Taconic (AGC 17) - Naval Cruise Book

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B The TACONIC barely slowed down in its progress north to disembark King oreas. A We were in the land of the midnight sun. It had been noticed eaglggf t?:: the nights were getting shorter and shorter. The sun was st8Y1U8 fd fx t less and less time. Finally, of course, came the day when the sun di n se at all but continued to shine throughout the twenty-four hours. In this continuous daylight we began to get indications of land - a few birds flying around and reports that the radar was picking UP Something. probably land. Our course took the convoy quite close to the western coast of Greenland and one day - there it was. No one, of course, expected Greenland to be green. It was underst00d th8t Erik The Red had called it Greenland to encourage settlers It was, however - 0 . I a. it of a surprise to find that Greenland was brown and not completely white with a snow covering. Although the ship still had a long wa! to go it was rather comforting to see land again.. ' - P i I . I I Y

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'As soon as the TACONIC crossed the Arctic circle and headed north all hands started to watch for the arrival of King Boreas and his court. Boreas rules over that portion of the world located north of the Arctic Circle-north of 66 33'. This tremendous kingdom is called the Domain of the Polar Bear. King Boreas, as an absolute monarch, does not like to have just anyone in his domain. He requires some acts of good faith on the part of persons ent- ering his kingdom for the first time. Once a person has satisfactorily shown his pureness of heart to King Boreas, he is called a Blue Nose. f The Royal Order of Blue Nose is not lightly conferred. Persons crossing the circle by air are not permitted that honor, Only purified and initiated Blue Noses are awarded a certificate with which to identify themselves. Eventually the Royal Kayak was sighted and Boreas Rex and his court were received on board with appropriate honors. The Captain and the Admiral paid their respects to the royal court which had established itself in the mess hall, a place well suited for their future operations.

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1 As the convoy moved north it had gradually picked up other ships. It had also picked up-a great deal more ice. Although the first icebergs were few and far between, they soon began to thicken up so that if any one wanted to see one he could just look. , We began to look forward to our rendezvous with the icebreakers - two Coast Guard and one Navy - that had been up north for a long while scouting the ice conditions and preparing to lead the convoy up to North Star Bay and Thule. x The icebreakers turned out to be very compact little ships with a special bow. The bow was indented under the stem to permit the ship to ride up on the ice slightly and thus break the ice by its own weight. X Additionally, the lcebreakera carried one or two helicopters which soon became a very familiar aight aa they took off from the lcebreakei at any time of the day or night to seek ' open water leads for the convoy. An icebreaker equipped with a helicopter can cover much more ground with a group of lhlpa ln a ' glven time than lt could without a helicopter. ' i g 5 N