CHAPTER SEVEN
USS Halibut – Fast Cruise, Mare Island
In many ways fast cruise is tougher than being out to sea. When you’re out, you just do your job, and take in stride what comes along. During fast cruise you deliberately push everything to the limit. If it’s going to break, better alongside the pier than 2,000 miles away from nowhere, or on the bottom in the Soviets’ back yard.
So we pushed it. Ham and I came up with every angle we could devise, including the one that nearly broke my butt on Elk River – but we simulated it, of course. The guys had been working the system for weeks. Ham and Jack were on “port and starboard” watch (alternating duty days), and had done a virtual fast cruise every night watch since we came aboard. The system was as tight as a virgin’s…well, anyway…. Try
