Roanoke (CL 145) - Naval Cruise Book

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The Roanoke Plan Dollars to Pounds to Lire Sightseeing in Europe is educational, romantic and highly interesting. To the student of history it is thrilling to gaze upon sights that up until now have been mere words in a history book, to the student of geography the islands of the Mediterranean and the coastline of southern Europe fill in the lines of the gailyfcolored maps of the National Geo' graphic Society, to the lover of travel the miles that go by on board ship or on a tour ashore present an everfchanging scene that never grows old. The 1950 cruise of the Roanoke to the Mediterranean meant many things to many of us, but the one thing that it provided to all of us, without exception from the Admiral to the seaman apprentice fresh from boot camp, was an education in monetary exchange. 'Tain't easy, we found, to walk off the ship in a land where the American dollar is not a unit of exchange for money as well as for goods, to talk familiarly of pounds and shillings and pence, of lire and piastras, of drachmae and escudos. It was a sink or swim proposition, and our education began with our first liberty port and carried on until we were westbound for the shores of the United States. Wherever we went the everfpresent need for knowledge of the current money exchange went along, and while none of us emerged as experts in monetary matters, we did eventually find it possible to go more easily from dollars to pounds to lire to drachmae and back to lire and to escudos than we had once thought possible. It was an excited group of shipmates who stood at quarters as the Roanoke entered the harbor of Gibraltar for the first time. just as Prudential Life Insurance had always advertised, there stood The Rock as the symbol of British might and security- the entrance to Mare Nostrum, the Mediterranean Sea. Une could not help thinking, as he gazed at the tremendous outjutting formation of solid rock, of the military captains of history who had looked ,ff l with envy upon the possession of that very rocks L the Rock of Gibraltar. Since Gibraltar was the meeting point for the incoming and outgoing ships of the Sixth Fleet, only ten per cent of the crew members of the many ships present were permitted ashore at one time, Those of us who were fortunate enough to get into the town which huddles itself in terraces at the foot of the Rock, found a welcome from shopkeepers and club owners alike, as well as from our British mili- tary friends who were found strolling the streets everywhere. Streets barely wide enough for two British cars to pass gave the city the quaint look, without which American tourists would feel some' how cheated. As we walked, or rode by ancient X I v carriage or modern taxi, in the streets, with their 1 Q shops in which the lightning calculators of money E .L 1 exchange left us breathless and wondering if what we were paying was a bargain, we got the feeling that here at last We were on European soil, the soil of the ancients, the land ofthe old World. Here GIBRALTA our forebears had lived, here in this great continent we had had our beginnings. We from the New World had returned to visit the places where, centuries ago, we were born. The Rock-it guards the Mediterranean and sells life insurance if 16

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Y,,.s l i l , . , -., 'tr J.-.Y I 'lr ox' A-,W 4--7... ,L -- f'...4-....-H- r . . ' 4 3 5, .-A' -E rl, Q -. -1 ,, j-l - wggi. , 'gf If ,LJ Cfity of fiihmltur rust of ithitli lm iiilrrnturt 1 runnin... ' 'E '3 ' -f , fagsyl -2' Q.. uf' ' .ef S ,f 14 'h . , , 1 ,i Ii if r o, i-- f War Memorial to heroes who dial for this British Croim Colony 17 'ff After live days in the harbor of Gibraltar, the Roanoke in company with the other ships of the Sixth Fleetfethe carrier Midway, the cruiser Newport News, the destroyer tender Sierra, the auxiliary ship Arneli loaded with Marines, and numerous destroyers --esteamed to the great harbor of Augusta, on the east coast of Sicily. Augusta itself is small, offering no more liberty facilities than a small town on the east coast of the United States that might suddenly hnd itself invaded by ships carrying nearly ten thousand sailors. However, it was Europe, and we wanted to see it. We found a povertyfridden village, not yet rebuilt from the ravages of war brought about when the Allies pushed through the east coast of Sicily on their north' ern drive toward Messina not many years ago. Here we found our first business representatives from southern Europe. They came with all sorts of things to sell, setting up their shops on shore and travelling in rowfboats to the ships to sell their wares on deck. Portrait painters, cameo salesmen, watch salesmen, glove and hat