The battleship carried two large boat cranes on this deck, one on either side of the ship, used to lift boats in and out of storage and the water and to move heavy supplies and ammunition from other boats and barges onto the battleship decks. Their booms were removed sometime after 1947, when the ship entered the Reserve Fleet, and only the bases remain visible. Operating these cranes required skill and quick judgment in many situations and emergencies. Because the crane operator could not see the boats in the water or in their storage positions, he relied entirely on a boatswain's mate, who used a pipe, or whistle, to signal each movement and speed. As Paul Wieser, a Boatswain’s Mate 1/C, recalled, the crew first positioned personnel, then swung the crane out, lowered the cable, attached the sling to the hook, hoisted the boat, trained the crane into position, raised the boom as needed, and lowered the boat into the skids for storage, with whistle commands directing each step and an informal signal meaning stop work immediately.