The crews of the YP boats consisted of Navy sailors and the San Diego tuna men. It did not take long for the tuna men to realize they knew more about the ship than their counterparts Nearly 600 San Diego tuna men were now in the Navy and wore their uniforms deliberately askew earning them the name "Hooligan Navy." They also generally left the decks unswabbed.
Vince Battaglia remembers 9 months without mail and 7 without pay.They had problems with the 50-caliber machine guns. Jack Theodore recalled, "Those .50 calibers were good for nothing. I didn't even use them when I got hurt."
The boat also had 12 depth charges astern mounted above the bait box.
Even though they were not intended for active combat, that was not the case. Early on a group of four YPs transported fuel and supplies from Pearl Harbor to La Perouse Pinnacle, 260 miles south of Midway Island. Heat made the fuel drums so hot, crews had to hose them down every two hours.
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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