Roanoke (CL 145) - Naval Cruise Book

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Z y i 'J The two early Roanokes before the days of radar, oil and gtdimks control and battle problems, ship's tactics, casualty drills, battle messing, signal drills, radio drills, radar navigation drills, and emergency drills. After a few weeks we became intimately acquainted with the complexities and capabilities of our ship. Each man developed pride in his job. A thousand men were integrated into one fighting ship. To break the intensive schedule of shakedown, we visited four Caribbean ports during our three months' training-Kingston, jamaica, Port'Au'Prince, Haiti, Cristobal, Panama Canal Zone, and San juan, Puerto Rico. These ports of call were welcomed reliefs, especially Kingston, where ship's dances were held at the beautiful Myrtle Bank Hotel, and tours ar' ranged to the new, luxurious hotel at Tower Isle. What money we did not spend on mahogany and native straw goods was spent on cold beer and tropi- cal rum drinks. After several more weeks at Guantanamo under the Training Command, we were finally graduated cum laude, and again we headed northward towards Philadelphia, on 25 September. Four weeks in the Naval Shipyard lay ahead, with leave for some of us, then on 1 November we were scheduled to participate in the cold weather maneuvers in the Arctic. We wondered if, perhaps, someone in the Bureau had a morbid sense of humor, sending us down to Cuba during the stifling summer months, then up to the Arctic Circle in the winter. Dperation Frigidaire was not as cold as we had expected it would be, but the seas were rough and treacherous. The purpose of this three weeks' cruise of over 100 naval ships was to test all shipboard Ili' equipment and personnel operating in extremely cold weather. Ice formed on deck and it snowed oc' casionally, but the temperature never went below 170 F. We returned to Philadelphia as ofhcial members of the Royal Drder of Blue Noses-an ex' clusive order of all persons who have sailed or steamed across the Arctic Circle. The month of December was spent on replenishing the ship for Mediterranean duty, for we had received orders to report to the U.S. SIXTH FLEET for a four' months' cruise, leaving Philadelphia on 6 january 1950. We were also designated as flagship for COMMANDER CRUISER DIVISION 2, RADM. H. CARSON, USN. During the middle of Christmas leave periods, our new skipper, CAPTAIN E. E. YEoMANs, USN, reported aboard relieving CAPTAIN J. D. KELSEY, USN. The remainder of the month of December was spent in ship repairs and alterations for our duty in the Mediterranean. QRDERS: Mediterranean Duty We were ordered to rendezvous at Gibraltar on 16january 1950 with the US. Sixth Fleet for four monthswrduty in the Mediterranean Sea. The Sixth Fleet comprises all US. Navy ships in the Medi' terranean, furnished on a trifannual rotational basis, our turn coming, fortunately, during the winter months in the sunny 'Medf After only nine months in com' mission we were ready to carry the American flag to Europe and the Near East. Prior to our departure, we embarked 180 Fleet Marines for confidential security reasons, and we realized that our cruise was not just for sightfseeing

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1ay the North Sea mine f1e1d in 1918. The third and present Roanoke, however, is a masterpiece of mod' ern science and engineering, capab1e of propelling 17,500 tons through the sea at 33 knots, or 37.5 mi1es per hour. On 25 june 1949, e1even weeks after commission' ing, during which time the ship was being fitted out and readied for sea, with her fu11 comp1ement aboard, the U.S.S. Roanoke nosed down the Delaware River under her own power for the first time, This was Ships officers and offl the beginning of the 12 weeks' Shakedown cruigg to ribbean Sea, where intensive drills, tria1s, and ba tt1e prob1ems were to take p1ace. We were on our way to coordinate the five ship'board depart- ments into one formidab1e fighting unit. After reporting to the Nava1 Cperating Base, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, our official shakedown began, under the instruction and supervision of the Training Command at Guantanamo. Each day we went to sea. We he1d man overboard dri11s, damage the Ca cial party render first Salute to the Roanokeys colors -H210

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