Hey Bill I remember going into lil orphan annies one night I went up to the bar and ordered a beer and you said how ya doing Russell and I said do I know you and you told me who you were but you had that hair piece on and i'll be dambed if I could recognize you. What I want to know is what ever happened to posting that south pac cruise book. I would give my eye teeth just to have one. THX RUSSELL SEAMAN or fireman or whatever.

Russell, I could never forget you...come on...you were like everyones kid brother. Luckly you were Fireman Seaman when you cme onboard...you remember what I would have been like to be Seaman Seaman. I still have the cruise book in perfect condition. My kid brother is scanning it on disk so I can send it in to be uploaded.

I'm glad to see that you found this site...to bad many of our shipmates haven't...

Guess I was getting a little over anxious their Bill it just seems like so long ago and I have almost nothing to help me to recall the times except the reel to reel in my head and its sure not what it used to be. I remember there being a few guys that coulda and probably shoulda been knocked down a peg or two. Some guys let a stripe go right to there head and thought they were god, but I know that some of the friends I had back then were way better than any of the ones I have had sense then. I still live in the same town I grew up in and there are a few others that I have known from before high school even and they wouldn't make a pimple on the asses of some of the guys I knew onboard the Cochrane. Well like always Bill I know I can count on ya to show up with the goods. I am really looking forward to it. Good luck and try to keep your head above water. RUSSELL SEAMAN or FIREMAN or something like that anyways!!!!

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How well do I remember South Pac, the 124 day pleasure cruise from Pearl to Samoa, Fiji, New Caledonia, Tonga, Fiji, Wellington, Bluff Harbor (NZ), Sydney (10 day availability) 5 day joint exercise with the Auzzies and back to Sydney for 4 more days, Melborne, Beauty Point (Tazmania), Albany, Perth-Freemantle, Jakarta, Subic, Guam, Midway and back to Pearl.

I remember the naked bodies and bottles of wine at the bottom of the swimming pool of Mr. Collin Room's summer house in Launceston.  He invited the entire crew to his house for a party, he hired enough buses to make one trip for everyone, lent his Mercedes 280SL to GMM3 Dave Kingsbury so he could go get the young lady he had invited.  

I also remember the headache the disbo had paying to date the night before we pulled in to each port.  I remember getting water from the USS Robert E. Peary while underway and as they made their approach they passed the word "Secure the water polo team" and broke a flag that said "Peary Power and Light".  They also flew that in Sydney harbor when we needed to secure all the boilers for repairs and we hooked up shore power from them.

What a great cruise.

David Melges, LCDR (Retired)

David, or anyone,
I was on that cruise and both hated it and loved it. I left the ship for discharge in August when we returned and did not get a my copy of the cruise book. You mentioned the ports, might you have the dates associated with them?

Oh to be young again! what a cruise that was! and yes i remember the naked bodies in the pool and wine bottles on the bottom. i also remember someone got into the pool house and found cases of Jim Beam! Oh what a night!

a copy of the cruise book is on this site.  I do not have the port visit dates.