When and why do sailors stand at attention around a ship's edges?

January 8, 2010 10:44 PM

Can you explain that thing where sailors wear their dress uniforms and line a warship's decks as it comes in or out of port? Is it dangerous? Does anyone ever fall in?

I was just looking at one of those photos of an American aircraft carrier entering port, with sailors lining the edge of the flight deck. I'm curious: What's this practice called? When do they do it? How long do they have to stand like that for? (Do they hate it?) And does anyone ever wind up getting fished out?

(Also, I know this is bad of me, but I have a supplemental question: when sailors are off-duty, do they have the run of the ship? Or do you have to stay confined to certain off-duty areas?)

posted by bicyclefish to Society & Culture (10 answers total)

Best answer: It's known as Manning the Rails.

When a man of war entered a foreign port, the crew would man the rails as evidence that there was no hostile intent (if they were all on deck, they couldn't be preparing the guns to fire). In this respect it's linked to the tradition of Gun Salutes, by which you fired your cannon at sea before entering port as proof they were empty.
posted by genesta at 3:27 AM on January 9, 2010 [4 favorites]

I don't have the answers, but you might be interested in the PBS series Carrier. The filmmakers went on a 6-month deployment on an aircraft carrier - from CA to the Gulf and back again. I caught one episode when it originally aired and wish I had seen more. I think there are 10 total hours and they follow crew from every level- kitchen to bridge. It would, at least, probably provide the answer to the off-duty question.
posted by munichmaiden at 4:24 AM on January 9, 2010 [3 favorites]

The link above by Genesta did not work for me.

Wikipedia to the rescue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manning_the_rail

I don't think they fall in too often.
posted by lungtaworld at 5:41 AM on January 9, 2010

I caught one episode when it originally aired and wish I had seen more.

You can watch the episodes on the site you linked to.

posted by nooneyouknow at 5:59 AM on January 9, 2010

Best answer: A lot of the photos you see are framed to hide the net that runs around an aircraft carrier's deck. So the solider might be two feet from the edge of the deck, but five or six feet from actually falling in. Plus there is a low railing. You can see the net and railing in this photo, and from below here. Often the photos that look the most precarious are actually taken by someone standing on the net itself.
posted by smackfu at 7:04 AM on January 9, 2010 [2 favorites]

Best answer: These days, they do it just because it's tradition and looks neat. It's not done every time, just when returning home from a long deployment. Think of it like waving from the car in a ticker-tape parade (although, being the military, they should strictly be at parade rest - no waving or smiling). The traditional accompaniment is fire boats escorting the ship in spraying fountains of water.

The sailors will all say they hate it. Some secretly enjoy feeling just a little bit proud of having done the deployment, standing there reflecting on it being finally over, the spectacle they're making, seeing home for the first time in a while from topside, and everyone watching them and welcoming them home. That would be uncool to admit, though. Often it is more of a practical nuisance as well - all those guys have work to do upon entering port before they can go home, and would just as soon be doing it ASAP, instead of standing around for an hour and then having to go change into a working uniform first.

Manning the rails is also commonly done when leaving Pearl Harbor (more somberly, no fanfare), as a salute to the participants in the attack in 1941.

Depending on how long the maneuvering watch is, it can take a while. That is, in Pearl Harbor, they usually man up on the way in at the entrance buoys to the channel, and stop when the ship is moored. Normally that is about one hour, which is typical of other places as well.

No, nobody falls in. They stand a couple of feet back of the edge and don't move around very much. They cancel it in inclement weather (nobody to watch them anyway.)

Off watch, sailors have the run of the ship with obvious exceptions - you can't just hang out on the bridge or combat or the engineering control stations; Pretty much places where you'd be a nuisance to people trying to do their jobs you stay out of unless you have official business there. There are officer-only areas on surface ships, but that's usually just their living and eating areas. On nuclear ships, only the nuclear-trained personnel can go in the propulsion plant.
posted by ctmf at 10:49 AM on January 9, 2010 [2 favorites]

In reference to ctmf's note about Pearl Harbor, here is a cool shot of the U.S.S. Lincoln crew manning the rails on the way out of Pearl.

- AJ
posted by Alaska Jack at 12:23 PM on January 9, 2010

Interesting AJ, even after 20 years in the Navy, (mostly submarines, though,) I hadn't realized that surface ships put the anchor out ready to drop while in the channel (in your linked photo), instead of its normal housed position. Come to think of it, it makes perfect sense in a restricted maneuvering situation - I'd rather quickly drop anchor than drift aground. [/derail]
posted by ctmf at 1:37 PM on January 9, 2010

Under normal circumstances, non-flight-deck crew are not allowed on the flight deck. It's an extremely dangerous place to be, due to jet blasts that can blow you overboard and the cables that stop the planes when landing can go flying across the deck, which have a tendency to cut people in half if they're in the way. Oh, and getting sucked into a jet is another grim possibility.
posted by Goofyy at 11:11 AM on January 10, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks ctmf - that's appreciated!
posted by bicyclefish at 8:30 PM on January 10, 2010