Christmas 1945 spent on the high seas

At one of the reunions for the crew of U.S.S. LST 582, we each received a copy of a declassified U.S. Navy log book, which recorded 582's hour by hour travels during World War II. Looking up information about my Christmas of 1945, made for some interesting reading.
The war ended on V-J Day, Sept. 2, 1945, and our ship was one of a four LST convoys assigned to repatriate Japanese Prisoners of War. We were to proceed from the island of Guam in the Marianas chain to Truk in the Carolines. We arrived at Truk (known as The Gibraltar of the Pacific -- we were never able to invade it because of the coral reef harbor) on Dec. 16, 1945. Truk had been secured by U.S. Marines and they proceeded to bring the POWs from the island to our ship in small Higgins boat landing craft. They were army and navy personnel and had been stationed on Truk for four and a half years.
Skin and bones
Five hundred came aboard, some just skin and bones, like walking skeletons. We journeyed back toward Tokyo Bay, Japan, hoping we would arrive there on Christmas Day. Instead we arrived the day after.
On Christmas Day, the ship's log states: "Wind of Beaufort force 9-10; gusts of whole gale proportions. Ship laboring in a high sea, pitching deeply and heavily." Having never seen the word Beaufort, I decided to look it up in the dictionary. "A Beaufort scale is a scale of wind force and speed devised in 1806 by a British naval officer, Sir Francis Beaufort, wherein the numbers 9-10, mean the wind speed was 55-63 miles per hour."
There was no Christmas dinner on that memorable day. Under those conditions, I never ate anyhow.
We arrived on a calm sunny day in Tokyo Bay on the 26th, at the base of beautiful Mount Fuji. Its snow-covered peak rose majestically into the white clouds. It was a moving sight, since all of the POW's were on the deck shouting "Fuji, Fuji, Fuji." At last they were home.
X Michael J. Lacivita is a Youngstown retiree. A colletion of his columns. "Rag Man, Rag Man" has been published by Pig Iron Press.