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at kWaS 3 beautiful summer morning in May 1921, rtl( r e sukmarine base, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The bi i key-P°d trees were alive with squawking mynah Ca^S’ xvh11 e mongooses noisily raided the garbage ■ After a quick breakfast of ham, scrambled t]t^S' biscuits, and coffee, our 17-man crew lost no ^ ln getting aboard our old pig-iron submarine, (w [*r,n£ rbe night, the base crew and mule gang ^ ;/ ^etail) had provisioned the submarine USS - ^ (SS-91) for sea: fuei tanks full, fresh water tank
full
tW'O-
a rJ galley stores on board. Everything was ready for
-Week cruise, in which I was to serve as quar- wfrr - 1
C(>m
faster. Lieutenant Alexander D. Douglas, our
f landing officer, Lieutenant (junior grade) Roy . allernore, executive officer, and I mounted the Se- The order to cast off was given, and within a
bri,
sb
and
^allemore, executive officer, and I mounted the >rt time we were bucking moderate to heavy seas
steering a southeasterly course toward Panama th le^ Gunner’s Mate Harry E. Woodworth informed t , Crew that the USS Conestoga (AT-34), a seagoing had left Panama for Pearl Harbor and had not s 11 heard from. We were looking for the tug p tft'Where between Panama and Pearl Harbor.
*a’
‘ and the Pacific Ocean extends 10,000 miles
fatna is 4,000 miles east-southeast of Pearl Har- nd anc
VNbich to search for one missing vessel. The entire
■ >rth and south—40 million square miles of ocean
P ••
Fleet could have disappeared in such a place, ^less to say, we never found the tug.
2^ e completed our assignment two weeks later, °r 300 miles southeast of Hawaii, and Captain (j >ugbis ordered a change of course for Pearl Harbor, th reserve fuel tank was cut into the engines, and R‘n^ PromPtly sputtered, coughed, and died. Lieu- anjlnt Gallemore and the black gang investigated ^ discovered that the reserve fuel tank, upon which J depended for our return to the base, contained ’ salt water. The R-14 was completely out of
power and resting dead in the sea. A quick check revealed that the ship’s batteries had only enough electricity to power the boat for 30 minutes. Electrician’s Mate First Class Raymond W. Waldron, our radioman, was instructed by Captain Douglas to contact the submarine base at Pearl Harbor and inform Commander Chester W. Nimitz, Commander, Submarine Division 14, of our predicament. With an “Aye, aye, Sir,” Waldron entered the radio cubicle, turned on the transmitter, and was greeted by a blue flash and a loud pop. The transmitter was out and couldn’t be fixed, but the receiver was working fine.
What else, wondered Captain Douglas? No fuel, no communication, and one day’s ration of food. “How much water do we have, Woodworth?” The chief replied that we had about ten gallons. “Galle- more!” ordered Captain Douglas. “Have all electricity turned off—stove, gyro, steering, lights, and everything electrical except the radio and small lights. Keep one light in the central operating compartment and one in the motor room, and rig up the manual steering gear. Have the ship’s cook stretch out the food for as long as possible. Water will be for drinking only. Wilkinson! We’ll take a shot of the sun at sunset.” I got out the chart, stop watch, sextant, nautical almanac, Bowditch’s table of logarithms, parallel rulers, and dividers. As the sun set, Captain Douglas computed our position with paper and pencil, and noted it with a small “X” on the chart.
The sea was relatively calm as the sun sank below the horizon. The crew, tired and dirty after two weeks at sea, and having had dinner at noon and scraps for supper, was ready for a rest and lost no time in seeking a flat place to cork off. Thoughts of our possible disastrous predicament never entered our minds. We awoke before sunrise and refreshed ourselves by washing our faces with salt water. Captain Douglas and I took another bearing on the sun as it
slowly rose above the horizon. Moments later, our skipper announced that during the night the R-14 had drifted ten miles directly toward the island of Hawaii. We were making about one mile per hour and had 200 miles to go! It would take eight to ten days, if everything went well.
Someone suggested making a sail to give the old tub a boost. This idea was approved by the skipper, and all hands busied themselves searching for something to use for booms and a sail. Material for the sail was no problem; within minutes, several men were sewing a dozen hammocks together to make a good square-rigged sail about 18 feet wide and 12 feet high. But what would we use for booms, to hold it up on the radio mast? “Aha!” someone cried. “We’ll use our bunks for booms.” Within 30 minutes, all the rectangular pipe bunks were stacked upon the deck. Three bunks, laid end-to-end with two others on top and in the middle, were lashed together to make a flat wire boom 18 feet long. Two of these were constructed, one for the top and one for the bottom of the sail, and our canvas sail was lashed between the booms and hauled aloft on the radio mast. Our square-rigged sails caught the breeze and performed beautifully. Everyone cheered as we gained another half knot in speed.
After working all morning without breakfast, we were ready to eat anything the ship’s cook served. This proved to be cold grits and stale cornbread left over from two or three days ago. Our cook, who was
a Montana cowboy before joining the Navy, Pr(,n\ ised to make us a pot of son-of-a-gun stew as soon ,lS he could get some beef guts and cow chips. No °ne looked forward to partaking of this epicurean deli then, but a few days later we would have eaten lC with gusto.
The R-14 pushed ahead with her huge sail, cahcl colors of red, white, and gray showing where the seilS had beaten off the paint, and a ragged, tired ere"- The only thing lacking was a “Jolly Roger” from the mast. With the captain’s "Oh, well, F ahead—no one will see it but ourselves anyway,’ °ur torpedoman came up with a yard of white canvas, °n which he painted a large black skull and crossbone5- We hoisted it to the top of the mast, stepped bae '• and admired his handiwork. Captain DouglaS glanced aloft, and with a slight grin said, “If vve another ship, get that thing down or they’ll open on us.”
We had nothing to do now' but sit around, P^ acey-deucy, and talk about what we were going to 1 when our cruise was up. Our old pig-boat had noth ing fancy, such as refrigerators, air conditioner5- oxygen tanks or any other frills. Our food came
_Sacks’ boxes, and tin cans. On a dive we breathed the air we took down with us untii it became blue, rr nS with oil and ozone from the motors. Sweat (j-j11, °Ur bodies and the stink of the boat’s batteries the0 C e’r^er’ Radioman Waldron reported that ^submarine base and some of the other submarines calling us for two days, but with our radio C Srnitter dead, he had no way of answering their antic calls. The calls got more infrequent each day, 1 1 abcr three days they ceased completely. We
arned later that the R-14 had been reported lost at ’a with all hands.
^ n the third day, our meager food supply ex- T‘hUsted< we decided to build a couple more sails.
Is time we used blankets for sails and the few re- t^. nin£ bunks, pipe from the engine room, and any- ^itlf C'Se av:*bable for booms. The sails billowed ab trac^e wind breeze, giving the old submarine • °ut another knot of speed. Some thought was ph tn t0 3 mecb°^ for capturing one of the five dol- po nS Svv‘rnrn’n£ *n the shade of the sub’s extended v-rt bow-plane, but no successful system was de- ’ and our visions of a fish supper vanished.
. e awoke a morning or two later to see the vol- w c Peak of Mauna Kea through the haze. Gunner’s
tailin,
eyes j • . .
*n imitation of Columbus discovering America,
ex - out “Tierra!” (“Land”). Everyone chuckled
0„d Chief Woodworth, who painted the air blue
j ermg Bridges to get the blankety-blank heck
VVn from there before he fell overboard and made a
W 3 ^°r rbe sharks. We sailed all that day, and to-
Q U evening spotted a sampan approaching us on
r larboard bow. When, within about a half mile,
sampan suddenly did an about-face and took off
same
reeki
had been transr
art Winfield E. Bridges climbed atop the bridge stood upright, cupped his hands over his
the
at t0P speed, we realized we had completely forgot-
j n c^e Jolly Roger flying at our main mast. It was Mediately hauled down. We wondered what
wOuld
th
« flei
happen if we dropped a 3-inch shell close to e*ng sampan.
The weather had been perfect during our sailing. King Neptune evidently looked upon us as able seamen, worthy of his admiration and protection as we traversed his royal domain. Within a few hundred yards of the entrance to the harbor of Hilo, Hawaii, we doused our sails, started the boat’s motors, and turned on electric power and steering. The R-14 picked up speed from the electric power generated by the ship’s batteries, and the 30 minutes of power we had so zealously conserved brought us into the harbor. Minutes later, we were moored to the wharf. Waldron jumped ashore, and in a dogtrot headed up the wharf toward the town of Hilo to locate a land- based radio station. He was no doubt successful, because about two hours later, the R-12, which happened to be in the vicinity, entered the harbor and tied up alongside us. Our sister ship gave us enough fuel oil and food for our return to Pearl Harbor. Our stomachs were well provisioned by a Chinese restaurant at the end of the pier.
Everyone was in high spirits that afternoon as we cast off from the dock in Hilo and set our course for the submarine base at Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu. Next morning, we passed under the guns of Fort Kamehameha, which guarded the entrance to the channel of Pearl Harbor, and headed for the submarine base. The members of the base crew and the crews of the other R-boats in port lined the piers in disbelief as the weather-beaten, color-splotched R-14 with her ragged, dirty, unshaven crew maneuvered for a docking alongside the pier. Our recovery had not yet been made known to the base personnel. Shipmates and friends on the base were sure that we had suffered the same fate as the Conestoga, for which we had been searching. Had we been disabled in a heavy, rough sea or set upon by a typhoon, it is unlikely that the R-14 and her crew could have survived. We would have been trapped below deck in a relentless, rolling sea. But the ingenuity and team work of our captain and crew saved us and the R-14 and enabled us to sail safely into port.
.The Eyes Have It.
Ucj an instructor was drilling a class of WAVE boots in recognition of ranks an admiral paid a surprise visit. After the
(k'Parted, the instructor asked the class to identify the visitor’s rank and how it could be recognized. The answers eyt.C.f° ^‘saPP°inting that she said acidly, “If it had been a handsome young sailor, you would have noticed the color of his
Ca
rne a voice from the rear of the classroom: "The admiral’s eyes were blue.”
Thomas LaMance