Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-12-25

burn up in protest. Seems our
anchors hadn't been able to hold,
after all, and for hours we had been
| alternately dragging across the bay,
hauling up anchor, running back
to our original position and drop
ping anchor again. The carpenters
and machinist's mates go to work
Tor mere hour or two and put the
engine back in condition so that 1t
stands up under yeoman duty for
the next three days.
AS the pilots shuttle of to bed for
the third time one of them says to
bunkmate, sleepily but with great
earnestneSs: Say Murph. Next
time you wake me up to tell me that
GO alarm is ringing I am going to
say What is it now and If you say
"A torpedo just hit the Ship will
say, Was it a big torpedo or a little
one and If it was a little one,
Murph, please, for Gods sakes,
don't make me get up, do you hear?
Please, for Gods sakes, Murph, just
let me stay in my sack and drown"
Missed the Show"
l aWoke again at II in the fore
noon. The wind hadn't abated and
the ceiling had lowered and tighter
than ever. We were still in the
outer bay. I hunted up the O. D.
Been here since the fire, eh?" I
asked him. Hell, we have" he said,
land you"-hiS voice was accusing
you missed the best part of the
whole show"
oh" I said, It suppose the Japs
came over and bombed hell out of
us and you birds didn't even wake
me up. NO." he said. I'VE had a
rescue. A real, Hollywood, Boy
Scout, Carnegie Medal rescue. Know
those kids in the whaleboat?" There
had been three of them. All night
they had bobbed round the ship,
assisting us to keep clear of OBJ
stacles and in our efforts to regain
the buoy.
We'll, after it got light, we de-
cided to make another stab at the
buoy. The whaleboat crew went in
ahead to find something for us to
hitch onto. We watched them
pretty carefully, because we knew
they'd had such a long spell Of
rugged duty. All at once, that old
whaleboat seemed to get tired. She
started putting her bow down, lower
and lower, into the swell. Made you
think of a tired old horse, or some
thing, nodding off to sleep. BY and
by she just put her head right I'M
der, and she plumb sank.
Boring Sea Hard to Take"
"The kids had on lifejackets, but
they were dreadfully beat, I guess,
and this 36-degree Boring Sea wa
ter is hard to take We ran up to
them as fast as we could. Two were
all right and grabbed our lines, but
the third was nearly unconscious.
He drifted right up against the ship
and started to go under. Just then
along comes OF Freddie -
You mean Pit. P-?"
Yeah. Sure. The Brooklyn kid,
himself, in person. He's naked as
the day he was born and he waltzes
down off the bridge and across the
quarter deck and over the rail, with
his buttocks Tapping in the breeze,
and in he goes. A swandive, by
God. Freddie got line on the kid
and we hauled 'em both back aboard.
The kids still in sick bay, but Doc
says he's okay, and Freddie put his
clothes back on and stayed on duty.
He looks little blue to me, though"
This is the last of our own adj
ventures, but not of the storm.
-Four days it RACES, with scarce
letup. Five low-pressure areas hit
us in a row. All our planes blow
loose from their moorings. Some
Of them ride up on the beach with
resultant damage. During a "lull"
when the wind is only IS knots a
plane comes in from Dutch with an
admiral aboard, on an inspection
tour. The plane hits a swell, busts
her nose in and nearly browns the
pilots. The admiral would have
been dunked, too, if a quick-acting
crewman hadn't slammed shut
water-tight door forward of the
radio compartment.
Then I decided to get out of the
Aleutians.
(Copyright, 1912, Chicago Daily News Incl