When the going gets …

Two adages: when the going gets tough, the tough get tougher. And the Hunter Thompson version, when the going gets weird, the weird get weirder. On rare occasion, the two blend – and when it got weird, the men concerned got tougher.

Let’s go back to the waters off the Solomon Islands, the Savo Sound. Bad place to be a sailor in the early ’40s – it was nick-named “Iron Bottom Sound” for a reason. Five naval battles are part of the Guadalcanal action – according to CNN, 111 vessels lost.  The USS New Orleans, a heavy cruiser, was torpedoed and damaged heavily, but is not listed among the lost.Wiki

USS New Orleans, a World War II era U.S. Navy heavy cruiser, was heavily damaged on Nov. 30, 1942, during the Battle of Tassafaronga. A Japanese “Long Lance” torpedo struck the ship forward of turret No. 2, detonating the forward magazines and tearing off nearly one-third of the vessel, including the bow.

That is normally a terminal ending right there – ships sink when missing huge chunks, right?

More than 180 Sailors were killed in the blast. Despite catastrophic damage, the crew conducted extraordinary damage control, ultimately saving the ship. Three Sailors were posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for their actions.Navy History & Heritage

How they kept her going, I have no1 idea. One would have thought all those solid brass balls would have weighed her down – nope, kept her afloat.

The remaining crew fabricated a float for the bow using coconut logs. Not an easy task under the best of circumstances – they pulled her to shore at Tulagi, camouflaged her well enough that they were not attacked while they improvised the bouyant attachment, and then sailed her off for repairs.

In Australia, 1800 miles away.

In reverse to keep from destroying the float.

Retired US Navy Capt. Carl Schuster described to CNN the remarkable skill involved in sailing a warship backwards for that extended distance.

“‘Difficult’ does not adequately describe the challenge,” Schuster said.

While a ship’s bow is designed to cut through waves, the stern is not, meaning wave action lifts and drops the stern with each trough, he said.

When the stern rises, rudders lose bite in the water, making steering more difficult, Schuster said.

And losing the front portion of the ship changes the ship’s center of maneuverability, or its “pivot point,” he said.

“That affects how the ship responds to sea and wind effects and changes the ship’s response to rudder and propellor actions,” he said.

The New Orleans’ officers would have had to learn – on the go – a whole new set of actions and commands to keep it stable and moving in the right direction, he said.  CNN

Why this topic? The bow has been found,  2214 feet down.

Using remotely operated underwater vehicles, scientists and historians observed “details in the ship’s structure, painting, and anchor to positively identify the wreckage as New Orleans,” the expedition’s website said.

CNN says 111 vessels of all sizes lost there, and the survey is ongoing: it’s being livestreamed at Nautilus Live  until July 23rd.

Oh, and do you think having her bow ripped off stopped her? Not a chance – by the end of the war the New Orleans had collected 17 battle stars, third most in the Pacific Fleet.

Sometimes an inanimate object just is larger than life, isn’t it?

Category: Navy, War Stories, WWII