“Well, the main guns are ready,” answered Alexander.
I suspected he was trying to get me to narrow it down to the guns so he could win the bet.
“Yes, I know and expect that from a group of fine officers such as yourselves, but what about the rest of the ship?” I asked again.
“Overall?” asked Flaherty. “Why would we in the gunnery division need to know that?”
“You are a line officer in this navy aren’t you, ensign?” I asked.
“Yes, sir.”
The other officers began to grin, knowing where this was going.
“And if there is an explosion near the bridge disabling the CO, XO and the officer of the deck, and you are the most senior officer you can find, who is in command of this ship?”
“I am,” he said.
“That’s correct. And what if the ship is listing fifteen degrees to starboard and down by the bow?”
Nothing in return came from the ensign, which told me I was beginning to make my point. “You men are all line officers and need to be as ready to take command of this vessel and fight as she and her crew are. You have to know enough to have a general idea of the current condition of the ship and her readiness. And it’s not enough to just know that; you have to know the basics of her design and what the engineers were thinking when they first drew her, as well as what they were trying to accomplish each time they modified her. All of these changes were made to enhance her performance in combat. And you need to know what she will do under stress, and what she won’t do.”
The reaction was a little flat, so I continued.
“We have a kind of symbiotic relationship with Okie,” I said. “She is just a machine, and it is us who give her life. We are the brains, and she is the brawn. When we give her orders, if everything is working well, she follows them and protects us to the best of her ability. In return, we protect her. If we are in trouble and know her well enough, maybe, just maybe, we can convince her to do something she normally wouldn’t do and exceed the expectations of the engineers who created her. And God help us if we are too stupid to know what to do.
“And you also have to consider all of the engineers’ knowledge and intentions are based on purely theoretical combat conditions. It’s how these paper-pushing desk pilots think combat will occur, rather than any practical study of modern combat conditions. None of these battleships has ever seen combat. Nobody knows exactly what they will or won’t do. And combat is unpredictably random and will test their theories to the extreme limits and expose any weakness.
“Well,” I said looking at them with a smile, “I can tell that I am spoiling your betting pool by asking for the overall condition of the ship instead of just one system, so why don’t we talk about…” I said and added a long dramatic pause just to play with them. “… counter flooding.”
“Yes!” said Lieutenant Lewis with a big smile that told me he had won.
“Alright Lewis, since you win, you get to tell us about counter flooding as it relates to the battleship Oklahoma.”
“Okay. Originally the ship was divided into watertight compartments such that flooding would occur laterally so as to keep the ship upright.
“The funny thing is,” he continued, “side-to-side flooding was not considered on earlier battleships. They had a large watertight bulkhead that divided the ship, port from starboard, which ran down the center all of the way forward and aft. If watertight integrity was breached on one side, they would have had to do more counter flooding on the other to keep the ship upright.
“If the bilges and watertight compartments on this ship, particularly the x-ray hatches, are open such as they are now for the inspection this afternoon, the ship would tend to flood forward and aft on only one side because the listing would hold the water to one side. Then you add on top of that the later added torpedo blisters, which would have to be counter flooded very quickly to keep the ship upright. I think that the blisters, while they provide valuable protection to the internal systems of the ship from torpedoes, could become a liability if they were not counter flooded quickly enough, should they be breached.”
As I listened, I knew he was right. We were nowhere close to battle ready that morning, and I was glad to hear he knew why. “Very good, Lewis!” I said. “Anything else you would like to add to that?”
“We all know, even the young ensign here, the three conditions of readiness, X-ray, Yoke, and Zed, which successively divide the ship into smaller and smaller watertight fireproof compartments. With everything including the bilges open, we aren’t even at X-ray. The basic design of which is to control any flooding so as to occur from port to starboard instead of forward to aft along one side of the ship. If watertight integrity was breached in any meaningful way, all counter flooding systems would be defeated, and the ship would most likely sink rapidly if not roll over.”
“So do we all know why we have a base here at Pearl?” I asked.
“Yep,” said the Ensign. “It’s so we have a safe harbor like this one where we can do these kinds of high maintenance inspections instead of having to go clear back to the mainland or doing them in a high risk area like the Philippines. Seeing how the Japanese are being aggressive like they have been.”
“Good Ensign. I’m glad you are still awake,” I said. “The bad news is, because of the aggressiveness of the Japanese, we are going to be increasing the amount of drilling over the next few weeks. There is no doubt in the navy command channels that they are planning something. So those of you with families need to do whatever you have to do to be ready for a sudden departure. We may have to leave Pearl at a moment’s notice to keep the Philippines in our hands should war break out.” The groans I heard spoke volumes.
I shared their disappointment. I had a newborn son in the hospital, and here I was, preparing my crew for the possibility of war. “Believe me,” I said, “nobody wants this increase in drilling and practice less than me. My new son is just across the harbor and missing his father, I’m sure, but the admiral wants what the admiral wants. And right now, he wants me to be here with you, making the ship ready for his inspection.
“The stress has to be on continuous readiness for anything to happen when it is the most inconvenient and when you least expect it. An enemy, shipboard fire, or other emergency isn’t going to wait for you to study the manual before you react. You need to know now, in real time, what you are going to do. Think continually of what could happen in combat and how you would counter it. And share what you learn.
“What happens if this compartment floods? What if that fire main breaks? What if there is a fire in this or that compartment? You have to know these things instinctively. And you have to make sure the men are trained to know what to do during an emergency. It could save our lives.
“Does anybody have any additional questions before I officially end this meeting?” I asked.
After a pause, I could see the answer was no. “Alright, carry out the plan of the day.” And several of them nodded. Having finished their breakfast and paying their share to Lewis for having won the pool, they got up and left. I looked at the clock on the wall, and noticing it was 0745, realized the meeting had finished earlier than I intended. I would like to have kept them going until 0800, but we had achieved all of the goals for the meeting quickly, so I decided to let it go.
Those of us who remained behind continued eating and talking in casual conversation about things we wanted to do on liberty, our favorite baseball teams, and such.
“Well Jake, you missed the target practice last night. We had a good time but missed seeing your shooting tricks,” said Alexander.