Mount Vernon (AP 22) - Naval Cruise Book

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f-.T roll in! The Coast Guardsmen becanne seasick when they saw his escorts; Boden, Butler, and the rest of the ship ' s gunners mates, and the sea rolled in. Eating places and bars were found everywhere. In fact, a marriage was performed in one of the bars, with the crew of the Mount Vernon participating. Those who felt too crowded in the city proper spread out over the bay area and in the towns down the peninsula. Ships must sail, however, and accomplish their missions. The Mount Vernon was no exception. She left San Francisco on various trips bound for Adelaide, Sydney, and Melbourne, Australia; Auckland and Welling- ton, New Zealand; Noumea, New Caledonia; Suva, Fiji; Milne Bay, New Guinea; Honolulu and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; and Bombay, India. Even San Francisco could not hold a troopship forever.

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FOR THE NEXT TWO YEARS. San Francisco was to represent America to the crew. Passing under the Golden Gate Bridge meant stateside liberty! Fourteen trips to the islands of the Pacific climaxed in a return to the city. Always a favorite port of the crew, San Francisco afforded a rollick- ing time, despite the fact that money disappeared in a short period. Stories have been told of sailors greasing the rails of the cable cars, making the descent of California Street uninterrupted, and much faster than usual. Rationing of golf balls limited the joy of playing on the city ' s golf links, particularly with the dog leg hole leading into the ocean. Swim- ming was too cool for comfort after the men became accustomed to the South Pacific beaches. An hour before sunset the ship ' s personnel mingled with the crowd gathered at the Top of the Mark , selecting the choice window seats and watching the night creep up on the city. Later in the evenings the International Settlement felt the presence of the Mount Vernon ' gang. Nellie Nelson announced his arrival in one bar filled with Coast Guardsmen by shouting, Standby, shallow water. Let the deep blue sea

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Adelaide, Australia is about an hour ' s train ride up the river from the port. The train, running from the port to the city, is pulled by an engine purchased from the states; the model was popular here in the eighteen hundreds, and the train jerks, and tosses, and stops, it seems, every several hundred yards. Cut off from the rest of Australia by a chain of mountains, the city is a quiet, overgrown country town. Like all cities of English design, it appears old and worn. Adelaide is not large, but what it lacks in size, it makes up in the number of pubs. There were no activities until eve- ning, then, in the blackout, the glow of cigarettes marked the lines of people awaiting entrance to the theatres. In the blackout the sound of footsteps was amplified. This sound rose in volume as the theatres loosed their crowds onto the streets.