Handling a Cyclone
Surface Warfare Officer Command School (SWOS) offers superb simulators and instruction to prepare prospective commanding officers. The instructors at SWOS, who come predominantly from a Merchant Marine background, offer great insight into how to handle coastal patrol-like vessels such as large tugs and yachts. However, simulators are just that—and only the commanding officers have the opportunity to take advantage of these assets before reporting. This article attempts to fill that gap.
The ship is 179 feet long. It has a 25-foot beam, an 8.5-foot maximum draft at 380 U.S. tons (short), 22 feet height-of-eye, and a 50-foot air draft. Each of its four shafts has a six-blade propeller. There are four Paxman-model Valenta main-propulsion diesel engines (MPDEs) rated at 3,350 brake horsepower each (13,400 total), giving it the highest ratio of horsepower to displacement in the Fleet. For an ahead bell, the 50-inch-diameter fixed pitch propellers outboard turn outboard, and the inboard turn inboard. They turn in reverse during astern propulsion.
Environmental Considerations
Because of the particular narrowness of the PC, wind tends to have a significant effect when shown to a vessel’s beam and quarter. This can present a difficulty when landing the ship on the pier during a strong offsetting or onsetting wind. In either case it is advisable to approach the pier steeply and closely on the bow, thereby showing less of the hull and superstructure. Once lines one and two (the bow line and after-bow spring line, respectively) are over, they’ll transfer the pivot point of the ship to those chocks on the ship through which the lines pass and can assist in either slowing the rate of the stern’s approach by twisting against (onsetting) or toward (offsetting) if you need to muscle the ship in against a stiff wind.
As expected for a ship with an 8.5-foot draft, the seas have a significant impact on the comfort of a PC’s ride. In swells greater than five feet, it is recommended that you move forward at roughly 30 degrees off your bow, if the ship’s required course and operations allow. In significantly rougher seas, while on patrol in the Persian Gulf, my experience has been that the Cyclone class rides best with the waves directly off the stern. This allows the PC to ride like a surfboard, thrust from behind, and it minimizes pounding and stretching on the hull.
Controllable Forces
The most nail-biting characteristic for a shiphandler coming from a solely gas-turbine background is the engine-clutching delay between a given engine order on the throttles and achieving a response from the machines. Not only are no two PCs exactly the same, but various engines on a particular hull could have subtle differences. For example, on the USS Monsoon (PC-4), the delay on numbers 1, 2, and 3 MPDE is roughly 5.5 seconds, whereas number-4 MPDE is 7 seconds. This requires the crew to test these delays themselves and remember them for restricted maneuvering (e.g., pierwork and underway replenishment). The throttles (one for each engine) range from 10 to 100 percent ahead and astern. At just 10 percent, with only one engine clutched, a PC’s speed is roughly 8 knots. To achieve slower speeds, the conning officer must bump the throttles on and off.
With no controllable reversible pitch, there is much “art” and feel in pierwork. For instance, if you need to move up ten feet to line up the bow, whereas on a destroyer you can put on around 20 percent pitch and inch up in a very controlled manner, on a PC you must bump an engine at 10 percent (8 knots if maintained).
An option for the shiphandler is to use “slow mode” during restricted maneuvering. As opposed to normal mode, this cuts the engine strength by half of the ordered command by slipping the transmission. A danger is that when throttles are placed at or past the 40 percent notch, normal mode automatically activates. This could surge the ship unexpectedly, which is why I prefer to stay in normal mode during all operations.
In agreeable environmental conditions, it is up to the shiphandler whether to use rudder during pierwork. It adds a variable that is usually unnecessary, so I generally recommend against it. There are no rudder-angle indicators on the PC’s bridgewings where conns conduct pierwork. The PC’s high torque and twisting capability allow the conn to twist and turn the ship easily using only engines. There is considerable stern walk from the props that you can either nullify with competing engines both going ahead or astern or use to your advantage.
For example, when starboard-side-to backing out of a slip where there is a ship behind you that you must clear, after your angle off of the pier is comfortably past the ship astern with a twist, if you use MPDE no. 1 (the starboard-most engine) to back out, the stern walk will help you get your stern out even more.
Conversely, with winds not a factor coming into a slip, the side force may be sufficient in helping you come alongside the pier smartly. For instance, if landing a PC port-side-to, and entering the slip at a comfortable 2 to 3 knots with the bow pointed at the forward-pier bollard or cleat to which you will be moored (angled off the pier at about 20 degrees), if the forward momentum is stopped with a backing bell on MPDE number 1, the side force will bring the stern to port toward the pier as well as check headway, achieving two desired effects with one order.
Use rudder orders to swing the ship around in a hurry, for example, for man-overboard recovery. The maximum rudder on a PC is 30 degrees (no 35-degree hard rudder), so the extra lift provided by the high-torque engines is very useful. The following are the PC’s stopping distance and tactical diameter information:
• Stop time and distance at 5, 15, and 30 knots: 10 seconds at 15 yards; 20 seconds at 100 yards; 35 seconds at 300 yards
• Tactical diameter, 35 knots, standard rudder: 700 yards
• Tactical diameter, 15 knots, standard rudder: 500 yards
• Tactical diameter (inboard engine brought to neutral), 12 knots, standard rudder: 350 yards
Pierwork, Ground Tackle, and Anchoring
PCs typically do not use tugs to get under way or land the ship. They can do this by working the spring lines and “bumping” off the pier. Bow in, this simply entails taking in all lines except the after-bow spring line to check headway. With a twist of the ship toward the pier, the stern kicks out. The forward fenders act as bumpers: a controlled (and intentional) contact with the pier tempered by the fenders bounces the bow out. Line two can then be slackened or taken in as desired, to allow the ship to get away from the pier. Oppositely, when coming alongside, lines two and three are very useful in pulling in either the stern or the bow by twisting against the springline.
Working lines and bumpers aggressively is the hallmark of PC pierwork. On a big ship the CO may want the most dependable junior deck sailor as master helmsman, but I also want this reliable person on line two and the forward bumper. That sailor works under compressed conditions and must perform quickly and precisely every time. Otherwise, the hull could strike the pier in the case of a misplaced fender or an improperly held line two.
The “hold” command, which means to keep tension on the line even to the point of parting, is infrequent during pierwork on board a big Navy ship, but it is routine on PCs. Without the tension of a hold command, you will not get the leverage required for it to work. PCs have a 500-pound wedge-block anchor. The ship stops very quickly when headway is taken off. Approaching an anchorage, slow to 8 knots at 1,000 yards and maintain that speed until 75 yards from the anchorage, at which point come to all stop and back down once over the anchorage. Drop the hook when sternway is achieved. Whereas the outboard engines are outstanding for twisting the ship, the inboard machines are much better at keeping the ship moving in a straight line, as is desired when approaching an anchorage or trying to maintain a very specific track.
Managing the Bridge and the Boats
Unlike in most other U.S. Navy ships, the conning officer has direct manual control of the lee helm during restricted maneuvering. The conn can transfer throttle control to the port or starboard bridgewing, something typically done in a turning basin before making a pier approach. With this hands-on approach, it is particularly important that the conn verbalize what he is doing or thinking of doing with the engines. When a lee helm is manned up in addition to a conn, the “OOD-CO-conn mind meld” is forced because the standard commands from the conn must be voiced aloud to the lee helm to get action. With the PC’s small crew size, the conn and lee-helm jobs are typically consolidated.
The Cyclone is equipped with a 7-meter rigid-hull inflatable boat (RHIB) and associated combatant-craft-retrieval system that lowers the boat into the water through doors directly off the stern. The stern-gate doors, even closed, are not watertight. When the RHIB is housed in the ramp, a maximum speed of 5 knots astern should not be exceeded. This will avoid damage to the RHIB from water rushing up the ramp. There’s a large angle of opportunity in acquiring a lee for lowering the RHIB; just make sure you don’t have following seas. Inboard engines should also be disengaged so that the water is not churned up where the RHIB makes contact.
Finally, unlike in larger combatants, there is ample opportunity (and necessity) for midgrade petty officers to qualify in key bridge watchstander positions, such as officer of the deck and conn. Many of the best enlisted OODs in the PC community do not come from the rates normally associated with deck watches, such as quartermaster and bosun’s mate.
Overall, the PC is exhilarating to drive. Surface warriors, whether officer or enlisted, choose it if they really “want a fast ship.”