The Ely miner., 1943-06-10

full speed ahead-1t was much fast
er than eighteen knots, because the
carbon had burned out of our mo-
tors. I knew that type of Jap cruis-
er could make thirty-fve knots with
all steam up. But unless they were
expecting something, they could only
make twenty-seven. So we had a
good chance of keeping away from
them-it might be dark before they
could close in.
Meanwhile I was hoping they
hadn't seen US and praying that the
sun would hurry up and set, but it
just popped along-seemed to hang
there above the horizon for weeks,
and finally bobbed under at seven
o'clock.
'tf you've never been in the trop-
les, you don't realize how fast it
gets dark-almost no twilight at
ALL"
''I think it was the whitecaps that
saved u.s." said Bulkeley. 'The
Japs didn't notice our wake, even
though we were foaming away at
full throttle.
During the excitement, the Gen
eral was lying down in the cabin
with his eyes closed, but Mrs. Mac
Arthur, who was with him, heard
everything that went on and she
didn't turn a hair. She took it like
a lady-went right on rubbing the
Generals hands to keep up his cir
culation, though she was seasick
herself.
81 never went below, and all my
men stayed at battle stations, so
the people in the cabin took care of
themselves-there was no one to
wait on them. The General saw that
was supplied with cigars. They
were pretty well provisioned. They'd
brought from Corregidor, among
other things, a few cases of Coca
Cola-the first I'd. tasted in many
weeks-and some of the tenderest
ham I ever ate.
''It got dark fast after sunset, a
wind sprang up, and ahead we could
see lightning flashes. But these
didn't help us find the narrow pas
sage into the Mindanao Sea. We
were going in the dark entirely by
dead reckoning. At midnight we
figured we'd be off the strait-so we
turned into the pitch-blacknes hold
ing our breath, but still we didn't
hit anything. I had no charts, I'd
never been there before, I could see
absolutely nothing, but since we
didn't crash into a beach, we kept
on going, and at last I knew we
were through and safely into Min
danao Sea - our dead-reckoning
navigation had been right"
'And there we really caught
hell" said Kelly. "Big foaming
waves fifteen or twenty feet high
laundering over the cockpit, drench-
ing everybody topside. Also, be-
cause of the speed, water, and wind,
it got damned cold. Our binocu-
lars were full of water and our eyes
so continuously drenched with sting
ing salt that we couldn't see, in
strange waters with islands all
around US. We could see the out
lines of the big ones-Negros and
Mindanao-very dirnly against the
horizon through the storm. But there
were dozens of small ones and prob
ably hundreds of reefs.
The sea was on our port bow,
tending to drive us south. We ex-
pected to make a landfan forty
miles dead ahead-a small island
where we would turn-and let me
tell you this was an unpleasant situ-
alton for navigator. The helms
mans eyes and ours were full of
salt, you had to keep one hand in
front of your eyes to avoid the slap
ping force of the water, and yet you
needed both to hold on. The Ad-
miral was pretty wrought up. I've
sailed every type of ship in the
navy except one of these MTB's,
he shouted at me above the wind,
and this is the worst bridge I've
ever been on. I wouldn't do duty
on one of these for anything in the
world-you can have them
"It was a real problem to keep
astern lookout for the II boat so
we wouldn't lose it. Three good
waves in row and we'd be out of
sight, and In that weather we could
pass within seventy-five yards and
never see each other. The Al was
now keeping about two hundred
yards astern, hunting for the
smoothest part of our wake, to keep
the Generals party comfortable.
The General had said that if his boat
slowed, we who were ahead should
also slow, letting them set the pace.
know seasickness can be very un-
pleasant, but ! wanted to get them
safe in port by dawn, in case there
were Jap planes about, so I kept
pulling them on. It got rougher
and rougher, and the Admiral kept
remembering it had been he who
had assured Macarthur that Bulke-
ley was wrong about the weather
it would be calm.
"'The Generals going to give me
he'll for this in the morning, he said,
uneasily. Damned if I thought
Bulkeley knew what he was talking
about-but he surely did
''The Admiral stayed with me up
on the bridge the whole trip, in
spite of the weather. Every half
hour I would send a member of the
crew over the boat for inspection,
to see how its hull was standing the
strain, for we were taking an awful
licking.
During one of these I noticed a
figure by the machine-gun turret,
sitting with his feet propped up on a
torpedo tube. His stomach was long
ago empty, but he was leaning for
ward, retching between his knees.
From this / guessed it might be
one of our passengers, and sent a
quartermaster to ask him If he