Columbus (CA 74) - Naval Cruise Book

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Steel his group of smiling faces is known as the pip jockies or radar men of the King Division, operating the radar gear of the ship along with finding out all possible information from the pips such as courses and speeds and how close the contacts will pass the ship. These are those pale faces you see sneaking in and out of the hole or as it is called in the book, CIC . In our division the officers nearly outnumber the men. The division officer is LT Davies who has four able assistants in LT Randall, LTJG Chisolm, LTJG Moore, and Ensign Short. They were hesitant about tackling us in any sports as they are getting pretty old. They did do a good job, however, in keeping us on the straight and narrow although it was a hard and tedious job. Many of the men took advantage of tours that were available in the different countries. In fact, I wouldn ' t be surprised if the men that went to Paris are still vent to Switzerland to see if there really were mountains as he ' s from Florida where recuperating from it. Bi there ain ' t no such thing. Most of the men tried to buy out most of these countries and came back claiming they had got a real bargain. The fact that the vendres all bought new Cadillacs the next day didn ' t faze them a bit. They still claim they weren ' t taken. We learned- to speak several languages even though it was limited to the all important phrase hello baby . The mystery language was the one spoken by Van and Satch. As to this day no one can understand it. France was probably the best liked country of all of them. It did seem funny though, that Baham, Kaiswe and Olsen all had aunts too. Frenchy Gauthier was an official interpreter even though it looked like he only knew sign language. They claim however, that he could really speak it. One thing for sure was he didn ' t complain about permanent shore patrol nor did Mr. Chisolm who seemed happier with that duty. The division was represented on the ship ' s combo by ' hlot Lips Preissing with his trumpet, Billups with that trombone of his, and Jefcoat with his wild guitar. The ship ' s basketball team had Satch Kander who managed to throw quite a few points during the season. We ' re still wondering why they called him hog. For many of the men this was their first cruise and they looked forward to it while for others it was their last as they have reached the end of their navy career. I ' m sure this cruise will be remembered by all, regardless whether first or last.

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fft ' We Division, one of the six Engineering Divisions aboard ship has as its nriain purpose the operation and maintenance of the main engines and their auxiliaries. It plays a major part in the propulsion of the ship. Located in each of the two engine rooms are two main engines. Each one in turn has its own shaft and propeller which gives the ship high speed four propeller operation. Each engine is controlled by two valves known as the throttle valves. One controls the forward motion of the ship, and the other is for backing the ship down. The personnel standing this watch must be highly qualified. A regular steaming watch consists of eight men in each engine room. The officer of the watch, whose duty it is to see that all logs are properly kept and all safety precautions are carried out, is assisted by the chief of the watch. The OFT man has duties including the operation of deaerating feed tank and the constant checking of turbines and reduction gears. Two men man the throttles and their job Is to control the speed of the ship as ordered by the officer of the deck. The main propulsion plant must maintain proper lubrication and feed water at all times. This Is the duty of the booster and Lub. oil pump watch. These men control the pumps that feed and lubricate the many different systems. The recorder and messenger ' s logs tell the story of the efficiency of the machinery and whether they are running at the correct speed and temperature. The division stands four hour watches. The men have four hours on and eight off. On the off hours the men clean their respective spaces. I wouldn ' t say we don ' t get topside very often but the Engineering Officer is thinking of Issuing dark glasses to the men to protect their eyes from the bright glare of the sun in case they happen to get topside. There is a small unit of men In the division known to all hands as the Rain Makers . This group Is without a doubt one of the most important aboard the ship. It is its job to operate the three units of evaporators which supply all the water for shipboard use. The division, we feel, is run efficiently under the direction of Ensign llsemann with ChH MACfH Anderson as assistant division and maintenance officer. Iwl V «»«