Essex (CVS 9) - Naval Cruise Book

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ea...Adel1 5 i Port Suez, a new and old city at the southern end of the Canal The center guide post and platform ESSEX sailors dlsembark from liberty launch used for connmg of ship through the at Aden, B.C.C. Canal. Cdptain Searcy and pilots direct the ship. Souvenir hunters find the flavor of the Orient in their purchases, as they shop at Aden. L 2

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a ll ti T i i tl Yi H 11 1 w i .E t nl' .1 l 1 l it t 4 Ei lt .5 49 129 i sem... Q Port Said...Suez CanaI...Porl Suez...Red if Captain Searcy moved from his custom- ary vantage point on the bridge to a specially constructed platform . . . ESSEX takes a watery short cut through a very dry land . . . anyone for a date and a mile walk? The trip to Karachi from the Mediterranean area is thousands of miles shorter today than it was little more than one hundred years ago, because of a man-made short cut, the Suez Canal. On l6 October, ESSEX arrived at Port Said, an Egyptian city which serves as the Mediterranean entrance to the Canal. It remained in that harbor overnight, to assure a safe passage through the Canal the following day. On the next morning, ESSEX began the thirteen hour, 105 mile transit of the Suez Canal. During the very hot and often tedious trip, the course was directed by Captain Searcy from a thirty foot conning 4 tower, specially constructed on the flight deck for the transit. The ESSEX spent the night of the l7th anchored in Bitter Lakes -1 to wait for daylight before travelling on, and the following morning, reached Port Taufiq, the southern terminal of the Canal, which lies on the shores of the Red Sea, only a few miles from the City of Port Suez. The ESSEX travelled across the Red Sea, and made a short refueling stop at Aden, principal port on the Arabian Peninsula. After the CENTO operations in Karachi, ESSEX once again transited both the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, becoming the first American aircraft carrier to make this trip in both directions. On the way home, ESSEX set another record, completing the trip in ten and one half hours, which Canal authorities believed was the shortest transit time in the history of the waterway. . . on a thirty foot tower built on the flight deck, in 'Z3' order to direct the ESSEX's transit of the Suez Canal. I 22 S

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2 i Karachi taxi. Children are the same everywhere Cadillacs and camels, snake charmer's pipes and bebop, and is it a tent that walks? Little more than a hundred years ago, Karachi was a quiet fishing village Today, Karachi is the main port, commercial metropolis, and capital city of mod ern Pakistan, one of the newest nations of the world. . .one of the oldest civilizations known to man. ' Karachi vividly represents this strange mixture of new and old of old world and new, of East and West. Traffic is a frightening hodge podge of mod ern flashy cars, bicycles, camels, ancient horse-drawn victorias IIFIQIIDQ donkey carts. Her streets are filled with snake charmers, dancing bears street vendors selling everything imaginable, beggars. To add to the confusion millions of people throng busily through the streets. Karachi is women in purdah and girls dressed like those at home It IS hovels and slums and brilliantly modern new buildings. It is a series of contrasts and a wonderland of dazzling sight to western eyes. During the past ten years its population has quadrupled and a huge influx of Moslem refugees from Hindu India add to the intensely crowded city. ESSEX was in the city of Karachi, though, for more than sightseeing Be tween October 25th and November IOth, ESSEX participated in her second maior exercise of the cruise, operating with the British, Pakistanis and Iranians in the CENTO exercise MIDLINK. A total of thirty-five ships was Involved In the operation under the direction of both Rear Admiral A. R. Kahn of the Pakistan Navy, and Rear Admiral Ashworth of the ESSEX. During the exercises, which included in-port communications drills a warm up phase at sea and training in the protection of fast and slow convoys ESSEX her air group and Destroyer Squadron Twenty provided anti-submarine defense for the five days of operation. To do this, the ship was at Flight Quarters with around the clock air operations. MIDLINK saw the closest possible cooperation among the Allied nations perhaps best symbolized by cross deck operations, in which ALBION sent four jets to ESSEX, and ESSEX sent two S2F Trackers to ALBION Because of the spirit of cooperation which developed among the participating groups the en tire exercise was a tremendous success, both operationally, and from the stand point of a furtherance of our People to People program. Karachi, Pakistan