General Leroy Eltinge (AP 154) - Naval Cruise Book

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Ahqq , y y, . .,V f so - r y. - i. s fcuffq Tempfes , jammed into every empty space, since vve Were blacked out, it Was impossible to avoid stepping on at least a fevv of them While Walking around the decks or relieving the Watch. Easter morning, April lst, divine services Were held on the Equator and that afternoon Crossing the Line deviltry Went on. Neptunus Rex and his party of shellhaclcs ran up the Jolly Roger and took over the ship. Qver the puhlic address system came a hloodfcurdling Warning to all PollyW0gS. Then King Neptune, his queen Cone of the nurses and a cruel Witch at thatj, and his court made their rounds. Pollyvvogs were tried hy the court, found guilty, and sentenced, Haircuts, or rather, scalpingS, and paddlings were .doled out plenty. And finally Neptunus Rex announced over the P. A. system

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i 3 t X Ship and Her Trave S Q X 1 s 4 1 1 1 On February 21st 1945 the GENERAL LERQY ELTINGE was com 7-'-'F-F 7 missioned at San Francisco When we fell in on top of Hatch No 5 for the ceremony the hand was playing and visitors were athered in the 20mm gun tubs The ship was presented to Captain Wakefield and he replied with a short speech of thanks After the chaplain gave the henediction the commissioning pennant was run up We were through with ceremony and ready for work F here was plenty of that we went across the hay and loaded stores for 48 hackhreaking hours in an all hands evolution During the days that follow ed there was much to he done to get things squared away in readiness for the shakedown cruise. At last on March 4th we got underway for San Pedro. Un the way down we held speed runs gunnery exercises and dozens of other tests to find out everything we could about our new ship. And everything went well. After we reached San Pedro we went out for more gunnery exercises and for simulated straicing attacks and things still went welll. We were ready for sea. We left Pedro on March 23rd with troops nurses and Red Cross workers hound for Calcutta. Accompanying us was the GENERAL CALLEN whose inability to keep up to our speed provided grounds for heckling whenever we afterwards met her in port. The two of us sailed southwest through glassy smooth waters and sunshine filled days. It was hot even at night so the troops slept topside,

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that the Pollywogs had been found worthy of the Solemn Mysteries of the Acient Order of Shellbacks. The Jolly Roger was hauled down and the new shellbacks congratulated. We arrived at Melbourne on April 11th and, although we stayed only two days, we had enough liberty to find out we liked the place. The Australians were friendly. We enjoyed their steak and eggs but their warm beer left something to be desired. When we sailed on the 13th the CALLEN was still with us, still struggling to keep up. We went south of Australia and then headed northward. Gun crews were alerted at 0400 daily, for the hours of dawn were when Japanese submarines usually attacked. However, we saw no subs-just the beautiful sunrises over the Indian Qcean. GH of Ceylon we were met by a corvette, H. M. S. RGCKET, which convoyed us to the coast and went up the Hooghly River with us to Calcutta. The Hooghly, which is part of the Ganges, was narrow, muddy, and stinking. Dead bodies floated in it. It was so dirty we shut down our evaporators and used the water in our storage tanks rather than try to make fresh water out of that filthy scum. We anchored at Red jetty on the 27th and debarked our troops by means of river boats. Calcutta was interesting but there wasn't much to do on liberty. We saw the sacred cows and the temples, the shops, and the burning ghats. But it was hot and dusty so we went to the airfconditioned Metro theatre and saw Mrs Miniverf' The Great Eastern Hotel and Firpo's were airfconditioned, too, and we sat there sipping lemon squash until 1700 when drinking hours began. And there was the big beer party at the Red Cross. Calcutta was quite a city. Loaded with troops, nurses and Red Cross workers we started down the river on May 7th. It took us three days to reach the sea as the channel had changed and we ran aground several times. Finally we made it, however, and accompanied by the CALLEN and the ROCKET we went over to Trincomalee, Ceylon, to take on oil. Although we were in Trincomalee only a day, arriving the llth and sailing the 12th, we could see that it was clean, its white houses with their redftile roofs were in contrast to the squalor of Calcutta. The ROCKET left Ceylon with us but when a Jap cruiser and a destroyer were reported in the vicinity she oined units of the British fleet which later sank the two enemy ships. Dryczlockseai. . . Harbor Isiancf Seaff e