Reg, G4FGQ weote:
"As the radar operator over the China Sea, I was once severely cursed
(reoremanded) over the intercom by the skipper for getting ourselves
lost immediately following a tight turn."

On my ship, most of the crew was sleepless most of the time while we
were underway. We had two 4-hour watches each day at our sea detail.
Plus, we had to turn-to on our regular work details during dayrime hours
if we weren`t on watch. But, the killer was the dawn and dusk general
quarters positions we had to man every day while traveling in a war
zone. You were really lucky if your assigned watch time sometimes
cincided with work-detail time.

The result of all this sleep loss was some cat-napping on the bridge in
addition to elsewhere aboard. Our top speed was 14 knots which made us
faster than a liberty ship, so at times we got convoy escort duty. We
had antiaircraft guns, 50 ca., 20 mm, and 40 mm. My gq position was on
the latter.

Whenever the brdge awakened after a doze in convoy, someone would often
shout down through the voice tube to the radar operator:
"Geez! how close is that ship ahead? Whereupon, the operator would push
or pull himself away from a PPI tube covered with false sea return, poke
his head out a porthole, then scream his best estimate back up the voice
tube. That`s how he avoided being scolded.

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI