Taconic (AGC 17) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 9 text:

'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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- i i 1 1 w D ,I I N ll i 1 i 15 1. 1: x. L J As the convoy moved further north we crossed the famous Newfoundland Banks. Up until that time most of us considered that the Newfoundland Banks were famous for fishing. After having been there, most of us feel that the New- foundland Banks are simply fog banks. It was offcourse inevitable that we should see some icebergs. The first one was quite new to the ship. g Y. When the day came that the icebergs were so big that they began to dwarf the ship in size, the TACONIC decidered to show t ose icebergs that even if they were bigfer they didn't pack our punch. 'The gun covers were pulled off and the TACON C held target practice. As later events proved, that was an unfortunate thing to do. We were at that time gust south of the Artic Circle and King Boreas heard that the TACONIC ha been shooting up icebergs. Therefore when the TACONIC was to enter the Domain of the Po ar Bear. presided over b King Boreas and his loyal Blue Noses, there was need for a quite considerable amount of purification. ,,v-v --492, X , W ' -I 6 N1-s XX 0 2 -- . . -- 9-I ' , R nxxv- ., ,,,.. .fsiggx-N xiii L ' - -r is ' A Q--H ix -- me ,,,. 5 .. , X 1il. ' n iii' 'ei'rH Iifxsfjsi-as --:Q X 1 1-ff: - -V:--Q-:Ls If-.-es., . .. a - B- -as ...T--If f- ' ' ' Y 'B' 5 -Q '- 'fA fm 5. 'I Y 'Z HY' 7 'Bb 5' -- .. gr - 5 --- - 'g -' 1-'fe-lr-fi 5' ' 4'2 2'- .. '-' - --51 -!f ---- - -- '- ----- . : L- 7' ' ' - f-- 4 Y -E.-1: yllbllllfff,-A

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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