If you are currently active, a veteran or a retired sailor and have gotten underway out to sea, this article pertains to you. Do you remember crossing the quarterdeck, saluting the flag, saluting the Officer of the Deck and requesting permission to come on board? We all do. This is just one thing we as sailors have to do to come on board a naval vessel. Here are some other things that every sailor has experienced at sea
1. The dreaded word "Reveille."
One of the things I hated the worst was to hear the Messenger of the Watch or Petty Officer of the Watch come over the 1MC and announce “Reveille." Usually, this is somewhere between 0600-0700 hours and means that everyone on board the ship needs to wake up and start the day. Sometimes if you stood an overnight watch, your supervisor may let you rest for another thirty minutes. I have always dreaded that word “Reveille."
2. "Sweepers Sweepers, Man Your Brooms."
This is another day-to-day thing that happened on board. Sometime throughout the day the announcement of “Sweepers, sweepers man your brooms. Give the ship a good clean sweep down both fore and aft! Sweep down all decks, ladders, and passageways! Dump all garbage clear of the fantail!" This basically means exactly what it says. When I was onboard my ship, we had to do this twice a day.
3. "Mail Call."
This is where I come in. I was a Postal Clerk 2nd Class when I was stationed onboard my ship. I couldn’t even tell you the amount of mail that came onboard the ship. When we went on our deployments, we would sporadically get mail while we were out to sea. The mail was delivered to our flight deck by a helicopter coming from a larger naval vessel. When we were moored in a port, the pier was covered with containers of mail and usually, we had to hold mail call on the pier because the mail wouldn’t fit in the post office.
4. "Working Party."
Oh, this is a great one! When I first heard this term, I quickly volunteered to go to the party. I wanted to see what the ship was celebrating. Not the kind of party I was expecting. Everyone that was at the party was working. Moving boxes to each other so it can get to its destination. There was no pizza, cookies, drinks or music. This party lasted anywhere between an hour to two hours. Shipmates, I’m sure you remember when they called for a working party. Most of you disappeared and I was the one left standing.
5. "Taps Taps, Lights Out."
This was announced over the 1MC at the end of the day, (if you didn’t have to stand watch). When this was announced it was time for the sailors to call it a day. This usually was announced at around 2100 hours.
These terms will never be forgotten by sailors who were stationed onboard a Navy vessel. To the new recruits that read this article, know that a working party is not a party to drink and eat pizza. Know that one of the best announcements you can hear while at sea is “Mail Call."
Past and present sailor’s, thank you for your service and I’m glad we all got to experience times like these. Fair winds and following seas.
