Part 4 (1/2)
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”Boresighting”--a 3-inch gun on board a merchant s.h.i.+p.]
We anch.o.r.ed in an English port and like every good ”bloomin' b.l.o.o.d.y Yank,” as our British cousins call us, we got out our bats and b.a.l.l.s ready to play United States baseball. We had four cracking good teams on the s.h.i.+p. The first and fourth would play, then the second and third.
The compet.i.tion was pretty close and we were tickled to death when the American Consul got a tract of land for us and we went ash.o.r.e to show those Johnnies a regular game, after watching cricket for an hour or two.
Well, after several days of games, some of the men began abusing their sh.o.r.e privileges, and the officers knocked it off and kept us aboard--no liberty at all!
Gee, we certainly longed to get off the boat. There was land only a hand's throw away--and there was a whole diamond going to waste and games tied. One afternoon, after talking the matter over, we plucked up courage and drew lots. It fell on me to go up to the Officer of the Deck and ask for a Recreation Party.
I did.
He didn't waste any breath at all. ”No,” he said, so I slunk back to my mates. But we didn't let the matter rest. Every ten minutes another one of us would march up with the same request. The O. D. got sore. Ole was on watch.
”Pa.s.s the word,” the O. D. commanded crisply, ”_No Recreation Party whatsoever!_”
Ole did.
”_No Recreation Party what's er matter?_” he hollered.
That finished him. He lost a rank on account of it. Poor Ole, he got in dutch for fair!
We were convoying merchant and troop s.h.i.+ps, going out to meet them and bringing them back to port. We started out one cold October day with a raging gale blowing. The sea was like a seething caldron--the waves were mountain high. We had on all the warm things we owned, but, at that, we were ice wherever the water struck us.
I was m.u.f.fled to the eyes. Esquimos had nothing on me and I could see we were in for some stiff duty. It wasn't a matter of one day--it was a matter of eight days on a raging sea--no chance to take off your socks even--life-preservers on every minute of the time--watching out sharp for Fritz.
A flock of us met the s.h.i.+ps we were to bring in and we started to steam back to our base, when we had the shock of our lives!
It was early morning, barely light. The sky was a gray line, as if you took a paint brush and slapped a streak from east to west. The water was gray and we men on the bridge rubbed our eyes, for right in front of us, not five hundred away--standing out black against the sky--was a German submarine.
We figured she had laid there all night--and was going to send our flags.h.i.+p to the bottom if she could--but she couldn't have looked over her shoulder, because she didn't seem to know we were there.
Well, we were after her like a streak of greased lightning. That was just what we had been praying for; as we charged her we fired; we were almost on top of her, trying to ram her, when she submerged; we pa.s.sed right over her as she went down; you could see the bubbles and spray.
Then we launched our depth charges--”ash cans,” as we call them. They look like a ten-gallon drum. You set them off when you are traveling full speed right above your blooming submarine--fifteen knots we were making.
Quick! Say, it's the speediest work in the world, because, once your charges are dropped, you have to beat it or get blown up yourself--as it is you can feel the explosion for yards around. Well, we dropped four--and got out of the way. As for the sub ... zowy! Up she came to the surface, ripped wide open. Then she stood up on her end and sank as if somebody had pulled her down by the tail.
One man of the German crew floated out of her before she sank for all time, and Ole, before we could stop him, had lashed a rope around himself and was overboard hauling him in. The German was dead, so he couldn't give us any information. Worse luck! But we didn't let that make us feel blue. I tell you we were a pretty pleased bunch. You feel good all over when you get a German sub. They are so blamed much like a crook waiting in a dark alley to stab a man in the back. Yon owe it to society to knock him out good and proper.
Yep, great crew ours. Some say destroyer duty takes nerve, but the reason I like it is that you don't feel like sleeping on your job; you're just too blamed afraid you'll miss the thrill of your life if you do. It's a great life! Take it from me!
HOSPITAL APPRENTICE DUDLEY SPEAKS:
IN TRAINING
I DIDN'T know what I wanted to enlist in--I didn't care. All I thought about was that war was declared. That set my New England blood boiling, I suppose, and I didn't waste any time. I happened to be in Baltimore. I scooted down to a recruiting station and joined the Navy.
They asked me what branch of service I wanted to go in for. I said I didn't give a hang just so long as I'd get a chance to go across and do a thing or two to the Huns. They chose the Hospital Corps for me. It sounded all right. I didn't dream of the hard work I was letting myself in for.