Staten Island (AGB 5) - Naval Cruise Book

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DlVERSlON lce Breaker hours are long and arduous, requiring a high expenditure of both mental and physical energy. Times must be set asicle for moments when thoughts and actions are on other things. The soda fountain and movies do a land office business. Happy hours are very popular, and penguin watching, on intriguing sport. Night rations brings out all hands. QHQYIEUR RQDYO Y 1 gg ,NW Plull izli' tm. su, ' ' f I X -Il .ffl

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The day following the rescue, STATEN lSLAND's largest helicopter, a Sikorsky HRS-3, caught tire and made an emergency landing on an ice capped island en- route to the camp site. The two pilots and two pass- engers escaped iniury. The aircraft was damaged, and, due to its inaccessable location, was abandoned to the Antarctic. STATEN ISLAND scientists completed 4l additional oceanographic stations in this region of the unknown, including temperature, current measurements, salinity, carbon and oxygen analysis, bottom cores, and geomag- natic readings. STATEN lSLAND set a new record for the number of oceanographic stations made from one ship during an Antarctic operation by conducting a total of 79 in the seas surrounding the Antarctic con- tinent. With the ice pack continually shifting because at wind and current, the tvio ice breakers were once again trapped in the iaws of pressuring floes and were made immobile tor tour days. On 7 March GLACIER using several tons of high explosives was able to make the lost twenty five yards to an open lead that separated her from STATEN ISLAND by aiew miles. Making the lead GLACIER began hammering away into the heavy floes which had imprisoned STATEN ISLAND about 500 yards away. With both ships working by search light the ice was subdued by 6 o'clock the following morning. Bath ships steamed northward in newly formed leads heading for the open sea and home, with scheduled stops at Valparaiso, Chile, Lima, Peru, and San Diego, California. With weather usually being the deciding factor in Antarc- tic operations the trip to Valparaiso ended four days before arrival. An urgent message received at 3 o'clock in the moming ot l4 March diverted STATEN lSLAND from her homeward trail to retum to Mchiurdo, 3000 miles away, to rescue a YOG loaded with aviation gasoline. The ice breaker EDISTO was later diverted to the YOG rescue and the STATEN ISLAND retumed to Port Lyttle- ton, due to a shortage of fuel for the operation, having been at sea for a period of 68 days. After refueling STATEN ISLAND departed New Zealand to take station at 60 degrees S, 'l60 degrees W to provide much needed weather information for EDISTO and for a flight to be made into Antarctica by a C-130 Hercules transport Plane. Operations ended on retum to Wellington, New Zealand on 14 April with a total of 29,240 miles having been steamed and 6,522 miles remaining, via Hawaii, to Seattle and home.

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Above: As part of the overall evaluation of accom- plishments of the cruise, Chief Petty Officers Topp, Sewell, and Baldauf inspect beards for form, body, and texture. Their verdict: Beard Contest prizes go to Killeen lgoateel, Wright ffull beardj, Shaffer lscrag- gliesti, and Craft lmustachel. Below and right: Northward bound, the Staten Island enters Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, for a weekend of sun- shine and relaxation. Her eager sailors are greeted with hula rhythms. I' Q 'Sy' . lt. . , g t Xeayvg - 5 - V' 2. 1-n. T M 9 May l96'l - Home again! As U.S.S. Staten Island is moored once more at Pier 91 in Seattle, Navy families crowd the gangway, eager to he re-united after the long seven months.