so that idea would have not worked. However, we did have a storage space in the overhead of the IC Shop where spares could be stowed. Basically, about a 10x12 steel mesh platform and a vertical ladder. Said space soon acquired a mattress and pillow. Handy when inport with the gyros online, as a watch was not required but the space being manned was. Duty IC just racked out there where the alarms would wake you up if something went sideways. (Yes, that is where our stash of spare 12AX7 vacuum tubes for the Mk19 gyro and SynchAmps lived..)
On the 2 destroyers, I served on we had the canvas racks and they were stacked 4 high. I was stationed on a reserve training ship. We only had half crew on board most of the time.
I served 4 years Air Force and 6 years Navy. Yes, in the Air Force you had two in a room barracks. I served 2 cruises on the Enterprise sleeping in coffin racks and enjoyed every moment. The Navy has a camaraderie that the Air Force will never know.
Review honestly your military service. How often in the USAF did your LIFE depend on the folks around you? Now think of how many ways that you could have died at any given time while underway on a ship. It's amazing how much you learn to cherish and respect your shipmates when your life may depend on them. Looking out for one another was something that you simply DID. You may not have LIKED them, but you sure CARED about them.
Good points. I served in all three branches of the Canadian Armed Forces. After 5 years in the army reserve, I tired of sleeping in snow drifts, so transferred to the air side. Air side always had the best barracks and cafeterias. Air force barracks only had 1, 2 or 4 men per room. The mess decks on HMCS Iroquois slept 40-ish per deck, in bunk beds, 3 high. Food was so good onboard ship that I gained weight! By then all CF cooks were trained to the same standards and just posted form truck to base to ship as needed.
Spent 2 years (1966-1968) aboard USS Everglades AD-24 as an Aviation Rating. Our canvas pipe racks were 5 high, but since our berthing area was in the avionics shop, we at least had air conditioning, unlike a good part of the ship.
My father served in the Royal Navy in the 1950s. He stated that he preferred hammocks as they swing with the ship. If you tour HMS Belfast you will see hanging devices all other the ship. So they did not need dedicated sleeping areas but could hang them anywhere. He also stated that they were folded to keep you afloat if you had to abandon ship. Another interesting culture difference. The storage units for personal items did not have locks in the RN at that time. When I toured the USS hornet with him he was very surprised to see padlocks.
My father served in RCN Flower Class corvettes in WW2. Being only 1000 tons and sailing in the North Atlantic the enlisted crew slept in hammocks hung from the ceiling of the mess deck. Hammocks were good when sailing in heavy seas since they could swing freely with the roll.
I always wondered how the berthing worked when it was located in a shared space such as a mess. Since there are different watches aboard a ship, and some of the crew are sleeping, while others are on watch, I presume that everyone berthed in that space must have all had the same watch which kept them away from that space during mess hours??
@@straybullitt Ha ! Ha ha ! Nope :). Though RCN messes tend(1996-2012) to be seperated by trade- so we had Stokers in 59 & 61 on PRO, with ET's in 57, and the rest were > of us (21 Stbd was HT's, 21 Port was FF, the rest...well...). So, the shake log tells you who to shake for the watch that relieves you. Largest messdeck I slept in was 12 Mess on ALG and Huron, both were 52 pers. Smallest 2 beds on an ORCA in the Engineer's Cabin...or just me in the triple stack on a YAG. (and never take the top on a YAG, the ships always leaked no matter what we did)
I remember watching a video talking about and old WWII destroyer that was retrofitted after the war and took on more crew. As a result, they added more of those chicken wire racks all over the place, even the mess deck. They'd fold up the racks during the day so that the crew could eat and then fold them back down to sleep on. The refit also separated the kitchen from the dining/berthing area so that in order for cooks to serve food, they had to walk out of the kitchen, go out on deck, and then make their way into the mess hall.
A friend of mine served during the tail end of the Vietnam war on the USS BAUSELL, DD845, a Gearing-class destroyer commissioned in 1945. He had a choice of a hammock or a pipe berth. He preferred the hammock because it stayed stable as the ship rolled and it was much easier to sleep without having to tense up muscles to keep from being rolled out of a rigid berth.
You can make those looser by adding another line of links. You can even tailor them so your butt sinks in more and your neck steps up higher, giving you a better sleeping position (not so much sideways, only up). I've used a camping setup like that years ago cause it was easier to move about. I subtracted some of the links on the belly up area to the belly down area. It's actually decent once you have a roll up mattress on it.
Waiting on my transfer I spent the night in one of the Airforce Holiday Inn's. They got it made. From the Army point of view: Standing in a fox hole wishing I was sleeping on air mattress in a sleeping bag, and I was in my tent, I would be wishing to be back in my barracks on my bed. But I always wanted to be home in bed, that was most comfortable. We had chicken wires, if I recall, spent most of time making the bed so not much pay attention to details. In church camp, those on bottom bunk would push with their feet the bed above them to torture the poor fella on the top bunk.
I joined the Marine Corps in 1986, as an Infantryman, and when we deployed on gators or similar amphibious ships, our berthing areas had racks, sometimes wire mesh, sometimes canvas. On the San Bernardino (LST-1189), where I got my shellback qualification on our way to Indonesia, I think they were canvas, and we were stacked five-high. We kept our stuff in our sea bags, even our civvies, and our packs and deuce gear in lockers with shelves. We slept with our weapons and sometimes didn't even bother to take off our cammies, just our blouses and boots. They gave us some linen and blankets but most of us slept in our poncho liners. This is where I learned the meaning of the order to "trice up" during reveille, and learned to tell the time by the ship's bells. At "lights out" if you wanted to use the head or something you needed to use your moonbeam to see where you were going, and if you wanted to sleep during the daytime the lights were always on, so I would put my cover over my eyes to get some darkness. It was pretty comfortable and none of us complained, it was far more comfortable than being in the field and there were heads and of course the galley four times a day. Later when I lat moved to the Air Wing and started deploying on carriers, the berthing areas were all equipped with coffins and individual lockers. There was even a mattress in the rack, a reading light above your head, a pillow, sheets, and blankets, also curtains, and they were usually stacked just three high. You could store a lot of gear in the compartment below the rack, it came with a drawer for items you wanted easy access to, and you could lock it with a padlock, same as your locker. Each rack also had its own EEBD within easy reach, and there were numerous air vents blowing down on you, it was sometimes too cold, actually. Luxury! Only thing was they liked to berth us Marines directly under the LA or the cats, so you had to learn to sleep with the continuous WHAM! of birds trapping and being launched during flight ops. I probably got more hearing loss by wearing my Walkman headphones with the music blaring so I could sleep on the carrier, than I did by weapons fire and exposure to explosive ordnance during Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom ashore. Ha! Semper Fi SSgt Cruz, David C. USMC (Ret)
Dad was a Marine on a Heavy Cruiser in 50-53. Never talked much about it. Years later I was visiting the USS Texas and saw a 5 high racks of beds. And it was then I was happy I joined the Army. Sure dirt can suck, but you get fresh air.
USS Kansas City (AOR-3) '88--'90. We had the coffin racks, 3 high. Similar to the ones shown, but with your own EEBD storage at the foot of the rack, attached to the bottom of the rack above and flush with the outside edge. Stowage was the full area under the mattress, including 1 drawer which you could open without lifting the lid. Both were secured with a padlock. Officially allowed out and visible during the day were the mattress, 1 pillow, 2 (unfitted) white cotton sheets, and 1 gray wool blanket. Unofficially overlooked during an inspection were a Bible or other religious book under the pillow, and a SMALL travel clock and penlight attached with Velcro to the bottom of the rack above. (The penlight was to enable you to exit the space if the power was out.) Generally overlooked were a family photo or two, also attached where not visible from the deck. Rule of thumb for photos was that you kept them in the locker if you wouldn't show them to the chaplain. Creature comforts were a ventilation fan, a reading light above the pillow, the blue privacy curtains and the safety strap (P**sy strap). The Safety Strap was a vertical strap at the centerline of the rack which could be snapped in place to keep you from rolling out of the rack in heavy weather, or could be affixed by helpful/concerned shipmates when you returned from liberty in a somewhat less than optimal condition. Those curtains were pretty much your ONLY privacy while onboard. The 6 racks in a section had a 4-foot wide aisle between them where you dressed and undressed. Nothing like opening your curtain on your middle rack to be confronted by a hairy a$$...or the hairy not-a$$ side of your shipmate. You did NOT touch another's curtains. It just wasn't done. If you needed to wake them for watch you knocked on the rack by the pillow and said their name. If that didn't work you went to he other end and gently shook a foot. (Some sailors had unique life experiences which could result in something like a wet alley cat with fists if touched while asleep. A foot was safest.) The shower room was a 6'X6' room with 8 shower heads and no dividers. Urinals had no dividers. Toilets had dividers but no doors. As there was no "changing area" near the showers, closest you came to privacy on the up to 50 foot walk to the showers was to wrap your towel around you.
@@mikeray1544 so, how did sneaking up behind Dad and trying to scare him generally work out? Over several decades, I've finally gotten to the point where I actually look BEFORE I swing. Not a combat vet, just spent a lot of my younger years in "not-boring" places, generally with ample motorcycle parking.
@@Paul197A I've toured a few WWII-era subs. No thanks. I have no desire to share a rack with a live torpedo...or hot-rack with another sailor. FWIW, I wasn't complaining about my Navy Rack. It did just fine. There seems to be a rather large group that thinks a modern US Navy sailor gets off work and proceeds to his/her private stateroom where he/she evaluates how well the maid service did before retiring to a luxurious 30-minute shower. This only holds true if you inhabit the CO's or XO's stateroom.
I was in Manley from 1974-79, my coffin bunk was located starboard side right at the waterline, so when the ship was underway, I had the sound of the rushing by my ears about 3/4 of an inch away. Very relaxing. I also had experience with the canvas bottom bunk; periodically you'd have to take out the slack out of the cotton line. As the line slacked off there was time when the canvas was form fitting. The ship had to take a 30+ degree roll before you had to worry about it. Bunking in the aft CPO quarters aboard BB-62, I had to a bottom coffin style bunk and a steaming locker for all my gear; much more space than the tim cans.
If I recall the USS Massachusetts had canvas mattresses on the bunks, that is what I slept on back when I stayed on board the Massachusetts, when I was in the boy scouts.
I was six months TDY on the USS Shields DD596, there I slept on a rope laced canvas pipe frame rack. The advantage of this system is that it could be adjusted to form enough of a trough that helped hold you in during heavy weather. The down side was that the lockers for the three inhabitants were on the deck below the lower rack. If you were lucky enough to have the lower rack you would have to get up anytime the upper bunk mates wanted access to their lockers. My permanent command, USS Fanning DE1076 had the " coffin" racks. The lower two racks were a combined rack/locker, you slept on the lid to your locker. The upper racks had vertical lockers at the ends of the rows. These racks were a hard flat aluminum sheet with a one inch high edge molding to hold the 1.5 inch foam mattress in place. In heavy seas there was nothing to keep you in the rack. Again I had a lower rack which I kept even after I made 2nd Class. At that time it was custom that anyone senior could claim the rack of a junior and the junior would have to clean out their locker and find another rack. Being that the middle rack was the prime realestate, I chose to stay with the lower one confident that it was not likely I would be forced to relocate. The only down side is that the lower rack had to be triced up each morning before sweepers. We were about 90 people in a space around 45 x 30 feet. This was 1971.
Actually, the bunks that we had in boot camp and on shore stations had the metal suspension system underneath them (what you call "chicken wire")... The mattresses were thicker though -- maybe 4" total... They were comfortable enough... The center rectangular mesh was connected to the outer frame by coil springs... I don't remember the outer frame being tubular though -- perhaps angle iron since that would make it easier to mount the coil springs since they could just drill a hole in the flat portion and slip the end of the spring through it... Too many decades have passed to remember that sort of detail though... Not quite a half century, but getting close...
Don’t forget that on some ships like the Battleship Texas. It had hooks attached to the top bulkheads to string up hammocks for the lowest enlisted sailors.
We in the 60's cruiser Navy had the pipe racks but they stretched canvas and lashed it with line. And then you show it with USS Salem. Thanks for the memories. We once took a guy's mattress, then filled his rack with shaving cream, he came back drunk and didn't notice till he woke up with dry foam stuck all over him and his uniform, one pissed sailor.
Was just North Carolina today for the first time since 1984. The metal pipe racks were 3 to 5 high. It was partly cloudy and 85 degrees outside. Well over 90 in the aft berthing on 2nd deck. I couldn't imagine 2300 guys on there in the south pacific.
I talked to a old boy on USS Iowa when was getting painted in Richmond CA that slept on the forward deck up by the brake water. Cool story. I could have talked with him all day.
So on the USS England CG-22 '78 to '81, we had coffin racks 3 high, many, many years later I'm building call centers and went 3 high on the bunks. Everyone wanted the top bunk for privacy. In our Division on England, bunk selection was kind of based on tenure/seniority so to get a middle bunk I won a game of chess for it.
I had the Coffin racks on USS Theodore Roosevelt CVN-71, same ones still used 20yrs later today when I had to do some work on the USS George HW Bush CVN-77. When I first got to the ship in 2000 as a 3rd class, I had a Bottom rack, better for me as I was a larger person. When we changed Berthing 2yrs later I was a 2nd, and rack choice in the division went by seniority. I finally upgraded to the middle rack. Easier to get in and out of compared to top or bottom.
@@red2001ss Guess you never tried to climb out of your rack while 11 other guys were getting dressed in the 4X12 aisle between the racks? Perhaps you were in Air Det or a shipboard division which was lightly staffed? Pretty sure you weren't in Engineering on a large ship with a conventional steam plant.
The most narrow bed I ever slept on was the upper bunk of a mid 90s Volvo semi tractor. It was long enough but one shoulder was against the back wall while the other was on the edge of the bed. You did have to sit up to turn over.
Even more amazing is how quickly your dad can get OUT of the sleeper when you have the misfortune of totally missing a downshift and having to resort to fishing for a gear...
On my ASW frigate in the early 1980s, we had the coffin racks. There was a flat locker built into the lower part of it for clothes and personal things. We still had a vertical locker too. During the occasional "Tiger Cruise", a quick few days cruise where some family members were allowed onboard, I once got off shift at night to find a civvie snoozing in my rack. I had to find elsewhere to sleep.
USS Hornet is Alameda still has the canvas racks installed. I got to sleep on one of them a couple of years ago during one of their paranormal overnight investigations. It was quite comfortable.
When I checked on board the USS Shenandoah AD-26 back in 1977 all the racks were of the canvas type. If your shipmate who had his rack above didn't tighten his canvas you did not sleep well.
40 some years ago, I spent the night on the uss Silversides (SS-236), on a pipe rack that was stacked four high. In order to turn over, I had to contort my body for close to a minute, to turn over. Since American ships didn't have AC in WWII, if you were Hot Bunking, you'd be sweating all night, and the next person sleeping in it, would find it a little damp, from all the sweat.
I was reading about the WWII pilot training they did in my area of southern Florida and the barracks were expedient structures made of wood with tar paper covering the frame. No windows or AC. Sometimes windows were roughly cut into the tar paper for a breeze but that also allowed the humidity. One pilot said he never tasted any of the food while he was at Buckingham because he constantly had a sinus infection from the extreme temperature changes from the ground to training altitude. People were hard as stone back then
Served on the USS Zellars DD777, Sumner class. I had a canvass pipe rack, very comfortable. Yes, when I turned over my shoulder would brush the bottom of the rack above me, but comfortable. Almost everyone had gear bags that we would hang from the end the the rack above us at the end where our heads would be. No stinky feet in your face, and a little more privacy. Pipe racks were also great in rough weather. I had a pair of adjustable canvass straps which would hook to my pipe rack. One tightened over my thighs, and one tightened over my chest, and I was secure in my rack no matter the gyrations of the ship.
I was on the Forrestal and the Independence. We had the coffin style racks. On the Forrestal I had the top rack, which was nice because they didn't reach all of the way to the ceiling. I could sit up in my rack. I also had a couple of beams that made for nice shelves. I was allowed to place things on the beams, usually books and a few other things as long as they were secured so they couldn't fall out. We had the storage under the rack, plus a small locker at the foot of the racks. We had a space near the Line Shack where we were able to store our sea bags. Since my deployment with the Forrestal was during the Summer, I was able to keep my Blues and spare clothing locked in my sea bag.
My grandfather served on USS Washington and talked about those pipe racks. He said it was always better to be on the top bunk, because the further down you were, the higher your chances were of being thrown up on by a sailor in a higher bunk during heavy weather. One of those issues they don’t talk about in the history books!
Regarding Ryan's saying that WW2, Korea, & Vietnam veterans are sometimes disappointed that their berthing/work areas had changed so much - when I went to see the Wisconsin in 2019, my tour guide said that when WW2 vets came aboard Wisconsin, their reaction was frequently something along the lines of. "What did you do to my ship?" Regarding the wire racks, when I visited North Carolina in 2021, there was a HUGE compartment filled with column after column of these wire racks. I want to say there were about 4 or 5 per column, but don't quote me on that.
I think the berthing compartments we visited aboard North Carolina were 4 high though I recall a photo with pipe racks 5 high. They also had one area set up with hammocks which made my son and wife go "Hmm." They asked me if I ever ... and I quickly said "NO!" We had "coffins" in both ships I served in, Destroyer Caron (DD 970) and Assault Ship Nassau (LHA 4) although the "troop berthing" spaces in the Nassau had open bunks (no enclosure at all) stacked 4 high. For a few months in Caron I had a top rack (3 high) but had to share the space with a length of fire main piping.
Those WWII and Korean War guys were really crammed in there because of all the anti-aircraft guns that were added required a ton of additions crewmembers. The crews in the 40s and 50s were much larger than the berths were designed for. Probably less of an issue on the Iowas than the NCs, SoDaks, and especially the Standards, but even the Iowas were well over their planned crew size by the end of the war.
@@robertf3479 I always found it amazing how a sailor could come in off of liberty so drunk that they could barely walk, but manage to get into a top rack without injuring themselves OR waking up a person in one of the lower racks.
@@kevincrosby1760 I've never been that drunk but I've witnessed shipmates that were. When I had to 'live' in a top rack in Caron, one night while underway we had an alarm go off (GQ,) middle of the night with no drills planned. I found myself standing on the deck pulling boots and trousers on with absolutely no memory of how I quickly climbed down without kicking or landing on any of the other guys doing the same thing who lived below my bunk or across the aisle. 2 were on watch so 4 of us were scrambling to get dressed and to our GQ stations at the other end of the ship and 4 decks up.
@@robertf3479 I have been that drunk. Once. in 55 years. I'm generally very careful to keep track of how much alcohol I have had, for just that reason. However, there was a bar in Acapulco which served "Bottomless Banana Daiquiris". Turns out that banana masks the taste of alcohol quite nicely. "Bottomless" means that you would take a drink or two, turn to talk to a friend, and turn back to find your glass overflowing. They were literally making rounds with pitchers of the stuff. I totally lost track, and apparently had enough booze in a short period that I went from sober to drunk without the normal interval. We were anchored out in the Bay. Not only do I not know how I ended up in my rack, I have no idea how I managed to get out of the liberty boat and up the Acomm Ladder without ending up in the bay...On a Replenishment Oiler, so it wasn't a short ladder. I do remember the rather severe T-storm that night. Having your rack spinning is bad enough without adding pitch and roll to the problem.
During WW2 a hot, cramped, smelly, berthing space with a chicken wire bed is still better than a wet and muddy or frozen hole in the ground that you might have to stay in for weeks at a time.
Served in the RN in the 60s and 70s. Initially I slept in hammocks.... Best sleep I had at sea! So comfortable .... provided you took the time to adjust the "nettles" correctly. They took a bit of time to lash-up and stow and they had to be lashed-up in the correct manner as they had to fit in neatly to a limited hammock stowage rack. Also, a properly lashed hammock served two other important purposes. Firstly, if lashed correctly, they would (reportedly) remain afloat for 3 hours, providing an important life saver if the ship went down. Secondly, they were very useful for plugging shell-holes and other action-damage. Then the RN changed to three-high rack-bunks that could be folded down to form a seat with the mattresses forming reasonably comfortable cushions. They were less comfortable in a heavy sea than a hammock which would sway with the roll of the ship. No idea what they do now.....
I served on a gun in the RAR, (105mm howitzer), and often slept under a tarp on a small collapsible stretcher. One day we mistakenly pitched our tarp over a wide underground ant nest, in Australia the ants can be angry ... it was an interesting night!
When I was a teenager I used to do a lot of hiking and I'd stay in places that had hostels and the one in the states were built around the smallest adult mattress you could find but the ones overseas and some in the states also were one meter by 2 m with a half inch piece of plywood and one of those 2in prison mattresses on top of it We didn't care when you're young you just don't care and everyone got along it was what it was As an adult I could probably see getting in fights with people cuz they're not going to sleep and they're making noise or whatever but again when you're young it really kind of just doesn't matter
DId the overnight with the coffin racks with the cub scouts. On the top bunk it looks like a long way down to a hard steel floor. My son bonked his head when waking up the next morning.
GF and I did two cross-country trips on Amtrak in Roomettes. The upper births were very similar to coffin racks spacewise. The mattress may have been thicker than a Navy mattress.
I was in from 1980 to 2005, but consider myself to be a Cold War Sailor. Pacific Fleet all the way. As a CTI Russian linguist, all my sea time was temporary duty. I spent a lot of the 1980s underway. I almost deployed on New Jersey, but got switched to another ship at the last minute. Since I wasn't ship's permanent crew, I never felt that communal feeling. Berthing on most ships I was on was pretty quiet most of the time. We were working long hours and we needed our beauty sleep. During my deployments, I was on destroyers (Tin Cans Forever!), subs, aircraft carriers (not my favorite), and frigates. Frankly I don't remember the coffin racks being so narrow. Plenty of room. And falling asleep while underway was a piece of cake. It was like being rocked to sleep. Noticed that all the pipe racks were triced up. We also did the same with the bottom coffin rack. "Heave out and trice up!" When I was on a sub, I slept in the bomb room on a torpedo skid. Hugged the torpedo next to me. Good times!
we had canvas racks on USCG 82 footers - up in the bow - AKA the anti gravity chamber.... wasn't safe to sleep up there when it was rough - when it was real rough I'd grab a mae west lifejacket for a pillow and sleep on the deck in the electric panel booth in the ER - as low and on center as possible...
In my 6 years in the Navy. The closest i got to sleeping in a Navy rack was at RTC great lakes. After that it was mattresses, cots ,strechers , the ground. In the back of MTVR cargos in or on top of MRAPS
I was on three different ships in the 70's. The oldest was built in 1939, and had pipe racks. I was lucky, and ended up with a lower rack, with a board on the "springs", and a 2" mattress. The other two ships I was on were built in the mid to late 60's, and had coffin racks. Same 2" mattresses, and a reading light on the underside of the rack above us. The coffin racks were definately more comfortable, but at that time we still had the same openness and lack of privacy as the pipe racks.
I have slept in barges, while the ship was in overhaul. racks so tight on a sub that rolling over was terrible. Then trying the make your coffin bunk after your laundry is done. Some of my racks were close to crew areas and you heard everything, especially during poker or movie night. Slept on bench in crew's lounge, lower level missile on blankets. I was happy to make 3rd Class and get a better choice of rank and most importantly rank located in the berthing compartment. Really liked sleeping close to the outer haul and feel the waves. The best sleeping was after my commission to 0-1gn. I took a three day ride on a HMS Destroyer. How, that was outstanding. With UK Navy a clear separation between the officer and enlisted in living quarters. Had a steward to make my rank everyday. I and another Ensign where enjoying our 3 day cruise. Alcohol rations during meals. Officers had evening Alcohol rations. Unless you were the helicopter pilot you could a one drink. My some more goofy sleeping arrangement where the tents in Saudi, hot dusty, meals where hard to eat with the dust flying. Them lived in great housing with running water, TV's, meal hall's where when covered in the basement of housing unit where that parked cars. But, no wind or bugs. Various nice living arrangements until I got medivac. Oh well. After being gone from the housing we lived in, about 6 years later they bombed the buildings.
Whale... On USS Constellation we had the horizontal phone booths, with an individual light, an air vent, a speaker (You could choose the ship's own radio station, or the TV station when it was operating, and oh, yes, your locker was also in your bunk with you. The curtain was not provided, but the squadrons made their own out of a Naugahyde material, others used blankets or sheets, or else bought a curtain somewhere. On USS Coral Sea, we had these pipe racks, just as you have shown them. Ours were canvas but we added wrap around curtains. I did keep a concealed razor blade in my bunk in case such was needed. Only had to use it once.
I served on USS South Carolina CGN 37 from 1978 to 1982 and we had the coffin racks. Our berthing compartment had all 30 members of Fox Division. I stayed in the bottom rack for the entire time because in the morning you could trice it up to attach to the bottom of the middle rack to hide the fact that the rack was messy if I was running late for muster.
As a 25 year navy veteran, I slept in a lot of racks. The ones shown here were bad because if someone was mad at you, they would do all sorts of things to you at night
I served on destroyers and patrol boats 1967 to 1975. Adm Zumwalt, in 1970, made the rule change to allow sailors to store and wear civilian clothes to and from the ship. On some ships, the laundry would wash your clothes and let you use the iron. The canvas center pipe racks also had a mattress similar to the ones in your video. On WWII built destroyers the bunks were 18" apart and 3 bunks high. On Essex class carriers, 6 bunks high. I rode one for 3 days, right under the catapult. There were foot lockers under the bottom rack and enough standing lockers for 3rd class and up to have an additional locker. It was more private in berthing than in boot camp, so I didn't find the lack of privacy noticeable. On a DLG built in 1960 we had coffin bunks the same length as pipe racks, but 24" apart. My buddy, 6'3" got the shipfitters to make an extension to his bunk. Everybody also had an extra standing locker. No curtains, but more room and a table for poker. My birthing held 12 people but most spaces were bigger. I made a few trips to Vietnam and on patrol boats slept on the deck, rain or shine. So navy bunks were a luxury.
Ahoy!! You wrote: "My birthing held 12 people" please change that to "My berthing held 12 people" (use edit function) so I can erase my comment shipmate!! heh heh !! Anchors aweigh !!
In my experience on the New Jersey in the coffin racks the bottom is the best the middle is the hardest to get in and out of and there is always something to hit your head on in the top. But I still think they are better than the pipe racks would have been.
@@chuckjohannessen3330 I was always in a bottom rack too. I liked that when you trice it up, you get added security that nobody else will be rifling around in your space looking for stuff to steal. Plus the bottom rack had a better ride in rough weather.
USS Alabama has the pipe racks, and after a long drive to Mobile, plus chasing Cub Scouts all over the ship, you don't really notice how uncomfortable they are. One trick is to pick the right bunk, because they are not uniformly spaced. I usually went with a bottom bunk because they offered more space than the middle racks, and the kids would take the tops because they liked climbing. Now, if you have back problems like me, things can be different, but once my back settled down, I could sleep(until the snorers got too loud). One modern amenity they have there is air conditioning in the overnight areas. The combination of cold steel and air conditioning made for some chilly winter nights.
Slept in both canvas racks and coffin racks (76-80, Navy, CG, Marines-I was a TDY slut). For those talking about privacy, I was so tired at the end of the day all of the racks felt like heaven and I never had time to just sit around and I don't remember feeling a lack of privacy. I remember getting 20 or 30 minutes occasionally and I'd always have a paperback with me so I'd just plop to the deck and read a bit. Once I walked forward during the afternoon watch and the whole foredeck was covered with most of the off-watch crew sleeping on the deck-a classic steel beach. 14 knots, gentle swell, sunshine off the east coast. Unfortunately, I did have the watch.... I did two short stints on Air Force bases and we sailors got the crappy quarters-two man rooms that looked like a Motel 6-really roughing it.
My Grandfather told me that when he crossed the Pacific while in the Marine Corp , going both ways he slept on deck most of the time . Better air and cooler . Of course it was no a battleship or Destroyer .
Then LST I served the most time on had the metal "racks" with metal springs. This was in 1968. They weren't ,posh but they worked. They were stacked 3 high. The first LST I was on had the "coffin" racks installed while undergoing drydock work. Each bunk had a locker under the bed, and there were no separate lockers in the space. This took place in 1967. Air conditioning was added to the LST is was on in 1968 and was probably installed on the other ship, but I don't remember it being there before I left.
Was he a sailor or Marine? The APA would need to maximize space to get more troops to the AO. My grandfather was a sailor on an AKA where they hauled materiel and he had a pipe rack
When I served 73-75 aboard USS Okinawa LPH-3 I started off in a coffin rack. They then moved us Fox division GMG, GMM to the hospital overflow that had the canvas pipe racks and they were the most comfortable. I slept on the bottom rack and it had many advantages. Easy to get in and out of, cooler to sleep in and more private than the upper racks. One more benefit was after one to many ashore or rough sea's you didn't have far to fall if you fell out of the rack. 😂
I was told in 2005 that the schooner ADVENTURESS had something like pipe racks in her forward cabin, and the entire crew slept there, making it a separate crew cabin, but long before I sailed on her, these had been replaced with 8 or 10 wooden berths, 2 high, with removable mattresses, and storage beneath the lower berths, plus the new, period-appropriate deckhouse was designed to sleep 4 if necessary. The pipe-rack-like berths, whatever they were, were not remembered fondly by veteran crew. The new wooden foc'sle racks couldn't accommodate all the crew, so they were often reserved for people who couldn't sleep through other people's snoring.
I was in the Navy and slept in many coffin lockers. Lots of space if you had the middle or bottom, guy on the top was out of luck. Some even had a small reading lamp inside Never saw a birthing area with 6 people. I think on one ship we had 18, but I've seen an older ship with about 100 in the compartment.
I actually chose a top rack because it had enough space overhead between piping for me to sit completely up (granted I am only 5'8"). We were also really lucky because we had an entire berthing just for us in the aviation department. I think in total there was something like 18-21 total racks so half of them were even empty since there was only 12 of us in there.
Our entire Engineering Department was in one berthing area...85-100 men. Might have been a bit crowded, but you KNOW that the lights, plumbing, heating, and A/C all worked properly...
On carriers, the top bunk doesn't have an overhead (another rack above you). Depending on what kind of junk was installed above you you could maybe poke your head over the separator and see the bunk next to you, up to being able to sit straight up comfortably. But you always had more headroom than the middle and bottom racks.
My father was a US Merchant Marine, before, during and after WWII. By the time he was going to sea, the men had bunks to sleep in. A few years prior to that the Merchant Marines went on strike to get the following: 1. A bunk to sleep in. 2. A mattress to lay on. 3. Eat out of the same "pot." (equal food for all) When he got his AB ticket after March 1942, the ship he was on, the Eastern Sword (sunk May 1942) he and the crew, along with the Third Mate, slept in the focsle. The front end of the ship. When he became a Second mate, he got his own room. No air conditioning, but they did have electric fans. A friend of his went back to sea. He was a Captain but took a Third mates jobs. He told my father that the room he had as a Third mate in today's world, was bigger than any quarters he had service as the Ship's Master. Of course, it had a private bath, TV, internet and a few other things. My. How times have changed.
A Marine on a troop ship in the early 70’s it was not very comfortable but I was in my early 20’s and I thought it was ok. It was the endless chow lines that stick in my memory. Now in my 70’s I do not think I would be very comfortable in those conditions especially getting up and going to the head and being on the top bunk would even be more of a challenge. 🤩Oh well at least I am getting older and not everyone I served with is.
We toured the HMS Victorious when it visted Boston on the 60s. My father and brother made it down to the crews mess, where they also slept. They were still using hammocks! Mind you, this was an old WW2 ship. BTW, I slept most of my 26 year military career on a nice Air Force bed
Spent 4 and a half years on the USS Houston, SSN 713. Fast attack submarine with coffin racks 3 high. I hot-racked 90% of the time I was on board. But I didn't mind it. My rack mates had good hygiene and people on my boat would probably rank me amongst the best smelling on board. Some even tried to bribe the rack bill writer to put me in their hot rack rotation XD I really enjoyed my time in the submarine force and being able to live for so long with so little private space showed that I was more than capable of living in small spaces. Which is why today, I van life full time in an Element. When people ask how I can be comfortable, I just point to the fact that I spent years with little more than a 2 ft by 7 ft box for privacy and comfort.
I still bring a hammock on board with me. not only is it fun to have on some beaches during port visits but I've managed to string one up in a few compartments and catch some good zzz's. especially during rough seas
Aboard the Robert K Huntington, DD-781, we had the tube and canvas racks three high. Below the bottom rack was three lockers for your gear. One thing the US Navy could learn from the New Zealand navy was their bunking systems. They were arranged in a C-shape, and the movable racks covered with a zipper bag system. The bottom rack was flipped over to form a long seat cushion, the middle rack flipped and the underside formed a back cushion and the top bunk flipped up. This formed a generous seating area. But then, the Brits have been at this a lot longer than we have. I will also say that their summer uniforms (at least back in the day) of shorts and t-shirts made a lot more sense that our dress whites. Locker clubs. I just recently ran across my old locker club key from San Diego. I hope I didn't leave anything of value. It's been 50 plus years ago.
I've slept in the pipe racks, the canvas racks, and the coffins and by far my personal preference is the 2 high canvas since as a 6'3" guy I can sit up unlike in the coffins or 3 high pipe racks.
TAD aboard USS Terrebone Parish (LST-1156), 1971, slept in the top rack of 4 on a canvas & tube bunk next to a live steam pipe. Only time I ever got heat rash. We were in the Caribbean off the coast of Panama. You forgot to mention fart-sacks . Thanks for your informative videos. QMC (SW, USN Ret.)
My father served in the hospital section of the Nimitz during the 80s. From the beginning it’s berthing areas were coffin racks but the hospital had the pipe racks in its mass casualty room
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In my 26 years in the Navy, I slept on all of the various types shown and they all had their advantages and disadvantages. I found in heavy weather the pipe racks were easier to stay in when the ship was tossing you around. But if you had a canvas rack and you ticked some on off, they would either slice the canvas or cut your ropes and the BMs were not about to give you new canvas or ropes to fix your rack in the middle of the night. You would have to find an out of the way space to put your mattress for the night and fix it in the morning. After a while people would just keep some extra line and canvas in their work spaces for emergency repairs. I did find the coffin racks to be the more comfortable racks for the majority of the time though some times someone would put super glue in your lock so you could not get dressed in the morning and you would have to get the Master at Arms to cut your lock and then you had to buy another to replace the cut lock.
It is a little distressing to read that such sabotage was not uncommon. It's one thing if it's a prank among friends, but quite another if malicious.
I'm sure that kind of hostility between crewmates is great for morale...
not
so basically not so bad except for people actively and maliciously breaking it.
@Jim Halpert off topic but, how's Pam and the kiddos, getting grown by now huh? 😆
I have slept on all three. I liked the canvas ones better and we had about 4 feet of small stuff which, when we were in port we kept taught and when we got underway or generally at sea, we would loosen them to form a dip in the canvas. Not a lot so as to keep from sleeping on top of the one below you, but a slight dip so that you could, in rough seas drape your leg over the isle side of the 4 inches between the racks and your arm around the stanchion and keep pretty well in place. Conversely, in a metal coffin, the whole mattress tended to slide off into the aisle. We had before the 1.5-inch mattresses, had what was called a "fart sack" over an oversized body pillow that was a mess and every once in a while we had to carry them topside to air them out. Why? I don't know, as it really didn't help the sweaty smell. When operating 4 and 4 on the Fram 2 Destroyer I was on, and not on working hours, would just climb out of the Holes (Yup, I am a SNIPE) and sleep on the main deck. Still remember the sailfish slamming into the bulkhead above us and landing on us and or flopping around on deck. Good days.
I was in the Navy from1964 to 1968 and was on a destroyer. All the enlisted slept in the pipe frame bunks with the canvas for springs. The ship was built in 1942 and was decommissioned in1974, and was highly decorated with many battle ribbons of different conflicts. I would do it again if needed, as it was a once in a lifetime experience that I enjoyed.
I volunteered for the Navy and volunteered for submarines. My first year on a submarine as an E-5, I shared two racks between three guys. AKA Hot Racking. One guy on watch, other two using the racks. Once you qualified in submarines (SS), you got your own rack. Lots of incentive to finish your quals rapidly.
How is it going to a bed warm from someone else, and it smelling no like it's yours.
Were you on an SSBN? I was on an SSN and only chiefs, first classes, key jobs, and lucky people got their own racks. I was lucky for a few underways but for the most part, I hot racked most of the time. However, I had a reputation for being one of the better smelling people on board and I had heard rumors people tried to bribe the rack bill writers to put me in their hot rack rotation.
@@FlipsyFiona I was on the USS Bremerton (SSN-698). With racks mounted in the torpedo room and people left in port for training, leave, “my wife she”….chits, or other in-port tasks, we had racks for all submarine qualified enlisted to have their own racks. Command policy was anyone E-6 and below that was not qualified hot-racked. I reported aboard as a nuke EM4 and got EM5 and (SS) and my own rack during the same week about 6 months later. To my knowledge, the only time submarine qualified personnel including everyone from the XO downward hot-racked, was on the day Admiral Hyman G. Rickover (only Rickover and CO got their own racks), his staff, plus the Executives, test engineers, and actual workers and builders from the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics and the remainder of the actual crew to her to so for the very first time on Alpha Trails. The only time I suffered the combined distinction of both hot racking AND having my racks strapped to a Mark 48 MOD 1 Torpedo loaded with 647 pounds of High Explosives.
Even on the SSBN's we were get 10 or more extra crew members. Lot's of hot racks. Later on they installed coffin racks in LL missile, which sucked for the juniors who lived there.
When I was still on active duty in the early 1970s as 2nd Class petty officer, my compartment in lower engineering on the USS Raleigh LPD-1 had about 50 guys sleeping in maybe 1300 ft of space. The racks were three High. When I left the Navy in later years and went into the Merchant Marine as an engineer, I had my own cabin with a TV with a built-in VCR and an easy chair , and to top it off my own head and shower in my cabin. In 1981 we were delivering cargo and I got the opportunity after meeting a couple of British Sailors at a local pub to tour the HMS Sheffield. They had four to a compartment and gas turbine propulsion. What a difference. The following year Sheffield went to the Falklands to war. I always wondered if those guys that were kind enough to give me the tour of their compartment and Engineering spaces survived the attack on their vessel by the argentinians.
My 92 year old Dad enlisted in the USN during the Korean War. He served on several vessels during the war. He used to tell us about his time on the battleship USS Missouri. He had a love/hate relationship with the Missouri, but he mostly loved it. He said that the food was great and it was like a floating city with an ice cream parlor, move theatre, and an on board store. What he hated were the sleeping conditions. They still had the pipe racks at that time and his was the top rack out of a stack of 4. Unfortunately, there was a steam pipe that ran along the ceiling just above his rack, so he pretty much stayed hot all the time.
My old man was a CWO4, the Chief Carpenter, on the Missouri from '49 to '52. I wonder if they ever met. This was his favorite ship (he was on quite a few over 30 years). He slept on hammocks aboard the Lexington in '35.
My grandfather was the Missouri during 50's aswell and was on board to decommission her. Before he passed he gave me a velvet bound book that was given to the crew as part of the ceremony.
@@Adamu98 That is awesome!
Tricing pendant? When on active duty my ship had coffin racks. Later in the reserves I was on a Korean Era reserve can, and we had the pipe racks. I was tasked with tricing the racks. I didn't know about the ready-made tricing chains but I knew from the Merchant Marine that a trice was a short length of line, so, I stole some line from the bosun's locker and triced up all the racks using short lengths of line about four turns each on each end. I became the subject of scorn and ridicule. Then the XO asked me to test the racks, I did, and they held fine. Then he held up and handed me the chain trices, shook his head and walked away, cursing the reservists.
Excelent video. I went aboard New Jersey when she ported at Yokosuka in 1969. At that time, her mission was to provide artillery support during the Vietnam War. Jersey was was one of the most beautiful ships I ever laid eyes on.
Revili Revili, heave out and trice up. As a cook on a ship, I usually heard that while I was cooking breakfast for the crew. I finally got a middle rack once I made second class. Third class generally got top racks, and seaman and below got the bottom rack that had to be triced up. I was in during the 70's and 80's so I was used to the modern ones. However, going through rough seas (like the 40 to 50 foot swells we hit in the North Pacifc) we'd have to wedge ourselves in the rack toes at one end and hands on the other to even try and sleep.
heave out and trice up, long time since I heard that
I had coffin racks on all the ships I've been on ('75-'95) and they all used the thin mattress like what you show on the Pipe bunk, or at least nothing much thicker. I wouldn't want to have anything thicker as that would have decreased what little head room you already have to deal with. My dad was in the navy during WWII and told me how he had to use a hammock.
I would love to hear more about the magic carpet rides, any and all interviews with vets rarely talk about the end of war transportation and what it was like aboard.
Hot, crowded and surreptitiously boozy I'd imagine.
@@pbyguy7059 so ripe with stories?
@@TrevorTrottier Exactly!!
Magic Carpet was a disaster to some and I suppose nice for others. My grandfather who was in the Army Airforce never forgave the Army for making him ride around on a slow and overloaded supply ship for three months after destroying the B-24s he serviced and rolling over them with bulldozers instead of flying them back to the states. Swore never to wear another pair of boots again to and as I far as I know never did.
For others such as Marines and Army Infantry far flung across the pacific it probably was a quicker ride then waiting on a transport ship.
My father was at the end of WW2, crew chief. He said so any left over aircraft. They took steel cables and wraped them around the fusalage with two bulldozers. Sliced them up. But he said had lots of fun riding the track driven motor cycles.
I was on the USS Kitty Hawk 70-73 and we had coffin racks and CCTV where I first saw the film Woodstock. Around 1970/71 one of Admiral Zumwalt's Z-Grams allowed all enlisted personal to keep civilian clothes aboard. Which was great.
I remember having to wear undress whites on liberty in Subic Bay during monsoon season. You looked like a mud puddle coming back to the ship in the morning.
I served on two Essex carriers during Viet Nam, both ships (in flight deck divisions) had canvas racks , and I thought they were quite comfortable. I am 6’5”, and basically hung out at both ends, but still, and on my last ship I hung a curtain around my bunk for privacy and because I worked at night and slept during day light hours. I was always thankful I wasn’t in a foxhole like my cousins.
what essex class ships did you serve on?
@@innkeeper6 HORNET AND HANCOCK /--12 and 19 respectively
@@jackrowe9807 I did 4 years on the Intrepid CV 11
In the Air Force, we once needed to sleep in Navy barracks. As a result we got added money to compensate for substandard housing.
When they built the new barracks or the Medical Education and Training Campus in Fort Sam Houston the barracks where built to air force standards but the airmen where still given extra pay. I guess having to be in close proximity to sailors and soldiers was bad enough to require extra pay.
Must have been no vacancies at the Ritz-Carlton. 😀
I can recall my Father's story of his bunk in the Navy being only 18" wide. When we added 4 bunks to my Uncles 26' - 0" cabin cruiser in the 1970's they were only 18" wide due to space limitation's. My Dad said if it was good enough for the Navy it would be good enough for us weekend fishermen !
Not to question your father's wisdom, but I have to disagree with him. The Navy doesn't have to keep the sailors comfortable, only provided for. The beautiful part about having your own boat is that you can choose to be as comfortable as you like!
@@R.J._Lewis I got to sleep in the 18" wide bunk on numerous occasions and it was pretty comfortable. When your boats beam is only 8' - 0" something has to give in order to get four additional bunks. Thanks for the reply.
@@R.J._Lewis if they want to meet retention and recruitment numbers and have willing and focused sailors they need to make them at least mostly comfortable.
@@leprechaunbutreallyjustamidget you don’t even have to get it right each time. Sailors need to know you’re making a committed effort to improve things for them.
@@phillipbouchard4197 During stormy weather, you are less likely to fall out of a small bunk. Onboard HMCS Iroquois, the older sailors had extra straps to hold them in the their bunks during rough weather.
Had the pipe racks with canvas when I was on active duty and slept in coffin style racks in the following years as a sand crab. I found that if you drug the canvas and line behind the ship for a short period of time and then let them air dry until they were just damp. You could then get the rack pretty tight and as the line and canvas fully dried it would then get even tighter. This configuration was far more comfortable than the coffin racks.
My father, in WW2, had a hammock. He told me it took practice to learn how to get in and out without disturbing the other crew above and below your rack.
Not only did Royal Navy sailors have the increased comfort of hammocks but a rum ration as well!
i started on my first ship in an over flow berthing with the canvas type racks. you dont go adjusting them to be looser, there is no room to have someone with a loose rack, and they are miserable to sleep on after a few days. changed berthings and got a top rack, so no storage, then got a coffin rack, which wasnt too terrible. best sleeping we had a hammock over the MG sets in the back room of the IC shop, so you swayed with the rocking of the LST, and the MG sets a few inches under you for heat.
Our M/G sets were on the other side of the bulkhead in the Emergency Diesel room, so that idea would have not worked. However, we did have a storage space in the overhead of the IC Shop where spares could be stowed. Basically, about a 10x12 steel mesh platform and a vertical ladder. Said space soon acquired a mattress and pillow. Handy when inport with the gyros online, as a watch was not required but the space being manned was. Duty IC just racked out there where the alarms would wake you up if something went sideways. (Yes, that is where our stash of spare 12AX7 vacuum tubes for the Mk19 gyro and SynchAmps lived..)
On the 2 destroyers, I served on we had the canvas racks and they were stacked 4 high. I was stationed on a reserve training ship. We only had half crew on board most of the time.
I served 4 years Air Force and 6 years Navy. Yes, in the Air Force you had two in a room barracks. I served 2 cruises on the Enterprise sleeping in coffin racks and enjoyed every moment. The Navy has a camaraderie that the Air Force will never know.
Review honestly your military service. How often in the USAF did your LIFE depend on the folks around you? Now think of how many ways that you could have died at any given time while underway on a ship.
It's amazing how much you learn to cherish and respect your shipmates when your life may depend on them. Looking out for one another was something that you simply DID. You may not have LIKED them, but you sure CARED about them.
Good points. I served in all three branches of the Canadian Armed Forces. After 5 years in the army reserve, I tired of sleeping in snow drifts, so transferred to the air side. Air side always had the best barracks and cafeterias. Air force barracks only had 1, 2 or 4 men per room. The mess decks on HMCS Iroquois slept 40-ish per deck, in bunk beds, 3 high. Food was so good onboard ship that I gained weight! By then all CF cooks were trained to the same standards and just posted form truck to base to ship as needed.
Spent 2 years (1966-1968) aboard USS Everglades AD-24 as an Aviation Rating. Our canvas pipe racks were 5 high, but since our berthing area was in the avionics shop, we at least had air conditioning, unlike a good part of the ship.
Sailed on DD-945. Slept on a canvas rack and was quite comfortable. In rough seas you could loosen the lashings and improve the ride.
My father served in the Royal Navy in the 1950s. He stated that he preferred hammocks as they swing with the ship. If you tour HMS Belfast you will see hanging devices all other the ship. So they did not need dedicated sleeping areas but could hang them anywhere. He also stated that they were folded to keep you afloat if you had to abandon ship. Another interesting culture difference. The storage units for personal items did not have locks in the RN at that time. When I toured the USS hornet with him he was very surprised to see padlocks.
My father served in RCN Flower Class corvettes in WW2. Being only 1000 tons and sailing in the North Atlantic the enlisted crew slept in hammocks hung from the ceiling of the mess deck. Hammocks were good when sailing in heavy seas since they could swing freely with the roll.
I always wondered how the berthing worked when it was located in a shared space such as a mess. Since there are different watches aboard a ship, and some of the crew are sleeping, while others are on watch, I presume that everyone berthed in that space must have all had the same watch which kept them away from that space during mess hours??
@@straybullitt Ha ! Ha ha ! Nope :). Though RCN messes tend(1996-2012) to be seperated by trade- so we had Stokers in 59 & 61 on PRO, with ET's in 57, and the rest were > of us (21 Stbd was HT's, 21 Port was FF, the rest...well...). So, the shake log tells you who to shake for the watch that relieves you.
Largest messdeck I slept in was 12 Mess on ALG and Huron, both were 52 pers. Smallest 2 beds on an ORCA in the Engineer's Cabin...or just me in the triple stack on a YAG. (and never take the top on a YAG, the ships always leaked no matter what we did)
I remember watching a video talking about and old WWII destroyer that was retrofitted after the war and took on more crew. As a result, they added more of those chicken wire racks all over the place, even the mess deck. They'd fold up the racks during the day so that the crew could eat and then fold them back down to sleep on. The refit also separated the kitchen from the dining/berthing area so that in order for cooks to serve food, they had to walk out of the kitchen, go out on deck, and then make their way into the mess hall.
A friend of mine served during the tail end of the Vietnam war on the USS BAUSELL, DD845, a Gearing-class destroyer commissioned in 1945. He had a choice of a hammock or a pipe berth. He preferred the hammock because it stayed stable as the ship rolled and it was much easier to sleep without having to tense up muscles to keep from being rolled out of a rigid berth.
Hammocks or canvas slung on a pipe rack are cooler in the summer.
You can make those looser by adding another line of links. You can even tailor them so your butt sinks in more and your neck steps up higher, giving you a better sleeping position (not so much sideways, only up). I've used a camping setup like that years ago cause it was easier to move about. I subtracted some of the links on the belly up area to the belly down area. It's actually decent once you have a roll up mattress on it.
Waiting on my transfer I spent the night in one of the Airforce Holiday Inn's. They got it made. From the Army point of view: Standing in a fox hole wishing I was sleeping on air mattress in a sleeping bag, and I was in my tent, I would be wishing to be back in my barracks on my bed. But I always wanted to be home in bed, that was most comfortable. We had chicken wires, if I recall, spent most of time making the bed so not much pay attention to details. In church camp, those on bottom bunk would push with their feet the bed above them to torture the poor fella on the top bunk.
I joined the Marine Corps in 1986, as an Infantryman, and when we deployed on gators or similar amphibious ships, our berthing areas had racks, sometimes wire mesh, sometimes canvas. On the San Bernardino (LST-1189), where I got my shellback qualification on our way to Indonesia, I think they were canvas, and we were stacked five-high. We kept our stuff in our sea bags, even our civvies, and our packs and deuce gear in lockers with shelves. We slept with our weapons and sometimes didn't even bother to take off our cammies, just our blouses and boots. They gave us some linen and blankets but most of us slept in our poncho liners.
This is where I learned the meaning of the order to "trice up" during reveille, and learned to tell the time by the ship's bells.
At "lights out" if you wanted to use the head or something you needed to use your moonbeam to see where you were going, and if you wanted to sleep during the daytime the lights were always on, so I would put my cover over my eyes to get some darkness.
It was pretty comfortable and none of us complained, it was far more comfortable than being in the field and there were heads and of course the galley four times a day.
Later when I lat moved to the Air Wing and started deploying on carriers, the berthing areas were all equipped with coffins and individual lockers. There was even a mattress in the rack, a reading light above your head, a pillow, sheets, and blankets, also curtains, and they were usually stacked just three high.
You could store a lot of gear in the compartment below the rack, it came with a drawer for items you wanted easy access to, and you could lock it with a padlock, same as your locker. Each rack also had its own EEBD within easy reach, and there were numerous air vents blowing down on you, it was sometimes too cold, actually. Luxury!
Only thing was they liked to berth us Marines directly under the LA or the cats, so you had to learn to sleep with the continuous WHAM! of birds trapping and being launched during flight ops.
I probably got more hearing loss by wearing my Walkman headphones with the music blaring so I could sleep on the carrier, than I did by weapons fire and exposure to explosive ordnance during Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom ashore. Ha!
Semper Fi
SSgt Cruz, David C.
USMC (Ret)
Dad was a Marine on a Heavy Cruiser in 50-53. Never talked much about it. Years later I was visiting the USS Texas and saw a 5 high racks of beds. And it was then I was happy I joined the Army. Sure dirt can suck, but you get fresh air.
I always love hearing "Curator" used as a unit of measurement.
USS Kansas City (AOR-3) '88--'90. We had the coffin racks, 3 high. Similar to the ones shown, but with your own EEBD storage at the foot of the rack, attached to the bottom of the rack above and flush with the outside edge. Stowage was the full area under the mattress, including 1 drawer which you could open without lifting the lid. Both were secured with a padlock.
Officially allowed out and visible during the day were the mattress, 1 pillow, 2 (unfitted) white cotton sheets, and 1 gray wool blanket. Unofficially overlooked during an inspection were a Bible or other religious book under the pillow, and a SMALL travel clock and penlight attached with Velcro to the bottom of the rack above. (The penlight was to enable you to exit the space if the power was out.) Generally overlooked were a family photo or two, also attached where not visible from the deck. Rule of thumb for photos was that you kept them in the locker if you wouldn't show them to the chaplain.
Creature comforts were a ventilation fan, a reading light above the pillow, the blue privacy curtains and the safety strap (P**sy strap). The Safety Strap was a vertical strap at the centerline of the rack which could be snapped in place to keep you from rolling out of the rack in heavy weather, or could be affixed by helpful/concerned shipmates when you returned from liberty in a somewhat less than optimal condition.
Those curtains were pretty much your ONLY privacy while onboard. The 6 racks in a section had a 4-foot wide aisle between them where you dressed and undressed. Nothing like opening your curtain on your middle rack to be confronted by a hairy a$$...or the hairy not-a$$ side of your shipmate. You did NOT touch another's curtains. It just wasn't done. If you needed to wake them for watch you knocked on the rack by the pillow and said their name. If that didn't work you went to he other end and gently shook a foot. (Some sailors had unique life experiences which could result in something like a wet alley cat with fists if touched while asleep. A foot was safest.)
The shower room was a 6'X6' room with 8 shower heads and no dividers. Urinals had no dividers. Toilets had dividers but no doors. As there was no "changing area" near the showers, closest you came to privacy on the up to 50 foot walk to the showers was to wrap your towel around you.
Thanks , I now know why my Dad woke us up by the foot/toe- He was Viet Nam vet/Navy SeaBees.
Try a Diesel submarine 😂😂
@@mikeray1544 so, how did sneaking up behind Dad and trying to scare him generally work out?
Over several decades, I've finally gotten to the point where I actually look BEFORE I swing. Not a combat vet, just spent a lot of my younger years in "not-boring" places, generally with ample motorcycle parking.
@@Paul197A I've toured a few WWII-era subs. No thanks. I have no desire to share a rack with a live torpedo...or hot-rack with another sailor.
FWIW, I wasn't complaining about my Navy Rack. It did just fine. There seems to be a rather large group that thinks a modern US Navy sailor gets off work and proceeds to his/her private stateroom where he/she evaluates how well the maid service did before retiring to a luxurious 30-minute shower. This only holds true if you inhabit the CO's or XO's stateroom.
Who did you hack off to get superglue in your lock?
I was on the USS Manley (DD-940) in the early 70’s and we had the coffin racks in our berthing areas. Same with USS Decatur (DDG-31) in the mid 70’s.
I was in Manley from 1974-79, my coffin bunk was located
starboard side right at the waterline, so when the ship was underway, I had the sound of the rushing by my ears about 3/4 of an inch away. Very relaxing. I also had experience with the canvas bottom bunk; periodically you'd have to take out the slack out of the cotton line. As the line slacked off there was time when the canvas was form fitting. The ship had to take a 30+ degree roll before you had to worry about it. Bunking in the aft CPO quarters aboard BB-62, I had to a bottom coffin style bunk and a steaming locker for all my gear; much more space than the tim cans.
If I recall the USS Massachusetts had canvas mattresses on the bunks, that is what I slept on back when I stayed on board the Massachusetts, when I was in the boy scouts.
5:35 "you've got no alone time" *Chuckles*
I was six months TDY on the USS Shields DD596, there I slept on a rope laced canvas pipe frame rack. The advantage of this system is that it could be adjusted to form enough of a trough that helped hold you in during heavy weather. The down side was that the lockers for the three inhabitants were on the deck below the lower rack. If you were lucky enough to have the lower rack you would have to get up anytime the upper bunk mates wanted access to their lockers.
My permanent command, USS Fanning DE1076 had the " coffin" racks. The lower two racks were a combined rack/locker, you slept on the lid to your locker. The upper racks had vertical lockers at the ends of the rows. These racks were a hard flat aluminum sheet with a one inch high edge molding to hold the 1.5 inch foam mattress in place. In heavy seas there was nothing to keep you in the rack. Again I had a lower rack which I kept even after I made 2nd Class. At that time it was custom that anyone senior could claim the rack of a junior and the junior would have to clean out their locker and find another rack. Being that the middle rack was the prime realestate, I chose to stay with the lower one confident that it was not likely I would be forced to relocate. The only down side is that the lower rack had to be triced up each morning before sweepers. We were about 90 people in a space around 45 x 30 feet. This was 1971.
Actually, the bunks that we had in boot camp and on shore stations had the metal suspension system underneath them (what you call "chicken wire")... The mattresses were thicker though -- maybe 4" total... They were comfortable enough...
The center rectangular mesh was connected to the outer frame by coil springs... I don't remember the outer frame being tubular though -- perhaps angle iron since that would make it easier to mount the coil springs since they could just drill a hole in the flat portion and slip the end of the spring through it... Too many decades have passed to remember that sort of detail though... Not quite a half century, but getting close...
Don’t forget that on some ships like the Battleship Texas. It had hooks attached to the top bulkheads to string up hammocks for the lowest enlisted sailors.
My boat (SSN-713) used hammocks a few times when we had a bunch of extra riders. We had a few in the torpedo room and one or two in the SK shack.
Went from lower enlisted racks, to Chief racks, to staterooms. My favorite times were my time in the E-6 and below berthings.
We in the 60's cruiser Navy had the pipe racks but they stretched canvas and lashed it with line. And then you show it with USS Salem. Thanks for the memories. We once took a guy's mattress, then filled his rack with shaving cream, he came back drunk and didn't notice till he woke up with dry foam stuck all over him and his uniform, one pissed sailor.
Was just North Carolina today for the first time since 1984. The metal pipe racks were 3 to 5 high. It was partly cloudy and 85 degrees outside. Well over 90 in the aft berthing on 2nd deck. I couldn't imagine 2300 guys on there in the south pacific.
While I expect most sailors would enjoy the slight privacy of the coffin racks I bet infantry in combat would have been happy to sleep on the floor.
Yep. See my other comment. 👍😁
Oorrah.
I talked to a old boy on USS Iowa when was getting painted in Richmond CA that slept on the forward deck up by the brake water. Cool story. I could have talked with him all day.
So on the USS England CG-22 '78 to '81, we had coffin racks 3 high, many, many years later I'm building call centers and went 3 high on the bunks. Everyone wanted the top bunk for privacy.
In our Division on England, bunk selection was kind of based on tenure/seniority so to get a middle bunk I won a game of chess for it.
I had the Coffin racks on USS Theodore Roosevelt CVN-71, same ones still used 20yrs later today when I had to do some work on the USS George HW Bush CVN-77. When I first got to the ship in 2000 as a 3rd class, I had a Bottom rack, better for me as I was a larger person. When we changed Berthing 2yrs later I was a 2nd, and rack choice in the division went by seniority. I finally upgraded to the middle rack. Easier to get in and out of compared to top or bottom.
Ah, the middle rack. Nothing like opening your curtains and being confronted with somebody's harry a$$ or dangling junk.
@@kevincrosby1760 Never seemed an issue for me. Guess I worked with decent folks.
@@red2001ss Guess you never tried to climb out of your rack while 11 other guys were getting dressed in the 4X12 aisle between the racks?
Perhaps you were in Air Det or a shipboard division which was lightly staffed? Pretty sure you weren't in Engineering on a large ship with a conventional steam plant.
Reville...all hands heave out and "trice up". Pipe racks with canvas were on the Roosevelt (CVA-42) in 1965. About the same vintage as NJ.
You left out the best branch of service.
The most narrow bed I ever slept on was the upper bunk of a mid 90s Volvo semi tractor. It was long enough but one shoulder was against the back wall while the other was on the edge of the bed. You did have to sit up to turn over.
Even more amazing is how quickly your dad can get OUT of the sleeper when you have the misfortune of totally missing a downshift and having to resort to fishing for a gear...
On my ASW frigate in the early 1980s, we had the coffin racks. There was a flat locker built into the lower part of it for clothes and personal things. We still had a vertical locker too.
During the occasional "Tiger Cruise", a quick few days cruise where some family members were allowed onboard, I once got off shift at night to find a civvie snoozing in my rack. I had to find elsewhere to sleep.
USS Hornet is Alameda still has the canvas racks installed. I got to sleep on one of them a couple of years ago during one of their paranormal overnight investigations. It was quite comfortable.
Paranormal investigations?
When I checked on board the USS Shenandoah AD-26 back in 1977 all the racks were of the canvas type. If your shipmate who had his rack above didn't tighten his canvas you did not sleep well.
40 some years ago, I spent the night on the uss Silversides (SS-236), on a pipe rack that was stacked four high. In order to turn over, I had to contort my body for close to a minute, to turn over.
Since American ships didn't have AC in WWII, if you were Hot Bunking, you'd be sweating all night, and the next person sleeping in it, would find it a little damp, from all the sweat.
I was reading about the WWII pilot training they did in my area of southern Florida and the barracks were expedient structures made of wood with tar paper covering the frame. No windows or AC. Sometimes windows were roughly cut into the tar paper for a breeze but that also allowed the humidity. One pilot said he never tasted any of the food while he was at Buckingham because he constantly had a sinus infection from the extreme temperature changes from the ground to training altitude.
People were hard as stone back then
Same, although our group slept in the torpedo room. Other time I was the assistant senior scout and we slept in the officers quarters.
Those pipe racks were still very much in use in troop berthing in the early 90s. That's what we slept in while deployed on the Schenectady (LST-1185)
I couldn’t tell you why, but this is one of your best videos in the series.
Served on the USS Zellars DD777, Sumner class. I had a canvass pipe rack, very comfortable. Yes, when I turned over my shoulder would brush the bottom of the rack above me, but comfortable. Almost everyone had gear bags that we would hang from the end the the rack above us at the end where our heads would be. No stinky feet in your face, and a little more privacy. Pipe racks were also great in rough weather. I had a pair of adjustable canvass straps which would hook to my pipe rack. One tightened over my thighs, and one tightened over my chest, and I was secure in my rack no matter the gyrations of the ship.
I was on the Forrestal and the Independence. We had the coffin style racks. On the Forrestal I had the top rack, which was nice because they didn't reach all of the way to the ceiling. I could sit up in my rack. I also had a couple of beams that made for nice shelves. I was allowed to place things on the beams, usually books and a few other things as long as they were secured so they couldn't fall out. We had the storage under the rack, plus a small locker at the foot of the racks. We had a space near the Line Shack where we were able to store our sea bags. Since my deployment with the Forrestal was during the Summer, I was able to keep my Blues and spare clothing locked in my sea bag.
My grandfather served on USS Washington and talked about those pipe racks. He said it was always better to be on the top bunk, because the further down you were, the higher your chances were of being thrown up on by a sailor in a higher bunk during heavy weather. One of those issues they don’t talk about in the history books!
My first ship was USS John King DDG-3. My rack was a canvas-and-rope rack.
Regarding Ryan's saying that WW2, Korea, & Vietnam veterans are sometimes disappointed that their berthing/work areas had changed so much - when I went to see the Wisconsin in 2019, my tour guide said that when WW2 vets came aboard Wisconsin, their reaction was frequently something along the lines of. "What did you do to my ship?"
Regarding the wire racks, when I visited North Carolina in 2021, there was a HUGE compartment filled with column after column of these wire racks. I want to say there were about 4 or 5 per column, but don't quote me on that.
I think the berthing compartments we visited aboard North Carolina were 4 high though I recall a photo with pipe racks 5 high. They also had one area set up with hammocks which made my son and wife go "Hmm." They asked me if I ever ... and I quickly said "NO!" We had "coffins" in both ships I served in, Destroyer Caron (DD 970) and Assault Ship Nassau (LHA 4) although the "troop berthing" spaces in the Nassau had open bunks (no enclosure at all) stacked 4 high.
For a few months in Caron I had a top rack (3 high) but had to share the space with a length of fire main piping.
Those WWII and Korean War guys were really crammed in there because of all the anti-aircraft guns that were added required a ton of additions crewmembers. The crews in the 40s and 50s were much larger than the berths were designed for. Probably less of an issue on the Iowas than the NCs, SoDaks, and especially the Standards, but even the Iowas were well over their planned crew size by the end of the war.
@@robertf3479 I always found it amazing how a sailor could come in off of liberty so drunk that they could barely walk, but manage to get into a top rack without injuring themselves OR waking up a person in one of the lower racks.
@@kevincrosby1760 I've never been that drunk but I've witnessed shipmates that were. When I had to 'live' in a top rack in Caron, one night while underway we had an alarm go off (GQ,) middle of the night with no drills planned. I found myself standing on the deck pulling boots and trousers on with absolutely no memory of how I quickly climbed down without kicking or landing on any of the other guys doing the same thing who lived below my bunk or across the aisle. 2 were on watch so 4 of us were scrambling to get dressed and to our GQ stations at the other end of the ship and 4 decks up.
@@robertf3479 I have been that drunk. Once. in 55 years. I'm generally very careful to keep track of how much alcohol I have had, for just that reason.
However, there was a bar in Acapulco which served "Bottomless Banana Daiquiris". Turns out that banana masks the taste of alcohol quite nicely. "Bottomless" means that you would take a drink or two, turn to talk to a friend, and turn back to find your glass overflowing. They were literally making rounds with pitchers of the stuff. I totally lost track, and apparently had enough booze in a short period that I went from sober to drunk without the normal interval.
We were anchored out in the Bay. Not only do I not know how I ended up in my rack, I have no idea how I managed to get out of the liberty boat and up the Acomm Ladder without ending up in the bay...On a Replenishment Oiler, so it wasn't a short ladder. I do remember the rather severe T-storm that night. Having your rack spinning is bad enough without adding pitch and roll to the problem.
During WW2 a hot, cramped, smelly, berthing space with a chicken wire bed is still better than a wet and muddy or frozen hole in the ground that you might have to stay in for weeks at a time.
Served in the RN in the 60s and 70s. Initially I slept in hammocks.... Best sleep I had at sea! So comfortable .... provided you took the time to adjust the "nettles" correctly. They took a bit of time to lash-up and stow and they had to be lashed-up in the correct manner as they had to fit in neatly to a limited hammock stowage rack.
Also, a properly lashed hammock served two other important purposes. Firstly, if lashed correctly, they would (reportedly) remain afloat for 3 hours, providing an important life saver if the ship went down. Secondly, they were very useful for plugging shell-holes and other action-damage.
Then the RN changed to three-high rack-bunks that could be folded down to form a seat with the mattresses forming reasonably comfortable cushions. They were less comfortable in a heavy sea than a hammock which would sway with the roll of the ship.
No idea what they do now.....
I served on a gun in the RAR, (105mm howitzer), and often slept under a tarp on a small collapsible stretcher. One day we mistakenly pitched our tarp over a wide underground ant nest, in Australia the ants can be angry ... it was an interesting night!
IJN: Your mattress is flammable we're taking it away, here is a plank of wood to sleep on instead. 🤔
When I was a teenager I used to do a lot of hiking and I'd stay in places that had hostels and the one in the states were built around the smallest adult mattress you could find but the ones overseas and some in the states also were one meter by 2 m with a half inch piece of plywood and one of those 2in prison mattresses on top of it
We didn't care when you're young you just don't care and everyone got along it was what it was
As an adult I could probably see getting in fights with people cuz they're not going to sleep and they're making noise or whatever but again when you're young it really kind of just doesn't matter
DId the overnight with the coffin racks with the cub scouts. On the top bunk it looks like a long way down to a hard steel floor. My son bonked his head when waking up the next morning.
WW2 Royal Navy.. you were in a hammock... right up into the late 50s!
I’ve slept in the pipe racks on a retired coast guard cutter and loved it !!! I slept like a baby !!!!
GF and I did two cross-country trips on Amtrak in Roomettes. The upper births were very similar to coffin racks spacewise. The mattress may have been thicker than a Navy mattress.
I was in from 1980 to 2005, but consider myself to be a Cold War Sailor. Pacific Fleet all the way. As a CTI Russian linguist, all my sea time was temporary duty. I spent a lot of the 1980s underway. I almost deployed on New Jersey, but got switched to another ship at the last minute. Since I wasn't ship's permanent crew, I never felt that communal feeling. Berthing on most ships I was on was pretty quiet most of the time. We were working long hours and we needed our beauty sleep. During my deployments, I was on destroyers (Tin Cans Forever!), subs, aircraft carriers (not my favorite), and frigates. Frankly I don't remember the coffin racks being so narrow. Plenty of room. And falling asleep while underway was a piece of cake. It was like being rocked to sleep. Noticed that all the pipe racks were triced up. We also did the same with the bottom coffin rack. "Heave out and trice up!" When I was on a sub, I slept in the bomb room on a torpedo skid. Hugged the torpedo next to me. Good times!
we had canvas racks on USCG 82 footers - up in the bow - AKA the anti gravity chamber.... wasn't safe to sleep up there when it was rough - when it was real rough I'd grab a mae west lifejacket for a pillow and sleep on the deck in the electric panel booth in the ER - as low and on center as possible...
In my 6 years in the Navy. The closest i got to sleeping in a Navy rack was at RTC great lakes. After that it was mattresses, cots ,strechers , the ground. In the back of MTVR cargos in or on top of MRAPS
I was on three different ships in the 70's. The oldest was built in 1939, and had pipe racks. I was lucky, and ended up with a lower rack, with a board on the "springs", and a 2" mattress. The other two ships I was on were built in the mid to late 60's, and had coffin racks. Same 2" mattresses, and a reading light on the underside of the rack above us. The coffin racks were definately more comfortable, but at that time we still had the same openness and lack of privacy as the pipe racks.
I have slept in barges, while the ship was in overhaul. racks so tight on a sub that rolling over was terrible. Then trying the make your coffin bunk after your laundry is done. Some of my racks were close to crew areas and you heard everything, especially during poker or movie night. Slept on bench in crew's lounge, lower level missile on blankets. I was happy to make 3rd Class and get a better choice of rank and most importantly rank located in the berthing compartment. Really liked sleeping close to the outer haul and feel the waves. The best sleeping was after my commission to 0-1gn. I took a three day ride on a HMS Destroyer. How, that was outstanding. With UK Navy a clear separation between the officer and enlisted in living quarters. Had a steward to make my rank everyday. I and another Ensign where enjoying our 3 day cruise. Alcohol rations during meals. Officers had evening Alcohol rations. Unless you were the helicopter pilot you could a one drink. My some more goofy sleeping arrangement where the tents in Saudi, hot dusty, meals where hard to eat with the dust flying. Them lived in great housing with running water, TV's, meal hall's where when covered in the basement of housing unit where that parked cars. But, no wind or bugs. Various nice living arrangements until I got medivac. Oh well. After being gone from the housing we lived in, about 6 years later they bombed the buildings.
Whale... On USS Constellation we had the horizontal phone booths, with an individual light, an air vent, a speaker (You could choose the ship's own radio station, or the TV station when it was operating, and oh, yes, your locker was also in your bunk with you. The curtain was not provided, but the squadrons made their own out of a Naugahyde material, others used blankets or sheets, or else bought a curtain somewhere.
On USS Coral Sea, we had these pipe racks, just as you have shown them. Ours were canvas but we added wrap around curtains. I did keep a concealed razor blade in my bunk in case such was needed. Only had to use it once.
One thing hasn't evolved is the odor of feet and that one guy who snores like a grizzly bear.
I served on USS South Carolina CGN 37 from 1978 to 1982 and we had the coffin racks. Our berthing compartment had all 30 members of Fox Division. I stayed in the bottom rack for the entire time because in the morning you could trice it up to attach to the bottom of the middle rack to hide the fact that the rack was messy if I was running late for muster.
That is exactly why I chose the bottom rack.
Plus, the triced-up bottom rack ensured nobody would be casually rifling through your space looking for stuff to steal....
As a 25 year navy veteran, I slept in a lot of racks. The ones shown here were bad because if someone was mad at you, they would do all sorts of things to you at night
Interesting info from Ryan about the Yamato having aircon. It probably, at least partly, contributed to it being derisively named "Hotel Yamato".
I served on destroyers and patrol boats 1967 to 1975. Adm Zumwalt, in 1970, made the rule change to allow sailors to store and wear civilian clothes to and from the ship. On some ships, the laundry would wash your clothes and let you use the iron. The canvas center pipe racks also had a mattress similar to the ones in your video. On WWII built destroyers the bunks were 18" apart and 3 bunks high. On Essex class carriers, 6 bunks high. I rode one for 3 days, right under the catapult. There were foot lockers under the bottom rack and enough standing lockers for 3rd class and up to have an additional locker. It was more private in berthing than in boot camp, so I didn't find the lack of privacy noticeable. On a DLG built in 1960 we had coffin bunks the same length as pipe racks, but 24" apart. My buddy, 6'3" got the shipfitters to make an extension to his bunk. Everybody also had an extra standing locker. No curtains, but more room and a table for poker. My birthing held 12 people but most spaces were bigger. I made a few trips to Vietnam and on patrol boats slept on the deck, rain or shine. So navy bunks were a luxury.
Ahoy!! You wrote: "My birthing held 12 people" please change that to "My berthing held 12 people" (use edit function) so I can erase my comment shipmate!! heh heh !! Anchors aweigh !!
In my experience on the New Jersey in the coffin racks the bottom is the best the middle is the hardest to get in and out of and there is always something to hit your head on in the top. But I still think they are better than the pipe racks would have been.
I have had all three and prefer the bottom rack. Thought it the most comfortable and liked being able to trice it up.
@@chuckjohannessen3330 I was always in a bottom rack too. I liked that when you trice it up, you get added security that nobody else will be rifling around in your space looking for stuff to steal. Plus the bottom rack had a better ride in rough weather.
USS Alabama has the pipe racks, and after a long drive to Mobile, plus chasing Cub Scouts all over the ship, you don't really notice how uncomfortable they are. One trick is to pick the right bunk, because they are not uniformly spaced. I usually went with a bottom bunk because they offered more space than the middle racks, and the kids would take the tops because they liked climbing. Now, if you have back problems like me, things can be different, but once my back settled down, I could sleep(until the snorers got too loud). One modern amenity they have there is air conditioning in the overnight areas. The combination of cold steel and air conditioning made for some chilly winter nights.
Slept in both canvas racks and coffin racks (76-80, Navy, CG, Marines-I was a TDY slut). For those talking about privacy, I was so tired at the end of the day all of the racks felt like heaven and I never had time to just sit around and I don't remember feeling a lack of privacy. I remember getting 20 or 30 minutes occasionally and I'd always have a paperback with me so I'd just plop to the deck and read a bit. Once I walked forward during the afternoon watch and the whole foredeck was covered with most of the off-watch crew sleeping on the deck-a classic steel beach. 14 knots, gentle swell, sunshine off the east coast. Unfortunately, I did have the watch....
I did two short stints on Air Force bases and we sailors got the crappy quarters-two man rooms that looked like a Motel 6-really roughing it.
My Grandfather told me that when he crossed the Pacific while in the Marine Corp , going both ways he slept on deck most of the time . Better air and cooler . Of course it was no a battleship or Destroyer .
Then LST I served the most time on had the metal "racks" with metal springs. This was in 1968. They weren't ,posh but they worked. They were stacked 3 high. The first LST I was on had the "coffin" racks installed while undergoing drydock work. Each bunk had a locker under the bed, and there were no separate lockers in the space. This took place in 1967. Air conditioning was added to the LST is was on in 1968 and was probably installed on the other ship, but I don't remember it being there before I left.
My father was on an APA during the war, and I think I remember him saying that they slept in hammocks.
Was he a sailor or Marine? The APA would need to maximize space to get more troops to the AO. My grandfather was a sailor on an AKA where they hauled materiel and he had a pipe rack
@@johnbeauvais3159 He was a coastie. At Okinawa there were MPs embarked.
@@johnbeauvais3159 I was on the Merrick - AKA97 and we had pipe racks with a canvas liner. Being a teenager, it wasn't too bad.
@@bobrenner7213 My grandfather (Also John Beauvais) was on Trousdale AKA-79 at Okinawa.
When I served 73-75 aboard USS Okinawa LPH-3 I started off in a coffin rack. They then moved us Fox division GMG, GMM to the hospital overflow that had the canvas pipe racks and they were the most comfortable. I slept on the bottom rack and it had many advantages. Easy to get in and out of, cooler to sleep in and more private than the upper racks. One more benefit was after one to many ashore or rough sea's you didn't have far to fall if you fell out of the rack. 😂
I was told in 2005 that the schooner ADVENTURESS had something like pipe racks in her forward cabin, and the entire crew slept there, making it a separate crew cabin, but long before I sailed on her, these had been replaced with 8 or 10 wooden berths, 2 high, with removable mattresses, and storage beneath the lower berths, plus the new, period-appropriate deckhouse was designed to sleep 4 if necessary. The pipe-rack-like berths, whatever they were, were not remembered fondly by veteran crew. The new wooden foc'sle racks couldn't accommodate all the crew, so they were often reserved for people who couldn't sleep through other people's snoring.
I was in the Navy and slept in many coffin lockers. Lots of space if you had the middle or bottom, guy on the top was out of luck. Some even had a small reading lamp inside Never saw a birthing area with 6 people. I think on one ship we had 18, but I've seen an older ship with about 100 in the compartment.
I actually chose a top rack because it had enough space overhead between piping for me to sit completely up (granted I am only 5'8"). We were also really lucky because we had an entire berthing just for us in the aviation department. I think in total there was something like 18-21 total racks so half of them were even empty since there was only 12 of us in there.
When I was aboard USS Ranger there were 430 people in P2 Berthing . Sharing 1 Tv
Our entire Engineering Department was in one berthing area...85-100 men. Might have been a bit crowded, but you KNOW that the lights, plumbing, heating, and A/C all worked properly...
On carriers, the top bunk doesn't have an overhead (another rack above you). Depending on what kind of junk was installed above you you could maybe poke your head over the separator and see the bunk next to you, up to being able to sit straight up comfortably. But you always had more headroom than the middle and bottom racks.
@@davidcruz8667 so true , I also had the bottom of an I beam for small stuff
My father was a US Merchant Marine, before, during and after WWII.
By the time he was going to sea, the men had bunks to sleep in.
A few years prior to that the Merchant Marines went on strike to get the following:
1. A bunk to sleep in. 2. A mattress to lay on. 3. Eat out of the same "pot." (equal food for all)
When he got his AB ticket after March 1942, the ship he was on, the Eastern Sword (sunk May 1942) he and the crew, along with the Third Mate, slept in the focsle.
The front end of the ship.
When he became a Second mate, he got his own room.
No air conditioning, but they did have electric fans.
A friend of his went back to sea.
He was a Captain but took a Third mates jobs.
He told my father that the room he had as a Third mate in today's world, was bigger than any quarters he had service as the Ship's Master.
Of course, it had a private bath, TV, internet and a few other things.
My. How times have changed.
A Marine on a troop ship in the early 70’s it was not very comfortable but I was in my early 20’s and I thought it was ok. It was the endless chow lines that stick in my memory. Now in my 70’s I do not think I would be very comfortable in those conditions especially getting up and going to the head and being on the top bunk would even be more of a challenge. 🤩Oh well at least I am getting older and not everyone I served with is.
We toured the HMS Victorious when it visted Boston on the 60s. My father and brother made it down to the crews mess, where they also slept. They were still using hammocks! Mind you, this was an old WW2 ship.
BTW, I slept most of my 26 year military career on a nice Air Force bed
Spent 4 and a half years on the USS Houston, SSN 713. Fast attack submarine with coffin racks 3 high. I hot-racked 90% of the time I was on board. But I didn't mind it. My rack mates had good hygiene and people on my boat would probably rank me amongst the best smelling on board. Some even tried to bribe the rack bill writer to put me in their hot rack rotation XD
I really enjoyed my time in the submarine force and being able to live for so long with so little private space showed that I was more than capable of living in small spaces. Which is why today, I van life full time in an Element. When people ask how I can be comfortable, I just point to the fact that I spent years with little more than a 2 ft by 7 ft box for privacy and comfort.
1972 had a coffin rack but had foam rubber mattress. Midway CVA-41
I still bring a hammock on board with me. not only is it fun to have on some beaches during port visits but I've managed to string one up in a few compartments and catch some good zzz's. especially during rough seas
New Jersey still floats. Yamato doesn't. Nuff said?
On board a Coast Guard ice breaker in the '80s, had the coffin racks. But still, every morning, reveille call was "... heave out, trice up..."
Aboard the Robert K Huntington, DD-781, we had the tube and canvas racks three high. Below the bottom rack was three lockers for your gear. One thing the US Navy could learn from the New Zealand navy was their bunking systems. They were arranged in a C-shape, and the movable racks covered with a zipper bag system. The bottom rack was flipped over to form a long seat cushion, the middle rack flipped and the underside formed a back cushion and the top bunk flipped up. This formed a generous seating area. But then, the Brits have been at this a lot longer than we have. I will also say that their summer uniforms (at least back in the day) of shorts and t-shirts made a lot more sense that our dress whites.
Locker clubs. I just recently ran across my old locker club key from San Diego. I hope I didn't leave anything of value. It's been 50 plus years ago.
I've slept in the pipe racks, the canvas racks, and the coffins and by far my personal preference is the 2 high canvas since as a 6'3" guy I can sit up unlike in the coffins or 3 high pipe racks.
TAD aboard USS Terrebone Parish (LST-1156), 1971, slept in the top rack of 4 on a canvas & tube bunk next to a live steam pipe. Only time I ever got heat rash. We were in the Caribbean off the coast of Panama. You forgot to mention fart-sacks . Thanks for your informative videos. QMC (SW, USN Ret.)
My father served in the hospital section of the Nimitz during the 80s. From the beginning it’s berthing areas were coffin racks but the hospital had the pipe racks in its mass casualty room