Blue Ridge (LCC 19) - Naval Cruise Book

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- 3 The towing exercise was part of an allday damage control drill. Enemy attacks early in the day caused extensive engineering damage and BLUE RIDGE soon found herself dead in the water. The situation was made worse by the threat of renewed enemy attacks on her. To save BLUE RIDGE from further damage, it was decided to tow her from the danger zone. The salvage tug USS RECLAIMER (ARS-42) was called on to perform the towing chores. The difference in the sizes of the two ships was a factor of 10 to 1; BLUE RIDGE ' s 19,000 tons versus RECLAIMER ' S 1,900. The tiny salvage ship cautiously approached BLUE RIDGE and turned on her fire hoses to douse a simulated blaze on BLUE RIDGE ' s starboard sponson deck. That danger overcome, she sent trained damage control personnel to work with their counter- parts on the stricken BLUE RIDGE. As preparations were made for the tiny tug to take BLUE RIDGE in tow, it became evident there was a real enemy involved — wind and high waves. Expert seamanship on both ships was called for if success was to be insured. The plans called for a nylon towline as thick as a man ' s leg to be passed to BLUE RIDGE. This line was to be secured to the end of the larger ship ' s anchor chain, many feet of which would be lowered into the water. The towline would tug the dangling anchor chain, weighing thousands of pounds, away from the bow of the ship, and gradually, the weight of the chain would tow the ship. In this manner, it would act as a shock absorber, preventing breaking of the towline. Then the many thousand horsepower diesel engines of RECLAIMER would be set about the task of over- coming the dead weight inertia of BLUE RIDGE. She moved. At first almost imperceptably, next reluctantly and finally obediently, BLUE RIDGE followed her tiny rescuer on a course out of the zone of enemy activity. The large modern BLUE RIDGE and the 29 year young RECLAIMER, whose motto is 42 — Can Do proved t o be an excellent team. 27 SMA