Sleeping Aboard a Battleship

How were you assigned a berth?

When a man came on board, the Executive Officer assigned him to one of the Ship’s 23 divisions. The First Lieutenant assigned berthing by division. Most divisions had battle and duty stations near their berthing area. The new recruits gathered on the back of the Ship. Each division’s police petty officer came and picked up his group and took them to their compartments. Upon arrival, you had your choice of available berths. If your choice turned out to be a bad one, you waited until someone was transferred and then requested his berth.

What came with a berth?

The beds came with a mattress, a mattress cover, and a fireproof cover. Men were issued two blankets and two sheets. At the beginning of the war, the blankets were white. Later, they were khaki. You were expected to change your sheet weekly. You had to purchase your own pillow. Some men folded their blanket and placed it under their heads like a pillow.

"Fireproof canvas bags were provided and at General Quarters (battle stations) or when not occupied, the mattress, pillow, and bedding were rolled up and stuffed into the bag. This was to reduce fire hazards. One could go from deep sleep to bedding stowed and bunk folded up against a stanchion to hot footing it to battle station."

- Frank J. Haas

Where are the closets?

The small bank of aluminum lockers served as closets. Each locker has a number that corresponds to the number on a berth. The Ship’s command determined how you arranged the contents of your locker. The locker contained your uniforms, toiletries, sheet, shoes, underwear, and personal items like books, Bible, stationery, candy, and souvenirs.

No civilian clothes.

No cameras. You could rent one when on liberty.

No diaries. If you had one, you found a very safe place for it. Diaries were forbidden for security reasons.

What was it like to sleep here?

"Below decks it was HOT, no air conditioning. Air was taken from topside (outside) and blown into the living compartments. At night when you slept in your bunk, you sweat; your mattress would get real damp. When you got up the first thing you did was cover up your mattress with a fireproof cover. This would be almost airtight and after a few weeks you bunk became pretty ripe. First chance you had the Ship would air bedding; you would take your bedding topside and air it. I had a large air duct alongside my bunk. I cut a small hole in it and fitted a piece of a tin can to divert some air onto me. It helped."

- William R.Taylor

Crewmember Ralph Swift managed to obtain a fan and asked a friend to weld it near his berth. When another man sleeping nearby kept turning the fan to his own direction, Ralph had the friend weld the fan into one permanent position.

Smells were not usually a problem. Someone cleaned the compartment daily and men were expected to shower regularly. The Ship’s laundry cleaned your clothes and sheets. The crew aired their bedding as Bill Taylor says.

Ship noises drowned any snoring noises.

There were no ladders. You removed your shoes and climbed up.

Did people ever sleep somewhere else?

Some men found other places to sleep such as out on the upper decks or near their work stations, but you had to have permission from the man in charge of your watch. Someone had to know where to find you.

Sleeping out on the decks presented risks. While at sea, sleeping on the main deck was risky because water rushed over the main deck when the Ship turned. If you slept on the upper decks, you got wet if a storm arose and covered in soot if the engineering gang blew the deposits out of the smokestacks.

"Routine was to bring your mattress up from the bunk down below because nobody wanted to get caught below if we got torpedoed. Sleep up on the Signal Bridge. Every once in a while you wake up in a puddle. It would rain in on you."

- Jackson Belford

"After we got torpedoed, I was scared to death when we were out in the war zone. I was scared to death to sleep below decks. In fact, I had a blanket that I slept on topside (outside on the decks). I wouldn’t sleep in my regular bunk."

- Daniel Schroll

"When I came off watch at midnight, I’d get a blanket and a pillow and go up by the forward 16-inch guns and sleep on the deck until it was time to go on watch again or breakfast. That’s the only way you could stay cool."

- Ortho E. Farrar

"They let me work in Flag Plot…. It was a small place. I can remember it was…air conditioned… I was so lucky to be able to work in there and I even had a little canvas cot and I slept in there at night."

- Capt. Ben W. Blee, USN (Ret),Combat Intelligence Officer

What colors were the bulkheads (walls) and were the decks just bare metal?

When the Ship was commissioned on 9 April 1941, the decks were covered with linoleum and the bulkheads (walls) were painted. After the war commenced, the strip ship bill necessitated that unnecessary flammables be removed. So off came the linoleum and paint. Bare decks and bulkheads covered with a chalky white fireproof paint became the norm.