“As New Year’s bells ring out tonight, we celebrate our warship’s might. In poetic for, we must recall, Bunker Hill’s life before her 2023 mothball.”
That’s what Lt. Artem Sherbinin – who served as the now-decommissioned USS Bunker Hill’s final navigator before the ship left the service last year – wrote as 2022 crossed into 2023. Sherbinin’s New Year’s deck log entry won first place in the U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command’s competition, a tradition the command restarted in 2021.
First deck logs, which are written between midnight and 4 a.m. during the midwatch on New Year’s Day, are written in verse but must contain all the requirements of a deck log. Details required include, but are not limited to, sources of electric power, the position of the ship, the state of sea, the weather, any changes in the status of personnel and courses and speed of the ship.
Sherbinin’s prose captures the life of Bunker Hill as the ship was set for decommissioning in 2023. However, others have snuck in deck log requirements, such as the first log of 2021, which captured both the effects of COVID-19 on USS Ralph Johnson (DDG-114) and a drug seizure made by the ship. Toward the end of the poem, written by Electronics Technician 2nd Class Hailey Coop, are details about the ship’s electronic plant status and readiness.
It is unclear when the tradition started. A Navy press release announcing the 2024 deck log competition says it dates back to 1929. However, a blog post in The Sextant, run by the Naval History and Heritage Command, suggests they go back as 1926. But a note from the commanding officer of USS Idaho (BB-42) on the 1926 first deck entry suggests that the tradition was already old, USNI News previously reported.
“The Captain is glad to see that the old Navy custom of writing up the first watch of the year in rhyme is known to the younger members of the Service. The watch stands as written,” according to the note.
Authors David Johnson and Gary Guinn attempted to find first deck logs in verse before 1920 while writing “Midwatch in Verse,” which focuses on deck logs from the 1940s. While the two found references to New Year’s Eve or the new year in the deck logs from 1880, they could not find a poem before 1926. The tradition may stem back to USS Jeanette because the authors found a reference to the ship meterologist reading poems about the crew.
Navy History and Heritage Command elected to turn the first log into a competition, rather than publishing them on Jan. 1, as had been done up to 2021, taking the idea from Navy Times, which announced a competition in 1968. The publication offered $100 for the winning sailor and $50 for the winning ship’s welfare and recreation fund, according to The Sextant post.
Navy History and Heritage Command awards the winner of the Navy competition copper sheathing from USS Constitution, according to its press release. The command will announce the winners for the 2024 first deck log in April.
