European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 4, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Tellers bidders but the next Day s Lood will be fresh and perhaps with the supplies mail will come when the at sea workday ends sailors amuse lems lives As Host they can ii seas Are Calm the la Lutes aboard will life weights or skip rope on the weather decks there s room on larger ships for jogging but Sellers sailors Don i try it some sailors Light p a pitch until someone misses and the Ball sails ver the Cido heavy seas will keep the Crew inside watching so vision. Playing cards or shooting the Bull the ship s corps Ryan will Busy himself Patching up a Milors injured i the ship s pitching Many of the Crow will write letters Home the ship s Jne postal clerk will Hoid the letters until the Day when in can pass them to another step or a helicopter or Massage Homo As night Falls at sea a million stars will make the hip s Wake glow some of the men will stretch out on in deck and count shooting stars meanwhile the backgammon game is in Lull swing in no chiefs mess. On the decks on the Bridge or in work paces Lalk among the Sai ors is pretty much the same hey Lalk about their families wives and girlfriends about Obs they had before and the jobs they have now they talk about the last port and the one coming up. And they talk about the number of Days to go applies to storage compartments a Long difficult ask that most sailors hate. I thought it was kind of Vugts said. Ii was interesting to see How they bring that stuff leaning his Chin on the ship s me line watching the a Roll by with no land in sight he mused a bit. And lazed Over the endless Ocean it s different out said the newbie gon underneath their pants ships do something called going to cold Iron when the engines Are shut Oil ships Are pushed through the water by screws not propellers sailors also have strange ways of pronouncing things. A Boatswain is a bos n and a coxswain is a coun and a forecastle is pronounced of caul and often spelled of c sle. The to c sle. By the Way. Is the Flat part of the ship in the front which is not to be confused Wilh the Bow the Edge that cuts through the water submarines do have sails and aircraft earners do have islands. For each vessel that s the part that Slicks up above the rest of the vessel sailors Are not averse to having a Little Good natured humor with their nautical terms most new Guys on ships have been told logo fetch batteries for sound powered phone or of stand a mail buoy watch. . Us off the Fantail i Don t want to hit the Ball with All these people watching and have it not get Oil the Fantail he said he concentrated but the ship was rolling just enough to disrupt the lie of his Ball. I m going to have to talk to the older of the deck about this he said adjusting his lie. He surveyed his Fairway the ship s Trail and Miles of Ocean. Iii can hit the Green from Here. Jack Nicklaus is Gonna sell a lot of shag balls next year he said. Then he swung. The Ball listed arching out of sight in the dim glow of the Moon. Pease said. Where d it go one of the loiter ers said. said Pease pulling another Ball from his pocket. . To Rrt tag i. Saf ors Manning the rail on the forecastle of the Sellers. Liberty in Yugoslavia the sailors aboard the us. Navy s guide missile destroyer Sellers at , did t quite know what to thin about mooring in a communist country. It s great said Seaman Robert Blackmon. I expected it to be less hospitable More cold i expected in to be More limited than in Blackmon. In his first night on the town had done some shopping and a Little sightseeing. He bought postcards and a Lew curios. And he had his Eye on some handmade jewelery he wanted to pick up the next time he got Liberty from the ship ships have to keep enough of the Crew on Board All the time to get underway in an emergency. On the Sellers thai Means Crew members get two Days Olf then they must spend 24 hours aboard Petty officer 1.c Kevin Noel sampled the yugoslavian Beer on his Liberty. We went to a Little Cale and had a few Noel said. It was Good but you had to acquire a taste for Many Sellers Crew members were just satisfied they weren t drinking italian Beer. The ship in its third month of a five month cruise has spent a lot of time in Italy and the Crew was getting restless. Any place is better than Italy said Seaman David Thomas. This is the Best place so the made visits to Gaeta and Naples Italy Palma Spain and Augusta Bay Sicily before coming to Rijeka. Besides patrolling the world s sea lanes and responding to crises America s combat ships Are often called upon to play a diplomatic role by making appearances in foreign ports. After the Sellers five Day visit to Rijeka in was scheduled to Slop at Toulon France and Tunis Tunisia before heading Back to Charleston. S c. Its Home port Noel expected a communist country to be when they said communist it was totally Olf from what i he said. I pictured everybody to be walking kind of hunched Over everybody to be wearing the same clothes " Thomas was surprised to meet a lot of vacationers in Rijeka. We met a Guy from Holland and one irom Ireland and a Bunch of he said. We even ran Mlo a couple from Gary. Ind " the Sellers Crew was pretty conspicuous in Rijeka because everyone except officers and senior enlisted people had to Wear their White Crackerjack uniforms ashore. Several sailors said people were slopping them on the streets to ask what country they were from. Everybody seems to like americans Noel said we get a lot of looks. One Little kid jumped out of a Side Street and saluted us and said hey americans . The stars and stripes Page 15
