Lunga Point (CVE 94) - Naval Cruise Book

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Land sighted bearing But where to? There are two important censorship regula- tions that the Navy always manages to keep a deep, dark secret, and they are the time of de- parture and where we are going. In this par- ticular instance, our Executive Officer pulled a fast one on the Ship's Service Cflicer before leaving Seattle. He had intimated that we were going to Alameda CSan Franciscol, Calif. At this particular time the carbonators had not Civic center, San Diego. been installed in the Ship's Service Store and we were selling bottled Coca-Cola. Conse- quently, in order to conserve space, which is always at a premium aboard ship, we took on just enough bottled c'Cokes', to last until we reached 'cFrisco, but we didn't even come yyilhill sight of Seal Rocks, much less without our '4D0pcs for a couple of da s beca use on 1 pass tlirough the flolclcn Cate, and wc had to go Y 1 fliil f,1bI 4 144' OT 41'-'ray un' ic... 08-12 Steaming as before on course of 270 and p.g.c., 2540 p.s.c. Speed IQ knots. 0810 Exercised at Steering Casualty Drill 0818 Secured from Steering Drill 0920 Casualty , 1iSfO'li' II Qt C 0 .1 - .J ff t 32oOT and p.g.e. Passed Bell Buoy A abeam to port. II33 Stationecl all special sea details. Standing in to San Diego Harbor, Calif. on various courses and speeds. Captain at the conn. Executive Oflicer and Navigator on the bridgef, Instead of arriving at Alameda, we made our first call on N.A.S., North Island, San Diego, Calif., where those of us who were for- tunate enough to rate liberty had a brief but pleasant visit in the beautiful cities of San Diego and Coronado. lt was destined to be a short stay though, because after all, there was a war going on and we had work to do. Therefore, the next day, Saturday, I7 ,june 1944, we got underway from North Island for several days at sea on various tests and exercises incident to preparing a ship for its Shakedown Cruise. At this point, in addition to our drills and classes of instruction, the Captain introduced another indoctrination program, which was to have various Department Heads address the ofhcers on the functions and operations of their At DesBase, San Diego, California.

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point of near-perfectionl' for which the 4'Ulcl Man strove so hard. It was just like going to school again, not only because we were having drills of some kind every day, but be- cause we were going to school in fact. The officers were having classes every day in Qllicer- of-the-Deck duties, aircraft and ship recogni- tion and so on, while the enlisted personnel were having lookout and recognition classes, too. Actually, it appeared to us that we were being Nsereenedf, While, no doubt, the Cap- tain was a little apprehensive at the tremendous number of Hdry land sailorsw he had under his command, we donit feel that he ever thought he had a hopeless job on his hands, but that, rather, his job was to try us all out in various duties until he had found the job best suited to our individual capabilities. With this feeling in mind, we all went about our duties cheer- fully and with a determination to absorb all we could from our various training courses and exercises, and, in retrospect, we can now say with justifiable pride that we do feel that we got off on the right foot and that we have been well rewarded for our efforts. After several days cruising in Puget Sound and with all hands ready for a liberty or so after our along cruise, on 'CFriday, 9 june 1944: I2-I6 Steaming as before. 1442 Completed measured mile runs. 1445 Set course 3ooOT and p.g.c. Speed 18 knots. 15oo c fc to o8oOT and p.g.c. cfs to I5 knots. 1524 Cn various courses and speeds proceeding to dock. Lt. Cdr. Willard, Pilot, at the conn. Captain, Executive Officer and Navigator on the bridge. 1544 Moored starboard side to Pier 91, Berth How, Naval Station, Seattle, Wash., with two ION manila lines and six ik wire lines doubled. The Captain, of course, being in the know as to uwhen and wherel' we were going, al- ready had things arranged, and he simply had to walk down the gangway and be driven to his home overlooking Lake Washington to see his Skipper, while the rest of us, the proletariat, walked the four miles in to the Seattle business section for much-needed Srest and recreation. This, of course, was not our first visit to Seattle, because we had all spent several weeks in Brem- erton, at the CVE Pre-commissioning School prior to going to Astoria to commission our ship, however, we were all kept so very busy J-?..1xvwn-. ...v l 1 ' ' ' 0 . if l X N ' . ., , if V , ll ffszswiss X at ,SQ:.3::SL?,?:2Ia1f 1 gl ' 4 ' ':f1f iii Q . lui 'SM' A -' it ' '52 411-fn W' - T 5 3 gp X .. , 1 1, . A . Q., I - jf, T , ' , Y I' R ji!-5' X - 1 - ' I , . f , ,N ii - S I l 7 ' rf-..., t' while in Bremerton, attending classes, holding personnel inspections and so on that we had heretofore seen very little of Seattle proper. Seattle had much to offer us in the way of diversion from our shipboard duties, and we found the typical Northwest hospitality much in evidence, what with various Service Clubs and Fraternal Crganizations, as well as the hotels, ready to welcome us with open arms. As a matter of fact, on arrival in the Cocktail Lounge of the Hotel Olympic a short Cvery shortj while after we had docked, we found quite a number of Lunga Point men already en- joying their 'crest and recreation. The whole city was crowded that night, as well as all the time we were there, because we were not the only Naval vessel in port, and the Bremerton crowd from the Puget Sound Navy Yard was sufficient to over-flow the city, anyway. De- spite .the usual Seattle wartime crowd, though, we could eventually find a restaurant where we didn't have to stand in line more than an hour, and we even found a couple of night clubs that had room for us. Quite a number of our men from the Seattle-Tacoma area had the pleasure of a short visit with their families. All in all, our first night, as well as the days to follow, in Seattle were most enjoyable. It was also while in Seattle that we in the Wardroom were served that never-to-be-for- gotten dinner-A--three courses of themlon Sat- urday, IO june 1944. It made such a lovely impression on our guests that we shall ever be grateful to our NVardroom lNIess Caterer, Lt. tjgj C. C. Smith, for his ingenuity in planning such a delicious menu. As long as we live we shall blush at the sight of a Boston Baked Bean. Having finished our loading of stores in D D Seattle, on Monday, 124111110 1944: 12-Ili lkffoored as before. 1232 Underway from Pier 91, Berth How, U.S. Naval Station, Seattle, W'ashington, on various courses and speeds.

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respective departments, which was, of course, designed to give all ollieers at least a superficial working knowledge of those departments in which they had no direct interest. This plan not only made us more familiar with our ship as a whole, but it instilled in us a sympathetic attitude toward the particular problems of our fellow officers. Therefore, with our indoctri- nation program well underway, and feeling that we were ready for our Shakedown, on 'fSaturday, 24 june 1944: 16-20 Steaming as before. 1610 Sighted Far- allon Islands bearing 189OT. 1611 cfc to IOOOT and p.g.c. 1656 Passed Buoy A abeam to port. Maneuvering on various courses con- forming to channel into San Francisco Har- bor. 1834 Stationed all special sea details. 1835 Passed from International to Inland waters. Passed Bonita Point abeam to star- board. 1843 Passed under Golden Gate Bridge. 1857 Passed Alcatraz Light abeam to port. 1934 Passed under San Francisco Bay Bridge fSome folks call it Oakland Bay Bridge+Bd.D. 1938 Passed Goat Island Light abeam to port. 1954 Anchored in Berth 9 in IO fathoms of water with 60 fathoms of chain out to the port anchor at the water's edge, on the follow- ing bearings: Ferry Building 297.5OT, Goat Island 0o5.3OT, Red Dock 27oOT and Alca- traz Light 313OT. Secured main engines. We now found ourselves finally anchored in San Francisco Bay, where we were to move to the dock at N.A.S., Alameda, the next morning. Upon docking at the Alameda pier, all hands turned to on loading stores and other gear for our Shakedown Cruise. It being the policy of our Government to make these Shakedown Cruises pay for themselves, among other things, we took aboard quite a number of planes as cargo, and a large number of officers and men as passengers. We had so much gear to get aboard that it took a couple of days hard work, which meant a couple of liberties for those in the liberty section. Consequently, thc Lungfz Point was very much in evidence around San Francisco, at the Top o, thc Mark, l islierinan's Wharf, Cliff House, Seal Rocks, the Saint Francis and even Trader Vicis over in Oakland. Many a Lunga Pain! man could also be seen hanging precariously on the little cable cars as they climbed slowly but surely up lclegrapli Hill. This was the first visit to Frisco for many men on thc Lunga Point, and the quaint- ness and charm of this lovely West Coast me- tropolis, with its most genuine Chinatown and Latin Qiuarter, was thoroughly enjoyed by all of us. Yes, we all had had a good time, and well we might, because we had a long journey ahead of us, which held the unhappy propect for many of us having to go through the ordeal of being f4Pollywogs', until Hcrossing the line,H at which time we would be well initiated into the ancient and honorable ranks of the fCShell- backswg so on Shake her down! Shake her down!! HTuesday, 2 7 June 19441 12-16 Moored as before. 1215 Stationed all special sea details. Made all preparations for getting underway. 1310 Pilot, Lt. Cdr. H. S. Stengel, USCG, came aboard. 1312 Under- way from Carrier Pier, Berth 7, N.A.S., Ala- Ai tl lnpg Golden Hale liridgcg bnllnm: View from Twin Peaks, lookin down lWai'kel Street, San Francisco.