Mount Olympus (AGC 8) - Naval Cruise Book

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Underway For the Mediterranean 6October... With Iceland dropping astern beneath cold grey skies, we headed south to- ward Gibraltar and the warmer climes of the Mediterranean. Of our forthcoming operation, Exercise LONG STEP, we will touch three continents--Europeg Africa, at Bone, Algeriag and Asia, at Istanbul, Turkey--if present tentative plans are not changed. Our first port in the Med will be Augusta, Sicily, where we ex- pect to arrive 16 October and stay until the 20th. There we will reprovision and take on a few marines of the landing force and some of their equipment. 12 October . . . ' Today dawned bright and sunny, and Chaplain Lindeman took advantage of the favorable weather to hold an impressive service on the veranda as we steamed through the Straits of Gibraltar, with Spain and the Rock to port and Africa to starboard. Gibraltar doesn't look as we had expected it to, but we soon learned that the familiar view in the insurance ads is that seen from the mainland, not the seaward side. There is much shipping converging on the straits--merchantmen, liners and warships--and we have been in sight of other vessels all day. On the trip from Iceland, no ships were sighted. The warm sun has attracted both sun bathers and camera hounds topside, and general amazement and satisfaction is expressed by hands new to the Med at the change in climate since passing the straits. All day the coasts of Spain and Africa have been visible. 13 October . . . Our good weather continues as we sail along the North African coast, always in sight of both land and other ships. Some tiny swallows landed aboard today, so tired they could be picked up off the deck. The ship is being made spic-and- span for our entry into Augusta Bay. 15 October . . . We are a little ahead of schedule, so our course has shifted slightly north- ward, bringing us late this afternoon in sight of the islands off the west cape of Sicily. We are now off the south coast of Sicily and shore lights can be seen. 16 October . . . We sailed through the breakwater into Augusta Bay this morning and an- chored in the midst of a great fleet of U.S. Naval ships of all types. These are some of the ships which will participate in LONG STEP. To the north, cloud-crowned and misty in the distance, is the smoking cone of Mount Etna, Sicily's famous vol- cano. Sicily and its off-lying islands were colonized in the fifth century before Christ by the Greeks, and later became Roman colonies. Much of the action of the Punic Wars took place around Sicily, and the islands were the home of many mythological characters--the Cyclops, Scylla and Charybdis, the Sirens, and Vulcan, Greek God of fire. 15

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