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

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'N Lois at X. at, Diamond Heaa' points the way Zo Pearl Harbor 'iv - , ' 1 , f it ' if 3 t T , 4,,,.,. A , . drill w h e n we entered Tokyo Bay. We received or- ders from the port director via one of the signal towers to anchor in Berth 131', and await the boarding of- ficers. The navigator got out his charts and found 131 up by Tokyo so we went mer- rily on our way - away, away, away from all the ships in the harbor, away from sight of any naval in- stallations, away from all indications of civilization, Iapanese artists sketching bomb damage away from everything. We anchored and waited. Finally an army motor launch was sighted headed toward us. They ap' proached, looked us over, and went on. That was all for that day. The next day we saw a couple of Iapanese fishing fleets tacking back and forth across the bay nearby but nothing of any boarding oflicers. Finally in the afternoon of the second day there came a call on the -radio 'cWhere are you -why didnit you anchor in berth 131?v We sent back a reply, We are an- chored in berth 131, where are you PM We received the answer, Coordinates of berth Baker-131 are -1-, ---. Proceed there immediately. The Navigator got out his anchorage charts and looked for the anchorage at the given coordinates but found nothing there. lt was too late to move that afternoon anyway so we waited till the next morning and moved in the fog, When the Captain and Navigator got to the Port Director's oflice for a conference, they found that our charts were more up to date t ' 1 as ,Rm-cw N as Q I Ir H NM , An open air market in Yokohama ta ie us into a pier V an The f ff, ff ts, an the Port clarts in the gfili' VVhen we pf ned. ln the afte tc proceed to Yol-1 a .other message, a tchored T vue tied up to pirty which bfok tl en ran off to fit That afterfioa: tie war had done cuite well fed tie elfort of the f

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time-and-a-half for their work. When no one would sign their papers for the extra pay they went on strike and refused to show up for work. When they were called on the P. A. system they refused to answer. When the Marines went to their com- partment and called for them no one knew them, no one had seen them, no one knew where they were, and no one expected ever to see them again. Filtering the mess line caught a few but more ingenious methods had to be devised to bring the entire lot to justice, Qtwo days in the brig on bread and waterj. After looking up the home town of one of the seamen, a Marine went to their compartment and called out, HI-Iey, I hear there,s a guy down here from Canton, Ohioln Immediately the culprit jumped up to meet someone from his home town but instead he met one of the Sheriff,s,' deputies. Another seaman's nick- name became known to the Marines so one of them went to the compartment, stood behind a stanchion and yelled, Hey, Mikeln Mike answered and was taken into custody. The even- ing of the day we arrived in San Francisco there were head- lines, TWELVE IAILED ON S. F. TRANSPORTQ, and a glowing account of the whole affair. It even got nationwide coverage through the press agencies. The ADMIRAL CAPPS remained in San Francisco for 28 days during which time herwboilers were cleaned with wire brush for the first time. They averaged almost 9,000 steaming hours since the ship started operations while the Manual of Engineer- ing Instructions say that they should be cleaned every 2,000 hours at the very most. Most of the West Coasters were granted leave enough to visit their homes-which they hadn't seen for at least ten months. The East Coasters enjoyed their liberty in San Francisco as much as could be expected-more so than the 'West Coasters had enjoyed liberty in Norfolk. In the morning of 8 March the ADMIRAL CAPPS sailed The Golden Gate says Welcome back on her next voyage to Okinawa and return to San Francisco. We took the southern route in order to avoid the stormy North Pacihc weather. In the morning of 21 March we anchored in Buckner Bay and waited for our friends on the beach to or- ganize and send us some passengers. While we were still wait- ing the next day, the Chaplain arranged for the crew to go ashore and use the Navy's recreation area for a little relaxation and exercise - and also their beer garden to quaff a couple I - 3 Libcrtjf parij' of tans. There was no sc Okinawa were still classei The loading of 473.8 nocn of 24 March and ' in jess than an hour. Th our last trip so the Cap darzd and set his eye on record was set for the ' kncw, but we did set a rr kntts was the average wefe slowed down by i thi: being our last trip i