Evening star., 1945-01-20
SINKING
Continued From First Page.)

vessels, including some oil
tankers)
1t. Yates told how one of the men
in the water beside him became
panic stricken when the submarine
charged at them, and how he
prompted the frightened survivor to
repeat the Lords prayer.
The Navy announcement of the
loss was the first of its kind here
in more than year, although the
sinking of American merchant ships
by Japanese submarines in the
South or Southwest Pacific have
been reported from time to time.
There were several submarine in
cidents off the Pacific Coast in the
months after Pearl Harbor, but they
ceased as the American Navy re-
covered its strength. There were
Navy approved reports of en-
emy submarine operations between
Hawaii and California in October
i943.
The johnson. built BY Henry ].
Kaiser's Oregon Shipbuilding Corp,
was struck without warning about
9:o5 pm. on moonlit night. A tor
pedo ripped into her about amidships
and she broke In two. The skipper
ordered the crew to abandon ship.
1t. Yates, who was in charge of
the naval armed guard crew aboard
instructed all but two of his men
to take to life raft Seamen (First
Class Paul Julian Brousseau, whose
wife lives at 2121 Fourteenth street
Sacramento, Calf, and Rex H
Chapel, $40 Kidder avenue, Grass
Valley, Calf, remained aboard with
1t. Yates for time
The remainder of the crew of 70
got away in two lifeboats. A third
lifeboat was damaged in launching
1t. Yates and Seamen Brousseau
and Chappell finally left the ship on
a doughnut raft. They saw a man
swimming in the water. He turned
out to be Capt. Beeken and they
took him aboard the raft. Then they
came upon the damaged lifeboat,
bailed 1t out and got into 1t, hitch
ing their raft to it. They picked UP
three more men as they left the i'm
mediate vicinity of the ship.
Suddenly, one Of our group yelled
out that there was a ship ahead"
1t. Yates related. "It was the sub
marine. 1t surfaced about 10 pm,
about 300 feet ahead. 1t opened up
with machine guns, firing five bursts
of 80 or 40 shots each at a target
which we could not see. We knew it
was shooting at a lifeboat.
Then it bore down on us. or.
dered everybody out of the lifeboat
and into the water. We pulled the
boat down into the water as far as
We could. to make it as inconspicu-
Gus as possible. Then the panic
stricken man seized me around The
neck. We said the Lords PRAYER
AS the submarine passed by the man
relaxed his hold.
The sub stood off about 500 yards
and opened up with a deck gun on
the after part of the Liberty ship,
which was afire.
About that time (friendls)
plane came over. We waved a little
red light and the aircraft indicated
that 1t saw us.
About 2:15 am. the ship, which
contained ammunition cargo. ex-
ploded. We were a mile away but
the blast nearly blew us out OF the
water. The sea was covered with an
oil slick and we feared that the fire
from the ship would ignite it, but it
didn t.
Another plane came over and
signaled that it saw us. At day.
break still another one came in low,
dipping its wings. and others ap-
peared later. We were picked up by
a Navy ship about 4 pm.
The rescue ship was the USS
Argus, based at Treasure Island
under the command of the Western
Sea Frontier. The Argus is the
former motor yacht Haida of Santa
Barbara, Calf.