Dutches (APA 98) - Naval Cruise Book

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S ' 5. 41 x. ni - Ss s officers acted as semi-official inspectors alongsidethe in installations had to be suggested through channels and,-if were incorporated in subsequent ships fThe Queens andtShelbyJ. minor adyustments could be accomplished unofficially or semi- To better equip the key personnel to handle their tasks, all hands attended or more of the numerous and diversified schools, including Fire Fighting Damage Control School, Transport Quartermaster's School ftechnique combat loadingl, Radar School, and Combat Intelligence Center Training. grapple with the inevitable problems of operation, key personnel went -on the Shakedown Cruise of the Dutchess' predecessor, the Dauphin APA-97 was commissioned in September 1944. .Constantly these responsible studied and endeavored to master all details of their ship. Increasingly these officers and men realized that the commissioning date line of late November was the moment when they had to have the organization Set up, running, and able to advantageously station and direct the activities the 450 other crew members when they arrived. When the demand for Ships, and yet more ships, forced the deadline up to November 4, 1944, the nucleus crew, particularly the Engineer and Hull Departments, soon almost forgot they were on temporary shore duty. Together, the First Lieutenant 'fDamage Control Cfficerj, and the Engineer Officer had the difficult job of numbering, classifying and labeling the several hundred damage control fittings-7doors, ports, covers, valves, etc.--in accordance with naval standards. As this task was normally accomplished by the Ship Yards, these two officers had this added responsibility requiring that they and their petty officers put in the normal wartime twelve-hour working day in order to meet the deadline. r ' Q E. Fort Pierce 1 Pit the Amphibious Training Center, Fort Pierce, Fla., the 12 officers and 130 men who were to operate the 28 Landing Craft stepped up practice in their cruicial operation-taking an LCVP or LCM through rough surf and safely putting its nose on the beach. Under the leadership of the Boat Group Commander Ens W C Wilson U SN R a rugged heavyweight fighter by fprofession, they went 'through ,thelvariedlarfd somewhat complicated maneuvers of the Ship-to-Shore movement of Landing Craft. Night after night these Boat Crews were wet to the bone as they went through the rough surf. Frequently, they were doused into the sea as the boats hit reefs and upset. Physically, this group became more robust, its officers were selected on the basis of youth Stamina When the time came to leave for their mother ship, the Boat if 'Grou ' . p felt more than ready for action The Beach Platoon, under the Beachmaster, Lt. W. D. Roddy, Ir., U.S.N.R1, also undergoing rugged physical conditioning and technical training. some shore, yet unknown, those three officers and 45 men would be with: the operation of the beachhead, the directing of the movements he boats to the beach, the clearing of any obstructions that the enemy or may have strewn on the approaches: and the expediting of the flow men munitions and sinews of war across the beach and up to the -line. would be the task of bringing sense and efficiency out of the almost le chaos of a beachhead wrested from the enemy. .' , T t Qri if . if F. -Newport, R. I. -4 . X 'fx Tliellbulkfof' the officers and men were assembled at the Precommissioning QCenter,' Newport, R. I. along with the crews of the scoresxof other .being built along the East and Gulf Coasts., -Under the directio? COI1'1I1'1iSSiOI1 lnspectors and Bethlehem-Sparrows Inspectors. '

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NARRATIVE i Chapterl COMMISSIONING AND SHAKEDOWN By the fourth of November, the ship had successfully passed her trial run, engines functioned, her anchors would drop, her machinery was installed, bunks awaited occupancy, her ranges ready for the first meal, the nucleus was qualified -to operate her, and the responsible officers were ready assume their duties. , The men from Newport, the Amphibian's from Fort Pierce, and the nucleus from Baltimore moved aboard strangers to one another. These groups- led on the boat deck together with the Bethlehem-Sparrows construction and civilian guests. A peal of the bugle introduced the Assistant to Industrial Manager, Captain Ward, who read the orders from the Com- t Fifth Naval District commissioning the U.S.S. Dutchess as a man-o- War in the United States Navy. Commander A. B. Leggett, U.S.N., then accepted Command and all of its responsibilities. As the bugle sounded its call of duty, the Commission Pennant was hoisted to the main truck, it would fly from then on till the ship met her ultimate end be it one year or 50 years. The Dutchess was now a ship on her own, the responsibility for her performance rested on the new Commanding Officer and his people. Immediately the ship must cross the harbor. Amid confusion of departing and bewildered men stumbling around a strange thing called a ship, First Lieutenant, Lt..R Stevenson, U.S.N.R., found his Chief Boatswain's , A. H. Nelson, CBMCTD, U.S.N.R. Cthe senior line petty officerl. They shook hands, and with one supervising the landlubbers on the lines forward, and the' other, those aft, the ship cleared the dock. With similar unfamiliarity in departmehts, the passage to the Supply Base at Port Covington was negoti- ated. Later, in retrospect, after becoming more experienced, all hands mar- Velled that the move had been accomplished with the ship still in one piece. Here at the Supply Base, the hundreds of naval items necessary to equip and habilitate a man-o-war had been slowly accumulating into a large stock under the never-ceasing stru.ggles of the Supply Department with the ties and commitments that made procurement so difficult. As rapidly as new crew learned successfully to operate the eight sets of booms, the were swung aboard and struck below. Gradually, as the order of or- tion became dominant over the confusion of strangers working together, Job' was completed. The Port Covington authorities commended the ship its Supply Officer, Lt. 'W. F. Crowl, U.S.N.R., for the relatively efficient in a minimum of five days. ' . The Dutchess was ready to try her wings. On the lOth of November the lines were cast off, and the APA-98 headed down the bay leaving her at Baltimore-Sparrows Point over the stern, perhaps never to return. was free of ties to the land. As she undulated gently into the salt WFIVGS the Chesapeake Bay she became truly waterborne, a thing alive. 'This Shakedown Cruise was designed to iron out all the bugs 1I'l 1119 , to train personnel, and to ready the ship for war duty. The kit! and petty officers urgently bent to the necessary tasks of fusing T e ent groups aboard into one ship. I g ' l' I L L days all hands labored night and day Out O1'1 the IOCIY and ln Operating, Base, ll-lampton Roads, Virginia, where the Dutchesg eil' G1 J