Bryce Canyon (AD 36) - Naval Cruise Book

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SAN FRANCISCO Gate Bridge he Bryce Canyon passed under ■le Golden Gate bridge to the day she left, San rancisco and San Franciscans unfurled their hospi- ality. The visit to the city of cars and freeways, Shermans wharf and the Mark [Hopkins, skid row nd Nob Hill, Telegraph hill. Bay bridge, China- Dwn, the zoo, the parks and Alcatraz, could be ummed up in one alhinclusive word . . . San rancisco was DELIGHTFUL. From Broadway to the wharf by coble car A resident of Fisherman ' s Wharf

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WESTWARD HO Take the maiesty of Hawans Diamond Head ... odd the charming blend of ancient and modern Japan . . . m|ect a dash of Hong Kong for spice . . . whip furiously with the aid of four typhoons ... mix in strenuous periods of shipboard work . . . broil for long hours in Subic Bay heat ... age for months away from home ... and the ensuing compound forms a mosaic of the Bryce Canyons 20,000 mile, 1957-58 Western Pocific cruise. Preparations for the cruise began early and included a two-month overhaul in San Francisco Naval Shipyard. After visits to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Kobe, Sasebo and Yokosuka, Japan, and Hong Kong, the tender settled down in tropical Subic Bay which became her ' home away from home for her sixth deployment. As Subic replaced Yokosuka as the Bryce Canyon ' s Westpac base of operations, so leepneys, baluts, Victory liners, tagalog barongs and Manila superseded midget demon cabs, sukiyaki, electric trains, kimonos and Tokyo with sailor tourists shifting their interests to conform to Filipino life. The enterprising town of Olongapo |ust outside the Subic Bay Naval Base main gate was very navyized and a trip into the country was essential to see the true Philippines. By boarding a red and white, open-sided, bucking Victory liner for a trip to Manila, one could leave civilization, as Americans know it, and see nipa huti gathered together in barrios. Or observe water buffalo pulling plows in the rice fields or a cart along the dirt highway. Or view the dense grasslands, the forests, the rice fields and finally, after 60 bumpy miles . . . modern Manila. Only the bust- ling leepneys, the ancient walls of the Intramuros and the decorated horse drawn carriages kept Manila from appearing like many stateside cities. The song, Home for the Holidays, was as popular in the Philippines as it was back home and added to the loneliness of the Bryce Canyon crew who spent Thanksgiving in Yokosuka and Christmas and New Years in Subic. But Christmas packages and cards from home helped pull Subic Bay a little closer to Long Beach, California, 7,000 miles across the Pacific. For those of the crew who never had been to the orient, the trip was new and different. For those who were veterans of life in the Far East, the cruise was less attractive than previous tours where long periods in Japan provided more diversified liberty. Those thot remained at home and woited, con only |udge the nature of the cruise from the letters received, the pictures shown, the tales told . . . ond now, through the pages of this, the Bryce Conyons second Western Pacific Cruise Book.

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i t- -1 .:ji ,1 . T 1 4 IM fi 1 i rS: If r lil . For the third time since commissioning the Bryce Canyon entered a shipyard, this time San Francisco Naval Shipyard, in June. Two months, 7,500 productive man hours and $ 480,000 later she left, ready for deployment to Westpac. Included among ma|or alterations and repairs accomplished was modernization of the mess hall and scullery, laundry, flog quarters and CIC ; renovation of the antisubmarine warfare repair shop and overhaul of the ship s generators. External changes included removal of all 20-mm and 40-mm gun batteries and directors and removal of about two feet from th e top of the smoke stack.