Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1918-07-19
GOT AWAY With IT.
Young Captain Disobeyed Orders
and Won Out.
Possibly Admiralty Had Sense Enough
to See That 1t Was Poor Busi-
ness to Discourage
Such Man.

There was a certain young officer
John Chisholm call him-who played
poker occasionally. He commanded
a ''fliyver," which is the service term
for the smallest class of destroyers,
the 750-tOn ones.
In the navy there are plenty of peo-
pie who will tell you that they never
built destroyers which keep the sea
better than that same little f1ivver
class, James B. Connolly writes in Col
lier's Weekly. Young Captain CHS
holm of the 32S was one.
One morning, having conveyed a
fleet of merchant ships safely to their
port, the 1913 was one of a group of
deStroyers making the best of their
way to their base port. officers and
men who have been hunting U-boats
for week or so do not like to linger
along the road home SO it was every
young captain giving his ship all the
steam she could stand and let her belt
It was moderately rough when they
started. 1t grew bit rougher. CHS
! holm in the 1913 was going along at
! 20 knots when a fellow he very well
! knew came along in his big 1,000-
ton destroyer His nose hauled up on
the quarter of the 1928; up to her
! beam; up to her bridge. AS she passed
/ the 323 her commander megaphoned
across: "What you making, Chiz?"
Twenty knots!' hailed back CHS
! holm.
I'm seeing your twenty knots and
raising you five!" returned the other,
and passed into, the lead
''All right said Chiz, "but wait ~
The sea grew rougher. The 323
was bouncing pretty lively, but hang
ing on to her twenty knots. "And at
twenty you let her hang if she rolls her
darned crows nest under! said
Chisholm to his watch officer-"and we
won't he acting rudder to this bunch
going into port !"
They were still going along at &c
knots when from out of the driz-
zle ahead they saw the stern and
tunnels of a destroyer. 1t was 1.-The
big destroyer that had passed them
and the tough little 323 breasted he1
he passed her (and he came quite
close to let all hands view the pass
ing) young Captain Chisholm leaned
out from his bridge and hailed: "Call
yuh''
This same young fiivver captain
was headedfor port in the usual hurry
and was already well into the west
(sho IIc% OI1te, 10 M who e
signal was whipped out from the sig
nal tower. 1t was.for this ship: "Wes
channel mined last night by U-boats
Proceed to sea and come in by cas-
channel"
Chiz did not proceed to sea, and hi
did not come in by the east channel
The harbor saw him come straight or
to his mooring.
Said Chiz: 81 was well into tha
channel when 1 got the signal. And
of course, the first instinct was to ODE!
orders. But 1 stop and think: Thi!
ship of mine, she's 300 feet long ant
under her stern there's two big propel
lers. If ever I turn this 300 foot shil
in this channel with those two propel
ieIS CIIuI1lAS dlu lHeTeS any loOS'
German mines around, there won't b.
q blamed one of them she'll miss Blu
if l keep her straight on there's
chance SO 'HelPs firer says to my
self, the cnly thing to do is to keel
straight onv And I kept straight on
!, and we made our mooring."
After that they waited to hear wha
the admiralty had to say. But the
heard nothing; whereupbn some sal
} that was due to the admiralty conclud
ing that it is poor business to scold al
: officer who carries through a nerv
piece of work.