In the Guard Shack

We enlisted men had the displeasure of having to be "on duty" usually more than once while the ship was in port. Of course the navy always has somebody on duty or on watch even if there's nothing to do or little to watch. Otherwise it wouldn't be the navy. Duty in port meant, obviously, less drinking time and less recreational amusement after three or four weeks at sea. 

To avoid temptation, some guys rarely went ashore. You could pay them to take your watch.

Being on duty entailed sitting in the little "guard shack", a tiny room with a sliding window near the bottom of the stairs (a/k/a ladder) leading down to the navy spaces. There, equipped with an unloaded .45 automatic, we logged people in, logged people out, read books or listed to the radio. Log entries were always kind of neutral, with no reports about the people coming in drunk, getting sick or falling down the ladder. Never.

• Log entry: Second electrician in spaces; reefer left spaces. Captain B. came to see the Commander; Commander ashore. Captain left spaces.

In the guard shack there was a record changer (remember them?) mounted on gimbals. This contraption actually worked; you could play records while the ship was underway if the seas were not too rough.

• Log entry: Ship's agent in spaces; second electrician left spaces.

Besides the record changer there was an audio amplifier and an old SP-600 radio receiver. These were hooked up to speakers all over the ship in a sort of an ad hoc, undocumented network. A few dozen LP records constituted the media library. This was the ship's "entertainment system".

• Log entry: Reefer needs to get into electric shop, told him to see chief electrician; ship's agent left spaces.

I bought a few LP records to add to the collection. One was of folk music, just becoming popular at that time. Somebody told me the music was subversive so I quit playing it. I was learning political correctness.

• Log entry: IC2 Marius Marin reported aboard; showed him his assigned stateroom. Directed him to enlisted mess for dinner.

Anyone with a radio could plug into the ship's antenna distribution system. Located in survey control, the "multicoupler amplifier" was patched to one of the whip antennas. Outputs fed little antenna jacks all over the ship. This worked quite well for medium wave (AM) and short wave (HF) reception but not VHF radio (FM).

• Log entry: Smoke coming from IC2 Marin's stateroom. Electric toothbrush plugged into DC outlet overheating and melting down. Unplugged same.

• Log entry: Relieved of the watch by QM3 W. T. Hatch. Going Ashore !