RECOLLECTION

E.L. Robertson, Jr. 1989

“I did not relish being a sitting duck.”

During the invasion of Sicily the Swanson was involved in a collision with the USS Roe DD418 and at dawn while dead in the water, we shot down an attacking German Me110 (dive bomber). I decided I did not relish being a sitting duck, after concludng our damage was perhaps less serious than I had assumed at first. So I went into the forward engine room where Chief Mollett and company were shoring up the bulkhead between it and the forward fireroom. Water from the totally flooded fireroom was still leaking through the bulkhead but I saw that the big condenser cooling water pump which normally took suction from the sea but could also take suction from the engine room bilges, was more than capable of handling the leakage. this meant to me that the forward and after engine rooms and after fireroom could still function normally. If the patch held and the hull wasn’t too badly damaged by the collision we could theoretically make 25 knots!

Accordingly I returned to the main deck, and had a bo’s’n chair rigged, in which I went over the side and was lowered to where I could inspect the damage done by the collision. It was less than I had thought, and it appeared to me that the hull itself was nearly as strong as ever.

I then returned to the bridge, took the conn and ordered both engines ahead one third. As I recall it we built up to 15 knots enroute to Malta, where the gaping hole in the deck where the forward stack had been, and the hole in our side were patched. The Swanson would live to fight another enemy several thousands miles from Sicily.

R-128