The Day The Klamath Was Called O

The Day The Klamath Was Called On The Repel Boarders

Max was more than just a mascot. He had enlistment papers and his service record in the ships office. And his conduct was not always 4.0, but he was one of our better bos’n mates. He once made a mess on the deck in the captain’s quarters. For this he faced a captain’s mast and was reduced in rank from bos’n 3 to seamen, but he still managed to retire as a chief bos’n.

It took a while to train him to go on the fantail between the depth charge racks, but he learned. It revived the old term of calling that area the “Poop Deck”

It was dawn in the early 1950’s as the Klamath approached the coast of Japan; the sun had not yet appeared over the horizon. As we entered the channel that would lead us to our destination, the naval base of Yokosuka, we had no idea of the adventures that awaited us.

As we approached Yokosuka the special sea detail was set, Max and I went to our station at the bow. I helped with the bow lines, and Max was there to see that we did things right (as a bos’n 3^rd, he took his job very seriously).

Just as we had secured the bow and stern lines to the mooring buoys, a cargo net was hung over the side of the ship back at the quarter deck to provide a means of getting on or off a small boat so we could go from ship to shore and back again. Until that moment we had paid no attention to the many small row boats near the ship. But as soon as the cargo net was secured to the side of the ship, all hell broke loose. From my station on the bow, I could hear the officer of the deck and, his orderly yelling along with other voices yelling in Japanese. It seems that all small boats in the area had converged on the cargo net. Each boat had sent one or two men with small folding tables onto the Klamath’s quarterdeck. The O.D tried to stop them, but he was over- whelmed. Every time he turned one back, another five or six would get past him. Soon there were more than forty of these characters on deck setting up their little tables and setting out cheap trinkets and souvenirs to sell to the crew. In the bow we could hear but not see what was going on. Max however, could sense that something was not right. It was as if he had heard the call, long unused, to repel boarders. I tried to hold him back, but he was too fast; he knew his duty and he did it. When the Japanese saw him coming barking out orders for them to “skedaddle”, they panicked. A few made it down the net to a boat, but most jumped over the side. Within a minute or two the water was full of people trying to find a small boat. Max was rewarded that night with dinner of grilled steak covered with melted cheese and the bottom of the harbor today is probably still covered with the remains of cheap trinkets and souvenirs.