Four Bees: US Navy Combination Fire Nozzle, 1947, USCG Motor Lifeboat Station Grays Harbor

Since this seems to be the week for "odds and ends", I figured I ought to drag out my old US Navy Combination Fire Nozzle to show off. This nozzle lives in my living room as a piece of very cool naval "art", but it originally came from my old US Coast Guard station, USCG Motor Lifeboat Station Grays Harbor. While I was serving at the Motor Lifeboat Station, in the mid 1980's, I pulled this nozzle out of the scrap brass bucket in the Boatswain's Shop. The USCG was in the process of modernizing the firefighting equipment on the motor lifeboats, and the old US Navy brass nozzles were being traded out for the new, lightweight, aluminum "modern" fire nozzles. We carried these nozzles on our 44 foot Motor Lifeboats, and the 52 foot Motor Lifeboat Invincible.

This particular type of Navy All Purpose Combination Nozzle was in use all through WW2 and probably well into the late 1980's. They are very heavy, something like 5 pounds! The nozzle can spray a straight stream of water or deliver a fog spray, without having to turn or adjust the nozzle tip. As the bail is moved from "Closed" to "Open", the water is directed out of the straight stream tip, to the fog tip. The fog tip can be removed and a long "fog applicator" type wand inserted in its place. This allows the shipboard firefighter to insert the wand into a burning compartment to apply water without having to enter himself.