The Case of the Vanishing Beer

While the USS Pickens sailed around in the South Pacific, an effort was made to provide, rarely, some type of recreational break for the crew.  It consisted of finding some small uninhabited island and giving each crew member two beers and maybe two cokes, but no water.  We would swim and play touch football or other games for awhile and return to the ship.

It had been many weeks since we had enjoyed one of these  breaks, when  I was  part of a working party sent in a boat to the USS Denver, a cruiser, to collect some beer.  The beer was not in a case or  package but was loose and had to be gathered up can by can, loaded into a cargo net, dropped into the boat and taken back to our ship,.  There we unloaded the beer, which was then stored in a compartment. It must have been close to l,000 cans.  An officer was put in charge to supervise a 24-hour guard outside the hatch to the compartment.

Some days later we anchored by a small island and sent a group down to bring up the beer.  I was not in this group but I can imagine their surprise, when the hatch was opened and the compartment was empty, not one single can of beer left.  All of those who had stood watch duty were questioned  to a man could give no explanation.  All swore no beer had been stolen when they were on duty. The beer had just vanisihed.