STRAWBERRY SHORT CAKE

On the Noton we would occasionally get straw berry short cake with what tasted like ''fresh strawberries'' and it was a real treat to be guarded with your life.
With that in mind here is my sea story.......
we were somewhere down in the Carib. Steaming in a circle. I was on ''mess cook'' duty and I was ''captain of the head''. Now, before you laugh, ''Captain of the Head'' was an honorable job during mess cook duty and much envied job. Simply put, I made friends with all the right people and was owed favors by most of them but that is another story for another time.
I went to ''early chow'' because they were having Strawberry Short Cake for desert and I wanted to be dang sure I got my ration.
The number one mess hall was almost full when they sounded ''MAN OVER BOARD, PORT SIDE. FALL IN FOR MUSTER''.... This emptied the mess hall and the mess line very quickly because we were obligated to fall in for muster so they could figuare out who was ''in the water''. I mustered in with my PPO. (police petty officer) and went topside to see what was going on.
On the fantail stood two or three prisoners and one very worried Marine. He was standing there with a haggered look on his face and was pacing about. About a mile back the utility boat was chugging toward a life ring with a smoke flair and a prisoner hanging on to it for dear life. I asked the Marine what the hay was going on. Here is his story.
He said he ordered the prisoners to drop their chipping irons and come to attention. His intent was to take them to supper chow and then back to the brig. He said they all stood up and one prisoner looked at him, looked at the ocean, looked back at him and did the DEEP SIX over the side of the Norton. Yep, he dove overboard............... The Marine yelled ''Man over board, Port side'' and the life ring guy dropped the life ring and set off the smoke flair. They turned the Norton to port to keep from eating the prisoner with the props and fortunately we were going dead slow and he didnt get ''Sucked thru the props'' and minced up into shark bait. They dropped the utility boat and were on the way to pick him up. The ''skivvie wavers'' (signalmen) had one of the ''big eyes'' (large signal lights) on him. When the ''U'' boat got to him he literally jumped into the boat.
I asked the Marine why he was so worried about this prisoner. Was this guy his brother or something? He said he was just a prisoner but if he should drown or get eaten by sharks or sink and never be found that , he, the Marine would have to serve the rest of his time in the brig. HOLLY CAT STUFF......
As I pondered the situation it occurred to me that my tray was still sitting in the mess hall with a good portion of Strawberry Short Cake on the tray. I immediately went back to the mess hall and reclaimed my prize. As I sat there enjoying my prize it occurred to me that there were trays on tables with no one in front of them and the Strawberry Short Cakes were getting soggy. I did my shipmates a large favor by eating too many of the Short Cakes off the abandoned trays. Sometime after supper chow I was one ''sick puppy'' ….. I swore to never again eat that many short cakes. For a while after that when we would have Strawberry Short Cake I would simply slide mine off on someone elses tray and say ''Enjoy''...........
So it went on the Norton, steaming in a circle somewhere in the Carib.....
Seajay the sailor man ...