On board the United States Navy guided missile destroyer Claude V Ricketts (1960) while refuelling from the oiler Caloosahatchee (1945) during a voyage from Kiel to Norfolk, Virginia. The photographer is on the forecastle deck looking to port from the starboard side showing the men of the line hauling party waiting at their stations for the finish of the pumping. They are wearing red overalls and life jackets but the headgear varies between hard hats and differing styles of caps. The officer in charge is in white overalls. The Ricketts' crew consisted of 10 officers and 164 crew from the US Navy with the rest of the complement being from West Germany, Italy, Greece, United Kingdom, Netherlands and Turkey as a mixed manning experiment. The bridge and forward gantry of the Caloosahatchee (1945) is in the background and she is flying a substantial flag hoist.