The Wyandotte herald. (Wyandotte, Mich.) 1879-1943, 1942-11-27
Sailor Swirns 10
Hours; Tells How
He Tricked Japs
Plays Dead When Forced of
u. S. Boat in Solomons;
Buddies Shot in Sea.

SOLOMON ISLANDS. - Seaman
Robert James Caravan, 20, former
Chicago drugstore delivery boy,
swan for 19 hours in the South Pa
cific to bring back the story Of how
a japanese cruiser sank an Amer
lean patrol boat and methodically
machine gunned to death all five OF
his shipmates.
Caravan said he escaped death
only by floating in a dead-man fash
ion as the cruiser passed within oO
feet-So close he could see the faces
of the crew and could hear bugle
blowing.
The American patrol boat had left
its base the night Of August Is 70
search for enemy submarines of
the coast of Guadalcanal, Canavan
said. At dawn the crew sighted the
cruiser bearing down on them from
the west.
1--WE did not pay much attention
to the ship, as we figured the cruiser
was ours" Caravan said. Give
minutes later the cruiser altered its
course and bore down on US.
"The closer the cruiser got, the
more suspicious she looked, and
when she fired a salvo at us from
her forward guns we knew she was
a Jap even though she didn't fly
the Rising Sun.
Tries to Dodge Foe.
eve saw we couldn't make our
base, as the cruiser moved between
us and the beach, so we turned
around and headed for Tulagi, about
Is miles away, zigzagging at full
speed in an attempt to dodge her"
Canavan said the cruiser quickly
closed the gap, however, and fired
its machine guns as it moved within
range. The crew lay face down on
the deck of the little boat and,
though the machine-gun bullets
splintered the planks around them,
none of the crew was hit
One by one the crew members
slipped overheard. Caravan said
they looked like fishnet floats strung
out behind the boat.
1.-THE Japs let loose a hail of
machine-gun bullets which broke one
of the spokes of the wheel and shat
tered the control panel. That was
when l decided to leave"
The cruiser pulled alongside and
for a half hour the Japanese re-
moved supplies and the boats
damned machine-guns.
After the patrol boat had been
stripped, the cruiser backed away
and sank it with machine gun fire
from so yards.
Then they headed back toward
me-" Caravan said. II thought they
intended to run me down. The only
chance l had was to play dead, so 1
spread-eagled myself and floated
perfectly motionless as the ship ap-
preached.
Shoot Down Buddies.
mo attempt was made to shoot
me. The ship passed right by.
had little trouble with the wash,
but came up al right.
1.-THE cruiser headed right Tor the
rest of the patrol boats crew, who
were pretty well punched together
about mile away. AS the Japa-
nese ship approached, she halted for
about five minutes and l could hear
the firing of machine-guns.
THAT was the last l saw of the
others. When the cruiser got under
way again, they were gone.
Il had done a lot of swimming
in Lake Michigan, so knew l could
make it all right" he said. II first
tried swimming for Guadalcanal.
as / was in the middle of the chan
mel, but the current was against
me, so / swan to Florida island
on the other side.
"The natives I saw were all
daubed with war paint and carried
Shields" he said. They couldn't
speak English, but they gave me
coconuts and were friendly"
He spent another day on Florida
and then walked around the .island
to a point where the channel be-
tween Florida and Tulagi was only
400 yards wide, he said. He swan
across and was picked up by a ma
rine, who took him to a hospital.