Cascade (AD 16) - Naval Cruise Book

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:Ji w Around the Island TTK CAI.I.Kl) THKM ai..iiii l-tlii--l?laii»l U ». hut llic routi- lakcn. tliou :h ruutitlulxiut. was hardly circular. There was one place the l)us wduld have to have Ijeen part mountain goal to get around, and at that point we prudently made a detour. Four trips were made all together, with about 250 men of the ship getting a chatiie to see the sights. Each section had a turn at it. and then there was one final expedition to take care of those who may not have been able to go when their sections rated liberty. The Pearl Harbor Mus Drivers ' Association provided the busses, some of which had springs. This was the route which took us perhaps a hundred miles in the day: into town, up .Nuuanu Valley, to the Pali, back through the I niversity grounds, a slop at The Breakers for a coke, around Diamond and Koko Heads. W aimea IJeach for a swim and lunch, then on out in the afternoon along the windward side to the Mormon Temple, through Haleiwa and Wahiawa to Richardson Landing, and back to the ship on No. I motor launch. There were two high |)laces that were high spots on tlie trip — -the Pali (1700 ' 1 and VXaliiawa. And there were two low places that were high spots — the beach and the Blowhole. Is that quite clear? The Blowhole, lo speak of that, entered into the spirit of the thing by showing off each time we stopped. Of course there are always those who insist upon a demonstration. Dr. Smisek, for example, was politely sceptical as to its spoul- abiiily, and like a true dentist was not content until he could stoop over and gaze into the very mouth of it. We are delighted to report the good doctor got an eyefuU. In point of fad. he got an earfull, a shirt full, and his shoes full. It was. as some- one truly said, worth the price of admission. It was withal pleasing to the eye. Well, we wrung him out and fluttered his shorts from one of the windshield gadgets for a while, and toward noon he was ])retty well dried out. Thcv say that after that the Chaplain tried to hire Dr. Smisek to make the trip each time on a fixed-fee basis, to show the men just how the Blowhole worked, but when the lime for subse(|uent trips approached the Lieutenant was always unaccountably busy pulling teeth. The view from the Pali was quite a thing, too. It was rather windy when the lour conductor was describing the battle which had taken place there when King Kamehameha pushed the army over ihe cliff, but as near as I get it. it was this way: The king on Maui was having to take a lot of guff and innuendo from the king on Oahu. And so the king on Maui got his gang of spear-toting liolohus together and came over to Oahu to dust off the king of Oahu. Well, the king of Oahu got wind of it and took a powder up the valley, and they were laying for him and simply rubbed him out. So that made the king from Maui a big shot, and he figured the concession on bath towels at Waikiki was a good proposition, and just muscled in. That ' s the way 1 got it. But as 1 say. it was windy. I ' ve been trying to figure out several things aboul the round-lhe-Island trip since the time I went on it, and these are ihev : 1. Who was il forgot lo bring along the (i|iiMicr for the Coca-liola bottles? 2. Why was one of ihc ship ' s dentists bu ulicn it was suggested he come along and show us ihe Blowhole? ' .i. Why did those young men in seats three, four, five, six and seven whistle when we drove through the grounds of the I niversilv? All 1 could see was just some of the young ladij-s of the establishment. 4. When we came around the southwest corner of the Mormon Temple lo thai big banyan tree, why did everybody take it into his head to sit down an l rest? .S. Why was it so hard to find any pla -e selling pineapples when all along were fields of such fine ones? (). Where do vou get a recpic-l lilaiik for | cinKincnl dul at the Wainici itcinh I SO Club? In answering ihcsc cpicsti may write in some dclail rc Is please write on one sidi- (ling qui-stiori Number Si . f II It |iaper oiiIn In. V ' ( ( ' Tni ' hi

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Softball Tournament HARDBALL is a game played with leather mitts, gusto, and a hard ball. Softball is like hardball only it is played with gusto and a soft ball. You play it on a diamond with a pitcher ' s box and regular bases made of canvas. Otherwise you use a Seaman Second for home plate and skivy shirts for bases. A run is scored when the man on third comes home after the ball is hit with a contrivance known as the bat. If the ball is knocked over the fence that is a home run. and if you are keeping score you can either jot down home run then or wait until the fisticufiuig ' s over. In any case when a home run has been committed it is considered good form to pound the man on the back when he goes over to get a drink after crossing the home platter or plate. When you have a number of teams on the field you do not usually let more than two teams play at a time on the same diamond. Otherwise, it is confusing. A tournament is a good idea. For the U.S.S. CASCADE we arranged a tournament. With eleven teams entered, we started out on an ambitious round-robin sched- ule which called for each team to play every other team — the games to be played at Richardson Center. However, when the schedule was about half completed, the admirals had a meeting and decided the CASCADE should anchor farther south and nearer Tokyo. I guess they didn ' t know we still had some games left to play. The place to which they sent us had never even heard of baseball, apparently, although we might have gotten up a brisk game of cricket if the coconut trees hadn ' t been so thick. As a matter of fact the palm trees were so close together the mosquitoes carrying dengue fever had to break formation and fly single file to get through. And the island was so small that the catcher would have had to carry a life preserver to chase foul balls. Rather than let the trophies lose their polish we decided to call the tournament on the basis of the games then played, and make the awards. This was done on a night when the band played topside. Well, now, to get down to the facts. These were the teams entered : ► ' — M Team Entered by Acey-Deuceys First Division Sloppy Shods Second Division Otto ' s All Stars. ...Third Division Dah Dits Fourth Division PowERHOUSERS Fifth Division Commandos Team Entered by War Heads Sixth Division Naturals Seventh Division Hot Shots Eighth Division Four B ' s Ninth Division Blood Hounds Tenth Division ...Eleventh Division We will not go further into statistics than this. Statistics make dull reading. Don ' t you think so, too? (The fact that the writer ' s Division ended the season with a straight 000 percentage has absolutely nothing to do with it.) Suffice it to say, gentle reader, that the winning team was the Eleventh Division ' s Commandos. This team won all its encounters. The runner-up was the Ninth Division ' s entry — winning the toss-up from the Fifth Division, which had tied for second place. If the teams had all seen the trophies before the season started, they might have tried harder. These were exceedingly handsome, as the illustration printed else- where in this volume amply proves. The first place plaque was silver solder on wood. The plaque awarded the runner-up was polished aluminum on wood. They were tossed off by the foundry in an odd moment, Mr. Erhardt pouring. The plaques now adorn the respective Division headquarters. You might stop in at the Supply Office or the Carpenter Shop and see them some time when you have a yen to play this game which is played with gusto and a regulation, out- seam, horsehide-covered. triple-stitched, sojt ball. Page Th irieen