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Post by The Phantom on Apr 19, 2009 8:44:49 GMT 8
Have you made the trip by bus from Subic to the old Navy base on Sangley Point in Cavite? Interesting that you said it was still possible, would like to do it myself.
I am reading a book, fiction, but based on history, written by a former destroyer man set in Subic and Sangley Point just before the outbreak of the war. It talks of coaling the ships from barges tied up alongside, in this case an old 4 stack destroyer, that had just been totally refitted in Cavite and on the floating dry dock near Olongapo in Subic bay. They talk about the area around Olongapo as being the main part of the base back then. There were no bars, girls of ill repute allowed there then. If a girl who danced with the sailors in a controled dancehall was suspected of hanky panky her parent was fied from the base.
But if you went down to the small Nippa hut village in "SUBIC" you could get all you wanted of both and then some. Not sure where this "SUBIC" village was located back then. A good book AND very detailed about the life on a Destroyer in 1917 and the interaction of the personalities on board.
One sailor is attacked by a shark and looses a leg in one bite when all the ships company are swimming naked off the dry dock as their ship is being worked on in Olongapo.
Are there shark nets at the beaches in Subic bay today? They used to be around the beaches on Corregidor prewar.
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Post by The Phantom on Apr 19, 2009 8:48:21 GMT 8
A response via email......
That Author seems to have it right. Wouldn’t mind reading that book.
There is a bus line, ‘Saulog’ that runs from Olongapo to Cavite. I never been to Cavite yet. But the terminal here is just outside the main gate.
It is a rundown bus line these days. Victory Liner really has a monopoly on the traffic to Olongapo and Zambales.
The Coal dock remnants are left because heavy concrete was involved. It is now the area of Vasco and Magellan Restaurant and it’s Marine Museum. The float plane and a couple other tourist related business are located here. I got that pic from the internet somewhere but I don’t remember where.
All those people around here with an agenda against the US who rail against the prostitution caused by the US Service Men forget to mention that when Olongapo was part of the Base there was none. It only started when Olongapo was returned to Philippine Authority.
Yes, it is true there was some in Subic. We Sailors called it later ‘Subic City’. It is the village ‘Calapandayan’ but it was hard to get there; it is about 10 km away from the Base. The Gordon’s had their start there and own that high end hotel and resort ‘White Rock’. This village is still about 2 km short of the Subic Town proper.
I don’t know about sharks and nets. I always figured the sharks disappeared from Subic from all that overfishing around here. I never seen nets at the civilian or Military beaches.
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Post by The Phantom on Apr 19, 2009 8:56:26 GMT 8
The book is:
DELILAH BY MARCUS GOODRICH
It was on the best seller list in 1941 with an afterword by James A. Michener, author of Hawaii etc. It describes the life on a U.S. 4 stacker Destroyer in the Philippine Islands just before the outbreak of World War ONE. 20 knots top speed even then.
The Japanese were considered a threat at that time also according to the book, suppling guns to the Moro's on Palawan and further south. It is written with the attitudes of the times.
One chpater describes events of the yime one being a group of small subs leaving Cavite Naval yard for Corregidor. They were being observed by the crew of the Delilah whose ship was being refitted in Cavite Naval Yard. All of a sudden 3 men fire up through the top of the sub into the air and then dropped in the water, a hydrogen explosion on board. A graphic rescue ensues.
There were port facilities in Zamboanga at the time. Troubles in Jolo, but the Ship Captain's sympathies were with the Moro's not the "controlling corrupt Tagalogs from the north". He hated the politics of Manila and how they affected his ships functioning throughout the islands. Will bring the book to P.I. on my next trip over to share.
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Post by Karl Welteke on Apr 20, 2009 16:44:04 GMT 8
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