The Head

Personal recollections by Lewis Davidson (ex BM3C)

Former Crew Member of the USS Idaho

The Idaho, Mississippi and New Mexico battleships were built right after WW1 and by today's standards would be ancient. Their caged mast and broadside batteries made them look like the buccaneer days. They soon began to change however as the superstructure and gunnery was upgraded and they took on a more modern look.

People viewing these changes in passing would think they were a different ship. The thing they did not see was that there was little or no change in the interior. The ship was not able to produce enough fresh water to supply the boilers and fresh water for showers. The boilers also had to have enough reserve for emergencies. This created a unique situation. When you were assigned as part of the crew of the Idaho, you were issued a 1-1/2 gallon bucket. This was your fresh water for each day. From this you had to brush your teeth, shave, bathe and wash your clothes. The water was cold and had to be heated on a steam line. This was a pipe with steam passing through it from the boilers. This was used to heat water. The pipe had a valve on it and you hung the bucket over the valve that was opened to pass steam over the water to heat it.

There were ways to get around this. You could send your clothes to the ship's laundry. You had to pay for this service to use it at about twenty-five cents a bag. The crew was only paid about thirty-six dollars a month though so many didn't want to do this. One sailor tried another way. He put his clothes in a laundry bag, tied a line on it and hung it over the side of the ship. He expected the salt water to wash his clothes this way. This turned out to be a bad idea though because the clothes were soon pulled around the stern of the ship and into the propellers and all was gone. After that he sent his clothes to the laundry!

A shower could be done in salt water using saltwater soap and then rinsing with the last of the fresh water in the bucket. It was not very successful to do this though. The salt water was cold and in the tropics this was ok but in the Bering Sea the water was 20 degrees or less so salt water was definitely out for bathing. The strange thing was that no one seemed to complain about this. They were a proud bunch.

Now the toilet section or head as they called it was another thing. I have used an outhouse before but never one with water running through it. This was about what our toilet area was. It was a trough with water running from both ends and going to a drain line in the middle. It had seats across it and the water passing underneath it carried everything away. The drain in the middle was called the blowhole and woe to the man who sat over it in rough seas! When the ocean got rough enough for the ship to rise and fall, the water would blow all over the head along with everything that was in it. It was during these times that Captain of the Head was quite busy!

A favorite sport was to wad up a bunch of paper, light it and float it from the end of the trough. That was a real hot seat! In spite of the crude way we had to live below decks, we were a proud crew and would fight for the honor of our ship at the drop of a hat.