Part VIII

Miscellaneous

A few special subjects not included in the previous headings will be covered briefly here.

A. Industrial Manager's Assistance

  1. Representatives of the Industrial Manager, 9th Naval District, Chicago, and his Radio Material Officer (latter called the Electronics Officer), were frequent visitors at Bay City in connection with magnetic compass compensation, also inspection of degaussing, underwater sound, radio and radar installations.
  2. On earlier vessels only non-classified radar material was installed at Bay City. Commencing with the LCI(L) program and extending to the DE's and APD's, complete radar installations were made and tested at Bay City by a specially classified group of employees.

B. Water Exit Routes to Seaboard

  1. Frequently questions are raised by various offices as to the best water exit route from Bay City to seaboard.
  2. The choice is sometimes restricted by the physical dimensions of the vessels, and sometimes by the ice conditions. Otherwise the choice might be determined by comparative distance to final destination, or for other reasons.
  3. Briefly the three routes and their limitations are:

    (a) ST. LAWRENCE RIVER ROUTE

    Length — Certain locks of the Soulanges Canal and the Lachine Canal, above Montreal, are officially listed as having available lengths of only 252' and 253', although reports have been made of vessels 262' long (probably overall) exiting via these locks.

    Note: This length precluded the exit of any DE vessels by this route, but permitted passage of AM's and PC's.

    Width of locks, minimum 45 ft.

    Depth water, minimum of about 14 ft.

    Height above water (Soulanges Canal) 135 ft.

    Season — End of April to first week in December.

    Note: This route was used by some PC's and the AM's from Defoe's.

    (b) ILLINOIS – MISSISSIPPI RIVER ROUTE

    Length of controlling locks 600 ft.

    Width of controlling locks 110 ft.

    Depth of water, minimum 9 ft., plus or minus, depending on stage of rivers.

    Height above water (fixed bridges) 39.4 ft. plus 2.6 ft.*

    *This minimum head clearance of 39.4 ft. occurs at the Sag Highway Bridge between Willow Springs and Lemont, Ill., and can be increased by 2.6 ft. to 42.0 ft. by lowering the water in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, under the control of the U.S. Engineers Chicago. This means that vessels to make this passage must have a small draft of less than 9 ft., except in case of high water, or be buoyed up by pontoons, or lifted by a special floating drydock. They cannot have any high masts installed, or any high bridges or upper decks.

    Note: This route was used by all DE's, APD's, LCI(L)'s and most of the PC's from Defoe's. The masts, if installed at the shipyard, were removed for the river trip and reinstalled at New Orleans. Buoyancy pontoons were used in some cases.

    (c) NEW YORK STATE BARGE CANAL

    From Buffalo on Lake Erie, or from Oswego on Lake Ontario, via Lake Oneida to Troy on the Hudson.

    Length of controlling locks — 300 ft.

    Width of controlling locks — 43.5 ft.

    Depth of controlling locks — 10.0 ft.

    Height above water — 15.5 ft.

    Season — Mid-April to mid-November.

    Note: This route was used by most of the 110' wood hull, submarine chasers from Detroit and Trenton. Because of the very small overhead clearance, only rather small vessels can use this route.

  4. When physical dimensions, or ice, are not determining factors, the following distances may be determining factors:

    DISTANCES IN NAUTICAL MILES FROM BAY CITY, MICH.

    Mississippi Route To Port of St. Lawrence Route
    3564 Boston 1972
    3397 New York 2184
    3193 Norfolk 2375
    2857 Charleston 2679
    2816 Savannah 2752
    2732 Jacksonville 2843
    2424 Miami 3039
    2286 Key West 3190
    1964 New Orleans 3769
    3127 Panama 3928
    7300 Gibraltar 4700

    Note: For comparison only, for craft with low deck houses, via New York State Barge Canal:

    New York, via Buffalo — 858

    New York, via Oswego — 845

  5. The comparative distances to salt water are:

    Mississippi Route: 1964 nautical miles, 1330 in rivers and canals.

    St. Lawrence Route: 722 nautical miles, 244 in rivers and canals.

  6. By any of these routes there is considerable danger of damage to propellers, especially of twin screw vessels, alongside river banks, lock walls, or submerged obstructions. This danger is probably much greater by the Mississippi route, because of the greater length and the greater chance of driftwood, trees, etc., in the river at flood stages. An analysis of propeller damages would show a surprisingly high percentage of propeller casualties.
  7. The Mississippi route has another disadvantage for vessels operating under their own power. The raw water used in circulation systems, stern tubes, etc., is almost always very muddy and contains sufficient grit to wear out pump bearings, stern tube bearings, etc.

C. Navigation in Ice Season

  1. One of the big problems that confronted various naval activities every winter in connection with shipbuilding and delivery operations, was that of movement of vessels when there was more or less ice in the Lakes.
  2. The St. Lawrence River exit and the New York Barge Canal exit are generally closed absolutely during the winter months from late November or early December to April.
  3. The Chicago–Illinois–Mississippi River route is sometimes closed by ice, but generally for short periods only. From Bay City the Saginaw Bay is generally frozen from sometime in December to late in March. The other critical location on the Chicago route is at the Straits of Mackinac, which are generally frozen over from sometime in late December to sometime in April.
  4. Some vessels from Bay City made the passage to Chicago every war winter, with varying assistance of different types of ice breakers, and varying amounts of ice damage. In the 1945 winter the new Coast Guard Icebreaker MACKINAW was available. This vessel is very powerful and can probably get through any ice to be encountered in the Lakes, even the thick "windrowed" ice packs. Four APD's were convoyed through the Saginaw Bay ice and the Straits of Mackinac ice by the MACKINAW during the 1945 ice season, with little if any ice damage to the hulls. It was impossible to determine just where the propellers received their damages, whether in the ice or in canals.
  5. There is no question of the possibility of their getting through to Chicago, but there always is a possibility of some damage to the steel plating of thinly plated vessels, and to the propellers, whether the vessels go under their own power in the path of broken ice made by the MACKINAW, or whether they are being towed close to the MACKINAW.
  6. Probably the safest method is to tow the vessels without their propellers on, all the way from Bay City to Chicago, at very slow speeds when in heavy ice, otherwise the heavy blocks of ice will dent the steel plating and bend the propeller blades.

D. Connection with Fitting Out Personnel

  1. With the large number of vessels built at Bay City, Detroit and Trenton, requiring officers and crew for commissioning, or part of the officers and a nucleus crew in connection with fitting out, there were many C.F.O. officers and men temporarily stationed at Bay City and Detroit.
  2. This amounted to approximately 486 officers and 2700 enlisted men for various lengths of time, at Bay City alone.
  3. The longest time for any one officer on temporary duty at Bay City probably occurred in the case of the P.C.O. for PC 452. He reported at Bay City 28 October 1940 and remained until about August 1941, when decision was made to send the vessel to the Navy Yard Philadelphia for later installation of machinery. This delay in completion of the vessel was due to the long delay in construction and tests of the Bessler experiment boilers and the final failure of the boilers to pass the prescribed tests at the Naval Boiler Testing Laboratory.

    The vessel was practically complete except for machinery 27 May 1941, but launching was held up until 23 August 1941, when it was finally decided not to install the machinery at Bay City. Another type of boiler was selected and the vessel was finally commissioned at Philadelphia 26 July 1943.

  4. The shortest time any officer and crew were in Bay City was occasionally only a part of one day. In the case of the last vessel to leave, the YF 690, part of the crew arrived about 1300 and the vessel sailed at 1625 the same day.
  5. The greatest total number of officers and men in Bay City at any one time is not known accurately, but on the assumption of 50 officers and 200 men—it made quite a housing and discipline control problem for a city the size of Bay City.

E. Medical Department

  1. The medical department at Bay City consisted mainly of a Pharmacist's Mate, with a small stock of drugs, medicines, etc., for treatment of colds, athletic bruises, lameness, etc., and decision as to necessity for examination by a physician or hospitalization.
  2. The following Pharmacist's Mates were attached here:
    Name Rank Reported Detached
    Moore, John Charles PhM1c USN 1-19-43 6-14-43
    Meitl, Eugene Francis PhM1c USN 5-14-43 1-29-44
    Mongold, Edward Lewis PhM2c V-6 1-28-44 7-6-44
    Zax, Henry Edwin PhM1c V-6 5-22-44 9-28-45
    Koller, William Paul PhM1c V-6 9-26-45 12-17-45

    They were assisted at times by the Pharmacist's Mates attached temporarily in connection with fitting out of vessels.

  3. Occasionally the services of a Public Health Surgeon were available at the Coast Guard Barracks. A few Navy Medical Officers were stationed here for short periods, when the APD's were fitting out.
  4. Emergency medical service requiring a doctor, or hospitalization, was taken care of by orders on local physicians and hospitals. Whenever possible, hospital cases were taken by railroad to Chicago for transfer to the Naval Hospital at Great Lakes.

F. Military Furlough

  1. The following eight civilians were released on military furlough:
    Name Date of Birth Employed at Bay City Rate Released To
    Kajala, Eino A. 3-29-15 2-5-40 CAF-3 Clerk Steno. 3-7-41 Inducted
    Hill, Sven A. 12-3-09 10-16-39 CAF-5 Shpb. Insp. 8-22-41 Navy Commis.
    Adeslas, Sydney 5-20-09 5-5-41 SP-6 Eng. D.A.S. 8-25-42 Milt. Serv.
    Mallon, Gerald E. 6-24-12 1-16-42 CAF-7 Shpb. Insp. 12-5-42 Lt. (jg) USNR (Algonac)
    Sparkle, Roy B. 10-31-14 5-11-42 SP-6 Eng. D.A.S. 6-16-43 Milt. Serv.
    Spencer, Landis D. 6-27-13 8-30-42 CAF-8 Shpb. Insp. 7-8-43 Milt. Serv.
    Margulles, Arthur 7-18-18 3-10-41 P-4 Nav. Arch. 7-17-44 Ens. USNR
    Williams, Elmer V. 1-28-39 3-1-43 CAF-7 Insp. Shpb. Construction 10-9-44 C.P.O. Navy
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