Time to Hit the Head

[@firstnamegklsodascb4277]

you do NOT want to be the one who has to climb in the void space

[@KutWrite]

I was thinking... If there's a sewage leak there, yuck! Yet, someone did it!

[@TakeDeadAim]

@@KutWrite HT's...AKA "Turd Chasers".

[@gregkientop559]

"void space" indeed!

[@whirledpeaz5758]

I've crawled into similarly tight spaces, but not quite as sickening. Desalination plant to chip out salt scale. Main Engine oil sump for annual inspection.

[@jobu88]

And keep in mind, this is renovated USS New Jersey after all the 1980s upgrades and etc. It would have been even more bare bones in WWII.

[@sebxiou-lifestyle4465]

Yup; we do not fully appreciate the daily hardships, let-alone life and limb threatening ones those WWII sailors endured. Kudos to them and all sailors.

[@MScotty90]

@@sebxiou-lifestyle4465 I read a book called “War in the Boats” by WWII sub captain William J Ruhe, and one of the boats he was on was a WWI-era sub with no air conditioning system, operating against the Japanese in the South Pacific in the middle of summer. He mentions temperatures inside the boat constantly being around 100, and the deck inside the boat literally being ankle deep with human sweat. He talked about it sloshing around the boat when they were maneuvering, it was disgusting. He said everyone just stayed in their underwear because all their clothes were constantly soaked with sweat. To make things worse, I think the boat had a terrible roach problem as well. But they still did their duties and performed their mission despite the insane conditions. Steel men in steel boats, no doubt.

[@sebxiou-lifestyle4465]

@@MScotty90 Hi, thanks for your comment. Yes, submariners are extraordinary. I assume the United States Navy has a similar incentive, as I know the Royal Navy pay a premium wage to those serving in subs. Of course, conditions are now far better than WWII but they remain claustrophobic and excluded from sunlight. Extraordinary people.

[@morlanius]

He describes that in the middle of the video.

[@calpilot7]

You do an awesome job. Videos are GREAT as is the information you provide. FANTASTIC work!

[@BattleshipNewJersey]

Thanks so much!

[@adamsan7494]

That adds more clarity to the term "hot seat".

[@tomservo5347]

Thanks for the history lesson on the terms 'head' and 'hot seat'. Being that sailors are a randy lot, I can totally understand the 'hot seat' for those that had a little too much fun at the last port on liberty. I work with 2 Navy veterans and my oh my do they have 'combat' stories that didn't happen onboard.

[@ParadigmUnkn0wn]

Most of those "combat" stories are akin to fish tales. In reality they were goin' out to the Navy Tree.

[@richmantz7579]

I really enjoy these videos. Some interesting thing to discuss, and the head isn't usually a big topic on any ship tour I have had.

[@mikeshiflett1562]

The shower nozzle brought back memories for me. The first ship I was on near the end of its last deployment someone decided to pop all the buttons off the shower heads. you had to have coins in your shower kit to shower. The second boat I was on you either has freezing water on one day or scalding hot on the next. it was rare tou have fully funtioning heads.

[@divisioneight]

Long ago in the early 80's, the Iowa visited the Brooklyn waterfront on the centennial celebration of the Brooklyn Bridge. I was aboard as a guest and had to use the head. I was aft by turret three and wandered into an open deck hatch on the starboard side and down a dark corridor for a bit to find the head. Afterwards, I actually was worried that I could not find my way out again! It was a maze of passages inside the superstructure of that battleship on the main deck level.

[@InfiniteBrain]

TR '87/'91 still had pretty much the same shower nozzles. Occasionally it was possible to wedge the nozzle between the hot and cold pipes just right to score a Hollywood shower.

[@whirledpeaz5758]

Ike '86/'90 Ditto

[@TheAir2142]

I think the reason why they had mirrors in the heads was so the sailors could shave in the morning and not miss spots.

[@KutWrite]

Yes... had to be ready for inspection at any time.

[@whirledpeaz5758]

Also Gas Mask seal.

[@garywagner2466]

Grooming standards in high school were slightly different.

[@gerretxl]

Ryan makes these videos awesome to watch. When he says BUT.... I always look up to see what he has to say.

[@byronking7266]

"Heads & Beds." That was always the big thing for everyone... Certainly on a ship w/ thousands of crew. Officers/Chiefs used to inspect these spaces all the time. Cleaning was near constant. Get a couple of hundred people washing up, peeing, using the toilets... Man, those floors & the very air could get ripe in a hurry. Idea was to have everyone assigned to a particular watch-bill assigned to same berthing space & head... When they're on duty, the spaces are nearly vacant and the cleaning crew is busy. Then when people get back after duty section, they can clean up. Next to food, there's almost nothing that kills morale faster than bad heads & beds.

[@curtiscains8533]

Do you remember the floor wave as the ship rolled? Your sitting on the shitter in flip flops waiting for your shower turn? First one closest to the bulkhead yells “wave up” as the ship rolls back the other direction and you had hold up your feet or you would get that nasty water splashed up on your feet! Umm huh!!! Nasty 😩

[@leelawrence1557]

You're right about that. Nasty berthing is no joke. What's worse though is when the ventilation or A/C went out in the berthing, then the whole compartment smelled like cheese feet and unwashed ass.

[@KutWrite]

@@curtiscains8533: That was the case on the ex-WWII destroyer I was on, esp. during the worst storm, while we transited the Black Sea. I berthed in the FOQ (Forward Officers' Quarters - for JOs). Most of the enlisted guys liked us so they kept it clean & dry. I even had room to set up a very fine stereo system I bought while we were in Europe. The best Exchange was the NATO one in Naples. I even bought a big Norton motorcycle there I later used to tour Europe while the ship transited the Atlantic back to the States.

[@livingadreamlife1428]

@@curtiscains8533 Hmm, I’ve never seen this in one of the US Navy’s fancy recruiting commercials. Remember, “It’s not just a job, it’s an adventure”.

[@jeffreyaryan9472]

Instablaster...

[@WilliamLewismcp]

I've worked on boats and yachts for many years and have never known why the bathroom was called the "head" and always wondered why. Thanks for the explanation.

[@joevignolor4u949]

Aboard Constitution I remember being told that they put the head up at the front of the ship because at sea on a sailing ship the wind went from the stern to the bow. As such the wind would carry the smell forward and away from the ship rather than blowing it backward into the ship's inhabited spaces. So the placement of the head up at the bow also had something to do with the air quality inside the rest of the ship.

[@sebxiou-lifestyle4465]

That occurred to me - I suppose both arguments point to a front-location. I have been aboard a ship-of-the-line (HMS Victory - still a commissioned ship in the Royal Navy - flag-ship of the First Sea-Lord) but I cannot remember where the heads were.

[@joevignolor4u949]

@@sebxiou-lifestyle4465 I would imagine Victory also has the head located up front for the same reasons as Constitution does. And during the tour on Constitution they don't actually show you the head. So it's probably the same on Victory and that's why you don't remember where it is.

[@sebxiou-lifestyle4465]

@@joevignolor4u949 Hi Joe, thanks for your reply. I am sure they would have shown us - we Brits love everything toilet-related! But it is also quite possible I have forgotten - it was a couple of decades ago and my mind is going down the pan! Cheers; your reply is much appreciated.

[@SheplerStudios]

My Dad relayed a story to me by his older brother who was on a troop transport heading to Europe in the final days of WWII as an US Army Private for the occupational forces in Italy. Due to the high passenger count on the merchant ship, old style “heads” were still in use. During a heavy sea state, a woman was lost overboard while using one of these and never recovered.

[@jakeblanton6853]

Those "hockey puck" hand shower heads would have probably been part of when it was brought back into service in the early 1980s. The ship I was on back around 1981 did not have them when I originally came aboard, but I remember them being installed not too long afterwards and that ship was a lot newer than the New Jersey.

[@thoughtfulhistorytoday7214]

The "heads" in my public high school in NYC had partitions between toilet bowls but no front doors. This was in the late 60's. You REALLY had to take a dump to use them.

[@kodyrainwater]

My high school had the toliet paper rigged up with chains and padlocks. Some of the facilities did not have doors but some did

[@jakeblanton6853]

That was because of the kids wanting to smoke in the bathrooms back then... Teachers would walk though periodically to try to catch the smokers... Remember that Brownsville Station song from the early '70s?

[@martinbachmann6283]

Thoughtfulhistorytoday, yup, that was true of an "ancient" catholic elementary-school I once attended back in the early 60s! And with those funny (read "inadequate") single-use toilet tissue sheets. But hey, when you got those stupid little toilet-tissues nice & wet.... they SURE DID stick to the restroom ceiling well! Yes,the good ol' days....

[@kristov29]

We had the same in Santa Monica CA. There never was an explanation.

[@flywelder]

That's how it was in my Ohio school's restrooms in the seventies! I agree with you completely!

[@johnslaughter5475]

It was always the non-rated (E-1 to E-3) that cleaned the heads and much of anything else. A great incentive to pass your exams and put on your crow as soon as possible. BTW, I tried washing my socks and skivvies in the ocean. I put them in laundry nets and tied them to long lines that I dropped over the side. They got reasonably clean, but, as they dried, salt crystals were left behind and that was very scratchy. One time was all I needed to learn to use the ship's laundry.

[@machinistmikethetinkerer4827]

as an old HT this was my domain! USS Ranger CV-61 84-88 "Turd Chaser."

[@MrJeep75]

My dad was on the ranger in the early 60's

[@brianb8060]

@@MrJeep75 My dad was on the Ranger in '64.

[@GABABQ2756]

I also chased the “turd”. USS SCHENECTADY (LST-1185)

[@DJTheMetalheadMercenary]

I don't know if you've ever seen the channel, but NavyPlumberBoy is a Hull Tech on a ship and puts out some gnarly content regarding plumbing issues, I can only imagine how much more insane it would be on these glorious behemoths of ships hahahahaha

[@libertarian1637]

Nicer and bigger head than what you find on subs and no complicated valves and flushing process to go through either. 👍

[@johnbattista9519]

A co-worker who served on a sub explained to me what a “two chopper” was... as an engineer, I laughed.

[@averagejoe112]

They have a better system now. No crazy valves.

[@pedenharley6266]

Being familiar with BB55's heads, it is interesting to see how these were modified in the 80s. Thank you for the tour!

[@thegardenofeatin5965]

That's the real value of having North Carolina in preservation, she's in WWII trim.

[@brandonhamilton833]

That beginning cracked me up Ryan. I was like "wait...what?"

[@jeffburnham6611]

Another key part of the whole showering routine was there were usually only 1-4 shower stalls in a berthing area if you were lucky. Most crew compartments held anywhere from 20-80 people, so you didn't have time for long showers. You got in, wet yourself down, and then hosed off. You had to keep your thumb on the nozzle depressed, to get the water to flow. Of course there were ways around it, especially if you were in port where the water was limited: just wrap a rubber band around the the button and you have constant water flow.

[@lukemeisenbach1964]

I was on the Oklahoma City CLG5 and 7th Fleet Flagship from 68 to70. The head I used had a line of something like 10 toilets in a line parallel to the side of the ship which all fed a pipe in back and turned and went out the side of the ship at the far end. No one used the first one in line at the bitter end of the pipe except for new guys. If you found a new guy using it the next two guys in the head would coordinate flushing 4 toilets at once, the stalls were short enough so you could reach two flushing levers at once. This produced an absolutely wonderful geyser under the poor fool on the end stool. Sort of like sending the new guy around to various departments on the ship to borrow a can of relative bearing grease only better.

[@stanstenson8168]

Dude that is awesome.

[@jamesstark8316]

100 feet of chow line. Used to put my new guys on the mail buoy watch and go down to the fireroom and get a bucket of steam. Great times.

[@jamesstark8316]

Also, Cleveland class ships were beautiful. Used to run around with the Little Rock in the med in the early 70's. Thanks.

[@s.sestric9929]

@@jamesstark8316 Heard about a guy who was sent on mail buoy watch. He didn't spot the buoy, but he did spot a raft full of refugees and got an award for that.

[@spankyharland9845]

or someone telling you to go below deck and get a can of steam.

[@garyh4458]

That's cool they had washers and dryers they could use. I remember going on a med cruise and not washing my civilian clothes the whole six months. Basically, my clothes smelled like bars from all over the world. I threw my clothes overboard on the way back home.

[@EstOptimusNobis]

Back in '82, our regiment was visiting Fort Lewis to use their artillery range. We were there for about 3 or 4 days and housed in transitory barracks, which were the old Vietnam era barracks that they maintained in surplus. The head was in a round turret at the end of the building and the toilets were in a semi-circle, about 10 of them, no partitions. Interesting mornings as the room was busy. We got used to it pretty quick and just read the newspaper and passed the different sections around. LOL.

[@robertweinmann9408]

Yeah, the heads in the barracks at the rifle range at Parris Island were still completely open in the mid `70s. Just two rows of crappers facing each other. Howdy neighbor!

[@bogey361]

That sound when hes in the berthing.. Unique and you never forget it, that's interesting they have the ventilation ducts pumping, but I suppose you need something instead of having a a GFE come in with every tour. Been on museum ships though and don't recall original ventilation ducts ever flowing.

[@waynewallace2583]

Different in the U.S. Army, in Desert Storm, in the middle of the Saudi and Iraqi deserts, we used various“field expedients”, such as a pit w/ two rickety wooden planks to balance on, or a chair w/ a round hole cut in the seat, or a pcp pipe stuck in the sand. - aka “piss tube”, or a foul smelling wooden outhouse - the kind you see in the movie “Platoon”, or simply digging a hole in the sand.

[@wampuscat7433]

Ah yes, the wooden outhouse AKA the shitter. Remember it well from RVN 67-68. Cannot forget the aroma!

[@someguy95981]

Nice, watching a video about heads while in the head

[@tackytrooper]

Yo dawg, we herd u like heads, so we made a video about heads so you can learn about heads while getting head in the head.

[@sonus289]

I was thinking exactly that freshmeat999

[@maincoon6602]

Great video. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@suwanee4me]

I was on the Kitty Hawk in the late 1970's. During extended flight operations you could not count of taking a decent Navy shower. You would get wet, lather up with soap and then attempt to rinse off. Sometimes no water or sometimes a slung of extremely hot water, ouch!.

[@byronking7266]

Exactly! And don't forget how sometimes you'd have jet fuel (JP-5) mixed in with the shower water. Take a shower and come out smelling like an oil refinery. Bad cross-connections in the pipe system.

[@martinbachmann6283]

@@byronking7266 Byronking, yup, that was true on the America (CV-66) too.

[@martinbachmann6283]

@Surigao 1944 Surigao 1944, how coincidental my friend! Experienced the same on America, and yes, I still am NOT a fan of hot-showers for the VERY same reason. Being still an (old) recreational scuba-diver type though, this gives me an advantage when upon returning from a dive sortie, and the somewhat warm water gives out at the on-site shower/cleanup stations? Hey, I just spray down with whatever temperature of water, & also kinda snicker at the complaining weenies who always b---h & moan when the hot-water goes out.

[@jackjackson2812]

As regards "heads"... The movie "Master and Commander" has one scene of the ship sailing round the Horn into the Pacific Ocean. I'm going from memory now; the entire scene itself is brief ; perhaps 10 seconds. The camera POV is stationary; the ship is sailing past the camera lens. If you look carefully, you'll see a sailor - breeches pulled down - sitting on a beam, cathead, whatever. He's taking a ..well, a private moment. Luckily, we only see him for a second or two! Huzzah for Lucky Jack....and indoor plumbing!

[@alwaysbearded1]

Outside of the danger of being swept off into the water with your trousers down I think it would be cleaner and smell nicer. On the ship on the left of my photo, the Ferryboat Eureka (1890), the heads for passengers are over the paddlewheels. You just flushed straight into the Bay and the wheels mixed it all up! As a volunteer I've been in those areas but they are closed to the public because the public might actually use them even if we called them a display and roped them off. They look remarkably modern.

[@davidcruz8667]

You mean the Drake Passage south of Tierra Del Fuego? It connects the southern Atlantic to the southern Pacific. The Horn of Africa is a different place.

[@stephenrose4582]

@@davidcruz8667 Jack Jackson was correct. In M&C, they sailed 'Round the Horn', which refers to sailing around Cape Horn (Cabo de Hornos) at the southern tip of South America. Sailing around Africa is referred to as sailing around the Cape of Good Hope.

[@davidcruz8667]

@@stephenrose4582 ah, I see. Very well then. Thank you.

[@merlin51h84]

I recall on HMAS Success there was one toilet that always had 2 -'3 cm of water on the deck. There was also a shower that was either cold or boiling hot. Ah the luxury we took for granted!

[@blocksmithforge7841]

I have a funny head experience but it was from grade school in the 80s. I had to use the bathroom and I told my teacher that I was going to the head. She proceeded to send me to principal's office for using an obscenity. The principal then walked me back to class and he explained to the teacher (just as I had), that the head was a perfectly legitimate nautical term. Good times. In her defense, I went to school in the Midwest so maritime vernacular was pretty sparse. :)

[@duenge]

I worked with a guy who was a sailor on an amphibious assault ship. The Marines would come back aboard after 3 week maneuvers and a steady diet of MRE's. They would immediately hit the head and completely jam the plumbing system. The remedy for that was he would hook the fire pump system to the plumbing system, and backflush the pipes.....right back into the head. The Marines had to clean it up...

[@harrykilman5634]

You mentioned the addition of the washing machines for civilian clothes. When I was serving there was a major industry in the various home ports of "locker clubs" where we stored our civvies and of course associated with these were laundries to clean your clothes after a night on the town. Drop em off at o' dark thirty before boarding the crew boat and pick them up again on the next night's liberty.

[@CaptainK007]

My dad told me about Chatham dockyards “heads” it was a long row of holes in a plank with the continuous flow of water running in the trough below. Many times some wag outside would set fire to screwed up newspaper and launch it into the trough whence it warmed the seated with much cursing. Believe it was known as a Viking burial ship.

[@davea4245]

I've heard a similar story form the lads from John Browns Shipyards.

[@jamesstark8316]

When I was on "small boys" in the '70's and '80's we were always struggling to make fresh water. We were required to take a "navy" shower - 2 minutes maximum. There was one time when one of the evaporators had a casualty and we were forced to take salt water showers for about a week. That was truly miserable. Good memories.

[@stanstenson8168]

Last cruise I made was on FFG33. '03ish. We were on water hours for the entire cruise. Embrace the suck. Pulling in, and hooking up was like Christmas.

[@jakeblanton6853]

@@stanstenson8168 -- The good part of being on a nuclear carrier is that there is plenty of fresh water. The bad part is when they tell you that they can go 25 years without refueling... :)

[@stanstenson8168]

@@jakeblanton6853 I did two carriers. 64 and 73. Never had problems with water on either.

[@jakeblanton6853]

@@stanstenson8168 -- The only "problem" that I ever had with water on a carrier was the occasional no hot water or once when the heat exchanger was set to 250F and if you opened the hot water valve in the shower without first having opened the cold water valve, you would get 250F steam coming out at you... Ended up being lobster red on one side of my body once when that happened because the valve did not stop at full off and clicked over to full on... The shower head was the fixed type that we had before they installed the hockey puck one with the push button and even with both valves cranked tight close, it still dripped... So, I cranked each harder... Still leaked, so I cranked them even HARDER... The hot water valve went from full off to full on and I got steamed... The reason that I know that it was 250F was that I traced the piping back to the heat exchanger and found the outlet temperature gauge... Because of the pressure, it was possible for 250F water to be still liquid, but when you opened the shower hot water valve without first mixing in the cold water, it instantly turned to steam... You only need 15psi for 250F water to still be liquid and a water system is usually 40-60 psi, IIRC...

[@stanstenson8168]

@@jakeblanton6853 I saw that on the Connie. Some other guy just got roasted. I went to another head.

[@swampfuel20]

WELL DONE !

[@mikewhipple1033]

Hey Ryan! I was on the USS Iowa, and my brother re- commed the New Jersey! Would love to meet you and compare notes! (BTW, I was ESWS qualed!) Look forward to communicating with you!

[@CaptainMustanG4089]

Love the videos, hope to visit the ship soon!

[@davenz000]

Dude needs to get his belt shortened.

[@garywagner2466]

If you are looking at his crotch you have bigger problems.

[@russellparker5272]

My Kidd Class had a vac tank with a sight glass where the heads were sucked into. I brought my dad and uncle on a Tiger Cruise and was showing them the machinery spaces. The sight glass had a ledge and sitting on the ledge was a whole kernel of corn. We laughed!!!

[@dmacarthur5356]

Corn Kernel aka "Tracer Round"

[@BornToPun7541]

Yep, I worked at a Navy shore postal facility for a couple of years as a civilian contract employee, and I referred to the restroom as the "head". :)

[@spankyharland9845]

what's interesting in the Army- we called them latrines, and at the older bases there was always one toilet that had a black toilet seat that was off in the corner. My Chief told me that it was for soldiers who had the clap....

[@melvinelder3587]

I couldn’t imagine using the bathroom with no stalls. I remember my intro to military life having to shower with a bunch of other people using the same head with no devices. Thank goodness we at least had stalls around the toilets, granted they were waist high but at least it was something.

[@weslo819]

Must not be easy dragging several washer and dryers between those tight spaces

[@sebxiou-lifestyle4465]

Well plenty of man-power. And plenty of other heavy equipment to haul-about.

[@tali3san337]

I worked in Garden Island as a civvie and have 4 uncles and aunts in the British Navy all this time I never knew why sailors called the bathroom the head. Now I know :-)

[@curtiscains8533]

I was a Mud Marine on Gators, AKA, Amphibious Landing Ships in the 1980’s. As far as laundry goes there was a single day each week when each division and embarked troops would use Ships Laundry under guidance and supervision of the Laundry department. Everyone had to help each other in the Laundry Auxiliary Department. Marines were assigned to work with the Ships Crew and we all washed clothing and linen. All clothing was to be put into mesh bags, and then the whole bag was thrown into the washer and dryer with your clothes inside, this way no sorting or loss of your clothes happened and the Bag had your name on it. These were collected in a huge bag from each department division. There was colored items in one bag and whites in another. You added your civilian clothing to your regular uniform bags. Mostly it was denim jeans and shorts and t-Shirts. Some ports for liberty were restricted to you wearing collared shirts and nice trousers and hard soles shoes. Hong Kong and Tokyo were that way. But Subic was anything as long as it was clean and not torn. Laundry was tough. Each Laundry day required (4) Guys to go work in the laundry with Auxiliary Crew responsible for Laundry. Normally there was about (6) Guys in there. It was hot and usually was a 12 to 14 hour day. I only remember Officers and Chiefs with separate unique Laundry. Otherwise Laundry was rough duty. Even Junior NCO’s were assigned to work in there. Wash was done with rinse recycle water and only rinse was fresh water…..

[@Albendova666]

Haha, on our MSO we had one crews head: 2 toilets, 2 sinks and 1 shower

[@tomleblanc9878]

There was a different explanation of “head” given in Operation Petticoat by Cary Grant which surprisingly made it past the censors.

[@neonhomer]

Uhhh... where?

[@randyogburn2498]

I once toured the USS Alabama. She still has the original heads where it's just a row of seats with no privacy at all.

[@molotov9502]

Same with BB-35 Battleship Texas...a much older design. A large plank with holes over a trough with seawater coming in the fore end and exiting out over the side aft of the head.

[@davidparadis490]

I did the Alabama tour...there is a pitch on the trough...I remember the guide saying sometimes for a laugh, someone on the high end would set a roll of tp on fire and let it float down to the low end...kissing all the behinds with it's flame

[@EB-nz1qv]

I was just about to make the same comment. And it makes me wonder; why are we so hung up about other people watching us take a dump? I know I am, I just don’t know why.

[@jimissler8170]

Brings back memories Was assigned to R division steam heat aboard USS Saratoga CV 60 There were many a time the piping would break apart some do to corrosion sometimes something would bump into the piping Mostly vibrations would cause the pipe to crack You were on your honor not to take long showers but that changed around the late 70s then they came out with that 60 second wand which didn't last long Nobody wanted to go to shore smelling like diesel

[@Hawkeye2001]

My father was a WWII sailor. He told a funny story from the heads. The ship he was on had toilet seats mounted above a trough with a continuous salt water flush, the water flowing underneath the seats. Occasionally a prankster on the up-hill side of the flow, would make a bundle of paper and light it on fire and let it drift underneath the unsuspecting sailors "down stream". A different version of a hot seat,

[@jdaviqwerty]

The 3 minute Navy shower; a minute to soap up, a minute to rinse off, and a minute to fool around.

[@pitsnipe5559]

I was Captain of the Head on my first ship, USS Leary DD879.

[@leelawrence1557]

When I was on the Big J from 1985 to 1987 I was assigned to the machine shop. There is a head on the port side forward of the Engineering Log Room. There were no partitions between the toilets and you pissed in a trough. There was a dowel rod over the toilets to hold toilet paper. You could not be shy doing your business in that head. And it was perpetually nasty.

[@joevignolor4u949]

The men's rooms at Fenway Park use to be that way. It was built in 1912. A few years ago they finally modernized them. One of the troughs is on display at the Red Sox Museum in case you want to visit it.

[@martinbachmann6283]

@@joevignolor4u949 Brother Joe, holy MOLY! Knowing Red Sox fans and their extreme love of their Fenway Park & all it's lore.... I would be surprised if Park leadership/personnel did NOT get many complaints when they removed those "urinal-troughs?" I have always thought that IF Red Sox owners/management were ever BRAVE enough to consider tearing down Fenway & building a new stadium, there would be MASSIVE protest-riots all over Boston, & hell, they would probably burn the City to the ground!

[@joevignolor4u949]

@@martinbachmann6283 You are correct. About twenty years ago there were plans to replace Fenway Park and there was such an uproar in Boston that it was decided to improve Fenway instead and keep the team there.

[@FuzzJBall]

@@joevignolor4u949 The last time I went to the Indy 500 (which has been a little over 10 years) the bathrooms still had piss troughs, smelled as bad as a porta john. I wonder if the men's rooms at Dodger Stadium still have theirs.

[@algorithm1193]

​@@FuzzJBall I think they ripped out a bunch of the troughs recently. I heard the old Comiskey park had particularly nasty arrangements. Apparently it was a bowl you stood around with a bunch of other dudes and you pissed in the bowl. I cannot verify this though.

[@paulguidi7193]

As it was explained to me, the area of the bow of the ship you are mentioning was called the ‘cathead’ and in time shortened to just ‘head’

[@NSEasternShoreChemist]

I own a sailboat and have sailed on many other people's boats. Very often, there's an unspoken rule that you should only use the head if you're a woman, the ship is in port, or you need to do a #2. Trying to aim at a moving target is... not easy. Better to hold onto the railing like your life depends on it (*because it does*) and whiz over the side.

[@johnknapp952]

Used to call that shower nozzle the "hockey puck". My shop on the Kitty Hawk had it's own washer and dryer. Nobody liked using the ships laundry if you could help it. I'm guessing we had them because we had the plumbing and drainage.

[@s.sestric9929]

On my ship we could bend up one of the metal shower curtain rings to clamp onto the nozzle and keep the button pushed down.

[@jbsmith966]

well there are some things we all have in common, the need for the ships head is one of them .

[@jimjonrs3932]

That belt isn't regulation.

[@mjhuffman1956]

I think it's Freudian. Showing off his...?

[@ThePaulv12]

Hot Seat - "Smokers; don't throw matches into the bowl as crabs can pole vault"

[@robertf3479]

LOL!

[@andybreglia9431]

A long time ago, I visited an old sailing ship. There was a place along the side of the ship with a board with seat-size holes where crewmembers could sit on and poop. I guess this had to be the poop deck.

[@whirledpeaz5758]

Mirrors in the head on an all male ship. When I served on USS Eisenhower in later 1980s, crew were expected to be clean shaven to ensure tight seal of gas masks. Lights next to the mirror for achieving an inspection ready shave.

[@JoshuaTootell]

Only bathroom/head story that I can think of at the moment is learning at some point (on much, MUCH, smaller ships) is to never puke in the head. It's like a black hole; once you go in, you never come back out.

[@diogenes34]

Oh the memories and if my memory serves me right we had soap that you could lather somewhat with sea water And after that we could rinse with freshwater I was never crew on a ship I was in the Marine Corps and we were in Troop space which was very crowded if I recall right.

[@IntubateU]

Can't speak for heads on skimmers (surface ships) but on submarines... Now, this is speaking for SSBN's back in the '80s. First, I didn't know skimmers took submarine showers also. On submarines, the rule of thumb was 5 gallons per shower. You turned the water on and got wet then turned it off to do all of your soaping and shampooing before turning it back on to rinse off. And then after you were done you had to squeegee the shower stall down for the next person. Take a shower where the water ran continuously was referred to as a “Hollywood Shower” because that’s how they shower in Hollywood. On very special occasions if you did something pretty freakin phenomenal, the CO would reward you by authorizing you to take a Hollywood Shower. We didn’t have urinals and we didn’t have fancy toilets that flushed like normal toilets. Ours were stainless steel bowls with a traditional toilet seat on them. At the bottom of the bowl was a ball valve with a long green handle (green = seawater). On the bulkhead to the side of a toilet was another valve, a gate valve, with a green handle. The process for flushing was with your foot (usually) to start opening the ball valve at the bottom of the bowl while simultaneously opening the gate valve on the bulkhead. The gate valve would allow water to flow into the bowl to flush while the gate valve allowed the contents of the bowl to flow/flush down into the sanitary tank. After the contents of the bowl were gone you would then close the ball valve on the bowl followed by closing the gate valve on the bulkhead thus allowing the bowl to be filled with water for the next guy. Every several days it would become necessary to empty the sanitary tank where all the toilets flushed too. This was a process in itself and a well-planned evolution that was usually done, as with most housekeeping evolutions, during the mid-watch (0000 - 0600). So first, to prevent us from being detected, we’d have to make sure there were no contacts close by and certainly none following us. So we’d do some maneuvers called “clearing the baffles” so we could take a listen behind us to make sure nobody was there. Once that was done and we knew the coast was clear, the on-watch Auxiliaryman would go around to the heads and hang a sign on each stall door that read “SECURED - BLOWING SANITARIES.” He would then pressurize the sanitary tank with 700 PSI air, open a series of valves, and then blow the contents of the sanitary tank overboard. After the tank was empty he would then vent off any excess air from the tank, retrieve the signs, and call it a job well done. Well, during the process while that tank is pressurized with that 700# air, if you’re standing (or sitting) at a toilet, the only thing between you and the contents of that tank (now under great pressure) is that long-handled ball valve at the bottom of the bowl. Many submariners… officer and enlisted... from very junior to very senior… either from not paying attention or from being half-asleep, opened that valve and instantly joined the unenviable 700# Club, earning themselves the undesirable Golden Flapper Award along with them wearing whatever they deposited in the bowl along with the contents of that sanitary tank. Or as we commonly referred to it, "Blowing shi##ers" as in "so and so blew shi##ers on himself." Thankfully, I never did it. But in my five patrols, it happened several times. And when it happens, it’s an eye-opener. Venting 700 PSI air sounds like a freight train going through. And then venting that into a closed cylinder (submarine) immediately causes an overpressure that you feel in your ears just like on an airplane. And then there’s the smell… contained in that closed cylinder now being blown by all the fans in the fan room all around the boat for all to savor. Ooooh that smell... Can't you smell that smell (cue That Smell by Lynyrd Skynyrd). After such an event, the guilty party was then responsible for cleaning up what they caused. The doc would then have to inspect the cleaning before the offender could then go wallow in his misery. So yeah... those are my warship toilet stories. lol

[@IntubateU]

@Surigao 1944 The food was good for sure. Fresh baked bread and pastries every day. Fresh made pizza (dough included) every Saturday night. Steak and lobster on a regular basis. BUT, we only had fresh milk for about a week and then it was either powdered milk or sterilized milk (which has a shelflife of like 50 years lol). Fresh eggs lasted maybe a week or so then it was dehydrated eggs. As for fresh vegetables... lettuce would last maybe a week if we were lucky, potatoes and onions they'd keep in missile compartment lower level where it was cool and dry so they'd last several weeks, tomatoes lasted a week or so. Most of the other veg were either frozen or dehydrated. And yes, the perks were pretty good. Extra pay (sub pay), and basically 60 days leave a year instead of the normal 30. Each SSBN has two crews (Blue and Gold) and each on-crew cycle (at least back when I was riding a 41 for Freedom boat) is roughly 106 days... 3 days doing turnover from one crew to the other, 30 days for refit (doing repairs, loading supplies, and getting the boat ready), 70 days on patrol, followed by another 3-day turnover. So when one crew has the boat for "on-crew" the other crew is on land for "off-crew." Well, the first 2 weeks of off-crew were R&R which didn't count against your 30 days annual leave. The rest of the off-crew was spent in training, etc. But the one perk I liked the most was living off base. In Charleston in the early/mid-80s at least, each boat only had five two-man rooms in the SSBN barracks that were delved out on a first-come-first-served sign-up basis. With a crew of 140, many of which were single and would normally have to live in the barracks, they couldn't because there simply was no room at the inn. So as an unmarried enlisted guy starting when I was an E2, I was living off base and collecting BAQ and BAS.

[@darwinenthusiast3039]

note for the cameraman: DON'T COVER THE MICROPHONE ON THE CAMERA. Headphone users everywhere: THANK YOU

[@gpraceman]

I recall more of a little fixed shower head with a sliding on/off button, not a handheld shower head. Being able to enjoy a "Hollywood shower" once in port, instead of a "Navy shower" while at sea.

[@randycarter2001]

Mirrors were required because you did have to be clean shaven and had to keep your hair in order. In high school you were expected to take care of grooming at home. On board the ship was your home. You literally lived right below where you worked.

[@patrickradcliffe3837]

IIRC correctly laundry service was not in service when the ship was in homeport, so the those laundry rooms were a convience instead of spending money at the onbase laundrymat.

[@KennethStone]

And to continue on with the story for the name, a lot of old sailing ships had figures carved into the front of the ship, so the toilet waste would drop out next to the HEADS of the statutes.

[@mencken8]

Pretty deluxe accommodations for heads compared to the WWII vintage DD I served in during the 1960’s….

[@TheWareek]

its interesting that the WW2 set up of seats over a trough with running water is exactly what a Roman Legionary would have used. Nothing much changes in the Military.

[@BattleshipNewJersey]

Never let progress get in the way of tradition, as they say

[@Delgen1951]

@@BattleshipNewJersey Hay it is the lowest bidder, so what do you expect?

[@yes_head]

@@Delgen1951 I think it was also a case of "one less thing to break".

[@AlexR2648]

A Roman citizen would have enjoyed that in the city, but a legionary would probably have employed an ordinary pit.

[@andrei01918]

"*menacingly turns* Hi!"

[@DILLIGAF2101]

Those shower nozzles need to be experienced to be appreciated. Those things flowed probably a pint a minute, but at a zillion PSI. The first few showers you took hurt! They took getting used to. However, you could probably come away just as clean without soap--they would just power the grime off of you. When my ship got rid of evaps and installed a reverse-osmosis plant, we suddenly found ourselves with unlimited water. Gone were the water-saving sink faucets and shower nozzles. We went with nice Delta faucets and Waterpik Shower Massagers. Hollywood showers for all--and they were encouraged! You had no business stinking on USS Rodney M. Davis (FFG 60) after 2000.

[@davidschick6951]

Remember that Chiefs have their own heads as well. I’ve seen the Chief’s head on USS MIDWAY.

[@davidcruz8667]

Oh yeah, we have plenty of stories about using the head! Taking a shower underway in heavy seas is an exercise in balance and leverage as the ship rocks through the swells, not to mention that you have to manage a nozzle that only works while you're pressing the button, and you cannot put it up high to stand under the stream. Additionally you're aware of where and how you're going to place and use your soap, shampoo, any type of scrubber you may use, etc. And you have to arrange your towel and clothing on the hooks and hopefully they won't get wet from water escaping past ill-fitting shower curtains. Also, never take a shower without shower shoes (or flip-flops). With a large crew, foot fungus spreads easily, and there are also times when the drains back up and you might be standing in who knows what kind of filthy water. As for the mirrors, they're there because of our requirement to shave every day. I remember some mirrors were just a polished piece of metal and weren't very good, from insufficient reflectivity, distortion, and hazy areas. On some ships we had grab bars to stabilize yourself when using the urinals, and some toilet doors wouldn't latch and they swung and banged around with the ship's movement. I also made every effort to make a toilet paper seat cover before I sat down, they could get nasty between cleanings. When you're on a six month deployment, better safe than sorry. For some reason ship's company would always secure the head for cleaning just as I needed to use it. And good luck using the head during General Quarters! Planning your daily trip to the head for your shit, shower, and shave needed to be done carefully, make sure you haven't forgotten any items. Plus you never left your rack unsecured while you were using the head. There's more, but these are my most immediate thoughts. 😁🇺🇲 Oorrah!

[@alex_ob1]

What's the implication if you didn't secure your rack?

[@davidcruz8667]

@@alex_ob1 Implication? And securing your rack? If you mean consequences... let's just say you'll never do it again, the DI's will make sure of that. As for securing... you secure your foot locker, your wall locker, your weapon, your gear, things like that. But you make your rack.

[@alex_ob1]

@@davidcruz8667 consequence would have been a better word!

[@davidcruz8667]

@@alex_ob1 Okey dokey... oops, I thought you were on a boot camp thread I was also writing on. So disregard the DI comment. As for being aboard ship, there's the risk of theft, say if you go use the head, but it's minimal. Thieves get dealt with, if they're caught. It is always a good practice to lock the storage under the bunk.

[@alex_ob1]

@@davidcruz8667 I was wondering if you were implying that there might be thieving if you left your "rack unsecured".

[@craigbowie8925]

Group of sailors are doing thier business in the head. Marine in perfect step enters the head and in drill like movements presents himself to the urinal. Unzips and with hits his target. Closes up and reversed course to the door. One sailor speaks up, “In the Navy they teach us to wash our hands after using the head.” Marine, “In the Marines they teach us not to piss on ourselves.”

[@unitedwestand5100]

They have mirrors because they've got to shave and groom themselves.

[@bassmith448bassist5]

Kinda like a floating steel mobile home.

[@daveh9083]

Our heads had some kind of resin floor that they more or less poured and troweled, they did ours (forward berthing) in i think 1989-90. ET1 USS Truxtun CGN-35

[@s.sestric9929]

Terrazzo.

[@ParadigmUnkn0wn]

The hotseat I was familiar with, but I never knew the origin of the word "head."

[@snipe1066]

Onboard USS MarvinShields DE/FF1066 all the urinals had stencils with arrows “ please aim” on the piping next to them.

[@fixman88]

"We aim to please....you aim too, please."

[@alvinrodriguez6998]

One time in Navy a ship mate was sitting on head toilet ran out of toilet paper yelling i need shit paper another shipmate said use your t shirt i was busting up laughing

[@richardgreen1383]

The reason the heads have mirrors and the boys bathroom at school did not is simple. The sailors are expected to shave, and during WWII it was every day. In school, boys that needed to shave were expected to do so at home. Interesting that the showers had a hand held with a valve to cut off the water during the 60 second Navy shower. As part of the air group aboard the Randolph (CVS15) and Yorktown (CVS10) the cut off was on a valve right before the shower head. On the 1968 S. America cruise, one of the engineers on the Randolph opened the wrong valve and put fuel oil in one of the fresh water tanks. They then covered up by claiming we were using too much water and switched the showers to salt water. We became a stinky group. Found out after we got back to Norfolk that we weren't using too much water, the engineers were using it to try to flush out the tank.

[@walkingman9171]

These are really well done informative interesting videos, could use some upgrade in audio quality on most that I have seen though. Some parts ok, other parts not so much.

[@sonus289]

maybe they could use a wireless lapel or headset mic.... nothing cheap tho... its hit or miss to find anything good

[@notyou6950]

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[@StaffordMagnus]

There's a section in Master & Commander where they sail so far south they're encountering snow and ice, in the start of one of the shots the old chap who was injured in the first battle is using the head. Actually, here's the scene in question: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hoXCdn18pJqVf9U

[@commodoresixfour7478]

Sometimes the head is a Honey Pot. :)

[@tykit9230]

All of the enlisted heads on the Wisconsin were closed every morning for cleaning. Hope you didn't drink too much coffee 😂

[@sebxiou-lifestyle4465]

Hi Ryan. Thank you so much for this excellent video, which I stumbled upon by chance. We have a great interest in narrowboats (they are about 50-60 feet long, under seven feet wide and mainly tour the canals of England and Wales). They have shower-rooms aboard, sometimes referred to as "heads" - but I never knew why, until you told me. Moreover, the vital to save water on narrowboats is just as important as on USS New Jersey. So thank you and we shall now work our way though your other videos here. Excellent presentation and teaching; much appreciated. (NB if anyone is interested in narrowboats, there are umpteen channels on YT; just type in "narrowboat" or "narrowboat tour" - many are for hire from many firms, so if you are in the UK or intend to travel here you may wish to do that. Hire is expensive - c. £1,000-£2,000 per week for a six-berth boat (food and fuel extra) but they are a fantastic way to see the countryside and an occasional town. They travel no more than 3-4mph and there are locks and bridges to negotiate, so do not try to see much; enjoy the journey. I have no commercial interest whatsoever - just thought some people might be interested. Cheers.)

[@Gunbudder]

i wonder which stall was the designated stall...

[@madbikerwolf8664]

I'd like to see your sourcing on the "hot seat" term.

[@knightmarex13]

definitely nicer than the middle school bathrooms

[@changjoe01]

Ohhh, "hit the head".

[@robertf3479]

Now you know where that term came from. Also the origination of the term "To be on the 'Hot Seat'."

[@gowdsake7103]

In teh RN inspected every day as were all mess decks not to cptns rounds standards but HAD to be clean How many tons of water could New Jersey produce per day ?

[@twentypdrparrott694]

The head was also down wind of the bridge.