The Seaweed

USS Champlin DD-601  

Fall 2001

Questions Have Been Answered

Here are the answers to the questions posed in the last issue of The Seaweed:

Who or what is Charlie Noble?
A: "Charlie Noble" was the name of the vent from the cooking stoves in the galley - this term is left over from the days of sailing vessel's wood cooking stoves.

Where and what is the Guinea Pullman?
A: It was the CPO quarters.

What is a "Jack of the Dust"?
A: The "Jack of the Dust" supplied stores to the galley as needed to prepare meals, and was a member of the Storekeepers group.

Where was the secondary conn? Who manned this position and when?
A: It was located adjacent to the big searchlight and was manned at General Quarters by the Executive Officer and a Quartermaster

Where was the auxiliary radio shack?
A: It was located all the way aft on the starboard side of the superstructure.

Where was the Carpenter shop?
A: It was located all the way aft, starboard side, back of the 2nd Division quarters.

During WWII, what were the two largest Naval Training Stations in terms of personnel trained?
A: They were Great Lakes Naval Training Station and Sampson Naval Training Station.

Suggested Readings

Joe Black suggests two books of interest to those who followed the "Battle of the Atlantic" are "Black May" and "Operation Drumbeat" by Michael Gannon. Harper Collins the publishers. "Operation Drumbeat" tells about the battle of the U-Boats versus Allied shipping on the East Coast early in the war and "Black May" tells about the month of May 1943 where the Allies finally got the upper hand and broke the back of the U-Boats.

Veteran's Benefit Book Updated

The 2001 edition of a popular publication, Federal Benefits for Veterans and Dependents, is now available. It describes the benefits available to all veterans and their dependents, including eligibility requirements, the time table for benefits and how to apply.

Included are health care, home improvements, substance abuse treatment, education and training, life insurance, house-buying loans and more.

To order, send a check for $9.95, payable to Federal Reprints, PO Box 11783, Washington DC 20008

Thought for the Day

"History is principally the inaccurate narration of events which ought not to have happened." Ernest Albert Hooten, American anthropologist (1887-1954)