Evening star., 1952-08-24
Newsman Describes
Fight for I Lives
On Disabled Yacht
Continued From First Page)

until 1t blew in gusts of about so
miles an hour.
The result was a rip-roaring
run down to Norfolk, where we
SKINNED into the ship channel
at 12-knot clip.
Our boat is a big ketch 81 tons
displacement. 13-foot' draft, 100
foot mainmaSt-too big for the
four men aboard to drop the big
mainsail. which had now begun
to strain in the wind.
The skipper and owner, Comdr
John Grant Lyman, q. S. NJ, de-
cided to drop the other sails and
keep the big one up. He's in the
Portsmouth Naval Hospital as Il
write this. The doctors have toi
remove his left eye and patch up a
big piece of his skull.
Struck by Crank Handle.
We think the crank handle onI
the mainsail halyard hoist hitl
him. 1t was too dark to see at 4:3OI
this morning. but we knew that
the big sail came down too fast.
Something slipped or gave way
and that was it-SailS all gone or
fouled, main boom and so feet of
mainsail trailing over the port
side, no steering way so that she
fell off into the trough of the
waves and wallowed drunkenly,
and scattered gear all over the
spaces below deck.
But the worst part was the
waiting to get Comdr. LYMAN
proper medical care. We had the
conventional first aid kit and
that's about all. We didn't know
how badly hurt he was SO we
didn't try to move him over the
slippery and pitching deck where
he had been struck down uncon-
sciouS. All we could do was put
blankets around him and leave
his wife. Helen, to cradle his bat
tered head in her lap.
Every now and then someone
would go forward to pile on an
other blanket, light another Gig
arctic for Helen, or offer what
small comfort there was. But for
the most part we were too busy
to pay much attention to the in
jured skipper or his wife.
The only inactive member Of
the crew was my youngster. The
boy had gone to sleep around 3
o'clock in the morning and never
knew what happened until he
awoke at 8 o'clock. When he
popped his head up out of hatch
and saw the ruin, he said:
Boy, oh, boy, we've had it."
It was one of the few light
touches.
AS I remember the rest Of it'll
in my tired mind, We all tried to
do something after the mainSail
blew out. The oldest man aboard
and probably the wiSeSt, John
Marsh of 1404 South Twenty-sec-
ond street, Arlington, Va, was the
FIRST commodore of the Potomac
River Sailing Association.
Z He tried the radio-telephone
first. 1t wouldn't work. Then he
broke out a battery-poweredl
searchlight that did work. He
started flashing the S o S signal
at every ship whose lights we
could see. 4
The other man with Chesapeake
Bay sailing experience. Arthur B.
Wigley, of Annapolis, Md. Sug-
gested hoisting the staysail. Wei
tried and found the halyard hadl
fouled in the mainSail gear and
carried away.
Next we considered dropping
an anchor, but the big one was
lashed on deck and the halyard
used to swing 1t clear also had
parted. So we drifted as long as
we felt we had plenty of water
underneath in the hope Of being
in ready position to take on a
towline.
So it was that the Coast Guard
patrol boat finally arrived around
Z o'clock. A passing merchant
ship had seen our distress signal
and relayed it on. The Coast
Guard also had sent out a doctor
picked up from the Naval Air Sta
ton at Norfolk, but our tall
masts kept the aircraft away. It
wasn't until nearly five hours
after Comdr. Lyman was hurt that
the doctor arrived aboard the
crippled East Wind.
Helicopter Lands Doctor.
The helicopter landed the doc
tor on an anchored aircraft car
rier inside Hampton Roads and a
fast motorboat brought him along
side and took Comdr. and Mrs.
Lyman off to the hospital.
Since getting the boat into port,
all Saturday has been spent in
trying to do what we could for the
Lymans, cleaning up as much of
the wreckage as possible and put
ting through long distance tele-
phone calls to other people sched-
uled to sail with us at one time or
another.
There has also been the unique
experience for me of being inter-
viewed by newspapermen and
having my picture taken along
with the other East Wind sur
vivors.
When it's all over I suppose
you see lot Of things about any
boat you never saw before. You
see the big waves cresting up|
over the rail. You see the bright
steel stays stretched to the break
ing point humming like telephone
wires. You see the giant sails
bellying full in wind that's So
strong it's going to tear them to-
pieces. You watch the thin beam
from your blinker light flashing
out the distress signal.
remember the two big
steamers that went by before that
blessed third one acknowledged