SEA MYSTERY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 January 1943, Page 4

SEA MYSTERY

SUNK DESTROYER’S CREW GRIM SOLUTION. ORDEAL AMID SHARKS. An American warship on patrol in the Solomons area a few weeks ago stumbled on a sea mystery with all the elements of the unsolved Marie Celeste case, cables Winston Turner, a “Melbourne Herald” war correspondent with the United States Navy in the South Pacific and formerly of Masterton. The warship came across an American naval tug with a large barge, laden with petrol and high explosives, in tow. Tow and tug appeared undamaged, but were drifting. After the warship’s signals had failed to bring any response from the tug, a boat’s crew went across and cautiously boarded her. It found everything in order, but not a living soul aboard. NO SIGN OF VIOLENCE. Ropes were nearly coiled. Ammunition lay beside the guns . Everything was shipshape. There was evidence in the messroom of an interrupted meal. But nowhere were there signs of violence. Tug and barge were just drifting lazily under a blistering tropic sun that seemed to have spirited away the captain and 68 men aboard. Wild speculation swept through naval wardrooms and messes. Here, told for the first time, is the solution to the whole mystery. The story is linked up with the sinking of the United States destroyer Meredith, briefly announced in a Washington communique as having been “lost as a result of enemy action.” PLANES SWARM DOWN. The Meredith (1850 tons) at noon on Thursday, October 15, was 75 miles south of Guadalcanal Island. She was escorting the tug and her barge. A Japanese observation plane was spotted. Then a substantial bomber force was reported approaching. The destroyer hurriedly took off the crew of the tug and barge and sheered off. She was just picking up speed when a force of 32 torpedo planes and divebombers swept down upon her. She went through a few minutes of hell. Seven to 11 bombs crashed upon her and three to five torpedoes tore into her sides. “She looked like a can some kid had been kicking around,” a survivor told me. After the destroyer had sunk, the Japanese airmen made two runs across the 200-odd survivors in the water, raking them with machine-gun fire. The water was bloodied. Men threw up their hands and slipped below the surface. Others cursed and shook their clenched fists futilely. GAVE PLACE TO WOUNDED. With the departure of the Japanese, who for some strange reason did not attack the tug or barge, the Americans in the water began looking for something to cling to. They found four rafts, pitifully inadequate for such a large number of men. The wounded were placed aboard them. Those uninjured or with minor hurts, clung to the sides of the rafts, which were awash under so much weight. Thus began three days and three nights of hell. The first night many of those with mangled or burned or scald-

ed bodies died. Some died quietly, some raving. The only bright spot was the sighting at 3 a.m. of a dark object on the moonlit waters. Three enlisted men swam across and found a large raft. This enabled weight to be more evenly distributed. and saved many lives. The second day of blistering sun brought madness to a young officer, who threw away the water barrels from his raft and left only one canteen of water to keep 60 or 70 men alive for three days. >.ATTACKED BY SHARKS. And the second day brought the sharks! One of the best accounts of the heli these men endured was given to me by “Red” Webster, former oil worker from the Rio Grande Valley, Southern Texas. Red (Machinist Mate 2nd Class Lyle L. Webster) said: “Sharks got a lot of us. Others went crazy and swam off. Some with wounds just went off unconscious in the water. “The rafts drifted off in two groups —one of three rafts and one of two. They were five miles apart after two days. n “The. sharks came on the second days. When we broke open the chow they came round like flies. The men hanging on the side of our raft scrambled up on top of the wounded and we were in danger of swamping. “Red Singletary, the bosun’s mate, hollered to the fellas to get back, but they said: ‘Look at the sharks!’ “'•Hell,’ said Red, ‘them’s nothing but sand sharks. They won’t hurt no one. Watch me get one.’ And with that Red up and dived right into the middle of them sharks. “Well, the sharks got out of his way and Red swam around among them a bit, then came back to the raft. They were sand sharks all right. BIG MAN-EATERS. “But the big grey fellas came along soon. They were man-eaters There were 50 or 60 of them around our raft and lots of little white pilot fish with them. They came up close and brushed against us and we kicked out against them.” But those sharks were killers. And they began taking those sailors one by one. They became so bold that they swerved alongside the raft and snapped at the figures clinging to it. One sailor sitting at the edge had his buttocks torn off. Another screamed and held up the stump of an arm, snapped off cleanly at the elbow. At sundown there were 40 men on one raft. At sundown next day there were only 13. , , So time passed for Red and the rest, with Death their constant guardian. Then at 10 a.m. on the Sunday morning two destroyers and a tug were sighted. Red told me: “We did not know whether they were Japanese or not, so did not signal. A lot of those fellas would have welcomed anything to get out of that water, but some ot us were still sane enough not to want to get into Japanese hands. “One of those destroyers came by at 15 knots and threw us a line. Some of the fellas were crushed against hei side when the raft swung, in. The other destroyer came up sVowly ana picked up men. When vze checked up there were only 77 alive out of the who were on the destroyer, tug and barge.”