Dashiell (DD 659) - Naval Cruise Book

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We all agreed with this state- ment: Our six-week patrol south and east of Suez was an experience. Surprisingly enough, the blazing, suffocating June and July heat in this area did not develop lex- cept for the engineersl, since there was invariably a strong, dust:-laden breeze which offered some relief. ln Massawa, how- ever, this observation did not apply. They say that five miles from this port lies the hottest place on earth - the Great Salt Marsh. We saw no reason to doubt their word, every mile that we put between ourselves and this oven was a mile toward relative comfort. By contrast, Um Said was an oasis, a Garden of Eden. The British very kindly put their swimming pool and snack bar at our disposal...The facilities of our first metropolis in a month were available when we moored in Karachi. ln addition to our American beefsteak dinners fthe more adventurous ate tiger steak in townl at , another friendly BritishClub we were overwhelmed by the quality of the ivory, brass, teak, and silver work which a- bounded in the many shops. Our fluent Urdu was not needed, most shopkeepers spoke English. When DASHIELL left Karachi the Chief's bunk room and the Mk. 63 amplidyne rooms resembled Santa's warehouses. We returned home to the Med. via Aden and, again, Mas- sawa. Seeing the scores of Russian MlG-l7's in the Bitter Lake during our northern transit' of the Suez Canal we were re- minded of the seriousness of the tasks we had completed and of those that remained for us to accomplish. RED SEA PERSIAN GULF KARACHI

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