We were alongside of one of the Carriers for refueling. It was the USS Ranger It seems that every time we would start to break away the Ranger would Play The Lone Ranger theme song and some smooth voiced dude would holler out "High Ho Silver Away". I think it was part of the William Tell Overture. Well the captain wanted to leave a big rooster tail and somehow do something to show our ships pride. We all talked about breaking out the train whistle and setting it up at the port side steam riser. The when ready, the skipper would let us know to start building up steam for a quick dash away from The Carrier. Just when the Ranger would cut in their PA system to blow us away, we would kick Higbee in the But and jerk the long Nylon Lanyard to the Train whistle. Well that whistle normally operated on about 40 PSI and she was set up on a 150 PSI steam line. The whistle was so loud people actually stopped paying attention to what they doing. Every head visible was craned towards the Higbee. The CO screamed down the starboard side of the ranger and not one bar of their theme song was heard until the MR holding the lanyard let go it. What a thrill for the skipper. From that day on it was the normal breakaway practice after every underway replenishment.
The train whistle was on the port side, just behind the break. It was
brought out anytime we took on supplies, fuel, mail & flicks. as the last line
would leave the ship we would break away at lighting speed ( compared to the
tanker ) blowing our whistle. I believe the MM took care of the whistle although
I'm not sure. Carl Gilman BT2 1968 - 1971
When I came to the Train Whistle,
boy did the memories come flooding back. I will give the
story as best I can recall......
We were operating in the South China Sea in 1962 as best as I recall.
There was a Russian "trawler" that kept getting a little to close to the
operation for the Admirals comfort. The Higbee was instructed to gently
escort the Russians out of the immediate area. It seems that one of the
officers on board collected train whistles, and just happened to have
one on board. That is when the fun started. The Engineering Officer
(Lt. G. K. Gowens I believe) came to me and asked if I could hook the
whistle up amidships. When he told me what was up I would have hooked it
up if I had to hold the pipes together with my hands. After about thirty
minutes of jury rigging, we had the whistle armed and ready for duty.
One other point of interest, the whistle was designed to use 40 lb.
steam and we hooked it up to a 140 lb. line. The whistle was old at that
time and we half expected it to blow apart after one good blast.
We were a couple of miles from the Russians when we started our
"attack" on the them. The old man called down to the Boiler rooms and
asked for all the steam they could give him and had the Gunners man the
fore and aft 5" mounts. We were bearing straight down on the Russians at
30 knots with all appearances of ramming them or blowing them out of the
water. At the very last second the Higbee mad a hard right turn and with
guns trained on them, we set off that steam whistle. I can still see the
look of astonishment on those Russian sailors faces, the ones that
didn't go over the side. The crew of the Higbee was rolling on the decks
with laughter and as the Russians proceeded to leave the area, so were
most of them. With the possible exception of the Captain that trawler.
I had always thought the Ensign took the whistle with him when he left
the ship, I didn't realize it had become a permanent fixture. Due to the
"Go to hell" attitude of the crew during that period of time, the
Admiral sent us on quite a few wild assignments. We always managed to
turn them into a good time for all.
Wavern J. Baker EN3
4/60 - 8/62 USS Higbee DDR 806
I remember the train whistle very clearly, however I
believe it was another train whistle then 1962 one, because the one I remember was appropriated by means of a ten finger discount from off of a Japanese train
in Sasebo. We had just returned from an emergency sortee, The Korean (North)
had captured the USS Pueblo. The day they did it was the same day we had pulled
in to Sasebo for some badly needed repairs. We had gotten all the equipment
that was ship to shop off the ship and to the shops. The CO then let 2 of the
3 duty sections hit the beach for some long awaited fun ashore.
Hours later we got the word to get everyone back on board, emergency recall.
The guys ashore must have heard about it because they were tougher to find
than molars on a hen. We left but it was a really tough night, and the next
day wasn't much better, because the crew were almost to the man, three sheets
in the wind, and needed to sober up before they could be used to steam or run
the ship, Any how when we returned after the Pueblo incident a couple of our
fine engineers appropriated this train whistle. We rigged it up at the port
side shore steam riser. It made one heck of a toot! The skipper had more fun
with that whistle. I remember several stories relating to the whistle. It's
late so I'll have to get back to you with them at a later date. I do remember
that we had several high ranking Japanese policemen and military people pay
us a visit after the whistle disappeared from the Nippon Choo Choo.
appropriated by means of a ten finger discount from off of a Japanese train
in Sasebo. We had just returned from an emergency sortee, The Korean (North)
had captured the USS Pueblo. The day they did it was the same day we had pulled
in to Sasebo for some badly needed repairs. We had gotten all the equipment
that was ship to shop off the ship and to the shops. The CO then let 2 of the
3 duty sections hit the beach for some long awaited fun ashore.
Hours later we got the word to get everyone back on board, emergency recall.
The guys ashore must have heard about it because they were tougher to find
than molars on a hen. We left but it was a really tough night, and the next
day wasn't much better, because the crew were almost to the man, three sheets
in the wind, and needed to sober up before they could be used to steam or run
the ship, Any how when we returned after the Pueblo incident a couple of our
fine engineers appropriated this train whistle. We rigged it up at the port
side shore steam riser. It made one heck of a toot! The skipper had more fun
with that whistle. I remember several stories relating to the whistle. It's
late so I'll have to get back to you with them at a later date. I do remember
that we had several high ranking Japanese policemen and military people pay
us a visit after the whistle disappeared from the Nippon Choo Choo.Mike Hutson EM2
USS Higbee 1966 - 1969