Smalley (DD 565) - Naval Cruise Book

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Us litem at . . fa- 5. The Acropolis Athens On a grey December morning two days before Christmas, the Smalley wound her way up the channel into the harbor of Piraeus and tied up outboard of the Cotten to a rather rickety-looking old pier. So this was sunny southern Greece. It felt more like the North Pole or Newport. Our first glimpse of the fabled lands of Hellas had come as a persistent blue grey mountain peak thrust its broken nose through the pall of clouds and morning mist that shrouded the horizon. As the Smalley had pushed aside the miles, the white walled houses of the town became apparent and they seemed to run up and down the mountainside, from the summit to the sea. Parthenon 43 Piraeus is the port for Athens, the latter being about eight or ten miles inland. To some extent Greece presented a paradox. Here had been the birthplace of western civilization, here too, amid the sad old ruins of a great nation could be found all the dregs .and filth which the tides of the world and centuries had thrown upon the shores of Pellopenesus. One day was all that was required to see Piraeus. The migration of 1200 Americans from the pier at Piraeus to Athens was a tour companys dream. The target for this vast migration was the ruins of the ancient Acropo- lis. The highest point of land in the city, the Acropolis looked like a table top littered with broken pieces of white china. It stood out starkly in all its weathered whiteness against the deep grey of the cloudy sky. lt truly looked like a ghost from the past standing guard over the city-the ghost of Greek greatness. There must have been many who felt this as they unlimbered their cameras for a first shot 'of that about which they had heard and read so much. After our guide had given a preliminary speech and pointed out Mars Hill and the spot where Socrates had received the hemlock over two thousand years ago, along with-several other interesting points, we proceeded up to the Acropolis. Of all the temples that at one time crowned this height, there were only two

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We ' . , 4 A ' ,ff ik E N km I xxx f vj i J Q 'V . , in fp is .i he . p pp 'L l iillg it , t -fra-VW .K f-,fx A - Suez Canal, turned into the Red Sea. The large amount of shipping We encountered dur- ing the ensuing days gave testimony to the volume of traffic that flowed down the desert ditch. Ten days after leaving the oil fields of Ras- at-Tanura We dropped the Khooki' in the harbor of Port Suez and awaited our turn to enter the Canal. Unlike the Panama Canal, the Suez can handle traffic only in one direction at a time. Eighty miles long and only forty yards Wide, this Wet blue pencil line on the brown paper of the desert connects the Mediterran- ean With the Red Sea, subsequently with the Near and Far East. Our passage was to be made at night and it Was with unusual curiosity that we noted the jury rig of lights that Was required by the Canal Authorities. As we started through and the cold Wind began whipping down from across the desert, foul Weather jackets and pea coats made their appearance about the ship for the first time since before the cruise began. Very little could be seen of the surrounding country but We Were assured by those who had been through before that nothing in the Way of scenic Wonders was being missed. -4 1 ff-,I Both sides of the Canal are empty desert and stretch for the lull length of this engineering wonder from Port Suez to Port Said. The eerie glow cast by the huge nionstrosity of a light strapped across our bow gave a gl1oStliU6SS to the nearby desert dune. lt gave the feeling of being in another world-a world of lonely eniptincss. At speeds ranging between seven and ten knots and with several prolonged periods Of waiting for the Canal to be cleared of other shipping. it took thirteen hours to arrive 111 Port Said. Once again the iircrooin pGl'S011l19l were broken out to tucl ship. By late after- noon we were ready to get underway. AS the sun was strangling itsell: in its own red llille to the west, we took one last look at another of the cities that we never really saw eXC6Pt liroin the niain deck. Port Said was a large city. the largest we had seen since Colon1lJ0- It bespoke a certain opulent-e and activity that was vouclicd for by the large and apparently lucrative ainount ol' incrcliant shippillg ml' chored in the harbor. A day ashore ill fhls exotic lilyivlitian tlitx' would have been ll1t6l f'SlllliI,. but alas, it was not to be, so we pushed on out into the choppy Xlcditerrancan and tl1'3 oncoming darkness. 42 A 3

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, .-- 1- Santa Sakadales that had to any extent survived the depreda- tions of the elements, time, and man: the fain- ous Parthenon and the Erecthyum. Although practically all the statues and famous sculptur- ings had been destroyed or removed over the centuries, there was still enough left to make our visit an impressive one that would he remembered long after other places that we had seen were forgotten. if i 'lliene xx.is nnnr to Xthens than oltl ruins, lla' lliseiixeletl llils xxlieli We Xhldll tltiwll lIlt0 the eenlei ol the inoilein eitv ll'ith its depart- nient stores .intl xx itle tiaillie elogtgetl streets it eonld lnixe lieen any large ilnierieun city, 'lhuneh the ilziys xxeie eolal and windy with no sign ol the sun, ue xxaillu-tl along the avg- nues. tulxingg in the sights. ln the evening per- haips ai len ol us stopped in git one ol' the many night elnhs in Mliens. lt was here that We cliseoxiereal hoxx eaisy it was to run up a hill registered in the inillions. lint with the exelizinge ratio git Siltttltlll clinic-liiinie to ti dollar, our zilzirin soon clisaippeauecl when we hegan to eonx ert our ex enings entertainment hill into ternis ol greeiiliaelts.'l Despite the impressive exeliange rate, priees were fantastically high. . . y lnllation was rznnpant in Greece. Un tfhristnias live we went to our respective ehurehes for the traditional mid-night service. The Clhristinas spirit truly prevailed among the inen ol' the Snmlley. On the 25th of Decem- her. the results ol' three mouths of planning hore lruit when the ship played Santa Claus to thirty Greek orphans. There was a feast of 4 3 , 3 if i 2 1 I lv ' fam- lt's in the img 44