Why Navy ships make their first deck log of the New Year rhyme
“If the Captain ever sees this log, my Gawd, what will he do.”
BY MAX HAUPTMAN | PUBLISHED DEC 30, 2022 8:55 AM
Whether at sea or in port, in peacetime or at war, every moment of a Navy ship’s existence is tracked. The deck log, prepared by the officer of the deck, chronicles where the ship has been, what has happened aboard, and anything of significance that occured during the watch. Being a military document, it generally makes for pretty dry reading. The deck log for the 8 a.m. to noon watch of the battleship USS Missouri for Sept. 2, 1945, for example, noted the end of World War II with, simply, “the ceremony commenced and the Instrument of Surrender was presented to all parties.” There is one exception, though: the very first watch of the new year, from midnight to 4 a.m., when it’s acceptable to record the deck log in rhyming verse.
“Yet in Manila Bay in berth Cast-8, we seem to be anchored in a world without hate; The night filled with sound but yet without strife, on Blackhawk and Pacos and Asheville nearby, are officers with the duty even as I,” wrote Ensign R. E. Fahnestock aboard the cruiser USS Marblehead in the first few hours of 1941. “They’re thinking as we are of dancing and beer, and muttering gloomily, Happy New Year.”
https://taskandpurpose.com/culture/navy-ships-deck-log-rhyming/
