Thrust into the position of captain by the necessity of war, Richard Bovbjerg, a young biologist, chronicles a fascinating look at the lives of men aboard a minesweeper, the YMS 353. Bovbjerg guides his crew from Miami, Florida through the South Pacific to the Philippines in the closing year of World War II. From their small wooden hulled boat, Bovbjerg and his crew experience the boredom of endless days at sea punctuated by kamikaze attacks, meetings with a Stone Age tribe in the South Pacific, shore leaves in pre-revolutionary Cuba, the creativity necessary to survive Navy bureaucracy, the terror of tropical typhoons among uncharted reefs, the endless terror of mines, and finally, miraculously, their survival without casualty. An intimate, gritty testimony to be shared by the captains and sailors of the Pacific minesweepers with their children and with all those interested in the daily realities of war, Steaming as Before provides a compelling account of war from life at the base in Miami to the liberation of Palau.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 For Duty as "Commanding Officer": Orders to YMS 353- Shock; Norfolk to Jacksonville, Three Day Trip; What Led to These Orders?; Background- Enlisted and Commissioned; Arrival at Mayport, Florida; Was I Ready?; a Beach Apartment; Simple Ceremony at S Chapter 3 Breaking in a New Captain: Routine Sweeping and Anti-Sub Patrols; Phoney War on Atlantic Coast, Diminished Submarine Threat; ROTC Midshipmen Training Cruise: Ship-handling Intuitions; Docking at Night, a Seamanship Scam; Transfer of Tanker Passenger Chapter 4 The Tropical Cruise Ship: Departure, Charleston to Miami; Miami Beach Vulgarity; Seeing the Keys Offshore; Overnight to Havana, Cuba; Mad Pilot in Harbor; One Day Liberty in Town; Cab for the Day; Sight-Seeing and Cuban "Circus"; Distillery Mi Bohio Chapter 5 Course West, Speed Ten Knots: San Diego Landfall; Navy Yard; U.S. Wealth Compared to Latin Poverty; Nightclubbing; On the Way to Pearl Harbor; Fueling at Sea, a Test of Confidence; Impression of the Island and Navy Yard; Moana Hotel and Beach; Chasi Chapter 6 Steaming as Before, Life at Sea: Log Entries, Boring, Boring. Leaving Port, Good to be at Sea; Calm and Storm; Weariness; Biologist's Paradise; Day at Sea, Events Break the Day; Night Watch, Total Darkness; Keeping Station; Radar and Sonar; The Mor Chapter 7 Anchored as Before, Life in Port: Log Samples; Landfall, Docking or Mooring; So Good Getting to Port; Types of Ports, Navy Yards, Forward Bases, Invaded Ports; Nature of Tropical Ports; Forward Bases, Like Manus Island; Instant Base Construction, Se Chapter 8 Bullets, Beans and Washing Machines: Global Problems of Supply; The Washing Machine Heist- Piracy; Salt Water Stills- Bending the Rules; The Captain's Bike- Banditry; Apra Harbor, Guam: Scourging Lesson Number One; The Flour Beetle Mystery; The Triu Chapter 9 Neptunus Rex: Crossing the Equator: Boarded by a Pirate; Captain Last, Pummeled by the Whole Crew; Such Formal Horse Play Chapter 10 Unending Terror: Combat in the Philippines: From Manus to Leyte, Philippine Islands; Christmas 1944, No Ho Ho Ho; Leyte Resupply, First Air Raids; Log, 3, December 1944, Typical Day in Leyte Gulf, Log 2-3 January 1945, Underway to Luzon; The Kamikaz Chapter 11 Subic Bay Invasion: The Liberators: Invasion of San Antonio, Minor Event; Invasion of Subic Bay; Close to Shore, Fire Support to Sweeps; A Child's Welcome; Evidence of PT Boat Sinkings in 1942, None; Hasty Joining of Convoy Back to Leyte; "Well Done Chapter 12 Stone Age Friends: Ulithi Interlude: Damage to Shaft, Unable to go on Okinawa Invasion; Assigned to Island Patrol, Offshore; Assigned to Patrol Native Island, Fassauai; Introduction to King Ueg; Tour of Island; Shock of Primitive Culture, Nudity; La Chapter 13 For Those in Peril on the Sea: Typhoon: On Patrol at Island Entrance, Ulithi; Growth of the Storm to Typhoon; "Commanding Office ruse Own Discretion."; Decision to Try to Anchorage; First Crisis, Turning 180 Degrees; Second Crisis, Making the Narrow Chapter 14 The End, Almost: Ulithi Patrols in August, 1945; Hiroshima and Nagasaki Announcements; Hostilities End; New Assignment, Palau Islands, Minesweeping Chapter 15 Epilogue: Mindless Menace of Mines; Liberation of Palau: Port Director's Compliments; The Tough Passage Through Reef Flats; Visit to Island Commodore; Plans for 3 Day Exploration Prior to Sweeping; Geography of the Archipelago; Investigating Malakal Chapter 16 Geographic Index