Sierra (AD 18) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 31 text:

the harbor, our chaplain would exchange services with him, thus giving the crew the advantages of properly-conducted Protestant and Catholic serv- ices. The chaplain was always ready to talk to the sailors from the ships alongside, as well as our own ship's company. l-le maintained a library for the crew and used this library as a book exchange for the destroyers. They would bring their books over to the Sierra and swap them for some of ours Engineering Department The engineering department of our ship made its most important con tribution to the successful completion of our first overseas assignment by get ting the ship where our orders told us to go. However, when we dropped anchor and prepared to take the tin cans alongside for repairs, the engi neers' work did not stop. Many of the ships that came alongside had to se cure parts of their engineering plants in order to effect repairs to boilers generators, pumps, or steam lines. The tender's fireroom gang were not only making steam to run our own auxiliaries, but they were also supplying steam to as many as four or five ships alongside. Likewise the large turbo generators in our enginerooms supplied electricity not only to run the ma chines and equipment all over our own ship, but also to run the electrical mission. The distilling plant of the Sierra had capacity to distill up to 60,000 gal lons of water per day from sea water, and much of this water was pumped to ships alongside as drinking water or boiler feed water. The tender's ice making plant manufactured l000 pounds of ice daily, and this too was occa sionally supplied to destroyers. And if the regular fueling activities were in adequate, the Sierra's oil king could supply the smaller ships with fuel oil, diesel oil, or lubricating oil from our reserve of over a million gallons C 61 R Department The construction and repair department, headed by the First Lieutenant consisted mainly of from l00 to 240 men in the deck force. These men han dled the lines of each ship that came alongside the Sierra, and their work as riggers with the ship's six cranes was a necessary item contributing to the success of the repair department's activities, When we changed the twin five-inch gun mount on the USS California and swapped stacks between two destroyers,- the deck force was the group that handled the rigging. ln addition, men from the deck force were assigned as boat crews for the Sierra's eighteen boats which were often loaned to other ships to haul am munition, stores, or liberty parties. On occasions working parties were even sent along from the Sierra to help discharge stores from a cargo ship to the vessels we were tending. - equipment on the destroyers alongside, whose generators were out of com-

Page 30 text:

? BLACKSMITH SHOP UPPER MACHINE SHOP 4 QPTICAL SHGP PQ

Page 32 text:

., ,.... , CATHQLIC SERVICES CN THE BOAT DECK 1 PRCTESTANT SERVICES CN THE BCAT DECK