Mount Vernon (AP 22) - Naval Cruise Book

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with a cool drink of South African brandy or gin. The drink was very different In taste from the usual American beer or bourbon, but it had much the same effect. People In Bombay were strange In appearance and customs. On the streets women could be seen wearing a small jewel In the side of the nose just as In the States women wore earrings. Women also wore saris which they gracefully draped around them. Some of the saris were embroid- ered in a fine gold thread and cost hundreds of dollars. In contrast to the expensive garments were the multitudes of penniless beggars. Everyone walked around the sacred cows, and the killing of them was considered a sin. Such men as enjoyed playing the horses found that Bombay had a beautiful racetrack, but the ponies were not in the same class with those on tracks of Santa Anita. There were many temples, rich In gold, silver, and jewels, for the sailors to admire. Crawford Market, where one could buy anything from flowers to monkeys was an unusual sight. The bazaar consisted of peddlers on the street, shops which were mere stalls, and elaborate silver shops. The ship sailed from the land of the hobba hobba and bum boats in company with the Mariposa . Less than twelve hours after depar- ture, an ammunition ship, near which the ship had been moored, blew up, sinking and damaging several ships and starting large fires on the shoreline. Had the Mount Vernon been there she would probably have suffered serious damage. Among the passengers embarked at Bombay were a group of Indian Hindus, whose customs and mode of life offered an Interesting sight on shipboard. Since it was necessary for them to cook their own food, they set about it at once. Only prompt action prevented their building an open fire on the deck forward on B deck. They were then taken to the galley where they prepared their own dishes, while the ship ' s cooks looked on in amazement. Few of the crew envied the passengers their meals. Their staple diet consisted of curry and rice cooked with fish-heads. Steaming away from Bombay was not without its tense feeling of ex- pectation, for at that time there existed a serious submarine menace in the Indian ocean and the Gulf of Aden. Several ships had been recently torpedoed. The trip from Bombay to the States was bound to be long. That, no one doubted. When the ship, almost home, made a wide sweeping turn and headed southeast, all hope of an early arrival was doomed. Where was the ship going? Hadn ' t the cruise, already a month at sea, been long enough? Why was the ship diverting? Diverting, that was it! , the scuttlebutt streamed forth. Right it was. On May 14, the Mount Vernon entered the Panama Canal, ending her Pacific travels.

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The Transportation division, working with the permanent Army staff aboard, was responsible for the handling and caring for the six thousand passengers. It insured proper berthing and messing schedules, and main- tained cleanliness in the troop living spaces. One of the few larger trans- ports to do so, the Mount Vernon served three meals each day to all passengers, a total of nearly 20,000 meals daily — over eighteen tons of food! After one month at sea, interrupted by only two days in Melbourne, the Mount Vernon docked at Ballard Pier in the harbor of India ' s most famous city — Bombay. Then began a two week education in the art of bargaining which made the members of the crew expert tradesmen. It had been rumored that diamonds, rubys, and other valuable articles could be had at a cheap price in India, but it soon became appare nt that the shopkeepers were selling nothing cheap. The rupee, worth about thirty cents, and the anna, worth a little less than two cents, became familiar words to the ship ' s personnel, who soon learned that they were not ex- pected to pay the price first asked. The Indians were masters of the art of bartering, and could wear a pained expression that would give the buyer the impression he was stealing from them rather than purchasing an article. The first liberty party returned to the ship with ornate tables and baskets, silver filigree pins, ivory carvings, and brassware with colored designs. The favorite souvenir was a mounted mongoose-snake fight. Night found many at the Taj Mahal hotel, or the Green hotel relaxing

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