PLAN OF THE DAY U.S.S. ELECTRA (AKA-4) PLAN OF THE DAY

MONDAY 9 AUGUST 1954 MONDAY 9 AUGUST 1954

SUNRISE: 0456

SUNSET: 1931

COMMAND DUTY OFFICER: LT STREFF

DUTY OPERATIONS OFFICER: LTJG HARKER

DUTY DECK OFFICER: ENS REINKE

DUTH ENGINEERING OFFICER: CHMACH STRICKLAND

DUTY SUPPLY OFFICER: CHPCLK THEDFORD

DUTY LIBRARIAN: WYLES, EM3

UNIFORM OF THE DAY: Officers & CPO’s: Dress Blue Baker or Dress Khaki

Crews: Undress Blue Baker

DUTY SECTIONS Officers & CPO’s: II

Crews: II

0530 Liberty expires for messmen .

0545 Call duty Master At Arms.

0600 Reveille. Up all hammocks. Trice up all bunks.

0615 Muster restricted men on the quarterdeck.

0630 Turn to. Clean sweep and swab down fore and aft.

0700 Breakfast for the crew.

0745 Liberty expires for sections I and II

0800 Quarters for muster. Division officers’ inspection. Test general and

chemical alarms. Fuel ship from pier.

0810 Turn to. Commence ship’s work.

0900 Mail trip.

0945 Chief Master At Arms and OOD inspect mess cooks and food handlers.

1130 Knock off ship’s work. Clean sweep down fore and aft. Empty

all trashcans.

1200 Dinner for the crew.

1300 Turn to. Continue ship’s work. Clean sweep down fore and aft.

Empty all trash cans. Muster restricted men on the quarterdeck.

1600 Clean sweep down fore and aft. Empty all trash cans. Knock off

ship’s work.

1615 Liberty commences for sections I and III to expire on board 2400,

Monday 9 August 1954.

1700 Supper for the crew.

1730 Muster and instruct the security watch.

1830 Muster the fire party, section II

1845 Muster restricted men on the quarterdeck.

1900 Eight O’Clock Reports

2000 Movie Call

2145 Muster restricted men on the quarterdeck.

2200 Taps. Lights out.

2200 To 0600: Security Watch make hourly inspection and report to OOD.

N O T E S

1. ELECTRA will sail for the Pribilof Islands at 0600 Tuesday 10 August 1954,

and will stop at Kingston to pick-up dynamite & dynamite caps about 0800 Tuesday.

ELECTRA will arrive at Saint Paul Island at 1700X on 16 August 1954.

2. Military Courtesies: When called before an officer, stand at attention

until directed otherwise. Approach an officer at his desk, stand at attention,

say “Good morning sir,” or “Good evening sir,” and await his orders before

stating your reasons for your entrance to his room or office. When Overhauling

an officer always try to pass him on his left. As you draw near behind him,

salute and say “By your leave, sir (or commander or captain).” He will reply

“Very Well” and return your salute. Hold your salute and do not pass

until he has so indicated his permission.

J. T. WALDRON

LCDR, USN

Executive Officer

THE ROMANCE OF ALASKA SEALSKIN

Alaska sealskin history goes back to the time of Catherine the Great of

Russia. During her reign an adventurous Russian navigator named Pribilof,

hearing stories of strange water animals, determined to solve the mystery. After

arduous and diligent search, he found that a herd of such animals made an annual

pilgrimage from the Pacific Ocean to the cold waters of the Bering Sea. This

northward trip started late in January from Northern Mexico and the return trip

took place late in October. Pribilof found that these animals visited a group

of five islands about 300 miles west of Alaska, and about 250 miles north of the

Aleutian Archipelago. Of the five islands, three are very small and the seals use

only the two large islands, later named St.Paul and St.George. The islands were

named after this navigator, and the mysterious animals – of which there were many

millions – were claimed as the property of Russia.

Scientists tell us that the Alaska Fur Seal at one time lived on land.

Perhaps ages ago, because of scarcity of food, or for some other unknown reason,

these seals were forced to take to the sea for their preservation, and so adapted

themselves to aquatic life.

The United States bought the entire territory of Alaska from Russia in 1867,

paying $7,200,000. As part of the purchase this country received the Pribilof

Islands and the great Alaska Seal Herd. Since then, the value of the furs taken

from the islands alone amounts to many times the purchase price of the entire

territory of Alaska.

At the time we bought Alaska, the seal herd was estimated at 3 to 4 million

in number, but by 1911, because of uncontrolled and piratic slaughter of the seals

at sea by pelagic sealers who caught and killed the seals in the water without

discrimination as to age, size, or sex, the number had shrunk to about 120,000.

In 1911 representatives of the United States, England, Japan and Russia met in

Washington, D.C. and signed the Pelagic Treaty which protected the seals at sea

and placed the control of the herd under the jurisdiction of the United States Government.

As a result of wise and judicious conservation, the herd is now estimated

to number over three million seals. Yet during the years since the signing of

the treaty, well over a million sealskins have been taken for market.

The romantic and mysterious life and propagation of the Alaska Fur Seal is

one of the many wonders of nature. The seals come but once a year to these

islands to bear their young and to breed. They select this particular spot on

all the globe because from Spring on through Fall these islands are covered with

unceasing fog – a condition which exactly suits the seal, because it does not

enjoy direct sunlight. Known to mariners as the “Mist Islands,” the Pribilofs are

most of the time barely visible from the sea during these months, but the constant

never-ending roar of some three million seals is an identifying hubbub that can

be heard quite a distance out at sea.

The Pribilofs are of volcanic formation, probably pushed up out of the sea,

rugged, rocky, dull gray and barren. Not a tree can be found or grown on the

islands, but for a brief season tundra grass and wild flowers shoot up in

beauty. Reindeer and Pribilof blue foxes also flourish there. Great bird

rookeries exist, where hundreds of thousands of cormorants, murres, sea parrots,

kittiwakes and gulls abound. Many are the scenes on these islands that challenge

the imagination and fill the mind with wonder.

The U.S. Coast Guard and ships of the Fish and Wildlife Service patrol the

Pacific and protect the migration of the seal herd on it on it long swim northward.

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