Lunga Point (CVE 94) - Naval Cruise Book

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nuity of the Royal Barbers was siinply lll1ll'- velous. ll'r'n' II 111111171 tif .S'l1wffln1rA'.x', .w'Yuze'f liaf Hn! lla! .lnfl Il lmflff' if mm. Hrzearw all fnzefr l,1IU1'It IltLf.Y, 'Cr111.w' our l1'111v'.i' mn' In mnzw. The war having interrupted the education ol so inany ol' our Ship's Company, this eruise did serve the purpose ol' giving all hands something that, at least, had a vague reseinblanee to a diploma, because, in consequence of our suller- ing, we were all presented with Shellback Cer- tificates as ornately decorated as any Sheep- skinw we've ever seen, each being appropriately inscribed with the name, rank and for rate of each new Shellback by Ens. Stuve, our Cata- pult Kingf, Now, we were about to receive a pocket-sized Diploma, because on C'Saturday, 8-Iuly 1944: Qo-24. Steaming as before 21124 Clornrneneed blowing tubes and pumping bilges. Qozo Clonipleted blowing tubes. Qofjo Completed punlping bilges. 2245 Crossed Ilitllll Mcfrid- ian at IOOS. Latitude. Advanced ship's eloeks 24 hours. Crossing the I8Ulll Meridian was more or less uneventful, since the usual initiation was waived by the Captain at the request of the Senior Mcfclicral Ullieer, because he had made an examination of the elleets of the Shellbaek initiation on the crew and decided they'd had enough for one week. VVe were, however, ae- eepted as Loyal Nlembers of the 'Society of the Golden Dragon, and presented with appropri- ate cards testifying to that eifleet. The only occurrence worthy of note, in this connection, was the fact that we lost a Sunday, having fop lfjl: Captain extends welcome to Dave ones' lui Jill: IJ ynl , f ng: :Ivey jones responds to CTaptain's welcome: insert fr-'fff l'ollxwogs reporting to Davey-jones on 4.lulyg lntwfr l'1IQflf.' Pollywogs crawling the gauntlet ol' blood thirsty shellbacks.

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actly 141.00 the next day. Davey left the ship via the hayysg pipes as quietly as he had come aboard. Wednesday, 5 july 19445 I2-I6 Steaming as before. 1400 ceremonies incident to crossing Conducted Equator. Oh, me! Oh, my!! The Royal Court convened on the flight deck promptly at 1400 and had rendered swift and Ujusti' sentences upon the 800 odd Pollywogs at exactly 1401. It is only meet and right that the names of the individuals comprising a Court that can render equitable punishment so rapidly should be preserved for posterity, therefore the entire Court is given below as follows: 3 HRH King Neptune .... C. B. Wagner, CCM HRH Queen Amphitrite ..... H. Beall, YIC Royai Scribe ........... Lt. C. C. Smith Royai Royal. Royai Royai Royae Davey Roya- Royai Royai Royai Royai Chaplain ..... R. O. McCormick, CSF Doctor. . . ...... Cdr. C. M. Tirrell Dentist. . . .... F. Handley, Cox Sheriff. . . ........ W. L. Baker, CSF Bear. . . ......... L. E. Ewing, CSK Jones ...... B. C. Ammons, MoMM2c Baby. . . .... W. W. A. Feurer, CRM Nurse ........ C. R. Wallace, AMM3c Barber. . . ...... W. W. Partin, YIC Barber ........ W. W. Atkinson, CSM Navigator ........ L. Nihem, QM3c l L Preparing the ducking tank'i for the Pollywogsf' l 7 Lowly Ulnollywogn kisses Royal Baby. Immediately after the sentences had been rendered, King Neptune extended a warm and cordial invitation to all Pollywogs to join the Court on the hangar deck, where certain secret and ugly looking gear had been set up for the Utorture of the damned, and the invitations weren't R.S.V.P., either. The only consola- tion we could find in the proceedings was that nearly all our passengers were Pollywogs also, and they, poor hapless things, constituted near- ly half the number being initiated. Wle of the Ship's Company would, at least, soon be c'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 gaulitllif of Shellbacks the length of the hangar deck to the forward elevator to pay homage to, and re- ceive treatment from the Royal Court. Pictures can tell the story of what happened far better than words. Sullice it to say that WC were a motley looking crew of Shellbacks whCH they had Hnished with us, with. crosses of silver nitrate on our foreheads that remained thCI'C nearly as long as we had to sit on the edge of our chairs at chow, which, in at least one ease, WHS all of a month. And the haircuts presented such a tonsorial array as has never before Ol since been equalled in originality. The inge-

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jumped from mid-night Saturday to mid-night Sunday with very little elliort, the principal effort being for the Qiuartermasters to inove the ship's chronoineters forward L24 hours. Con- sequently, we held Divine Services on Mon- day, but all hands were looking forward with pleasant anticipation to 'cgetting that Sunday backi' on our return journey to 'fUncle Sugar, which eouldn't be too soon for us. Cruising along over the broad expanse of the Pacific, it suddenly occurred to us that the civilian Nyvee was doing a remarkable job, because we were almost to our destination, and we hadn't Hgotten off the roadw even once, though, one of those lawyer OODJS did Hrun us out on the shouldern about 5oo miles a couple of times, but he was assisted to some extent by our 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, we must admit that we had had some help in getting the cfboatw that far, because, to be honest about it, there were scattered remnants of the ccOld Nyveen to be found here and there in more or less strategic parts of the ship. Our Air Cfficer, in charge of Hflying Lowly Pollywog receives nourishment. Ti' machine operations. was of the 'fairly old Nye,-4-X having graduated lrurii the Naval Aeadeniy in iiijgf, l ortuiiatrIy, our Head Meeliaiiif' fSUlllt'iAUlliSt'2llllllllllll1'fililil'iiEI1gi- neeri was of the l ightiiig Nyrc-e. and he had live other regulars to help him grind the valves, put in new rings, clean the spark plugs, remove the earbon, ehange the oil, adjust the .. '-tff 't 4 gig' .614 N :' ' s .4 J ,rs . Y N Q, -. fi. PX4. Q ' P ji'-.Q Z f rf Q 55 '- - 1 X f 2 :Q-E s HN S ,. T - S h . ' ! I x F1 I ., as -at , 1 'X :N L ' ill . points on the distributor head, and keep her otherwise tuned upf, Then, we had a Boat- swain Cpronounced Bos'nMj to pull in the anchorf' We had a fellow down in the C. 81 R. Department to teach us wood-carving 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 CXMO. Then, there was a long, lean and lanky guy known as the Cunner,', who was supposed to teach us to shoot, but we never see him when the shootin's going on. There was also a fellow known as the c'Gas King, his job corresponding to that of the corner filling station operator, because it was none other than Hthat guyw who was constantly and eternally outing the smoking lampi' while he filled the tanks of our uflying machinesf, Then, we had a HShipis Scrive- nern Qsome call him the Ship's Clerki, and, believe me, we needed him because anyone who has ever attempted to write an official letter the Nyvee way is thoroughly eonvineed that it takes a specialist of long standing to write it ccaccording to the bookf' Last but not least, we had about twenty-live Chief Petty OfhCCl'S 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 hdrive the boatw down that far all by themselves, al- though, evcn the civilians, at that point, as 21 result of their intensive indoctrination pI'O- gram, were beginning to take on the appear- ance of 'fOld Saltsfi which was quite surprising m