Charleston (LKA 113) - Naval Cruise Book

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LTJG Valle EMCS Mason i? ICC Hipshier iJ EMI Presas IC2 Seattle 102 Ellis EM2 Szucs EM2 Taylor EM2 Glass EM3 Ring EM3 King IC3 Love IC3 Ware EM3 Emplitt EMS Tucker EM3 Vines ICFN Davis EMFN Heiser PR Salome EMFA Debold EMFN Enwin EMFN Rosende ICFN Trevino EMFA Benedith EMFN Brockway EMFN Cooper EMFN Tonel 27

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THE SNIPE ' S LAMENT Now each of us from time to time, has gazed upon the sea. And matched the warships pulling out. to keep this country free. And most of us ha%e read a book, or heard a lust tale. About the men who sail these ships, through lightning, wind and hail. But there ' s a place within each ship, that legends fail to teach. It ' s down below the water line, it takes a living toll A hot metal living hell, that sailors call the hole. It houses engines run b steam, that makes the shafts go round. A place of fire and noise and heat, that beats your spirits down. here boilers like a hellish heart, w ith blood of angry steam. Are of molded gods without remorse, are nightmares in a dream. Whose threat that from the fires roar, is like li ing doubt. That any minute would with scorn, escape and crush you out. Where turbines scream like tortured souls, alone and lost in hell. As ordered from above somewhere, they answer every bell. The men who keep the fires lit. and make the engines run. Are strangers to the world of night, and rarely see the sun. They have no time for man or God. no tolerance for fear. Their aspect pays no li ing thing, the tribute of a tear. For there ' s not much that men can do. that these men ha%en t done. Beneath the decks, deep in the hole, to make the engines run. And every hour of every day . they keep the watch in hell. For if the fires ever fail, their ship ' s a useles s shell. W hen ships converge to have a war. upon an angry sea. The men below just grimly smile, at what their fate might be. They ' re locked in below like men fore doomed, who hear no battle cry. It ' s well assumed that if they ' re hit. the men belo N will die. For every day ' s a war down there, when the gauges all read red. Six hundred pounds of heated steam, can kill you mighty dead. So if you ever write their sons, or try to tell their tale. The very words would make you hear, a fired furnace ' s wail. And people as a general rule, don ' t hear of men of steel. So little ' s heard about the place, that sailors call the hole. But I can sing about this place, and try to make you see. The hardened life of men down there, cause one of them is me. I ' ve seen these sweat soaked hero ' s fight, in superheated air. To keep their ship alive and right, though no one knows they ' re there. And thus they ' ll fight for ages on. till warships sail no more. Amid the boiler ' s mighty heat, and the turbine ' s hellish roar. So when vou see a ship pull out. to meet a warlike foe. Remember faintly if vou can. THE MEN WHO SAIL BELOW. Author unknown 29