Daly (DD 519) - Naval Cruise Book

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' -- --ui ' I ' m honest, reall)r. . Contemplating the seasons T

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ADEN Aden, . . at the entrance to the Red Sea. Unique, in it ' s way. The bumboats with their multicolored, various Japanese goods. We ail found much to buy on the Crescent and Steamer Point and the same things at half the price in the bazaar. The Rock Hotel with its imported beer was the main rendezvous ashore. We visited the mysterious Baths of Sheba, salt flats, and viewed with amazement the teeming life in Crater. Amid shouts of Nasser we learned to bargain with the best. We left Aden well stocked with souvenirs of all price and description. The old men of the sec

Page 58 text:

' • ' ■ ' ARC nr » - — ' ° = = --op«, MIDDLE EAST OPERATIONS It was a beautiful sunlit morning, the sea like a mirror, that day late in Feb- ruary, 1957, as DALY and GOTTEN ren- dezvoused with FORREST ROYAL and ROAN, in the southern Red Sea. This was the beginning . . . for the majority of us on board DALY, it was our first encounter with a serious mission about which we knew so little, and to the last man we were wondering . . . wondering if the cease fire in Egypt was a reality, wondering what the future held in store for us, and wondering what part we were to play in the disturbed affairs of the Middle East. There was much specula- tion as to just what this new and un- known area of the world, about which we had all read and heard so much, was like. Upon relieving on station, we head- ed north into what were, in the months to come, to become familiar waters. The first week of operating was filled with much excitement and hope. We went about our business in a matter of fact way with the efficiency and dispatch typical of the destroyer Navy. Fuel ec- onomy being important, all our maneu- vering was done at relatively slow speed. We steamed north, past St. John ' s Island. Deadalus Reef Lighthouse and the Bro- thers Islands, until we were within sight of the Straits of Gubal and Tiran, the gateways to the Gulfs of Suez and Aqua- ba. We encounted numerous small mer- chantmen engaged in coasting traffic between Massawa, Port Sudan, Djibouti, Safaga, Jidda, and Port Suez.