Photos by Jack Hughes

The Dominican freighter we saved from sinking. When we arrived at about 2330, her decks were awash. LT Bob Daughenbaugh was OIC of the rescue party along with a couple of Damage Control and Deck ratings. We were afraid to put too many people on it because it was so very low in the water. All that was keeping it afloat was the air trapped in the reefer spaces. We found out it was loaded with frozen lobster. No, they did not offer us any. I thought the shot through the towing eye was pretty dramatic. When we dropped them off in the harbor of a Haitian village, we left one of the U.S. Navy’s submersible pumps on board.

This is just an attractive early morning shot of an unknown DD standing out of Naples harbor with Vesuvius in the background. It was totally unplanned. You can see I didn’t even take time to get it framed properly as part of the Johnston is on the right side. That is the USS Massey on the left.

ASW operations! What we were all about. S2-F’s in the air, sonobouys in the water, tin cans on patrol. This shot was taken a few minutes before we fired the practice ASROC in #5.

At the time the slides, these prints were made from, they were the only existing photos of an ASROC leaving the launcher. So far as I know, they still are. The slides were borrowed from me by CINCLANTFLT to be used in a presentation to Congress. After they had been gone for a few months, I thought I had seen the last of them. However, after the best part of a year had passed, they were returned to me along with a letter of commendation from Admiral King, then CNO.

This was not in any way a planned shot. I happened to climb up to the bridge wing with cocked and loaded Rollieflex in hand and saw Captain Fay in an obviously pensive mood. I Quietly put the camera on the just recently installed high gloss teak (I think) coaming and used the squeeze bulb air trigger. I don’t think he even knew I was there until the shutter snapped. I also did not realize I had captured the reflection until I saw the proofs. The location was always our favorite stop in the Med.: Asinara Bay, Sardinia.

August 16, 1963

The significant part of this shot from the flying bridge of the Long Beach is that I am the conning officer out on the bridge wing. It was the first time I had ever taken the ship alongside another. Captain Pringle gave me a couple of tricks that made the approach much less difficult than I expected. The trick? Keep the stern light of the other ship 3 degrees off course at 600 yards; 6 degrees at 300 yards. Drop speed to match when our bow passes the stern. Walk in the park!

To see a much closer view click here.