Edisto (AGB 2) - Naval Cruise Book

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On November 14 Commander Griffith C. Evans, USNR, veteran polar sailor from our sister icebreaker BURTON ISLAND, assumed command of EDISTO in a brief ceremony on the flight deck, COM SERVRON 4 and other service dignitaries attending. On the day prior to our departure, the duty gremlins took one more solid swing at our schedule. In a tropical downpour of more than normal intensity, the first division personnel were struggling to bring the Captain's gig aboard to stow her for sea. Suddenly, without warning, the davit's cross- bar ripped loose from the uprights and plunged thirty feet to the wooden camels floating at shipside, narrowly missing the small boat. It was quickly decided that the emergency would not interfere with our operational commitments and the gig was hauled to the pier for survey. The next day, finally on schedule, we cast off our lines and set our course on the first leg of a great circle route for the magic land of New Zealand. lAT 000 LONG 86.45W Warm weather foretold our approach to the equator and, as we neared, the crew found itself in one of two opposite camps. One side was marked by numerous adherents but the other was distinguished by experience and membership in the Ancient Order of the Deep. Official recognition of the ship's course OO'latitude was made when Captain Evans and Gerecke welcomes a salty board- ing party. Davy Jones and company arrived to pave the way for King Neptune who, with his own crew, would assume command of EDISTO until the ship had crossed the line. The night prior to the ceremonies, hos- tilities broke out among the crew, with both sides scoring noteworthy coups. Quattromani was peacefully seated on the starboard deck a-midships, under a wardroom porthole, playing cards, when he was drenched with an unknown substance, leaving him purple from head to waist. A quick investigation pointed to the wardroom as the possible source of the provoking onslaught. Shell- backs secured both entrances to the ward- room and entered to find Ltjg Lawver crouched behind the protecting figure of monster pollywog Deming. McBride, a

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things, we began to settle into its lazy, leisurely mode of living. When our ID folders were empty of Yankee greenbacks we found that the Rodman EM club, with fifteen-cent ponies and shuffleboard for the more athletically inclined, offered suitable solace to us sailors until payday -- with almost all of the advantages of downtown bistros. After we had been in Panama about a week EDISTO received news that a Panamanian mother had been brought to Gorgas Hospital after hemor- rhaging seriously in childbirth and officials had sent out an urgent call for blood donors. Thirty-one of our men responded to the call and under the motherly wing of our Dixie Doctor were transported to the Hospital. More than enough blood was sup- plied for the emergency and the new mother survived. The surfeit was used in transfusions for accident patients hurt in a recent bridge collapse.

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the misses pollywog 2. , - F Q 4 5 x 4 V X H 2 , 9 ,ig similarly formidable Shellback, opened a path of attack and Mr. Lawver, who pleaded not guilty, was dyed orange as a retribution and a warning for others plotting rebellion. At 0900 word was passed via the Bridge PA system that all pollywogs were to as- semble on the port side' of the boat deck. However the latter had gathered together on the starboard quarterdeck, eighty strong, and had launched a revolution. First, tac- tics called for the establishment of a beach- head on the ship's IMC circuit. This was done handily through the use of the quarter' deck microphone. Soon the news was being passed to all the Shellbacks that the polly- wogs had some very definite ideas about the Ceremonies and anyone who thought himself capable of changing them was welcome to try. Ltjg Richardson, with characteristic haste, was the first to be overrun by polly- wogs and locked in the BT lab. Molands followed him and soon confidence soared among the insurgents. At that point, how- ever, the huge figure of Parker, AG1 appeared at the top of the starboard ladder and with a mighty lunge raced down to do battle. Through sheer inertia he was carried almost to the door of the jail but the angered polly- wogs swamped him with a few big fellows of their own. He was just being prepared for tricing when the' rebellion was cut short by executive order. All pollywogs, now suitably humbled, lined up in front of the hatch to the Royal Court on their hands and knees, awaiting permission to appear before King Neptune. They discovered that, prior to falling On their knees to beg mercy from the King, it was still necessary to Slither across the garbage carpet.