Page:My 1102 days of wwii.djvu/21

 were about the size of a heavy truck and almost impossible to set the load down in the cargo area, as they were continually bobbing up and down and sideways like a cork. On one occasion we had a load come down on one side of the duck as it was coming up caused the vehicle to turn over and sink. The driver managed to swim to the Jacobs ladder and climb aboard the ship safely.

To better understand the above you should know the procedure of this type of unloading a ship. One of the booms is rigged to hold the cable approximately over the center of the ship's Hatch and the other one is set to hang out over the side over the barge. The winch operator who sits in the center of the ship by the controls right near the ship's hatch, cannot see the load once he lets it over the outside of the ship, where the average deck is 30 or 40 feet above the water. He must take orders from a signalman by the rail where he can see both the load and the barge. Thus, it is obvious that the margin of error and danger is great, with the ship rolling and the duck or barge moving. The above method of unloading cargo is limited to the weight per load, depending on the size of the ship and its structure, and is used mostly on loose cargo that requires a net. On heavier loads such as trucks, guns and tanks it is necessary to use the "Jumbo Boom" which is more complicated and slower. This single wooden boom (being 15 or 18 inches in diameter and about 40 feet long) carries the load from the ship's hatch to the barge (or whatever) on a heavy cable and moving the load sideways by heavy lines being controlled from two powered capstans, one near each side of the ship. On one occasion in using the Jumbo Boom we worked ourselves into an embarrassing situation, as we were unloading a 5 Inch Gun weighing 5 or 6 tons. As usual the men on the two capstans were taking orders from the signalman when one of them failed to release his line (controlling the side movement of the load) as the other man was taking his side in. This broke the