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USS LEADER (MSO 490)
WesPac Deployment, 1959

        This web site is a work in progress.  The WebMaster was on board for this tour and has tried very hard to get names of personnel and places accurate.  In his age befuddled mind, it is possible that some time reference, person's name or location has been misslabeled.  Please click on the eMail button at the bottom of this paragraph and forward ANY corrections or changes that you might wish to recommend.  I thank you in advance.  It is okay to just drop a note "HELLO" if you wish.  I strongly encourage ANYONE who was on board Leader during this period to say "HELLO".
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During the 1950s and early 1960s a division of four MSOs spent approximately 6 months in WesPac on rotation with the other divisions of MSOs that were stationed on the West Coast. About every year and ½ to two years each division would take their turn crossing the Pacific in about 30 days and then spend 6 months Home-Ported in Sasebo. After that 6 months they would spend another 30 days crossing the Pacific and return to their Home Port of Long Beach, California. This tour commenced with each MSO loading approximately 50+ 55 gallon drums of fuel onto the fantail and setting sail for Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii. After about three days in Pearl they would sail for Midway Island, spending about a day there to prepare for the trip to Yokosuka, Japan, again with 50+, 55 gallon drums of fuel on the fantail. After a few days in Yokosuka to recover and repair any critical sea damage, the division would proceed South around Shikoku Island and through the Shimoniseki Straits at Kitakyushu, past the city of Fukuoka and on south to Sasebo, the home port of MinRon 3 and MinFlot 1. There, the MSOs usually tied up on the Western side of India Basin, while the MSCs tied up on the Eastern side near the Commodore's offices.

Map of Japan

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In the early days (1959-60) MSOs needed to carry more fuel than their onboard tanks could hold, in order to be sure of reaching Pearl Harbor from Long Beach or Yokosuka.  The answer was to load 50+, 55 gallon drums of fuel on the fantail and secure them with the sweep wires to prevent their coming loose in rough weather.  Woe unto the fantail that got 55 gallon drums of fuel rolling around in heavy seas.  It was necessary to pump the fuel into the onboard tanks as quickly as possible to reduce the number of days with full drums.  So the deckhands and the FNs would pump down a drum of fuel as soon as there was room in the tanks.

However, we had to be carefull to empty the drums in the center of the group first, since once a drum was empty its structural integrity was weakened and the sweep wire strain in the center of the drum could crush an empty drum much more easily and loosen the tension on the wires, allowing the drums to start shifting.  If the Boatswain's Mate didn't think of this early on, a great deal of damage could occur.

The following pictures give one a rough idea what it took to load 50+ drums onto the fantail, one by one.  The next day we had a very tired deck force.

The drums were off-loaded onto the pier and rolled to the edge.	Deck hands rigged a harness to control the drum when hoisting it aboard.	The drum was then rolled into the water.
The drum was guided around the inboard sweeps.	The drum was then hoisted out of the water.	The drum was man-handled onto the fantail.

The drum was placed alongside the other drums for lashing down with the sweep wires.

This had to be done 50+ times, twice (once in Yokosuka or Long Beach and once in Pearl) for each crossing to or from WesPac.

After having witnessed this process six times, and then being assigned to CoMinPac Staff, I coordinated the development of the Fuel Cell affectionately called the "BLOB". The WebMaster gratefully accepts all eMails saying "ThankYou".

The "BLOB" on the fantail of USS Esteem (MSO 438)

While the "BLOB" simplified the loading and carrying of the extra fuel, it did add one problem. Since the cell had to be either FULL or EMPTY (a partially full cell would allow the fuel to "slosh" around in heavy seas and drastically alter the "Center of Gravity" above the waterline and create excessive stress to the hold down pads that were part of the "BLOB") the onboard tanks had to be empty enough to accept the entire 2700+ gallons of fuel, all at once. Therefore the entire weight of the fuel remained on the fantail for more days than with the drums, suffering more days of heavy seas and straining the structural integrity of the bulkheads. But it was still a better solution.

Miscellaneous pictures

Minesweep Exercise with practice mines.

Pigs in the water with Mag Tail in a "J" configuration

If those Heavies wouldn't anchor IN the minefield our job would be a lot easier.

All of this Effort & money to put these into the water Port & Starboard

Detailed information about the actual process of Moored Mine Sweeping

Returning to port after an excellent sweep exercise.

Ships of Mindiv 93 steaming near Sasebo

Swim Call

Not every day was
All work and no play.

Ocassionally, we had time to enjoy being in Japan.

Swim call in Sasebo at one of the "99 Islands" outside of the harbor entrance. We requisitioned an LCM from the Yard and managed a container or two of beer from somewhere.  

And yes the troops are as polluted as they look in the next to the last picture.  
But then I could hardly figure out how to take the picture.  

(Click on a picture to see the full size picture)

The very last picture above is of the WebMaster water skiing on the seaward side of Hong Kong.  No, I am NOT being towed by Leader.  This was just off the beach where they filmed "Love is a many splendored thing".  They didn't think to include us virile, masculine JOs in that film.
A most unusual day.