Lunga Point (CVE 94) - Naval Cruise Book

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meda. CIZllIl'Ol'l1lLl. Pilot at tl1e 1'111111. fill!!- tain, Exeeutive Ullieer and Nax'ig11t111' 1111 tl1e bridge. Proceeding on x'ari11us eourses g1111l speeds out of San Franeiseo Bay. 1335.1 l,2lSSt'tl Alcatraz Island abeznn to stt1rl111z11'd. 1.1.1111 Passed under Golden Gate Bridge. 1418 l'a1sse1l from Inland to International waters. Speed I5 knots. Passed between Bonita Point and Seal Rock Lighthouse. Gn various eourses Conforming to swept Channel. 1501 Stopped. Lying to. Pilot left the ship. 1510 Ahead s s. Set course QOIOT, 2020 p.g.e., and IQIO p.s.e. Exercised at General Quarters. 1519 Seeured from General Quarters. Set Condition Ill. 1530 efe to 148011 and p.g.e. 1540 US. Navy Blimp K-105 reported for duty. 1547 es to 16 knotsf' Heard among the HSky-larkerswz 'CI got it straight from a Givil Service Quar- terman Laborer on the dock at Alameda that weare headed straight for Brisbane? HNI3 1.111l lIllt'lltl '- llllllglff l1.1-A .1 lltlfltly who ' Ims gl sl-.l1'1Nl11-l11xx xx111l11l1Lj .lt Illt' I'il'Clt'I'21l I lilllltllllglll I111111.11111sl11's.1t-A111-'11-1l1'l11'1ilely l L11111111 l11 l'1'.ll'l.'L 'ZX xx.11te1 111 1l11 I.IIllIx- R1-s1.1111e.111I t11l1l mf XXt'ill't'Qt1lllL1 111 l l11l11 .Xt11ll. XXllf'l't'Xl'l' that ig Boy. they 1l11 l1.1x1' u11111l I l111xx NI1-111 Stl that l,t9lllS, 11111, Stl lllill XX.Illt'l lllllsl kllflxxl wl'1at l1e's t11ll4i11g 11I111111. Nong listen. y1111s1- Lllllf'-if l'x1-got tl1e dope and l z1i11't llillllit'l'lIl. 111 tell Xtlll. lllll. itiv1111 must l41111xst. llt'l'l' it is, XX1911- goin' 111 seal Now. l1z1x'i11g I't'2ll.y gotten 11111l1'1e11:1x' 1111 our Sll2lliCCltJNN'll tlrnise. all llltlltlm XNt'I't' told the lirst night. by 11111' l'lxe1'11lix1e Ollieer. that W1 were VII route 111 l'li11s1'l1:1l1'11. New Guinea Vile are zilwnys told. lllllt'l' getting llllClt'I'X'N'Hy CX2lt'llY wliere we 1ll't' going, lJt'l'2lllSt'. alter all no one is so z111xio11s 111 let 11111 1l1e i11l'111'1nation as t11 want t11 swim 2lSllUl't' with it. 'l'l1is in- 1 11' 1 Top 141, A good place to pass b E - . - y Alcatrazg lop rzglzl: Calisthe ' 1 fl' 1 ..,. . bouom fight: Calisthcnics on HigHiSC8:1gk 1.lx, lllllflllll lffft CIz111lki11t:K CJIIIUI1 lhutzuil en route to New Guineal seems . . , Y IU lil. lmving cl l1z11'1l Illlllq.

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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.

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formation was received with ripples, in fact, waves of excitement throughout the ship, be- cause it had been a long time since we had been to New Guinea Cnever, for most of usj. As a matter of fact, it had been so long that we had forgotten all we ever knew about the place, so much so that we were half hoping to find it populated with gobs of those beautiful South Sea sirens, the kind that Samuel Goldwyn had accustomed us to expect, waiting for us on the beach. This happy prospect almost made us forget the unhappy prospect of our coming initiation before King Neptune. Meanwhile, the ffCivilian Oflicersl' of the Ship's Company turned to in their determina- tion to prove to the Executive Qfficer that he was wrong. For it was none other than Com- mander E. R. ffSwede,' Eastwold, USN, who, in his first informal talk with our Qfhcers in Bremerton on 4 April 1944, said, and we quote him verbatim as follows: ffWell, Ifve been looking over the Oflieeris Roster and I find the Reserves Che meant civiliansj in the majority. I understand that other CVE,s before us have gone out under the same uncertain and shaky conditions, though, which proves it can be done, so all I want you to do is to prove it to me. I donit see how it can be done, but it's up to you. Do the job, that's all I want? The Exec, however, couldn't have realized how far wrong he was in estimating the ability of his officer personnel. He simply hadn't, at that time, interviewed all the officers to see just what their Naval qualifications were, because we were so fortunate as to have lawyers, engineers, chemists, bookmakers, radio crooners ta Na- tional hook-up, tooj, insurance men, football coaches, petroleum engineers, business men, lumber dealers, rising young business men, dry ice manufacturers, prominent young business men, lawyers, flying machine drivers, dentists, doctors, farmers Cgentleman farmers, of coursej, lawyers, school teachers, Harvard men Ca Yale man, too, and also a son of old Nassauj, law students to be, salesmen, public welfare work- ers, Ministers CMethodistj, law students, paper cup salesmen, filling station operators, three graduates of the United States Naval Academy, classes of 1923, 1932 and 1935 Cadding up and dividing by three gives an average of 1930, therefore, we were somewhat comforted to know that three members of the class of '30 were with us to keep us off the coral reefs that lay aheadj, detectives, lawyers, lawyers, one child of the Streets of Paris, hauling contractors, L certified public accountants, lawyers, boxing instructors, G.M.A.C. Bird Dogsf' lawyers, obstetricians, and lawyers. For the life of us we can't understand how anyone can feel that all these qualifications canlt add up to at least f fl' Qfiif, f f M ' ' ,,f ' I X .ff 1 af , ,.,,., , , ,mf 'Z-' ,A ,. , it , . r... ' Wx z A , ,,,, I A L fb, . I cf, 44 V ' . v I 3, I X, I y ' with . lv, ,Y 04 911 4,-AL E51.: . . 1 .. l - s- - V-M .. 1 'M-e -...ff 5l'lllp-N t' -. dl. - ' -1' T14 . ' 'I op: Our escort out of San Francisco enroute to New Guinea: rmznm' A part of our hangar deck cargo on Shakedown to New Guinea, lmllnm: Hangar deck cargo and passengers en- route to New Guinea.