Atka (AGB 3) - Naval Cruise Book

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Message from The Captain A sincere Well Done and an appreciative Thank you forthe tireless efforts and gallant performance of Atka's officers and crew during Deep Freeze '66. It was a great pleasure and cause for a fierce pride to serve as your Commanding Officer on this cruise. Respectfully, J COMMANDER JOHN S. BLAKE. USN COMMANDING OFFICER

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0761106 WZ This is the story of the U.S.S. ATKA CAGB-35 and her men and their part in Qpefation Deep Freeze '66. It is an adventure story told in pictures and. words of a modern-day journey into a still vastly unexplored land. It tells ofsraging SCHS, strange animals, and countless hours of human labor and sacrifice in support of science. It is the story of the Hworld's last frontier, that lonely world that is Antarctica. Much of the story is not here in these pagesg it can only be known by those who lived it. 7, Early on the morning of 16 October 1966, ATKA slipped out of the Boston Har- bor into the chilly, gray waters of the north Atlantic. Many men aboard had never been to sea before. Three days later in the rough waters off Cape Hatteras, they got their first taste of what the seas can do to a ship as small as a 269-foot ice- breaker. The ship sailed through the sweltering Carribean, passed through the Panama Canal and 22 days and 9,000 mileslater arrived in Wellington, New Zealand. After, some voyage repairs and a stop in Christchurch, New Zealand for supplies, the ship headed south for Antarctica. A popular misconception about icebreakers is that they cut ice. In reality, the method used is a good deal less subtle.The ship rides up on the ice and crushes it under the weight. For this reason, designers omitted the conventional keel in their plans for icebreakers. With the subsequent loss of stability, ATKA's passage through the Ross Sea, reputed to be the roughest stretch of water in the world, might be best compared to an oversized bathtub wallowing through a hurricane. Aside from the rough seas, there were other adventures ahead, the first glimpse of the pack ice, McMurdo Station, Mt. Erebus, Hallett Station, penguins, seals, the McMurdo Nuclear Reactor, football on the ice, and, of course, a somewhat sad Christmas. These are the things that the icebreaker men will never forget and the reader will find most of them recorded here. There are people who will tell you that the golden age of sailing is over The adventure of going to sea, they say, disappeared with the advent of the mighty car- Eers, heavy cruisers and submarines. No longer do men such as those celebrated y Herman Melville and John Masefield sail the waters of the earth. Exploration forthebsake of exploration is something that ended with Scott and Captain Cook I is o vious that they have never seen the Ross Sea at full fury, spent days ex- ploring the dangerously shallow waters of McMurdo Sound, picked their way through 1C6b6rg alley, or felt the bitter Antarctic cold bite into their skin. In short, they are not. lfebfeakef SH11OfS5 that peculiar throwback to the days when sailing was somethin else ' , T - - - 8 Hgam hese are adventurers and this 1 th t ' of this book. s err s ory in the pages

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Commanding ffiwff COMMANDER JOHN S BLAKE U S Navy was born 1n Brooksvllle Marne He IS a graduate of the Unlted St t a es Naval Academy and was comm1ss1oned Enslgn ln 1946 After commrssronrng COMMANDER BLAKE was stauoned at the U S Naval Alf 51311011 jacksonvllle Flonda Other ass1gnments 1nc1uded USS DOLPHIN QSS 1695 attended Naval M1116 Warfare School at Yorktown V1rg1n1a served aboard USS MURRELET QAM 3725 USS TOWHEE QAM 3885 USS YMS 423 USS YMS 422 and USS OSPREY QAM 285 In January 1948 COMMANDER BLAKE reported aboard the USS HIGBEE QDDR 8065 and then on to duty wrth Navy Spc1a1 Wea pons Unrt 802 at Sand1a Base New MCXICO He as Head of Naval Scrence Department Ma1ne Marltrme Academy at Cast1ne Ma1ne He then served as Engmeer Ottrcer aboard USS ROANOKE QCL 455 In 1953 he was an rnstructor at th e U S Naval Post Graduate School at Monterey Ca11 forma He then became Engxneer offrcer aboard USS CONSTEL LATION QCVA 645 and h1s most recent assxgnment was as the Chref of the F1eld AdV1SOIy Team Germany from 8 january 1963 unt11 19 june 1965 On 19 July 1965 COMMANDER BLAKE as d sume command of ATKA at Norfolk V1fg1H18 COMMANDER BLAKE IS marrred to the former Marlan F Ev f f w o IS 12 years old 1 . , 0 0 9 . 1 9 ' ' . U . I , ' u e I . 9 . , . t . . Q 3 , . . . Q D , s 1 G' 0 n 1 Q 9 . . Q . . n . . . 9 , . . . , -5 . . U , . I O , ' 9 9 , g . . . 8 ' . eritt o North Hollywood, Cali- ornia. The Blakes have a son David, h ' ,