Columbia (CL 56) - Naval Cruise Book

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Newport Officers' Club, looked particularly good that night. All the requisites of a perfect dance were in evidence. The skipper was pres- ent, the women were plentiful, the surroundings pleasant, the band especially good, and the happy water plentiful. The stag line was not too long, but made up in ferocity the lack of numbers. For those who lacked women, there was always the goodly boys from his own school, and we gathered together as the evening wore on, and sang the songs of our respective schools in the manner of old, and felt a warm glow of fellowship that had been lacking for some weeks. The dancing went on, of course, but in the darker corners the drinking and singing when on and on, with all concerned waxing hap- pier and happier as the evening wore on, until at the stroke of midnight, with the bar closed, cutting off supply, we bid a fond farewell to the O.C. and drifted back to the ship. When we first came aboard we purposely avoided the issue of watches because we were afraid that we might have to stand them and we were afraid of what they might be. Our efforts were in vain though because with un- usual Navy efficiency we found ourselves beset by an imposing watch list at each bulletin board. At first there was utter confusion with each relieving of the watch for we sought vainly to find our stations or even the man whom we were supposed to relieve 5 gradually, however, this confusion changed to utter chaos fwe lost at least two men over the side trying to find the motor whaleboat watchl. Finally, as the ship became more and more familiar to us, we twenty nzne

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lowmg the prayer, refermg to the Columbla as a F me fightmg shrp The eeremonles we1e closed wxth the N T S Band playmg Columb1a he Gem of the Ocean Some sage of old once sa1d that man s nature was a soe1al one and smee we eonsxder our selves as men, a soe1al gathermg of some sort would not be out of place Aeeordmgly and w1th the help of the Padre, a dance was ar twenty ezght ranged, complete w1th band, women, and w1ne We shaved showered shampooed and shoved off for the beach, where some of us gathered 1n our dates, wh1le others made for the nearest tavern to forufy themselves for the evenmg But one 1dea meessed us all, to gathe1 toffether at 2030, or thereabouts, and have us one fine dance 'Ihe scene of our past conquests, the mfarnous N - - - n - , ' 2 ' J . . C, . . . . , t V as - - . , N - . a ' a . , -

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thzrty could find our statlons w1th a m1n1mum of casualtles We found to our surpr1se that our watches mcluded a great varlety of dut1es Some were h1ghly 1nterest1ng and some were not In Gun nery we stood guard over the turrets and other mstallatlons Some wandered over the dark ened superstructure bangmg therr sh1ns and heads on all of the unseen appendages but nevertheless managmg to guard agamst m1s haps 1n the upper gun 1nstallat1ons CIC watches were stood 1n the C I C room actually workmg w1th the equipment there and helplng to supply vltal mformatlon to the brrdge wh1le underway the coffee wasn t bad elther' C8cR watches conslsted of holdmg down Cen tral Statxon and a comfortable cha1r wh1le keepmg an eye on watert1ght mtegrlty In Nav1gat1on we stood O OD and JO OD watches w1th the regular O D s from sh1ps com pany oiicers Wh1le underway we stood on the bridge and hstened to the preposterous amounts of mformatron that came 1n We reallzed that w1th about SIX years more trammg we mlght be come quahfied OOD s We stood lookout watches and learned whxch end of the b1nocu lars to look through and after that how to re port and how th1s mformauon was evaluated In Engmeermg we watched valves d1als pumps d1als bo1lers d1als gyroscopes d1als machme shops d1als and swrtchboards w1th more d1als Although we all seemed to get nothxng but mld watches we dxd learn how to stand the watches and at the same tlme a l1ttle about what we were workmg w1th The br1ght spot of our day was the tlrne set as1de for us to agam become officers and h1t the beach on llberty About 1500 act1v1ty would speed up and a sort of expectant hush would fall over the whole Shlp No lengthy study of psychology or ph1losophy was needed to charactenze each of the faces near us Those w1th long sad faces could be delinltely catalogued as e1ther on duty or broke Those Wlth that 1ndescr1bable gleam 1n thexr eyes were undoubtedly headed for an evenlng of femmme compan1onsh1p Those w1th thelr tongues hangmg notlceably out were ln fo1 an evenlng of compan1onsh1p Wlth what was poet1c t 7 I - C ' ' l . , . ' 9 1 1 J 3 J 1 1 1 : J - J ' :