07/03/2011 - Compartment Labels, New Docent Policy

Sunday started out pouring buckets, I had trouble staying dry during my morning walk. Eventually the sun came out and it was a great day. I managed to give three tours and I kept everyone dry.

During one of the tours I was asked about compartment labels. The label above is an example. It's on the main deck, port side and it's between the 1st (Quarter Deck) and 2nd (Galley) tour stops.

The 1st line of the label is the door number: 1-81-2 (I added the colors for illustrative purposes):

• 1 is the deck number (1 = main deck)
• 81 is the frame number. Frame are vertical beams that extend from the keel. Hull plates are attached to frames. The SLATER has about 170fFrames. The lightly colored purple lines on the center of the USS SLATER Main Deck Plan are the frame numbers.
• 2 indicates that the door is on the port side (left side).
  

The 2nd line of the label is a description of the space "Muffler Room". If you look on the USS SLATER Main Deck Plan you can see that there are four Mufflers (one for each main engine). The door in question is right before Muffler #4.

The 3rd line of the label is the number of the compartment (compartment is a navy word for room): B-103E.

• B - represents the section of the ship. A sections are before main machinery spaces; B sections are over main machinery spaces; C sections are aft of main machinery spaces. This is fairly clear when you look at the USS SLATER 1st Platform Deck Plan).
• 103 is the compartment number. The one in the 103 indicates a compartment on the main deck. A 203 would indicate a compartment one deck down (2nd platform) and a 0203 would indicate a compartment one deck up from the main deck (referred to as the 01 level).
• The final letter - E represents the usage of the compartment. E represents an Engineering compartment (contains machinery). A complete description of these codes are contained in the Navy Publication: Nomenclature of Naval Ships, February 1942. This letter has important significance for damage control parties. For example special attention was given to fire suppression near in a compartment with a F or M designation (F is for fuel, M is for magazine, explosive storage).
  

In 1949 the Navy changed the numbering system, but when the USS SLATER was built the 1942 Nomenclature was used (reference - Nomenclature of Naval Ships, February 1942). Today a different and more comprehensive system is used (example contained in 3M Company Compartment Damage Control Marking Guide).

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Recently the USS SLATER has changed the manner that tour guides are assigned giving priority to volunteer tour guides:

1. If you are a veteran and a tour guide, you have priority on whether  you take a group, or pass it on to an intern.

2. The role of interns is to fill in when the veteran tour guides are  all busy, or when vets prefer to pass it on.

3. If you would like to move to another day for tour guiding, that is  fine, but please know that the "original crew" of any given day has top  priority for their day, followed by interns.
   

In my opinion this is a very welcome change! As a veteran (4 years active and 4 years reserve) and a Volunteer Tour Guide (over 10 years, since 2000), I get a little disheartened when I am sitting on the bench waiting for a tour. One of the main reasons that I typically come on a Sunday is that it's a fairly busy day.

Docent? What's a Docent?

Wikipedia has an entry on Docents: .....Museum docents are are educators, trained to further the public's understanding of the cultural and historical collections of the institution. In many cases, docents, in addition to their prescribed function as guides, also conduct research utilizing the institution's facilities. They are normally volunteers.

A Destroyer Escort (like the USS Slater) is a small ship that was mass produced during WWII (ultimately 573 were built). Because it's a small ship a visitor could get a quick walk-through tour in 20 minutes. If we geared the Slater Experience as a quick walk-through tour we would have to restrict the route for safety reasons. We would also have to secure (hide or cover in plexiglass) numerous artifacts that were used on the ship.

The USS Slater is representative of hundreds of similar Escort-type ships. Quick walk-through tours would focus on hardware, and (by and large) deprive the visitor of experience relating to these ships, and the thousands of sailors who served on them.

The USS Slater Tour Guide Manual explains this in more detail:

.....The primary mission of the Destroyer Escort Historical Museum is to utilize the SLATER as an education platform to teach our youth and visitors about the contributions of the destroyer escorts in World War II and the postwar Navy, and to keep alive the history spirit and technology of these vessels and the men and women who built and manned them.

To accomplish this we collect, maintain, display and interpret artifacts and documents relating to the role of the destroyer escorts in the United States Navy during World War II and the postwar years. The primary emphasis is the authentic restoration and display of the destroyer escort USS SLATER DE766 in her 1945 configuration with all the equipment and artifacts she would have carried at that time.

Visitors to the USS SLATER come to learn what life was like aboard a Destroyer Escort during World War II. Our restorers have been devoting their time and talents to restore the ship, and have done a remarkable job to make the ship what it is today. But that work is meaningless without a core of equally dedicated and knowledgeable tour guides to interpret the SLATER to the public. It is you who interact with the public that have the greatest influence on our reputation and the greatest responsibility for fulfilling our educational mission. To put the best possible impression of the SLATER to the public we ask that you present yourselves in a professional manner at all times, be conscious of the attention span of the members of your group, and ask you to present a sharp appearance so that our visitors, civic leaders and members of the media recognize us as a first class team. We want our visitors to step back in time and get the flavor of what Navy life was on a destroyer escort sixty years ago. You are the key part of that experience. ....