Evening star., 1952-11-28
SUBMARINES:
By Comdr. Edwc.d 1. Beech. U. S. N.
CHAPTER XVII.
Tirante.

Tirante.
In early June, 1914, wearing
sEand-new lieutenant command
er's stripes and accompanied by
ny bride Of one month. I arrived
in Portsmouth, N. H.
Memories of the Trigger were
strong. Only a few weeks earlier.
as I was packing shortly before
midnight to catch an early-morn-
ing plane for San Francisco. one
by one members Of her crew had
come forward to say good-by.
Now I had a new ship. as yet
uncompleted. and new skipper.
and there was everything to do
all over again. Tirante was to
have the latest devices. the
strongest hull American engineer
ing skill could devise, the most
powerful engines, and an enlarged
torpedo-caHying capacity.
The day before setting out for
the Pacific our preparations were
interrupted by an unexpected
summons for the skipper, George
Street. When he returned, he
motioned 1t. Endicott (Chub)
Peabody II and me into his state
room.
1T was the force gunnery OFF,
GER" he said without preamble.
Hes got a hot potato on his
hands and wants us to take 1t
over"
What is it. captain?"
A Special Fish.
George chuckled. 1T seems
that the employees Of the West
inghouse Corp. plant at Sharon.
Pa. which makes electric tor
pedoes. got together and donated
one special torpedo for the war
effort. It's up in the torpedo shop
now, tested and ready to go, and
they want somebody to take it out
with them"
We've already loaded all our
fish. sir" said Club. Wed have
to take one back out. :"
The shippers grin widened.
"Wait till I tell you the rest. This
torpedo is painted up like a high
way billboard sign so nobody can
possibly mistake it. It's been pho
tographed at least a dozen times,
at least once at every stage of it's
construction and trials. Two ad-
mirals have publicly told. Sharon
that the fish will be delivered to-
the enemy with their compliments,
and now-somebody has got to
make good on all the Dragging"
You mean," I interjected, they
want us to take this particular
fish out and plant it in the bottom
of some Jap battleship? Don't
they know battleships don't grow
on trees and that even with Al
perfectly aimed salvo some Of the
fish are bound to MISS"
"Oh. they're not unreasonable.
They'll settle for any decent-sized
maru."
Club said. "We'd sure look
foolish if we took it out and then
had to report we hadn't hit any,
thing with it, wouldn't we?"
This didn't faze George.
you're right" he said, land
that's why taking it along is
purely voluntary. A couple of
ships have already declined the
honor for that very reason. So
the force gunnery officer is get
ting right anxious to get rid of it,
and I told him we'd see that it
reached the desired destination.
Challenge Accepted.
We might have known our
skipper would never pass up this
kind of challenge. There was al
gleam in Chub's eyes, and I, too,
felt a little pleased with the Old
Man.
Its on it's way down right
now" George added.
On the southern tip Of Kyushu
lies a huge bay, Kagoshima
kalWan, protected by several
small islands offshore. Our in
formation indicated that many
coastal freighters used the harbor.
The chart of previous patrols off
Kyushu showed few submarine
tracks here, no doubt because of
the restricted waters, but the
water was deep all the way up
to the shore line. Not at all bad
If you didn't mind fairly close
quarters.
Our object was twofold: To-
blood the ship as quickly as pos
sible and to get rid Chonorably)
Of our W.T. (very important tor
pedo).
The W.T. still languished in the
lower port forward torpedo tube,
30 we picked out a spot well upI
the coast from Kagoshima Kai-
wan-a precipitous cliff called
Oniki Saki-and dived within a.