The Ely miner., 1943-05-20


landing party on Bataan near the
village of Moron, which was then In
no-man's land, and said their planes
reported the Japs had had to beach
her seventy-five miles up the coast.
Still later the planes reported the
Japs were breaking her up for
scrap. But we brought the 80 boat
back safe to the base at Sisiman
Cove. Our headquarters there was
a reformed goat slaughter-house,
about one hundred feet long and
thirty feet wide, with a concrete
floor. We'd scrubbed it out with Gre
osote. 1t still smelled some, but was
habitable. We'd also acquired ten
der-an old harbor tug called the
Trabajador-and put her in charge
of DeLong, who'd lost his ship"
''Then we all sat around envying
him." said Kelly, because here he
was, living like an admiral-a cab
in, wardroom, real galley (not
just hot plate, which was all we
had on the MTB's), and even a mess
boy who could bake pie. It was
big-ship life, and Bulkeley and I
used to find some excuse to 60 ev-
cry night and eat his dessert and
drink coffee. DeLong liked it so
much he later decided to stay on
Bataan rather than leave with the
rest of us.
"Our plan for making run for
China when our gas was almost
gone still stood, and Bulkeley had
got hold of some landing-force gear
which we knew might be useful on
the Chinese coast if we missed con-
nections with our Chungking friends
and had to fight our way through the
Japs. So we began drilling our men
in landing-force procedure.
''This got them very curious. They
knew our gas was running out, and
we had almost no more torpedoeS
except the ones which were in the
boats. So we told them we were
thinking of going south to join the
Moros if Bataan fell, and it salts
fed them for while. We let only
two other persons in on the secret
Clark Lee and Nat Floyd, newspa-
per correspondents who had been
authorized by the Admiral to make
the trip with us.
''The food situation was getting
tough. Our breakfast was always
hot cakes made without eggs-just
-four, water, and baking powder
and the syrup was sugar and water.
We hadn't seen butter since the war
started. Then for dinner, it was al
ways canned salmon and rice, and
you don't know tired you can get
Of canned salmon until you eat it
regularly for few months. We
welcomed any change"
''The one high spot in our diet was
the Canopus," said Kelly. ''She
was an old sub tender, so slow she'd
been abandoned, but she had a fine
machine shop. She was tied up at
the dock and already had been hit
twice by bombs, so they worked her
at night and abandoned her by day.
But among her stores were barrels
and barrels of ice-cream mix and
a freezer. And her skipper would
let anyone in the navy who came
aboard eat all the ice cream he
wanted as long as those barrels last
ed-they held out until the week we
left.
But what we wanted mcAt of all
was fresh meat and vegetables, and
along about the second week in Feb
ruary the first blockade-runner ar
rived. We piloted her in at night
rendezvous twenty-five miles out
and as daylight came, our mouths
watered as we saw her cargo,
strings of bananas piled high on her
decks, and below, fresh meat and
fruit for Corregidor. That afternoon
I went over to see Peggy, and they
were all busy slicing steaks and
Gambling eggs. By yelling, scream
ing, and haggling, I got enough fresh
meat to serve our crews two meals
that week. She was a welcome lit
tie ship, that blockade-runner-made
two more trips before the Japs sank
her.
But because of Peggy, my diet
was a little better than the others.
Since she was on Corregidor, she
was entitled, under their rationing
system, to buy one item per day
from the canteen-a package of
gum, candy bar maybe, from the
little supply they had left.
But Peggy pretended she never
cared for them, and every time
came to see her, she'd slip me a
pocketful. She bought and saved
them every day-just something to
nibble while I was out on patrol,
she explained.
81 began to feel funny about that
break-through to China we were
planning. Of course the Admiral
had ordered it, and of course it was
the way we could be most useful.
But here were all these brave peo-
pie on Bataan and the Rock, Peggy
among them, realizing more clear
ly every day that they would never
get out. Doomed, but bracing them
selves to look fate in the face as
it drew nearer, knowing that they
CARC4o0blC 14hC u.
and that it was part of the war plan
that they should sell themselves as
dearly as possible before they were
killed or captured by the Japs. But
a handful of us secretly knew that
we, and only we among these many
brave thousands, would see home
again, and soon.
"And the more liked Peggy-she
was swell kid-the guiltier I felt.
Furthermore, I knew if we ever left,
it would have to be soon. Gas was
getting dangerously low = barely
enough to make the run for China.
And so was our torpedo supply. We
would have to leave with every tube
full If we were to throw effective
weight against Jap shipping on the
China coast, and In addition to what
e Al