Vacation pictures-Coast Guard Cutter Taney.

I am on vacation this week and on Monday I relived my Coast Guard days touring the Coast Guard Cutter Taney (Baltimore Inner Harbor) which is a sister ship (which means pretty much identical) to the Cutter Duane which I served on in 1983. (The Duane was number 33 and it's number was painted gold at the time, signifying that it was the oldest active military ship in service in the US.)

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327' long with a crew around 120. I was fresh out of boot camp and on deck force when I served on board the Duane which meant that out at sea I stood look out watch, helm watch, (steered the ship) and messenger.

Speaking of the helm, here she is.

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Our bridge was identical to this one.

On our bow was a 5"38cal gun which could fire a 55lb projectile around 6 miles. I was the hotshellman who's job it was to make sure the empty powder casing left the turret through an opening in the floor after it fired, and yes, I was in the gun mount when it fired.

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The 5"38 was used on a lot of ships during WWII.

The main mess deck where I ate all my meals.

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Below the open hatch you see to my right is a 24 man berthing area which is where I slept.

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For the most part we had triple racks, some where lucky enough to have doubles. I slept top rack of a triple.

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Main berthing area shot.

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There were only 4 of these ships in service when I served (one of our sister ships the Hamilton was sunk by a torpedo in WWII-these ships were commissioned the late 30's) The Duane was sunk off of Florida to make an artificial reef after it was decommissioned.

It was super neat to walk this ship, bringing back memories from 30 years ago. I am lucky to have one that was turned into a museum that is only 250 miles away. I talked my wife's ear off while we were touring the ship.

Very cool George. A blast from the past. I know you are not a salty, but you should add catching a fish off the Duane to your bucket list. Enjoy your vacation.

Neat stuff, My ex's mother had a cousin that was on the Hamilton when it was sunk. He was on another ship that sank a German U boat off Hatteras, I used to sit and listen to his stories like a little kid. Their whole family were Coasties and going back even further they were in the old Life Saving Service. Ex's brother has been compiling a family history, got to get in touch with him and see how it's going, know you like to read it.

Makes me a little homesick. Well, very little.

Hey George,

Thanks for serving our country.

Dean

Very interesting story and pix! Thanks for sharing and serving.

Yes that brings back memories, To improve the quality of life we had to take down 5 racks and put only 4 back up in a Navy ship, I have a lot of hours messing with those racks! Back in 1974 that was. cool pics I am glad that saved one and keep her up.