Homecomings were always special. Some of the cruises lasted a year or more and the Chief always came home with neat stuff, alligator purses from Cuba...Toys from Japan or Hong Kong...lots of tailored clothes from Hong Kong, too...always something. Except for the big Greenland cruise. That time he came home empty handed...so did all the guys in the machine shop. Here's why.
Some of the older hands told some of the newer guys about the great fur deals you could get in Greenland...if the Eskimos were around when you got into port. So this was gonna be the fur cruise for all the machine shop gang. They worked their way up through the north Atlantic...I never understood why the Preserver, ARS 8, a repair ship, needed to go on long cruises all over the ocean. But I was only 7 or 8 years old and the things I didn't understand about the Navy could fill a library or two. All I knew was that my dad was gone a long time sometimes.
Anyway, they made port in Greenland and as soon as they made Liberty, they hit a few barsthen lit out to find the fur deals. When they found the fur dealers, they were amazed. There were beautiful furs made into all manner of coats, hooded parkas, throws, mucklucks, and even pants. The Chief was tickled to get a bunch of great buys for mom and the kids. Almost the whole duty section spent like sailors, buying up all those beautiful fur and leather goods. A few more bars on the way back to the ship and they counted this as one of the most successful Liberties ever.
The Mighty "P" sailed out early the next morning to complete the circuit, less than a week out of Norfolk. Sometime around noon that day someone below decks started complaining about a bad smell. As the day wore on, the smell grew more pronounced until it was almost enough to make you vomit. That was when some of the old hands...the ones who had told them about the great fur market...laughingly explained the there is no source of salt up in the frozen north. So the only way the Eskimo tribes have to cure their leathers and furs was to use their own urine. Oh, it works out fine if you stay out in the cold...but when you bring them inside to a warm place...well...as they warm...they emit.
The Chief used to grin from ear to ear as he described all those sailors standing at the rail of the fan tail, tearfully pitching all those furs over the side...he said it looked like a fur storm. He said that was bad but coming home empty handed and broke was the worst part for him. My little sister was only two and she didn't know who he was anyway. I parlayed my disappointment into a trip to the toy store, worked out ok for me. And of course, I had my dad back for a while.