laststandonzombieisland

Today’s bluejackets have to worry about modern 21st-century problems while underway such as flakey internet signals, running out of pop, broken exercise equipment, 1980s tech in the CIC, chicken wheels, and lines for the washing machine. One thing they don’t have to fool with is the old 01 Division holy-stone train.

What is a holystone? Well here is the wiki on it and another mention here but suffice to say that this lump of sandstone, boiler brick, or even ballast weight was common to sailors from the 18th century through WWII.

It’s simple to use, just add seawater and sometimes a liberal coating of sand and scrub away at the teak decking of your old school battleship, cruiser, destroyer, or frigate along with a dozen or so of your closest hammock mates under the close supervision of the bosun.

Sailors rubbing the deck of the Japanese battleship Yamashiro, Seto Island Sea, 1943

Sailors rubbing the deck of battleship HMS Rodney, 1940

Sailors holystoning the deck of Pelorus-class protected cruiser HMS Pandora in the early 20th century

Working the deck of the old HMS Nelson

Royal Navy Battleship Sailors scrubbing holystoning Bridge HMS Royal Oak Photo 1917 colorized by Postales Navales

A working party holystones the deck of USS Oklahoma City (CLG 5) in June 1966. “25 licks per board”

At the end of the day, you would have a nice, clean deck that had been stripped of its top layer of grit and grime.

September 1, 1986: German destroyer Rommel D-187 (right) in company with USS Iowa BB-61 and Peder Skram F-352. The deck was likely freshly stoned as the battlewagon was headed to NATO-allied ports and needed to be squared away for the inevitable spate of visitors

Of course, today’s sailors much prefer nonskid.

Except for those who are assigned to the last two wooden decked ships in the U.S. Fleet, the USS Constitution, and USCGC Eagle who just donated a spare one to the USS Missouri museum…

However, they still have plenty of leftovers.

Somethings never change