Dauphin (APA 97) - Naval Cruise Book

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BH BAILEY CDMELLY CAPTAIN U.S.N. WAVERLY, TENNESSEE A Message from the Captain May you remember that new bombs and counter-measures are not an adequate defense for America. Preparation and training of our Secret Weapon. the youth of America and his Will to Win, are necessary. It has been an assurance and I am grateful for the superb manner in which the officers and men of the DAUPHIN have carried on under the exacting environments of shipboard life in the Slave Trade. « ,

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EDITORIAL STAFF Francis Palms, Jr., Lt. (jg) U.S.N.R. Editor P. C. Eckels, RM3c Co-editor, Arrangement and Layout I )cin.il(l Y. Fox, Ensign, U.S.N.R. Business Manager ( I. F. Young, MaM2c Ass ' t Business Manager Joe W. Cariker, Lt. (jg) U.S.N.R Photographs R. D. Shaw. PhM lc Photographs John A. Grygo, Ensign, U.S.N.R Ass ' t Editor J. B. Stanley, SK lc Ass ' t Editor C. W. Henderson, Sic Art Editor, Cover and Layout R. W. Sterling, PhM lc Arrangement and Layout CONTRIBUTORS D. R. Barber, Lieut., U.S.N.R Baltimore Pre-com Training B. G. Smith, Lt. (jg) U.S.N.R Ft. Pierce Amphibious Training ■4 —

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PRECOMMISSIONI NG TRAINING 1VEWPDRT, H.I. Approximately 70% of the crew received pre- commissioning training at the Naval Training Sta- tion, Newport, Rhode Island, on the shores of Narragansett Bay, a fine harbor since Viking days and the scene of much of America ' s earliest naval history. The Dauphin detail was formed in mid- summer of 1944 and organized into the various divisions required to man the ship. Some experienced men, and many who had never seen a ship, made up the ship ' s comple- ment. Classes in seamanship, navigation, gun- nery, engineering and other subjects were held daily from 0800 to 1700 in the classrooms and laboratories spread over the acres of Coaster ' s Harbor Island and Coddington Point. It was always necessary to march from one place to another on the station, and this was usually accomplished to the cadence of unrecognizable dirges, swing and tobacco auctioneering. In the weeks of proc- essing and precom training, one was expected to become at least a third class swimmer, and to be able to administer first aid to the injured. Days were given over to cargo handling on mock- ups, firing at Price ' s Neck, and hair-singeing ex- periences at the elaborate fire-fighting school on the island. Along with this regular training, a quantity of work was required of the ship ' s officers and yeo- men in preparing the Ship ' s Organization Book. This included the numerous bills organizing the entire personnel for battle, damage control, cargo handling, debarkation, collision, special sea de- tail, and so on, through scores of various evolu- tions. The Watch, Quarter, and Station Bills and Division Notebooks were likewise prepared by the Division Officers during this period. Although on land, all procedures were followed as if aboard ship. Watches were set, bedding aired, decks swabbed, quarters for muster and inspections held, and liberty granted according to sections. To complete the training schedule, the officers and crew were given a week ' s cruise on the U.S.S. Chilton (APA 38), which the Dauphin later re- lieved as a training ship, and still later sailed with in convoy in the Pacific. This time was employed in getting used to shipboard life, and in addition to standing regular watches in their various de- partments, the crew was given an unscheduled two days ' experience in riding out a hurricane. On return to land all hands were properly in- itiated as salts, and on September 22, with bags and hammocks lashed in proper fashion, shoved off for Baltimore and their new ship. BALTIMORE, MD. The Baltimore phase of the pre-commissioning period consisted of very little training — that is, in the usual sense of the word. At first personnel consisted of the Captain and his staff of yeomen, the Chief Engineer and his assistants, the First Lieutenant and his assistants, and the Supply Officer and staff. Later on, as commissioning date neared, the Gunnery Officer and the Senior Medi- cal Officer reported. Our working address in Bal- timore was three-sided, and the jeep (when it was finally procured) never ceased running between 37 Commerce Street where the Captain ' s Office was located, the Supply Office at Port Covington, and Sparrow ' s Point where a mass of rusty steel was gradually beginning to take on the appear- ance of a ship. The crew lived at the Coast Guard Barracks at Fort McHenry except for the family men who could live in the city of Baltimore. Instead of formal training, classrooms, and short cruises at sea, the Baltimore group learned mainly by experience and hard knocks. Principal of the tasks was assembling a mountain of stores at Port Covington ' s warehouses and attempting to main- tain records of what had been ordered, what had arrived, and what was yet to come. Our store- keepers and those of Port Covington worked long hours as they segregated and tagged and stacked and marked and culled out material which had been sent to the Dauphin (APA 97) by mistake instead of to the Duphin (AKA 87). The yeomen, too, had their long hours and weekends of work as they began assembling official publications and circular letters from every U. S. Fleet and every Navy Department Bureau. The tempo increased as September 23rd came nearer. The week just prior to commissioning brought the Builder ' s Trials of the ship and all hands went to sea for a day as the Bethlehem Ship- building Company assured itself that the ship would float, move forward and backward, and turn on a dime. During the week following com- missioning, which was the last in Baltimore, our time was consumed in transferring the mountain of supplies and foodstuffs from the warehouses to the ship ' s holds and getting the majority of the packing cases back on the dock. Finally we re- ceived the good wishes of the Port Covington staff, our co-workers during the pre-commissioning months, took a last ride to Commerce Street to insure that nothing had been left behind, and shoved off for Norfolk and the Navy Yard. — 6-