The Ely miner., 1943-06-10
CHAPTER Y


be, and I explained. Bulkeley,
was sure, would take no chances
with women and child aboard. Of
course he'd seen the japanese sig
nal fire the night before. Planes
might be out spotting us for de-
stroyers, and as soon as dawn broke
Bulkeley undoubtedly had made for
the nearest Of those other Cuyos-
picking one from his chart (we'd
never been here before) which was
surrounded by reefs and water so
shallow that no destroyer could ven
ture within gun range or even
within sight. There he would wait
all day, if not until dusk, at least
until he thought the danger of spot
ting planes was past, before COM
ing to join US here. That was my
theory, and I stuck to it because it
was the best one we had-the Ad-
miraPs was much more pessimistic.
$50 at 8:37 we dropped hook
in the cove and sent two men
ashore with semaphore flags to
climb the islands single fve-hun-
dred-foot hill and stand continuous
watch-for the other three boats of
course, but particularly for Japs.
''Then we got to work gassing
the ship, and it was job. Drum
by drum, we poured that 100 octane
gasoline into her tanks, and it took
all morning. As soon as we had
entered the calm water of the cove,
the army, which had been down in
the cabin all night and miserably
seasick, began stirring and soon
showed definite signs of life-emerg-
ing into the sunlight, Strengthening
their uniforms, and even mention
ing the subject of breakfast, which
wasn't unusual, considering the food
that had gone oversize during the
night.
1--WE had breakfast aboard, of
course, but just now it was out of
the question. The ship had to be
fueled at once, because no one knew
when dive bomber might chase US
out of the cove. But since we feared
an explosion from our highly vola-
tile airplane gasoline, all electricity
on the ship had to be turned off
while we were pouring. As a re-
suit, the army got its breakfast
about noon, and then there was time
to look around. The island was in
tensely green-a few hills sloping
abruptly into the Sea-and our look
outs signaled down from the summit
that on the other side lived nine
families of natives. These had
climbed the hill to cape at the Amer
leans, and told them that the day
before they had seen a big ship
going south. A warship? They didn't
know, but we were uneasy. The
water here was deep, and cruiser
could come in fairly close.
eat $50, when we figured any
spotting planes would have had to
head back for home, I was about to
pull our lookouts from the hill and
get under way when they wig
wagged down that they saw ship
apparently friendly, maybe an
MTB. I picked it up with my BIZ
noculars and presently made out the
80 boat, which soon tied up along
side US.
''It was this boat, remember,
which had been repaired after its
explosion. The cook had been blown
into Sisiman Cove. During the night
its struts started coming loose, so
they could use only one or two of
their three engines, and they, like
US, had lost touch with the other
hna%c ~, ,I-t. D.
falling far behind the flagship, they
had somehow managed, in the dark
ness, to get out in front of it.
I'm the first gray light of dawn,
their stern lookout reported a
strange ship-gaining on them.
Looked like Jap destroyer. Now an
MTB in good condition can outrun
any warship a1oat. But the 80 boat
was hobbling on two engines, so al
though he was running full throttle,
its commander wasn't surprised that
the strange craft kept gaining. In or
der to tighten his boat and pull
away, he dumped six hundred gall
Ions Of gasoline IN drums over the
side, but still the enemy was clos
ing on him. There seemed nothing
to do now but fight before the de-
stroyer opened with its 3-inch guns.
They readied two torpedoes and
turned dauntlessly for the attack,
to discover just in time that the
strange pursuing craft was the Il
boat-their own flagship with Cen
eral Macarthur aboard.
$50 here they were-loaded down
to the water line with seasick and
puzzled generals. Just at this point
there was rising roar from sea-
ward, and the Al boat came around
the point, Bulkeley and General
MacArthur's party"
WED lost sight of you a few
hours before dawn" said Bulkeley,
when you stopped to clean your
strainers. I went on ahead because
I wanted to get as deep as possible
into the Cuyo Islands before SUM-
rise.
"As the sky pinkened I headed
for the nearest and best-it was one
OF the prearranged crosses on the
map. 1t wasn't much of an island
only a quarter of mile wide-but
1t had plenty of shallow water to
keep off Jap destroyers.
Lying at anchor, some of the
crew picked off little sleep as we
rolled gently In the sunshine. Pres
emily the General came on deck:
he was fine figure in his camePs-
hair coat and gold hat, frowning a
little as he squinted in the sunshine
at the water and white sand. Then
Mrs. Macarthur and the little boy
and his Chinese amah came up to
sit In wicker chairs in the sum
shine. 1t was too bad little Arthur
couldn't have played on the beach.
but I tQld the Gopar,1 ~ rra -lo,,I5