Quincy (CA 71) - Naval Cruise Book

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The Quincy and Miami hold shakedown maneuvers U23

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gauges of their whirring turbines as the ship sped through the Atlantic. Finally the com' mand for the ship's first salvo was given. After each salvo the repair parties made careful inf spection of deck seams, barbette welds, pipe systems, frames, and girders to determine how well each member had withstood the tremenf dous recoil of the main battery. With each fire the ship shuddered and rocked, but she had been soundly designed and no damage was un' covered. Again and again the guns roared out until all equipment had been tested. Both crew and ship withstood the strain of this first firing practice with a smoothness which fore' cast a successful shakedown cruise. Nearly two weeks were spent in the Chesaf peake Bay area where the ship conducted all kinds of director checks, radar calibrations, general drills, plus day and night spotting practices. On some days the antifaircraft maf chine gun batteries shot firing tests and sleeve target practices. Cn other days the ship repelled the simuf lated air attacks of cavorting F4F planes. Finally, the ship slipped into a berth at Norfolk where Rear Admiral Beary, COTCLANT, made an informal inspection before the new ship departed for Trinidad. After passing Cape Hatteras in typically rough winter weather, the men new to the navy had about decided to join the army. All such foolish notions were silenced, however, when the beautiful sunlit days of the West Indies engulfed the Quincy. On February 18 the ship sighted the coast of Venezuela. By 2135 the light of NOB Trinidad were picking the ship from out of the darkness and light' ing her way through carefully guarded nets. The next day dawned bright and clear and soon warmed up to good sun bathing weather. But the Captain, after he had completed a training conference with the admiral ashore, stationed the special sea and anchor details, and the ship swung out of the guarded harbor and h aded for the training ground. This area, with its heat .ngmmering off the waters of the Gulf of Paria, soon became a familiar K sight to the men of the Quincy. Day after day, gunnery drills were carried on with the fervor of a life and death matter. The main battery blasted away during day battle exercises, night spotting drills, and long and short range firing. The fivefinch battery also fired these drills plus many antifaircraft practices of its own. Then the machine gun battery spattered bullets at air targets making every type of approach known. After the general quarters teams had become proficient in gunnery, the condition watches man' ned the guns and the drills were performed again. The monotony of these days of blasting guns, dayflong drills at battle stations, and endless damage control problems soon began to pall on the crew. Fortunately, relief was granted when the ship returned early in the afternoons to the harf bor at Port of Spain. On these days liberty was granted. Eager sailors hastened ashore for a drink or two and a look at famous Port of Spain. Delightful liberties were spent in the cool fresh air of the mountains of Trinidad. But the next day always dawned with another program of train' ing exercises. When the ship had at last become proficient in the art of blasting targets with her main battery, pep' pering sleeves with antifaircraft shells, fueling at sea, towing and being towed, and catapultf ing and recovering her planes, she turned homeward, surging through the water in a full power run, Un March 7, 1944, the Quincy entered the swept channel of Hampton Roads. The climax of all Shakedown cruises is the military and damage control inspection which attempts to discover whether or not a ship is ready to join the fleet. On March 10 Admiral Beary came aboard and began the rigid inspecf tion. At the completion of two days of exhaitsf tive examination, the admiral claimed the Quincy to be one of the finest ships he had inspected. With this compliment the U. S. S. Quincy was ready to take her place in the American fleets which were battering the Axis to death.

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