To launch aircraft at sea, a crane lowered the plane onto the cradle atop the launching car, where two safety pins and a tension ring held the car steady on the track. The ship then steamed into the wind so air over the deck provided additional lift, and operations timed the launch for when the ship was in the trough of a wave. The catapult was turned about 30 degrees over the water, the pilot revved the engine at open throttle, and the pins on the launching car were released. A Gunner's Mate fired the catapult gun using an 8-inch artillery shell, and the launching car, attached to an ungalvanized wire rope, carried the plane down the track to 65-70 mph before two hydraulic buffers stopped the car and the pilot took off. Two 68-foot-long Type P gunpowder Mark 6 catapults were on the fantail; they are missing, but the two large turntables remain, positioned about two-thirds of the way from the track's launching end to assure safe launchings across the deck if needed. Cecil Jaudin Baker, a Fire Controlman 3/C, recalled that after about three months he was transferred to the starboard catapult, where the work was dirty and greasy and launches could leave the crew without time to wash up or even eat before chow ended. As the rear pin man during launching, he worked with the little cart at the rear of the catapult, watched the launching officer's thumb signals for pins up or pins down because of the plane's noise, and signaled when the pins went down so the plane could be launched.