U.S.S. YANCEY AKA-93

Ken Grooms's Navy

A story for the USS Yancey

Pumping Iron - Yancey Style

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The fantail of the Yancey was used for many purposes other than a location for the 5 inch 38 caliber gun. Sometimes it was used for unauthorized liberty called "Fantail Liberty" - down the stern hawser and to the dock - climbing back up could be a problem unless you were crafty and came aboard when the Officer of the Deck was not looking - so I have been told and witnessed on one occasion..

Also, at sea we were taught, as Deck Apes, that a couple of half hitches on the handle of a swab and of course the other end of the line tied to the fantail railing. Then it was over the side for a few minutes to clean the swab. Sometimes a sailor got the idea that this would be a good way to clean clothes. Problem was, left too long, and the end of the line comes up with a few tattered white remains of what was once a good set of dungarees.

But the best use of the fantail, I remember was when Max Murray and Jerry Freddie got the idea to use it for their body building efforts. Freddie (also know as Freddie The Fireman - The backbone of the bilges) worked in the engine room I believe. He was good at welding and had constructed a set of pulleys and cables along with some weights on one end and handholds on the other end. The bulkhead just forward of the 5 inch gun was used to mount the body building gear. The two of them would be seen with jugs of water walking back to the fantail together at a given time for their work out. This was no ordinary workout, since at sea the ship was pitching and rolling. At the fantail it seemed to me that the ship was making a rotating motion about the horizontal axis of the ship. This meant that Freddie and Max would be pulling forward and ship either helped them or worked against them to do their body work. Somehow they seemed to sense all of this motion and sort of got in tune with the ships motion. It seemed to pay off because they both were muscular specimens.

Submitted by:

Ken Groom
Kent, WA 98032
5/13/2003

Submitted 2/10/07
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