Bayonne (1)

With an all new merchant marine crew and mostly new navy detachment,  Michelson steamed out of the Brooklyn Navy Yard into the East River, beneath the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges out into New York's upper bay. Passing the Statue of Liberty on the starboard side we headed for the navy facility in Bayonne, New Jersey. Beyond, across "the narrows", the Verazzano Bridge was nearing completion with the last sections of roadway deck being lifted into place.

The base at Bayonne was built on a 1 1/2 mile long peninsula of filled in land just before WW II as an annex to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. A huge 1090 by 150 foot dry dock could handle most anything afloat at that time. The pretext for its construction in Jersey had to do with possible height clearances under the bridges for ships to reach the navy yard. More likely it was an insurance policy, just in case something happened to the river crossings, blocking off the yard completely.

An artist's view of the Bayonne Navy Supply Center and shipyard.

We tied up at the far distant end of the base adjacent to the dry dock. Michelson took aboard supplies and provisions through number four hatch, into the only active hold with cargo booms and cable winches. We resumed standing security watch in the navy detachment "guard shack", logging people in and out, listening to the radio and packing an unloaded .45 automatic. 

We navy guys were back to living in our staterooms and eating in our own dining room but with new mess stewards. New field engineers (tech reps) were showing up, storing their stuff in their staterooms and getting ready to test their new electronics at sea. It seems funny now that few today remember their companies: General Instruments, Bunker Ramo and Sperry Gyroscope.

Deserted at night, Bayonne was really not much of a navy base, really just a bunch of supply center warehouses and a small shipyard with a big dry dock. The front gate was a very long walk from the ship. Sometimes we could thumb a ride. Outside the gate, after crossing a road and railroad tracks, there was a veritable oasis: Ziggy's bar on 32nd street, near Avenue E. 

Every sailor who ever went through Bayonne must have known Ziggy's. You had to walk past it to get to either the New York bound bus or all the other bars along Broadway in Bayonne. No sign identified it. Everyone knew it was Ziggy's.

And there were all sorts of bars along Broadway! Bayonne was a blue collar shot and a beer town. I found a place that I liked a lot, where I bellyed up to the bar and ate steamed clams, drank Rolling Rock beer and watched TV. 

The long walk back to the ship was a hard, but you could always stop at Ziggy's on the way and  have a beer or two.