Dauphin (APA 97) - Naval Cruise Book

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f cJLadu JoeaK 9d I m a Lady I ' m a proud lady, from stem to stern and from truck to keel, that ' s me, U.S.S. Dauphin, APA 97, the Dauntless D ! Maybe I shouldn ' t brag like this but now I ' m of age, a year old and so I thought maybe you should hear my side of the story, I ' ve listened to yours long enough. I ' m at anchor, resting, so time for me to speak. KEEP QUIET! No, I ' m not sophisticated or anything like that but I got pride, a woman ' s pride. I like the sea, rougher the merrier and I like the slap of waves in my face and the wind singing a song in my hair. And the rains washing, cooling my hot decks. I like it when you feed oil down in my hungry insides, making me speed along. Of course sometimes I shudder and I ' m slow to respond but when I get going I give you the best I ' ve got. I like to, that ' s what I ' m for, and I do alright too, keep you right up there with the best of my relatives and friends. My sister, the Duchess, and I were born together at Baltimore, Maryland, twins you might call us. We started getting our form back in February, 1944. Ah, but that seems such a long time ago. In June of the same year I got my first real thrill out of living, that was when on the 15th of June I slid down the ways and got my first taste of salt water. I liked it. That was for me! I was impatient to move, to try my bow at the sea but no, the funny earth people kept working over my body, but I liked it ' cause I wanted to look nice; I wasn ' t just a common looking ship you know. But at last the great day came. You people who were to run me came aboard. It was a cold day in September, the 23rd to be exact. I was impatient to start but you kept talking, and shaking your fists at one another and stamping your feet all over my nice new decks. Well, finally we shoved off. Now I was at the height of my glory, I was at sea! You drove me at top speed, full right rudder and full left. Full speed astern. Inside, my heart ticked perfectly like a clock. You tried to find my faults. Ha, you couldn ' t find any could you? Also you fired my guns to see how mad I could be and how far and fast I could spit! Now I hoped I was ready, but oh dear, we were sent to Newport for a training ship. Golly, but that made me angry, and especially so when people would say I was there ' cause I wasn ' t good enough for sea. It all ended up OK though, or so I thought, because soon I went to Norfolk. But there I received the shock of my life. They put me in Dry- Dock and you people started doing the silliest thing. First you took all my paint off then you put some more on. My goodness, you never could make up your minds about my paint; off and on, off and on. You ' re still doing it, even way out here in the Pacific now. Sometimes you hurt too when you cut deep into my decks. Ha, I always get back at you, though. At night I like to have things so you ' ll bump your head and skin your legs! Oh, the language you use then; tch, tch, shouldn ' t talk like that in front of a lady, you know! Finally the great day did come at last. February 14th we left Norfolk for Panama and eventually hunting grounds in the Pacific. Well, all in all, we ' ve had fun together, been lots of places, saw lots of things; mainly, we were together at the termination of the war! True, you made me lose my anchor at Okinawa, but then we got a trip back to the states and I got a new, larger and nicer one than before. So that keeps things all right between us, see? Oh, Oh, they are hauling up my anchor now. Must be getting under way again so maybe I better knock this chatter off and get myself ready to go. Hey you! Make sure you wash down my anchor chain, gotta keep clean! P. C. ECKELS, RM3c — 70 —

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ADVANCEMENTS IN RATING THE CAPTAIN SAYS A FEW WORDS ON ADVANCEMENTS IN RATING THE ENGINEERING OFFICER PAUSES FOR A SECOND WE TOWED THEM HOME I i — 69

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