It's January 1, 1926, 0300 hours aboard USS Idaho (BB 42) anchored in San Pedro Harbor, California. The night is dark, the midwatch duty, from midnight to 4 a.m., is long and lonely. A young ensign, E. V. Dockweiler, the Officer of the Deck, must enter the ship's deck log, an essential record that contains a chronological record of the ship, information about the ship's condition, its location, movements, and any significant events surrounding the ship. Deck logs can be mystifying to the untrained eye, a string of compass headings, military acronyms, and maritime jargon.
But Ensign Dockweiler knows what many in his place do not-an obscure US Navy tradition allows him, on the New Year's midwatch and no other time, to deviate from protocol and apply creative license to the task. He launches into a poetic rendering of the ship's record, a deck log in rhyming verse. Line after rhyming line, he includes the essential information, then ends with this:
That's all the dope this morning
Except, just between us two
If the Captain ever sees this log
My gawd what will he do?
THE WATCH STANDS AS WRITTEN: Voices From The Midwatch examines the Cold War era and the spirit of the times-the space race, fear of nuclear annihilation, the communist threat, 1960s counter-culture-through the eyes of young officers serving their country in troubled times.
