Rochester (CA 124) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 31 text:

V 1 -,,,,,,.,-N. .,...,,,,. .,,,.,c,,.... .-.-. ,V-W ' My X 4 . Jfffif' . ' f.mfC. 'fff , .mp if ff' X 'iff Q .f fffftff . W!wVwW fwwnwff v MZ, DERWAY USUALLY THE LAST BOAT brought aboard is the.OlVIB, kept in the water until the latest possible moment in order to make any last-minute runs to shore with mail or personnel. SHIP is never busier than when the word is passed, Go to your stations, all the special sea, anchor, and mooring details. Getting underway involves work for almost everyone, whether the ship is leaving Keelung for a day, to return the same afternoon, or starting the long trip back to the United States after a tour of duty in the Far East. It is an interesting time and even to the old salts an exciting one. The ROCHESTER, like other ships, uses only the best talent she has when she gets underway. A ship is scarcely ever more vulnerable than when she is entering or leaving port, and constant attention must be paid to every detail. Navigat- ing in close waters is diflicult and often hair-raising, handling taut, heavy lines can be dangerous, and an anchor at the end of a chain is a deadly weapon if anything goes wrong. Getting underway is a time for doing everything right the first time. The special sea details, set forty five minutes before the ship leaves port, are made up of as many men of experience as the ship has. Each of them must know his own job and the job of the sea details as a whole. The quartermasters are ready to take bearings to fix the ship's position, signalmen are watching for other ships, radarmen keep a close eye on their scopes to double-check what others see, deck hands work with lines and the anchors, and in the enginerooms men stand by to answer orders from the bridge. Everything goes according to a tight schedule, one move following the other almost automatically, each paving the way for the one that follows. CONTINUED ON PAGE so U X? fyff' f , 7 ,, f ' fif vhvfn ffiifkffy 4 ' ff iff! 7 uf wr .ff . . ff, ' 73,74 ,f , ifza . ff ww? If ' y 1. , 4 Vf... , ,, f WX .WW 4 f y 4 fi Mi?

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BRINGING iN THE BROW is one of final jobs before moving out. In Yokosuka this is a routine task, in Keelung it can get hectic when the cranes, vintage 1920, refuse to move. U nderway CCONTINUEDD The focal point when the ship gets underway is the open bridge, connected to all other control stations by an eleborate network of sound-powered phones. There the conning officer-usually the captain or the pilot-receives reports, makes his decisions, issues his orders-the orders which start 17,000 tons of cruiser moving in the right direction. To assist him on the bridge by supplying a steady stream of information, the captain or pilot has the ship's navigator and his team of quartermasters keeping a constant second- by-second plot of the ship's position. He has the officer of the deck and two junior officers under him to tend to more routine matters, check bearings on contacts and distances to land or other ships, and relay the orders of the conning officer to the helmsman and engineroom. He has a phone talker who puts him in constant touch with all the main deck The Anchor Detail ----- THE SHlP'S BOATSWAIN keeps his eye on all details of handling anchors. MANNING THE ANCHOR WINDLASS MACHINERY CONTROLS is the job of these men who Walk the anchor out or heave 'round when it is being weighed. 3 1 ANCHOR'S in sight, sir! And the hoses are trained to clear it of mud and sand. Links marking every fifteen fathoms of chain are checked as they arrive on deck and those that need it are painted,