Admiral W L Capps (AP 121) - Naval Cruise Book

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The eizfy of Naples, Italy down for two days of bad weather., We rolled so badly that 34 life rafts were lost from the sides of the ship and we had to turn into the sea at mealtimes so that those who were eating could keep their food on their trays long enough to eat it. The Italians were so sick the Hrst day that their mess detail didnlt show up to prepare their food, and all they got to eat that day was bread and coffee. They were so hungry the next day that mess detail showed up whether they were sick or not. Sight-seeing was by far the main attraction at Naples. The main trouble was that we didn't stay there long enough to really see the best sights. Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius were seen by everybody who had a chance but the Isle of Capri, Rome and other highly interesting places had to be passed up. Naples itself wasn't in very good condition after all the fighting which The Ruins of Pompeii The C oliseum, Pompeii Th shipper zelfs Genera vvcrzi in there. The Viale the ci y appeared more massise architecture of th very iapressive. The souvf openii g jewelry boxes. Ei made iis cameos, but all of had tl e same design and 5 have sery large families. ' from :he 'crnain drag , l obtain some very good C21 Tie children of Napl streets were crowded with them fvanted to sell or bu

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ld r 6 si wb 4 s'xX N W -4-dt j 'iiW2 was the first ill? of ' tttt V19 fiat' A sniurwth INP , i ,. 'iriwiffnyhfr There i ' 'T' ' if-wn French as xsrr Q15-,kfn Shws int - 2-Atari tlllfil, it Y' 4' f'Yfi 1T fatilmes ' ' -ff 'ht' dh' 31151 l 4 'Q F'--nrbmg, Q 1 tr 5 sr exffvlxllv. -fr AQ Aff. 'ht carb:- 'S gist: The in Hifi! I l i X c A , . X ' . x in X S-LY :AVAxfXL.' The Nazis left this ship hehind when they returned to Germany French shops offered perfume, hand-made figurines, silk scarfs and other souvenirs-all at their price, which was prohibitive at the Navy rate of exchange for French money. Marseille has a bad reputation even in France, and our opinion of it Wasn't much higher than its reputation. We sailed from Marseille on II September with 5,496 Army passengers bound back to Norfolk. This was an over- load of 721 passengers so that they had to sleep in shifts on the bunks during the day and on the decks in the passageways at night. Fortunately We didn't have any rough vveather or it would have been extremely uncomfortable for those without assigned bunks. They were happy enough to get home to bear this small discomfort for nine days. We arrived in Norfolk on the 20th of September, stayed five days to load stores and passengers, and then were off on another trip, this time to Naples and Marseille with a load of 3780 Italian Service troops. This was a real confusion drill which could well be called, The Battle of the Public Address System. The Italians furnished interpreters Qwho could hardly speak Englishj to stand Watch on the bridge and make all announcements for the passengers in Italian. By the time the trip was over the crew had heard all the standard announce- ments so many times that they could have made them them- selves. Attencione, Attencione, sei due, i sei tre a la Mensa'.'7 We arrived in Naples on 5 October, having averaged 18.7 knots. The loss of speed was due mostly to having to slow Mt. Vesuvius in iz quiet mood

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li Chnl? Wiki I1-rt tating K1 s V .ws lung fiixligh to cat ir, in dn fha their mess detail and .xml all thu gm to eat his-iv 4k1'!'e was hung-rv thc next i'irfh.f.f -Lhfi were sick or nm, 'l W ii?w-if .AZ Naples. The is their i-wig enough 10 Q xl X13 W, ,.,,,!,U,,Jx WEN, Scsn lilf' 14' V-lpfi. Rome is . he jmhwfri Llp Naplc-S if fhr hghtmg which '. 1,..iA'u' .v Z ,Alqv The shipper tells General Black to mczlqe himself at home went on there. The waterfront was the worst damaged, while the city appeared more in need of repairs than in ruins. The massive architecture of the buildings and the art work were very impressive. The souvenir trade was in cameos and in trick- opening jewelry boxes. Every street vendor said that his father made his cameos, but all of the necklaces, bracelets, and brooches had the same design and setting-indicating that some Italians have very large families. Those who went to small shops away from the main drag , Via Roma, were occasionally able to obtain some very good cameos at very reasonable prices. The children of Naples were also an impressive sight. The streets were crowded with them - in gangs and singly. All of them wanted to sell or buy anything, and if they wanted some- thing which wasn't for sale, they did their best to steal it. One of them came to the ship selling the Mediterranean issue of Stars and Stripesl' for the exorbitant sum of two cigarettes. He said that he bought the papers for a nickel each and would sell the cigarettes for ten cents each, thus realizing a profit of 57.50 on a 32.50 investment. He did his figuring in American money and he really had it figured out. He said that he sold his cigarettes to German PW,s who got their money by selling on the black market the loot whch they pilfered from American trucks. We left Naples on the 7th of October and arrived in Mar- seille on the 8th. Liberty in Marseille this time was much like the last except that the city had been cleaned up considerably ,and there were fewer Gl's crowding the streets. We embarked SIQI passengers, fan overload of 4205, and sailed for Norfolk on the Ioth of October, arriving there on the 19th. After unloading at Newport News, the ADMIRAL CAPPS moved to the Navy Yard for boiler cleaning, voyage repairs and alterations. Permission was obtained to remove all of the life rafts which were mounted on the sides of the hull, Qsince they were the ones which were being lost in the rough seasj, and at the same time permission was obtained to remove all of the armament except two zomm AA machine guns. All of the repairs and alterations were completed by 3 November, 1945, and on that date, the ADMIRAL CAPPS sailed for Le Havre, France on her sixth voyage. Good weather was encountered for the first three days and then the wind shifted ahead and stayed there for the rest of the seven day trip, making