LCI (542) - Naval Cruise Book

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20 were more interested in looking than in catching lines. We transported some gear fro-m her to the Poco, which also presented mooring dif- ficulties because of her damaged stern and lack of rudder. Finally we fetched some acetylene gas from the CHINABERRY to the FOGG. That night the cripple lost 90 feet of her stern, but retained her water- tight integrity and even keel. As the group progressed at a snail's pace the sea increased somewhat. The DE began to yawg so she passed the 542 an 8-inch manila line, fashioned in a yoke, and for three hours the ship dragged astern of her to keep her steady, until the lines parted. That day, December 23, the is-land of Terceira, Azores, was sighted, and shortly after dark the convoy anchored in Praia Harbor, Terceira, in the open ocean swells. The lighted town looked wonderful after the past eleven days 5 Mr. Littlejohn was especially interested in a red neon display, which he said must be joe's Place . The sea increased during the night, until at 0420 the waves sud- denly s-topped slapping the ship's fantail, and she began to roll-the stern anchor had carried away. By the time the main engines were going and the ship under way We were within 200 yards of broaching on the beach. The bow anchor was dropped and held for two minutes before the cable snapped in the big waves. There was nothing for it but to remain under way the rest of the night, as we had no- spare anchors 5. so we steamed around in the harbor mouth until morning, when a rhino barge came out and moored us to a buoy. Later the Captain went ashore for lunch and a conference, where Captain Martin of the FOGG, as senior officer present, announced that he had received permission from Washington to keep the present group of ships to- gether to escort him to the U. S. Since Praia was a neutral port, all ships would have to move to Horta that day, except the cripple and tug, which would remain for temporary seabee repairs. While the conference was going on, our mooring line s-lipped off the buoy. There followed two hours of strenuous work by all hands, led by Mr. Little- john, after which the ship was finally secured astern of the anchored CHINABERRY by means of a yoke of lines until our departure at night- fall. Early Christmas morning the group was lying off Horta Harbor, all were ordered to anchor outside, which did not help the 542. After we convinced the British that we could not anchor, a pilot took us- in to moor to HM tug Sampson at a b-uoy, just in time for some of the officers to visit HMS Chaunticleer , the sternless headquarters ship, for some Christmas cheer. That afternoon the ship ventured out of the harbor once more to moor to the IRA I. for water. A Christmas service was held, after which most, of the crew attended the movies aboard the DE. Meanwhile some of the officers joined those from the DE at a

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19 aboard U. S. S. F OGG CD'E57J 5 the destination was Charleston, South Ca1'01i11H, With 110 Stops 011 the WHY- Thus we continued at walking speed for two- days, whereupon We ran bows on into a moderate two- day storm. In this it was at times impossible to maintain headway, and the ship was forced to travel in circles in order to keep- station 5 ,convoy speed dropped to almost nothing, but even at that a couple of the tows- had to give up and return to- England. As we traveled southwards, the seas abated, leaving us in calm, pleasant seas. ,y When, at 1045 on December 20, Mr. Littlejohn, the o. o. d., rang general quarters, everyone thought it was a drill, everyone except those in the conn. They had seen a white spout shoot up amidships in LST 359, which was in tow a few hundred yards on our po-rt beam. The LST had been torpedoed but did not realize it and sent up a Haghoist that they had had an internal explosion. The FOGG immediately came back from the van at Hank speed to investigate and when well astern of us took a torpedo in the fantail. The other DES started off to hunt the submarine, aided by two RAE liberators, which appeared overhead at that point. The whole port side of the LST looked to be blown in QShe was cut adrift and later sunk by guniirej, and the stricken FOGG was way down by the stern. The LCIs steamed back to her and lay to for a couple of hours, while most of the rest of the convoy p-roceeded. Finally the 420 went alongside the DE to take off her wounded and instructed us to take 417, 418 and 421 back to the convoy, which We rejo-ined in midafternoon. By night all excitement had died down, whereupon the 420 loomed close aboard out of the darkness with loud- hailer orders to go back and stand by the FOGG, which had been taken in tow and was- now some 50 miles astern towards England. There was nothing for it but to start back before dawn-the 542 all alone in the Atlantic Ocean with hostile submarines in the vicinity! We set off at 0412 steaming at full speed in Ta following sea, until at 0730, to the Captain's great relief, the crippled ship and escort hove into view on the starboard bow. The escort was U. S. S. IRA JEFFERYA CDE 63D, which suspected us of being a submarine, even tho-ugh she computed our speed as 17 knots and too fast for a submarine, luckily she waited to challenge visually. The EOGG was being towed in tandem by the net-fender U- S- S- CHINABERRY and a small army diesel tug LT643, with the 419 abeam to port, we took station abeam to starboard, speed about three k110'CS, destination the Azores. Later in the morning we moored to the. star- board side of the JEFFERY, which, being unused to LCIS, g1'9-C10US1QY slowed to her two-thirds speed--about the equal Of OUI' Standard. If was quite a job, especially since the swarms of men on the DE's deck

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21 glorious champagne p-arty and dance at the Amor da Patria Club ashore returning in the small hours for some sobering coffee on the IRA J. , Next morning the 542 returned to her berth alongside the Samp- son and commenced two pleasant weeks in semi-tropic I-Iorta. It was there that johnson and Chovanez exchanged the two bicycles they got from the LCM crews at Utah Beach for some old watches. Not long after bo-th bikes were seized by the British shore patrol and placed aboard the Chaunticleer . The Captain was then summoned by the RN Commander and asked to explain how American sailors came to dispose of British property, plainly marked with the Royal Navy arrow. An international incident was averted somehow, probably because Johnny was present and, after a short lecture by the Commander, con- vinced him of his innocence. The following days passed with nothing to record except good liberty in the wide open town. Messrs. Littlejohn and Hillman demonstrated their singing voices to all hands late one night after a dinner with some officers from the F OGG, which had ar- rived after temporary repairs at Praia. The night of the 30th was a big liberty night, that was when Dan tangled with a good part of the local populace and police but got back safely. Meanwhile the Samp- son had departed, and we were shifted to I-IM tug Salvonia along- side the moored tanker Empire Garden , which had been cap-tured from the Nazis. 31 December ten men from the FOGG came aboard for transportation to the U. S. New Year's Eve was celebrated by all ships present with signal rockets, Bruce contributing our share with a Very pistol. just when everything was in readiness to- depart, a bad storm arose 3 IRA I., CHINABERRY and the 419 were forced to move to the other side of the island. The 542 stayed relatively comfortable in harbor, pound- ing against the tug and snapping mooring lines now and then. For nightly liberty we had the use of the IRA jfs motor whalebo-at, which had been at the dock when that ship sailed, its crew and two officers were our welcome guests for the six days the storm lasted. By Janu- ary 9, 1945 the storm had abated, and the rest of the group had re- turned. That morning we moored bow to the stern of the 419' while her bow anchor was secured to our stern cable so that we would have some so-rt' of anchor for future emergencies. Dan and Lazarus went over to the army tug to straighten out its diesel difficulties, after its crew claimed at the last minute that its engines were not ready for sea. That evening all ships got under way to escort the FoGG to the States, sailing in the same formation as before, with the tug towing and the CHINABERRY acting as seco-nd escort. For more than three