Mount Merapi of ancestors who died as righteous people. The spirits of these ancestors are said to live in the palace as royal servants ("abdi dalem"), occasionally visiting their descendants in dreams to give prophecies or warnings. " To keep the volcano quiet and to appease the spirits of the mountain, the Javanese regularly bring offerings on the anniversary of the sultan of Yogyakarta's coronation. For Yogyakarta Sultanate, Merapi holds significant cosmological symbolism, because it is forming a sacred north-south axis line between Merapi peak and Southern Ocean (Indian Ocean). The sacred axis is signified by Merapi peak in the north, the
USS Merapi (AF-38) Galveston Dry Dock Co., "Merapi" hastened through shakedown and departed Mobile, Alabama, 11 April, for the Pacific Ocean war zone. Specializing in refrigerated stores, she sailed via Pearl Harbor to Kerama Retto, Okinawa where in the midst of numerous air alerts she unloaded 14 to 19 June. Having retired to Pearl Harbor for more supplies she got underway again on 20 July and spent the final month of the war at Eniwetok Atoll disbursing cargo. In the postwar period "Merapi" provided logistic support for U.S. occupation forces, initially using Auckland, New Zealand, as her supply base. Spending much of 1946