I was pleasantly surprised and the crew was a real friendly bunch. The senior PO's were all a clean cut group and I couldn't have asked for better. The captain was LCDR John Dalin who looked like the movie actor Clifton Webb. He seemed to be a very meticulous man and was well respected by the crew. He had that great asset of being a fine seaman and ship handler.
Nothing builds crew trust more then that.
Even in the yard the little ship was immaculate. It had teak decks that were routinely holy stoned. The white hull and super structure looked like it had been simonized. We didn't stand import engineroom watches. The ship was refloated and left the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard a few days later and returned to New Bedford State Pier 3, the home port.