The Supply Department
G. F. P.
“When do we eat? When’s pay day? When can I draw a pair of shoes? Got any ‘Bull’-an’ soap-an’ peanut brittle? Can you get us a piano, an anchor, a car of lumber and a dozen 13 inch gadjets before we shove off?”—questions that are part of the sailors’ existence and the cause of the Supply Officer’s dilemma.
How well they are answered speaks volumes for the organization, zeal and efficiency of the Supply Department. To feed fourteen thousand men (and a thousand or so women, generals, admirals, diplomats, lieutenants and bo’sns); to operate canteens throughout the ship that rival in their activities Woolworth’s chain of stores; to keep the storerooms stocked with every conceivable kind of supplies which are or may in any emergency be required in the many departments of the ship; to clothe properly the crew of more than two thousand men; to keep the accounts of these men and to pay them twice a month; to—but limited space does not permit. Enough to state that the patience of Job, the wisdom of Solomon, the agility of Mercury and the persistency of Bryan are among the requirements necessary to manage successfully the diversified activities of the Supply Department. Verily, the life of the Supply Officer is far from being a bed of roses.
Five distinct divisions of the Supply Department were organized during the early days of going into commission—Commissary, Disbursing, Sales, Storekeeping, and Officers’ Mess—each in charge of an Assistant Supply Officer. The original plans of organization and operation, evolved by Captain G. C. Schafer, were developed and carried out by Lieut.-Comdr. F. Simonpietri, upon whom rested the responsibility of filling the office of Senior Supply Officer on the Leviathan’s maiden trip with more than ten thousand men on board. Under his able guidance the routine of the various divisions were systematized, improved and proven. Each subsequent trip brought forth new problems which were masterfully dealt with and solved by Lieut.-Comdr. Simonpietri and his able successors, Lieut.-Comdr. N. B. Farwell and Lieut.-Comdr. E. C. Edwards. A silent tribute to the results achieved by these Supply Officers is the fact that to the large transports commissioned later the Leviathan was called upon to furnish many trained men as a nucleus for the Supply Departments of these new ships, where Leviathan methods were introduced and are being successfully carried out.
During the early voyages Assistant Supply Officers Colburn, Barker, Poggi, Waters and Judkins wrestled with their respective divisional duties by day, and by way of diversion alternated as Senior Lookout Officers by night, making hourly rounds of the lookout stations, from the forepeak to the after crow’s-nest, fair weather and foul. Inclined a bit toward rotundness, it was a ne’er to be forgotten privilege to see the form of “Jeff” Colburn silhouetted against the starry heavens, en route to the crow’s-nest. “Behold!” quoted “Doc” Carroll one cold evening, when he espied “Jeff’s” figure looming in the shrouds like a square-rigger, “behold yon sylph-like Romeo seeking his fair Juliet!”
Other assistant supply officers who have been assigned to the Leviathan for duty or instruction are Messrs. Carter, Wrigley, Bishop, Harris, Schuler, Hoffman, O’Shaughnessy, Stevens, Ingram, Finstemacher and Miller. Of the “old timers” but Waters and Poggi remained to continue “carrying on” in charge of the Storekeeping and Sales Divisions respectively.