The Naval Review The copyright of this article rests with the author, or the author's estate.

A Refit in a US Port

A NUMBER of British ships had visited American ports before us, and many more did so subsequently; but we were the first to refit at our particular port. We had been damaged at Crete and, after being patched up at Alexandria, had made our way to Bremerton in the State of Washington, where we arrived on the 11th of August, 1941.

Not many British ships refitted on the Pacific Coast, and it appears likely that no more will do so now that Japan has entered the war; so it may turn out that we will have been the only ship to have done so at Bremerton. In addition, the conditions at the Puget Sound Navy Yard are different to those on the East Coast where nearly all the manu­facturing for the Navy is done and stores are maintained. The Yard is nearly 3,000 miles from Washington where the Bureau of Ships is installed, and it is sometimes difficult in times of emergency to get attention, while it always takes long to get supplies. Bremerton is comparable to Sheerness. There is no access by rail to the town and nearly everything has to go to Seattle, which is one hour distant by ferry. This ferry was a real nuisance and became very familiar, as most shopping and nearly all entertainment, apart from visits to friends, had to be done in Seattle. Seattle is fairly large (about 400,000) and growing fast because some big defence plants are situated there; but it is very "provincial" compared to New York, Boston or San Francisco, near which cities are some of the other Navy Yards where our ships refitted.

A further point may be noted: we had on occasions received considerable publicity since the war started, which many of us deprecated although very proud of our record; but the Americans are not reticent and liked acting as hosts to a ship which had "hit the headlines," and we were sometimes treated as a sort of "glamour ship." This, and our being among the first to arrive, and America being intensely interested in the war but not yet in it, all contributed to a great deal of fuss being made over us in spite of the initial censorship; but this is unlikely to occur now, or at any rate not to the same extent. Yet although our case had many aspects of its own, it is obvious that much of what happened to us will have been common to all British ships, and so a brief account may be of interest.

Error had crept into the arrangements for our arrival, as we had been expected ten days earlier and a surface and air escort had been sent for us. Our reception in the Yard had been arranged, and the pilot and the liaison officer had proceeded to Esquimalt, where they waited. An aerial search was made for us when we did not arrive, and it was only after many hours that it was learned that Washington had forgotten to inform the Commandant of the local (13th) Naval District of the postponed date for our arrival. This false alarm resulted in no escort at all being sent on the true date, and we anchored at Esquimalt on the evening of the 10th of August without fuss and almost without being noticed. The pilot and liaison officer arrived, and we then weighed that evening and' arrived at the Navy Yard early the next morning, where we berthed alongside.

The first forenoon was occupied by official calls, but later in the day American naval officers came onboard in very large numbers, individually and in groups, to walk round the ship, and this went on for many days.

The work of the refit started the second day. American dockyards' methods differ very considerably from ours. Very briefly the organization has three big vertical divisions -engineering, ordnance, and hull-and also two big horizontal divisions-the planning and the productions departments.

The "estimators" (an almost independent division of the planning department) came onboard at once to meet the ship's technical officers and be shown over the damages and other proposed work. They already had copies of our defect list and also of the A. & A.s which the Admiralty wished them to do.

At that time all repair work for British ships in the USA. came under the directions of an admiral, who was head of the British Advisory Repair Mission; he paid us a one-day visit and was shortly followed by his experts, when a meeting took place (no Americans present) on the lines of our normal dockyard conferences, to approve or not our defect list. The approved result was sent in to the Yard, and the estimators redoubled their efforts and were ready for the Yard conference when it took place the next day (about one week after our arrival); fortunately there had been very few changes in our list. The conference, conducted by the manager of the Yard, was very similar to arrival conferences at home and took remarkably little time. A most helpful attitude was apparent, and they promised to do all defects and also all the A. & A.s if the material arrived in time. The governing factor for time was naturally to be the repair of action damage.

The estimators then sent out their approval to the planners, who came aboard in force to commence the tedious task of planning. No work of any kind can be done without a " job order;" and no job order can be issued except by the planners, and the job orders must be correct to the minutest detail and nearly always contain drawings. The planning consequently takes at least two-thirds of the refit period and the strictness of the rule can sometimes be rather ridiculous. For instance, the draughtsman made an error and sited an electrical machine in the middle of a gangway. This was noticed at once while the workmen were still there and could have been shifted in an hour. The particular planner concerned arrived and acknowledged his mistake, but could not give the order; instead. a fresh drawing had to be prepared, and it was a week before the machine was shifted. No doubt the impact of war has made the organization more flexible.

Throughout our stay the dockyard officials were considerate, helpful, hard-working, and anxious to get the exact results we wanted. This often caused a lot of extra work, as our practice in many matters differs from theirs; even the terms used frequently vary. Also a lower material standard is usually accepted in the U.S. Navy. The standard of work among the dockyard officials was high; the standard of the average "matey " was rather low, probably because a great expansion in the Yard personnel had taken place in the previous two years, and their attitude was much the same as that of ours in time of peace.

The traditional hospitality soon made itself felt. We were made honorarv members of the Naval Club and several cocktail parties were given for us. Our presence could naturally not be kept secret; but no public reference to us could be made, and accordingly invitations from civilians were at first limited, but they soon began to roll in and were really more than we could cope with. We had to detail two officers for practically full time work on social duties, one for officers and one for ship's company-as it was naturally of the utmost importance that no offence should unintentionally be given. Our liaison officer, who had already had experience on the East Coast, was of immense help to us in this and other matters. The general attitude, particularly for the sailors, was kindness itself. Men were taken into the homes and were put up for a night or a fortnight, taken on picnics, taken to parties and given every sort of entertainment. The larger proportion of the ship's company were sent home soon after arrival, but it was arranged for everyone who remained to have the opportunity of fourteen days' leave, some men getting as far as Chicago and Los Angeles.

A trying side to our relations with the shore was the question of speeches. To begin with, there was a welcome ban under the rule of no publicity; but after about six weeks this was lifted. In fact, the names of the ships in the various ports were announced, and streams of reporters and photographers came onboard and naturally needed very careful handling. The speeches were frankly a curse. The Americans seem to love to meet in organized groups at regular intervals to listen to speeches. Any man and any woman probably belongs to several organizations such as a residential group, a fraternity, a business society, and perhaps a "veteran" organization of some kind. Hardly a day passed without several officers being employed speech-making, and the senior ratings assisted later on. One C.P.O. made twenty speeches in his fourteen days' leave. Fortunately no high standard of oratory was required, and a few details of the ship's experiences, padded out with some platitudes, and warm appreciation of their hospitality, always seemed to suffice.

The attitude of the majority of the civilian population throughout our stay was one of welcome, and even the tough American police were most helpful. Fortunately, the relations between our men and the "gobs" were nearly always very friendly; remarkably so, really, as many of the girls deserted their American sailors to acquire British "boy friends," and those who did so made no secret of their preference.

The officers mostly lived at the Naval Club in the Yard, where we were the biggest residential element. We had our own Maltese stewards, and after a short while were very comfortable. I must confess that I was a bit taken aback at my first breakfast when I discovered a gramophone blaring dance music on one side, a radiogram competing for noise with a different tune on the other side, and a doctor opposite me lit a cigar. Women used the club to a much greater extent than is usual with us, and oddly enough there were no reading or writing rooms. The bowling alleys were much patronized, and there was a little nine-hole golf course attached which made exercise a simple matter. We often thought how convenient it would be if our dockyards contained one. The U.S. naval officers could not have been nicer to us, and we were all very grateful to them for the way we were made to feel at home.

Every U.S. ship possesses a station wagon which follows them about, and one was put at our disposal. It proved quite invaluable, and seems a most practical idea which we should do well to copy. It was always in use and proved economical in cost of necessary transport as well as in that much more valuable commodity-TIME.

There are no depots attached to the U.S. dockyards; but there is a sort of barracks called a receiving station to house men temporarily, and our sailors occupied one block. There were two cinemas in the Yard, baseball pitches, a very well-equipped recreation centre, and a shop that would sell anything from a motor car down, and at a very reduced price. They kindly made a football pitch for us in the Yard.

The feeding arrangements in the receiving station worked on the "cafetaria " principle and were considered very satisfactory when once the sailors had got used to them. Food was provided hotter and fresher by this method than by ours. The standard was very high, at least as good as that in the Naval Club; but the trouble was that the States have become "vitamin" conscious, and every meal has to be exactly balanced and yet retain the American characteristics. Lunch, for instance, nearly always included salad, iced water, coffee, and ice cream instead of a pudding or savoury. No cheese was supplied nor any fruit (in a country where there is an enormous variety available), and a marked preference was shown for canned vegetables over fresh. The main dish had to complete the desired balance, and was invariably garnished with many oddments to achieve this.

The "British American War Relief Association" soon got in touch with us, and before we left we were filled up with everything we could want in the way of "comforts," including thousands of books, wireless sets, cabinet gramophones, and sports gear. A number of private organizations also sent gifts.

A lot of sport took place. Besides golf, swimming, tennis, fishing, and shooting (called "hunting" in the States), we played quite a bit of football and gave demonstrations in different parts of the State, as well as taking part in the State League, in which ,we finished third, and in the Cup Competition, where we were runners-up. Our team was very popular, and it was sometimes quite embarrassing to hear the crowd" rooting" for us in a most one-sided way. We played a game of cricket, which was lost, oddly enough. We also entered boxing teams in various events and actually succeeded in winning three of the fights in the British Columbia Golden Gloves Competition. We sent organized parties, including football and boxing teams, to Vancouver and Victoria, where we had a really wonderful time. No words of mine could adequately described the enthusiams (sic) of the reception.

The State of Washington is dry, except for wine and beer, in the sense that spirits cannot be bought by the glass; but there are numerous State liquor shops where anyone can buy bottles providing they own a licence, which costs 3/- a year, and there are few restrictions about actual drinking. The U.S. ships are still dry, but alcohol was obtainable at the Naval Club after 4.30. On Saturdays it was always consumed in a very large quantities as, I believe, occurs throughout most of the States. It appears to be an Old American Custom. We were allowed to retain a stock onboard, but did not open the bar in the forenoon. When I say the State is dry I was not referring to the weather, as I have never seen such continual rain. The State has very beautiful scenery, and is known as the "Evergreen State "-we ended by calling it the "Evergreen Lake."

As the refit went on we began to feel very much at home, and if we could have had our families with us it would have been a wonderful rest.. As it was, we no sooner felt at home than we began to feel anxious to get away, and requests were received from officers and men to return to the war zone; but we had reduced our numbers too far to be able to grant these requests, as there was a tremendous amount of work to be done. Altogether three supplementary defect lists had to be put in. The dockyard were very good about these and accepted the lot.On the 7th of December we heard the news that Pearl Harbour had been bombed. The effect on the Americans was very interesting - incredulity was the prime emotion, followed by rage, followed by something like panic. Black-outs were enforced and a street mob smashed the windows of any Seattle shops showing lights, and there was anxious chatter about the imminence of bombing. The Yard was put on a seven-day twenty-four hour basis, but less work than usual was done because of the black-out, as it had to be effected by turning out the lights, since there were no Air Raid Precautions at all in existence. In a few days things settled down - the majority buckled down to work, a considerable minority forgot all about it. Notices reading "Remember Pearl Harbour" were put all over the place, but I am afraid the "mateys" onboard us continued to pack up twenty minutes before the bell.

Not long afterwards we sailed - glad to feel we were again going to be of use, but grateful for all that had been done for us. Many of us had made friends which we hope we will keep all our lives; several of the ship's company had actually married. We had the feeling that we had carved a niche for ourselves in the State, and that many people were most genuinely sorry that we were going. (The actual date was kept secret, but the fact that our refit was ending could not be.) As we finally left, all the crews of the U.S. ships came on deck and cheered us heartily, first led by the officers, but these cheers were followed by spontaneous shouts and then a tremendous sound of clapping by the men. It was an affecting moment, and in a small way a good omen for the co-operation between our fleets which will enable us to sweep our enemies from the sea.

ENSEE.