High Seas Series: The United States Navy ~ Book Three

The one good outcome was that we would be scheduled in port in January, when our first child was to be born. We sailed on November 5th for the North Pacific. For once, the weather was great and the Kauai Channel was smooth as glass. Had I known what the Fates had in store for me, I would have been more nervous, but as it was, I was looking forward to getting back to Pearl Harbor in time for the birth of our child. The patrol was absolutely normal, so normal in fact, it seemed almost dream-like. Nothing broke down, the weather was unusually good for that time of year, and our relief ship was right on time! We sailed into Pearl Harbor on January 15th and everything seemed like it was going our way.

(Remember the Fates that order the lives of Sailors and Fools!)

Our return to our home port of Pearl Harbor was one of the very few arrivals that was so ordinary as to be unremarkable. Nothing had broken down, there had been no panics and even the weather was cooperating.

Winter in Hawaii is like no other spot in the United States, the weather was clear and warm, the rainy season was over with and tropical flowers were blooming in great profusion.

My wife met the ship, she had already started her maternity leave, and we headed out for supper, Wo Fat's, of course! We both loved Chinese food and we headed to Wo Fat's any time we could get away with it.

We had been invited to a little party on the 20th of January and, since she was feeling good, we accepted. It was our wedding anniversary and it was a good excuse to celebrate.

There were little things that had to be taken care of on the ship, but there were no major projects that claimed very much of my time. I was home early every evening.

We were getting ready to go to the party and I had just stepped out of the shower when I heard my wife scream. I ran into the bedroom, she was sitting on the edge of the bed, holding her sides.

I looked at her and she shook her head in a "Yes".

I really don't remember getting dressed, but I must have because I was not arrested for indecent exposure. We got to the hospital just before 5:30 in the evening, at 7:03 I was a proud new Father of a baby boy, one year and thirty-three minutes after we had been married.

I must have been rattled, when I called my parents to tell them they were Grandparents, I reported my 6 pound - 11 ounce son to them as 11 pounds - 6 ounces and could not understand why my poor Mother gasped!

Our new son fascinated me, I could stand by his crib for hours just watching him. I had some leave coming to me, so I took it when I brought our baby and his Mother home.

I had been home just a couple of days when the Captain called me, I had received orders that I was to be involuntarily extended for 90 days, that is, my active service time had been extended three months.

Since I had made no definite plans, it was of little importance to us. Besides, there was absolutely nothing I could do about it anyway.

Mother and baby were doing fine and I returned to work, we were scheduled to deploy on a special operations mission that was so classified at the time, we could not speak about it to anyone, including our spouses.

My wife, not being "Navy" was not too pleased about that, but she had our son to keep her occupied. She did not go back to Nursing for another nine years!

We sailed the 12th of February and headed west, as opposed to north for our usual operating area.

A bit less than two weeks later, we were in the far western Pacific, in an area claimed by the Soviet Union, but not internationally recognized. They claimed territory 250 miles from their shore, 12 miles was the internationally recognized distance.

They were showing an Alfred Hitchcock movie in the wardroom, it was not something I cared for, so, after 2000 (8PM) Reports, I headed aft to my quarters to get a little shuteye, as I had a mid-watch coming up.

I had hardly closed my eyes, when there was a tremendous thud, the whole ship shook and all the lights went out. I could hear all the machinery wind down and stop and the emergency alarms went off. The one great thing an engineer does not want to hear is absolute silence!

The emergency lighting came on as I was struggling into my clothing.

A Damage Control Petty Officer came crashing through the door telling me there had been an explosion in the Forward Engine Room and the Main Control Room was on fire!

Dear God, a fire at sea, every sailor's worst nightmare!

He told me I was the only officer aft, all the rest were trapped forward in the wardroom and the interior ship's communication system was out.

A nightmare it was, the fire was venting out the main engine intakes up on the side of the stack.

Clipped to the stack were 6 cylinders of acetylene!

Worse, three feet away were stacks of torpedoes! ALL loaded with high explosive!

Almost as bad, on the other side of the stack were oxygen cylinders. When heated and in the presence of pure oxygen, the aluminum of the stack and surrounding superstructure would burn like gasoline!

I made the decision to jettison it all, the oxygen, acetylene. There was no communication with the bridge, as it had been evacuated and the telephone system was out with the Captain trapped in the wardroom behind a wall of fire..

When the men came back from chopping the welded aluminum brackets free and pushing the cylinders over the side, followed by the torpedoes, the petty officer had told me that the torpedoes were oozing a brown liquid and I ordered them dumped. Fortunately, the detonators were not installed in them, so there was little likelihood they would have blown up, it was better to dump them, also rather than worry about more explosions!

By dawn, we had gotten the fire out, but we had no power, no engines and the main switchboard was a ruined mess in the bilges.

Plus, we were inside the territorial waters claimed by a country opposed, at the time, to ours!

The Executive Officer insisted we should send out a MayDay.

I talked the Captain out of it, first, I didn't relish the thought of a Soviet Prison, secondly, I and the two Chief Petty Officers of my Department had already devised a scheme to restore limited electric power and get us underway on two Main Engines.

The Exec made my life living hell for the remainder of my time on the ship.

We started dragging emergency power cables through open hatchways and down into the Secondary Control Room, where there was an auxiliary switchboard that had remained undamaged.

We still had two workable generators and, by "dog robbing" all the emergency power cables on the ship, we could run emergency circuits to most of the vital equipment. The high pressure air compressor, however, was completely ruined. We had just enough high pressure air in the tanks for a couple of starts.

There was no way we could jikky rig the boilers, as the Main Control Room was a total loss. That meant no heat, no water and no laundry or galley. We could get two Main Engines running on one shaft, it would be slow, but we could get home, or, at least, into safer waters.

After two days of non-stop labor, the After Control Room Throttleman rolled Number three Main Engine on the last of our high pressure air and IT STARTED!

More than one of us had been ready to pray on our knees to hear that awful roar!

The engine mufflers had cracked from the heat of the fire and the noise was a terrible din, but oh, so welcome!

I was later told that the Captain bit down so hard on his pipe, he bit it in two!

The next Main Engine, Number four, the Throttleman started by dragging it on line through the hydraulic clutch, rather than risk what little high pressure air MIGHT still be in the tanks.

Even though the thrust was horribly out of balance being two engines on only one propeller shaft, we were able to get up to about 12 knots as we headed for Midway Island. Any direction would have been fine, as long as it was AWAY from the Soviet coast!

It was pointed out to me that I had an oily waterline on my clothing chest high. Somewhere, at some time, I had been in oily seawater up to my chest! I had no recollection of being in water, then or now. It remains a complete mystery.

We kept to the 12 knots until we were beyond the 250 mile line claimed by the Soviets before I recommended to the Captain that we slow to 10 knots, the side thrust worried me and, if we lost a bearing or some other part of our already damaged propulsion system, there would be no second chances.

He agreed.

We stopped at Midway Island by dumping the clutches, leaving the two engines at idle while they sent a barge out to us with fuel and fresh water.

We needed the water not only for drinking, but the cooling jackets of the Main Engines and generators needed fresh water, they would not last very long with seawater for a coolant. They nosed us out of the harbor with a small harbor tug before we refilled the clutches.

We chugged our way towards Pearl Harbor, few of us got much sleep and even fewer of us still had all our fingernails by the time we spotted the Island of Kauai.

Our problems had been well documented by radio messages and we were met in the Kauai Channel by two ocean tugs, at that time, they were the most beautiful things we had ever seen!

As we approached the outer harbor, the bridge rang down, "Finished With Engines".

Was that ever an understatement and so welcome, tears came to my eyes in relief!

The tugs finished bringing us home and, even though we all smelled like a bunch of he goats, and looked even worse, our families were crowded on the pier, anxious to put their hands on us.

The Squadron Command had kept everyone as well informed as they could, and had posted a chart on the front of the office showing our position at each report.

To say it had been "ONE HELLUVA TRIP" was about like saying gold was valuable!

The remainder of my active duty time would be spent getting the damage repaired and explaining to various authorities what happened, why it happened and who was to blame for it happening.

The Captain sent us all home that first night, all except for a small watch section and before the Squadron Staff could start asking any questions.

Boy, they sure made up for it the next day!

It took me two showers and an hour's soaking in the tub to get the smell of soured diesel fuel/sweat/mildew off of me.

I am pretty sure my wife threw some Clorox in the bathwater!

By the time I got out, my toes looked like shriveled worms.

She fixed me my most favorite food she knew how to cook, her special tacos! I played with my baby for a few minutes before heading upstairs to bed. I don't remember brushing my teeth or even undressing, before that damnable alarm clock started screaming at 0530!

I guess it is just the way the Navy is, every happening MUST have someone who is at fault. They were so worried about my decision to roll those damned torpedoes over the side. They were leftovers from WW2, the same torpedoes that Submarine Captains complained that they would not detonate when they could hear them hitting the hull of an enemy ship!

The Investigating Officer from Washington was highly indignant when I told him the damned torpedoes were down 35,000 feet in the Kamchatka Trench. If any enemy had the technology to find them, they sure as hell didn't need them!

I knew I was getting out, so I let my big mouth run away with me a bit, but, yea gods, I sure as hell thought saving sailors' lives was more important than six antique torpedoes that didn't work anyway!

My separation date was set for April 25th and it couldn't come soon enough.

We were back in Pearl Harbor Shipyard and their God-Awful dry dock, they had to cut a patch in the hull to get all the burned and damaged equipment off the ship.

It was finally determined that the bellows joint below the mufflers on No. 1 and No. 2 Main Engine cracked and leaked carbon dust out into the sealed compartment that held the mufflers. There was no way to inspect them as they were in a welded cavity between the Machine Shop and the upper part of the engine Room.

Conditions were just right and the carbon dust exploded. It was indeed fortunate that nobody was hurt or even killed, had the explosion gone outwards, there was a berthing compartment with forty sleeping sailors who might not have survived!

By the time a new switchboard was installed in the Main Control Room and the Forward Engine Room and Main Control Room were completely rewired, I was down to a week more.

I kept a low profile and, on Saturday Morning, I was at Hickam Air Force Base getting on a MATS flight with my wife and son.

I had not been sure if we were going to get away on the appointed day or not, so I had not told my parents we were coming in "low and fast".

My Sister and new Brother in Law met us at Travis AFB and we walked in on my parents as they were sitting down to lunch.

What did we have for lunch? Hell if I remember and I bet my parents didn't either. It was the end of a chapter in my life, one I was glad I had not missed out on, but at the time, I was just as relieved that it was over with.

I went on to a shore side career in Engineering that was to take me over much of the planet for the next half century. Most of the men I worked with on that ship have since passed away, there are a small few of us still living and those whom I was especially close to, I still am. It was not an occupation for the faint-hearted nor for the timid, but despite the heartaches, I remain forever thankful I was given the opportunity and survived it. When one has faced death before a raging fire, there is little else that can scare Hell out of him!

Author's note: There are two more stories in The High Seas series, The Trader and Ocean Tugs. Both stories are based somewhat on the author's own experiences but will be presented in a novel type story.

Charles Bird