Lunga Point (CVE 94) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 41 text:

nuity of the Royal Barbers was simply mar- elous. n ' ( ' ' ;■(■ a bunch of Shellbacks, Now! Yo! Ho! Ho! And a bottle o ' rum. Beware all lowly Pollywogs, ' ' Cause our timers sure to come. The war having interrupted the education of so many of our Ship ' s Company, this cruise did serve the purpose of giving all hands something that, at least, had a vague resemblance to a diploma, because, in consequence of our suffer- ing, we were all presented with Shellback Cer- tificates as ornately decorated as any Sheep- skin we ' ve ever seen, each being appropriately inscribed with the name, rank and or rate of each new Shellback by Ens. Stuve, our Cata- pult King. Now, we were about to receive a pocket-sized Diploma, because on Saturday, 8 July 1944: 20-24 Steaming as beforf 2024 Commenced blowing tubes and pumping bilges. 2029 Completed blowing tubes. 2030 Completed pumping bilges. 2245 Crossed i8oth Merid- ian at io°S. Latitude. Advanced ship ' s clocks 24 hours. Crossing the i8oth Meridian was more or less uneventful, since the usual initiation was waived by the Captain at the request of the Senior Medical Officer, because he had made an examination of the effects of the Shellback initiation on the crew and decided they ' d had enough for one week. We were, however, ac- cepted as Loyal Members of the Society of the Golden Dragon, and presented with appropri- ate cards testifying to that effect. The only occurrence worthy of note, in this connection, was the fact that we lost a Sunday, having Top l,Jl: t:apt. •Mends wtkoinc to I)a C) JulK-i; h p nghl: DaM-y Jones ' responds to Claptain ' s welcome; hivn Ifjt: Pollywogs ' to Davey Jones on 4 July; lower right: Pollywogs crawling the gauntlet of blood thirsty shellbacks. 37

Page 40 text:

n lly 1401) ilif nixl ihiy. Diivcy left the sliip vi.i the li;i sc pipe-- ;i qiiirtly ;is lie li.icl ( i)in - Wfclncscliiy, jJiiK 1 )44: ij-i() Slfjimini; as l clbic. 1400 CIondiK led cnrinoiMcs incident to crossing Equator. 0 1. im! Oh, my. ' . ' I he Royal Cioiirt convened on tlic lli!j;lit deck promptly at 1400 and had rendered svsilt and just sentences upon the 800 odd Pollyv ogs at exactly 1401. It is only meet and right that the names of the individuals comprising a Cbiirt that can render ecjuitablc punishment so rapidly should be preserved for posterity: therefore, the entire Court is given below as follows: HRH King Neptune. . . C. B. Wagner. CXiM HRH Queen . mphitrite J. H. Beall. Vic Royal Scribe Lt. (jg) C. C. Smith Royal Chaplain R. O. McCormick. CSF Royal Doctor Cdr. C:. M. Tirrell Royal Dentist J- f • Handlcy, C ox Royal SherifT W. L. Baker, CSF Royal Bear L. E. Ewing. CSK Diivey Jones E. C. Ammons, MoMMac Royal Baby W. W. A. Fcurer, C:RM Royal Nurse G. R. Wallace, AMM3C Royal Barber W. W. Partin. Yic Royal Barber W. W. .Atkinson. C:SM Royal Naxisjator J. L. Nihcm. QM3C Preparing the ducking tank for the Polljisogs. ' l.owiy ■Pollywoi! kisws Royal Baby. Immediately after the .sentences had been rendered. King Neptune extended a warm and cordial invitation to all Polly vogs to join the Court on the hangar deck, where certain .secret and ugly looking gear had been set up for the torture of the damned, ' and the invitations weren ' t R..S. ' .P., either. The only consola- tion we could find in the proceedings was that nearly all our passengers were PoUwogs also, and they, poor hapless thintrs, constituted near- ly half the number being initiated. We of the Ship ' s Company would, at least, soon be giv- ing it back. After getting us on the hangar deck, they herded the entire lot of us down to the after crew mess, where we waited our turn in line for the privilege of running the gauntlet of Shellbacks the length of the hangar deck to the forward ele ator to pay homage to, and re- cei e treatment from the Royal C ourt. Pictures can tell the story of what happened far better than words. Suffic e it to say that we were a motley looking crew of Shellbacks when they had finished with us. wi th crosses of silver nitrate on our foreheads that remained there nearly as long as we had to sit on the edge of our chairs at chow, which, in at least one case, was all of a month. And the haircuts presented such a tonsorial array as has m vcr before or since been equalled in originalit y. The inge- 36

Page 42 text:

jiimixtl from mid-iUKln S;iiiiicl;iy to inid-ni lit Siiiuliiy willi very liul ' rlioit. ilic priiK ipal clloii Ixini for tin- QuartormasicTs to move tlic ship ' s throiiumctcrs forward 24 hours. Con- SL ' qucntly. we held Divine Services on Mon- day, but all liands were lookini forward with pleasant antiriijation to f ettinK that Sunday bark on our return Jcnirney to Uncle Sutjar, which couldn ' t be too so(jn for us. Oruisint; alont? over the broad expanse of the Pacilic, it suddenly occurred to us that the ci ilian Nyvee was doini; a remarkable job, because we were almost to our destination, and we hadn ' t gotten off the road even once; thoui h. one of tho.se lawyer OOD ' s did run us out on the shoulder about 500 miles a couple of limes, tnit he was assisted to some extent by om- Navigator, who is actually a dry ice salesman in civilian life, the extent of his navigating heretofore having been to plot a course from his home to his plant in San Fran- cisco. At any rate, it seemed perfectly un- canny that we were, at least, in the general vicinity of the South Pacific, and not too far from Finschafen, New Guinea. In all fairness, however, wc must admit that we had had some help in getting the boat that far, because, to be honest about it, there were scattered remnants of the Old Nyvee to be found here and there in more or less strategic parts of the ship. Our . ir Ollicer. in charge of Hying machine operations, was of th fairly old Nyvee, having graduated from the Naval Academy in 1935. Fortunately, our Head Mechanic (some folks call him the Chief Engi- neer) was of the Fighting Nyvee, and he had live other regulars to help him grind the valves, put in new rings, clean the spark plugs, remove the carbon, change the oil, adjust the Lowly PoIJywog receives nourishment. points on the distributor head, and keep her otherwise tuned up. Then, we had a Boat- swain (pronounced Bos ' n ) to pull in the anchor. We had a fellow down in the C. R. Department to teach us wood-carv-ing as well as to repair leaks in the plumbing. Then there was another one up in the Radio Shack to get the news out of the air for us. We also had another one up there as C.W.O. Then, there was a long, lean and lanky guy known as the Gunner, who was supposed to teach us to shoot, but we ne% ' er see him when the shootin ' s going on. There was also a fellow known as the Gas King, his job corresponding to that of the corner filling station operator, because it was none other than that guy who was constantly and eternally outing the smoking lamp while he filled the tanks of our fly-ing machines. Then, we had a Ship ' s Scrive- ner (some call him the Ship ' s C ' lerk), and. belie ' e me, we needed him because anyone who has ever attempted to write an official letter the Ny ' ee way- is thoroughly convinced that it takes a specialist of long standing to write it according to the book. Last but not least, we had about twenty-five Chief Petty Officers and possibly fifty enlisted men to form a nucleus on which our Skipper had to work in training us into a first-class fighting crew. Therefore, taking everything into consideration, it must be admitted that the civilians didn ' t drive the boat down that far all by themselves, al- though, even the civilians, at that point, as a result of their intensive indoctrination pro- gram, were beginning to take on the appear- ance of Old .Salts, which was quite surprising 38