In His Own Words: Gordon R. England
I decided to be more involved with the Naval Institute because it provides a very valuable service to the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard . . . and the nation. It is personally rewarding for me to support and contribute to organizations that help advance the causes of liberty and freedom, here and abroad.
Under the leadership of Board Chair Admiral Jim Stavridis and CEO Vice Admiral Pete Daly, the Naval Institute is now a national resource: It builds public understanding of the naval services, helps to develop future naval leaders, preserves and makes widely available the history of the naval services, and influences the future direction of the Sea Services.
The Naval Institute provides ongoing education for active duty, for retirees, for the general public—and for me! As a former Secretary of the Navy, it serves as an important venue to publish, to speak at important conferences, and to thereby stay engaged with the naval services. Further, it helps me stay in touch with naval leaders and with the many friends and associates with whom I served during my time in government.
Each year I make a significant financial contribution to the Naval Institute because I believe in its mission and record of accomplishments.
Captain Ernest Schwab Oral History is Now Available
The late Captain Ernest Schwab discussed his life and career during four interviews with historian Paul Stillwell for the Naval Institute in 1987. Among topics covered was his service as the executive officer of the USS Darter (SS-227) during the Battle of Leyte Gulf and the subsequent grounding of the submarine on Bombay Shoal in October 1944 after torpedoing the Japanese cruiser Takao.
We pursued the crippled cruiser and her destroyers into the Palawan Passage. Navigation here was tricky at best. From the mountains on Palawan, we were able to tell roughly what our longitude was, but it was very hard to figure out our latitude. We figured the Japanese ships were headed to Manila, and we were working in concert with the USS Dace (SS-247) to make a combined attack at around midnight. Dace would come in from one side; we’d come in from the other—we figured the destroyers couldn’t get both of us.
We were partially flooded down, making about 19 knots on the surface. Just a couple of minutes before we were supposed to turn inward, I told the captain, Commander David McClintock, that between the change of the monsoon and variations in the tides, we were bound to hit a shoal. He had no more than replied, “Well, shoals aren’t any worse than depth charges,” when wham—we hit Bombay Shoal. The crew thought we’d been torpedoed. All the watertight doors went shut automatically. We were aground all the way back to the screws.
We burned out the motors trying to get the boat to back off and sent out the two-letter code for “aground” to the Dace. Then we started burning all sorts of classified stuff in the forward engine room.
One of the Japanese destroyers came over and stopped dead in the water about 1,500 yards away, heading right at us. We had two 4-inch guns and all kinds of ammunition on deck. If he had come any further, the deal was, with the .50-calibers, we were going to wipe out his bridge and then hull him with the 4-inch. We were a pretty small target compared to him—he probably would have killed us first, but we might have been able to sink him. He was stupid—he just stopped and didn’t come over. We had turned off our radar to avoid detection and, evidently, he couldn’t see us, so he went away.
The Dace shook the Japanese ships, put a line over and tried unsuccessfully to pull us off. Just before dawn, we got everybody off and over to the Dace. You left with what you were wearing—I had shorts, a baseball cap, sandals, and my .45. By this time, the screws were out of the water. We turned on all the demolition charges and had a couple of minutes to get off the stern. I cut my leg on the propeller, which is how sharp it was.
Naval Institute oral histories are made possible through donated funds. For opportunities to support this program, please contact Sue Sweeney at (410) 295-1054 or at [email protected].