| The Survivors |
| A Typhoon Added to War's Horror |
| * The destroyer escort USS Tabberer had rolled 72 degrees to one side and was still afloat. Although the sea was rough, the rolling was much less and the peak of the storm had passed Fifty degree rolls no longer amazed anyone, but the swinging mast finally buckled and dangled dangerouslly over the starboard side. A damage control party braved the savage waves that swept over the slippery deck and cut it loose with a torch. Mast, or no mast, life was getting back to normal. * Twenty-nine-year-old Lt. Cdr. Henry Plage a product of Georiga Tech,s ROTC program, headed his ship for the 3rd Fleet rendezvous. It was Dec. 18, 1944. The fleet had attempted to fuel at sea after the invasion of Mindoro in the Philippines so it could continue its attacks against the Japanese. Instead, the fleet was caught in one of the worst typhoons in history. * Now at least, everyone on the Tabberer was breathing easier and the cleaning up had already begun. Ralph Tucker, chief radioman, was busy rigging an emergency antenna between the flag bag and the gun mount when he heard a shout. Looking in the Direction of the cry, he saw a man off the starboard beam. Tucker yelled, "Man overboard." * Plage immediately sailed downwind and then turned upwind as though he was approaching a mooring buoy. It was a normal procedure, but he lost steering control as he slowed speed in the heavy sea and wind. The ground swells and cross seas drove the bow of the Tabberer away from the exhausted man. It was maddening * The captain decided to go upwind. He thought that if he sailed the ship broadside the wind might blow it toward the man. Once Broadside the steep rolls dipped the edge of the main deck into the water. Rolling toward the struggling survivor, everyone on the deck wondered if he would be rescued or run over. Plage thought the ship and the crew were like tumbleweed blowing in the breeze. * When closer, Bob Surdam the exec, shouted to the man to put the line that was thrown under his armes. Weak, but still conscious, the man did as he was told. When the ship came out of a slow roll and the water washed away the man was on the deck as if he were a big fish. By now he was unconscious and was taken below. The stranger was obviously not from the Tabberer. When he revived, it was learned to the crew's Surprise that he was from the USS Hull. This was the first news in the fleet that a destroyer had capsized in the Typhoon. * Word about the survivor spread through the ship like lighting. Men rushed on deck to help. The 24- and 12-inch searchlights acanned the wild ocean, but whitecaps were everywhere and looked deceptively like men's heads. Nevertheless, in another hour or so, 10 stray men were fished out of the rough sea. Two survivors told Arthur Carpentier, the engineering officer, that the Tabberer had passed close by a number of times before they were saved. He wondered how many other helpless men were out there. * Jim Marks, the Hull's captain, had stepped off his bridge into the sea and was one of the lonely men who fought for his life. He must have asked himself why fate had dealt with him so harshly. Strangely, he developed a craving for something to eat and chewed on a whisle. It did not taste very good so he took a piece of leather from his shoe and chewed away. That was more appetizing. * About the same time, a few men from a second destroyer, the USS Spence, Tried to organize themselves. Their ship, light in fuel, had rolled to about 75 degrees and recovered. A couple of rolls later there was no recovery. * George Johnson, a chief watertender, had been with the Spence since it was a proud part of Arleigh (31Knot) Burke's Little Beaver Squadron in the Solomons. Just before the final, he had wandered topside near the radio room. In no time, the ship lay on it's side and Johnson walked off the forward stack into the sea. * Johnson stared at the Spence. It was eerie in the dim, gray light. Soon, the ship broke in half and went down. The boiler exploded and Johnson thought the depth charges would be next. Instead, the ship sucked him deep down into a vacuum. When he returned to the surface his lungs were ready to burst. * In a few minutes, Johnson found a 7-foot life raft. Although it seemed impossible to surive in the raging sea, 29 men surrounded their only hope. Soon the number of men dwindled. One of the First to die was a young mess cook, 18 or 19 years old. Near the end, he took a ring off his finger and told another man to be sure his mother got it. Other weary men were simply Brushed away by the mountainous waves. * Johnson took charge of the forlorn group. The important thing was to stay awake. Sleepy men were sure to drown. Johnson decided that the best way to stay awake was to talk. He talked and talked. After awhile nobody listened, but he didn't care. He thought, too, of his wife and the baby daughter he had never seen. * The next day the hallucinations began. Some saw islands and green grass. One man was positive he saw a refreshment stand and swam toward it. He never returned. Even the strongminded Johnson lost touch with reality now and then. Oddly, he found that the false images sometimes helped. They gave hope and passed time. * As the men grew weaker, sharks seemed more aggressive. For a long time they had quietly followed the raft. Johnson found some grease and had the men coat themselves. It was supposed to be an old trick to ward off sharks. A shark bit a man in the arm and tore off a large piece of the muscle. Blood spilled around them. Everyone knew that blood attracted sharks, yet mysteriously they did not attack again. Maybe the grease worked. Still, no one came to their rescue. * Plage, on the bridge as dawn broke, had not given up. In the early hours he picked up six more men. the sixth man Jim Marks, extremely weak and badly battered. When the hungry Marks was offered hot soupe he could even keep it down. * Through the morning the excited young crew made more rescues. Plage's ship handling came as no surprise to them. They had often marveled at his skill. He had a natural talent, they thought, like the gift of a natural athlete. * Boatswain's Mate First Class Louis Purvis worked with Lt. Howard Korth on the nets thrown over the side. Purvis dived into the warter for someone and his slackened line tangled on an underwater dome. As seconds passed men on the deck feared he had drowned Purvis, however, slipped out of is life jacket and came up on the other side. His shipmates claimed he was the only man ever keelhauled in the modern Navy. * One man was too weak to reach for a life ring when a large shark appeared nearby. Bob Surdam dived into the sea despite the shark and placed a line around the man. Robert Cotton, a torpedoman, jumped in to help. The lucky survivor was Cyrus Watkins of the Hull. * Plage received a message to procced on a new course for the fleet rendezvous. . As soon as he changed course, Another man was spotted. This discovery convinced Plage to make another careful search. He found still another man and kept searching. By now it was impossible to reach the rendezvous on time as ordered, When he finally resumed the course, every one on board hoped there would be some reason for delay. * In another 20 minutes a sighting was made two miles away. This had never happened before. As the ship came closer, the men saw the reason. Seven men were in a circle. George Sharp, the engineering officer of the Hull, had insisted on lashing them together. one man had no life jacket and he was placed in the center. He had spent the night on a mattress that was about to fall apart when he came across the little group. * Plage was now three hours late. AS he pondered whether or not to forget his orders, a message arrived from Adm. William F. Halsey to remain in the area until the next morning. * By the 20th Johnson's group had been adrift for 50 hours. only 14 men remained. Soon Johnson saw a ship approacing that he was certain was Japanese. Then the ship started firing. This had to be the end. But he was wrong. It was the Demasted Tabberer firing into the water to ward off sharks. The 14 became the last survivors. Fifty-five had been recovered. * Six men from the USS Monaghan, a third destoryer that had capsized, still drifted in the sea. Evan Fenn, one of the six, suffered from severe leg lacerations, but he refused to give up. On the 21st he confidently told the others they would be rescued that day. Sure enough he was right. They were discovered by the USS Brown and became the Monaghan's only survivors. Only 98 men were rescued by all the ships in the 3rd Fleet. Almost 800 were lost. * The Tabberer made a strange sight sailing into the anchorage at Ulithi. When it came within view of the giant USS New Jersey, Plage received a blinker message from the battleship' "What type of ship are you?" The tired Plage replied, "Destroyer escort. What type are you?" He received no answer. VFW |
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| Before Typhoon |
| After Typhoon |
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| The USS Tabberer DE 418 |
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