Mobile Bay (CG 53) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 28 text:

DEPERMIN6 Below: Here at Earl Scheib deperming. we ' ll pull any cable, anywhere, for $99.95. Definitely NOT the adventure part! After a brief weekend visit to Naval Station Nor- folk, the MOB headed up the river to Norfolk ' s Magnetic Silencing Facility for the arduous process of deperming. Degaussing is the system onboard which coun- teracts the magnetic signature of MOBILE BA Y ' s steel hull to make it safe from magnetic mines. It is only effective, however, when the ship has first been depermed and had that signature permanent- ly reduced as much as possible. After mooring the ship between the two wooden docks forming the deperming crib, the ship ' s force divided into 20 lOman teams for the process of hauling thick, heavy, and muddy, insulated copper cables up and over the entire ship — every 10 feet — from the foc ' sle to fan tail. Below. Hey, who let Lt. Cmdr Kear

Page 27 text:

Going Going Gone!!!. '

Page 29 text:

nto this ucture nyway?? s r With the electrical juices flowing rapidly, the ship sits idle. ' t Ship ' s teams worked through heat, mosqui- toes, and lack of sleep, making the connections that would carry thousands of amps of current over the entire ship during the actual deperming process. The cables were then systematically energized and deenergized over a 24-hour peri- od to actually complete the process- After unrigging, and some fine tuning of the degaussing system, the MOB went on to com- plete satisfactory runs of the test range, much to the relief of all involved. As much fun as it was to haul those heavy, slimy, cables, no one really wanted to do it again! NORFOLK, VA . T . Below: We love the smell of slime in the morning!