Derry's First Year

Through the swirling Northern Ireland mists, a ship stood into Lough Foyle last week. She carried several hundred Seabees for the U.S. Naval Operating Base in Londonderry. The Navy's new crew of construction and repair men were a few days late for a celebration: the base had just passed its first anniversary. But they were not too late to hear navymen sing the praises--embroidered with profane complaints--of Derry, one of the secrets of U.S. enterprise in World War II, just being made public.

When Derry was commissioned, only a handful of Navy people were on hand. In a country where two weeks without rain is considered a drought, civilian employes of two U.S. construction companies sloshed through ankle-deep mud, grading, putting up Quonset huts, getting machinery under some kind of cover. Every nut, bolt and machine had come by convoy from the U.S. and so--25 days after the commissioning--did about 300 Navy technicians.

With half their machines still unpowered, Derry's men turned to, repaired their first ship, the Albatross, She was around their necks for days. Four times she stood out to sea, then came back for more repairs before the base finally and happily saw her waddle away into the mist.

Since that day, things have changed. Last week young (29) Lieut. David Hugh Conklin, the yard captain, could boast that his repairmen had long been giving shipyard service to any ship that could make port. Most of the yard's patients are Canadian craft, but ships of other countries also go there for overhaul. In Derry's shops and drydocks they can get repairs for anything, from broken optical equipment in binoculars and range finders to torpedo holes in their rusty hulls.

In celebration of its first anniversary, Derry put up a bronze plate cast in its own shop, heard speeches by white-haired Mayor Simmons of Londonderry (complete with ceremonial chain) and Ulster M.P. William Lowry. But a lot of the Navy's Derrymen missed the celebration: they were working.

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