All of our Minehunters were 100% fiberglass. Our Minesweepers that are still there today are wood and fiberglass. You don’t want to be in a metal ship mine hunting giving off a huge magnetic signature.
We had a British diver come over and help us one time while over there. We somehow got line wrapped up in our props. We didn’t have a diver but they did. Their RHIB hits our boat and the Britt goes, “no worries mate it’s just wood”. We found it to be hilarious. One of our guys would repeat often the line in his best British Accent.
Most of the Commanding Officers of these “small boys” are just out of being Junior Officers. In top of that 9 times out of 10 it is one of their junior officers running the evolution for training. I stood BMOW on the Bridge for like a 100 of these evolutions. I can’t tell you how many times the CO had to jump in and save the day. But could go DIW while leaving or coming back into port and dropping the anchor won’t help. At one point it was mandated to use a tug tied up to us while leaving or coming. No idea what happened here, I’ll read the article later.
Thanks for the clarification. That makes sense!
Doesn’t sound familiar….guess it was while I was on shore duty or on station in the states.
Makes sense, thanks.
Was in 2005
