From Bob (Andy) Anderson
TOPSIDE BARBEQUES
I noticed some of the guys wrote about the topside barbeques on the Segundo and I saw some good pictures in the photo gallery. My best recollection was a barbeque and swim call that we had on the Westpac deployment in 1964. We were operating in the Marianna chain of islands located somewhere east of the Philippine Islands. I remember checking the navigation publications in the conn on some of the islands and found that they were all uninhabited. One of the islands was named Magu and there was an active volcano near by and we could see smoke at its top. One night while in the area we were trying to get a navigational fix but could only get one Loran line and no celestial except for a sun line earlier in the day. The sonar operator on duty called up and said he had a strange rumbling noise that he was unsure of and since the bearing to the noise was in the direction of the volcano I used that bearing to plot the evening fix. When the OD came up to take the next watch he laughed and said it was the first time he had heard of using a volcano's noise to navigate by. The next day we had Loran back so I checked our position and the fix the night before turned out to be accurate. It was a beautiful Sunday in September and the plan was to have a topside barbeque and swim call. It was a perfect day for a swim call since the temperature outside was 104 degrees. The Segundo had a barbeque pit in the superstructure forward of the sail and the cooks did a great job preparing steaks, hamburgers with all the fixings; and boy did it feel good to dive into that warm blue Pacific water. And we didn't have to worry about hitting bottom since the water was 18,000 feet deep. One of the crew suggested that we station someone up on the bridge with a rifle to lookout for sharks and they volunteered Chief Swackhamer, god rest his soul. We all gave Swack a hard time because he didn';t have the best eyesight and we were afraid he might mistake one of the crew for a shark and we didn't want a killed by friendly fire incident. After the barbeque was concluded the majority of the crew went below decks and the Segundo got underway on the surface. Within a few hours we came upon a tropical rain squall and a few of us went on deck and stripped down for a fresh water shower that felt outstanding even though we didn't have any soap. I agree with some of the other shipmate's comments that the barbeque was just an example of the camaraderie that we enjoyed as members of the fine crew of the Segundo.