Albany (CA 123) - Naval Cruise Book

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vj ■ I— HI I IIIIH i H MI ' . . . when I go to sea, I go as a simple sailor . . . True, they rather order me about some and make me jump from spar to spar, like a grasshopper in a May meadow. And at first, this sort of thing is unpleasant enough. It touches one ' s sens e of honor, particularly if you come of an old established family in the land . . . The transition is a keen one, I assure you, and re- quires a strong decoction of Seneca and the Stoics to enable you to grin and bear it. But even this wears off in time. Melville . . . Moby Dick

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r People take pride in a job well done. I can say that without fear of contradiction, especially when the job concerns a much larger unit which, to function efficiently, demands the efficient func- tioning of the individuals who comprise the major portion of the ship ' s crew and who are very neces sary cogs in a large piece of machinery. So far, I ' ve shown you our team; the man, his friends and his superiors who are all a part of us . You ' ve been taken into the lives of my many ship- mates. Now, I ' m going to show you where all this gets us; what the ALBANY does with her crew, or better, what the crew makes possible for the ALBANY to do. The high-speed approach (25 knots) on the re- plenishing ship, for instance, takes a great amount of teamwork and no man involved — and there are many — can take a back seat. The Big A always seems to receive her ust deserts from her crew; and the crew can justly identify itself with the ship. So we have the men and the ship; but enough : here are some of the facets of shipboard ife. Maybe you will see what I mean.

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By-and-by, when he has learned all the little mysteries . . . of the craft . . . and this game in which the sea wins every toss ... he shall be fit to live or die as the sea may decree . . . Conrad . . . Lord Jim !j