| Show adventurers club when the sea came in by FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline hunter TT T HAPPENED a long time ago but maybe some of you still remember the wreck of the U S cruiser memphis in san domingo harbor august 29 1916 do you remember how caught in the disturbance set up by a submarine marine volcano battered by a series of tidal waves she was tossed is i against the cliffs of a rockbound shore and smashed to pieces in the 0 1 short space of an hour and a half but were going to have the story of 0 the Al memphis emphis told by a man who never saw those waves by a man who saw the memphis disaster from the spot where the REAL battle was fought were going to hear bear about the wreck as it was seen by the boys down in the engine room where some of the most heroic deeds of that historic affair were done charles H willey warrant machinist united states navy retired of concord N H is the distinguished adventurer of column ordered below to get up steam charley was in his stateroom reading when without any warning the ship rolled over at an alarming angle at the same time the order came for the emergency watch to go below and get the ship under way when charley got below his men were already going about their duties the steam was up in only two boilers the job now was to raise it in the other four so the ship could get under way for until she was under way the memphis would be at the mercy of the raging seas the waves which had been mere heavy swells at first were getting higher every minute the ship rocked alarmingly but inside of ten minutes steam was forming in four boilers and the men in the engine rooms were warming up the engines with steam from the two live boilers firemen all worked delperal De desperately tely there was a fireman at every one of those boilers working desperately pera tely to force it says charley the ship kept pitching and heaving Us poor devils down there see the waves but we knew we were in their grip over the voice tube from the engine room came the cry of STEAM give us stearn steam and the steam thank god was rising fast the gauges were showing pressure but we had to get it to at least pounds even would have been little enough in an emergency like this one the steam was on the way up navy efficiency and discipline were doing their work in another few moments the engines would be turning and then SUDDENLY another violent larch of the ship and a deluge from above water sea water COMING DOWN THE ventilators RS engines stopped fourteen men killed says charley we knew what that meant the ship was broadside to the waves and those waves were sweeping clean over us now IL water began coming down the smoke stacks putting out our fires just when we were nearing victory we cut in the four boilers on the main steam line the engines were turning slowly but how they ate up the steam 1 A sudden lurching pitch a sickening pounding of the ship on the bottom and then with a roar the 14 inch main steam line burst in the port engine room killing seven men and stopping the engine there is a mad rush to close the stop valve water tons of it still pouring down the stacks steam hisses from strained boiler tubes the lights go out the dynamos have been shorted by sea water and we are left in darkness forced to abandon stations and still those gallant firemen in the engine room of the memphis stuck to their posts trying to get up steam there was bedlam everywhere below decks slice bars hoes coal buckets were sloshing slashing shing around the room with every roll and toss of the ship and yet in the flickering light of the fires the men were trying to get up steam there was another crash A DEAF DEAFENING ENING ROAR ROAH OF ESCAPING STEAM and then says charley 1 I knew we were gone in another minute ache he had bad struck again and the boilers let go at their tube joints 1 I yelled abandon stations every man for himself 1 I tried to get to the air lock stumbled and fell into sea water that was coming in through the ships bottom live steam was filling the room 1 I ripped off my jumper soaked it and wrapped it around my head how willey escaped the inferno 1 I heard agonized screams from the men who had gone up the ladder ahead of me up over those hot hellish steam twisted boilers to what they thought was safety in the uptake passage somehow god gave me strength to reach them in the uptake steam had risen there first and they were trapped in it they were breathing it it was searing their flesh and their lungs and cutting them down before they could open the heavy iron door 1 I kept my wet jumper over my face and reached the door fran frantically I 1 worked at the dogs that clamped it shut at last I 1 got it open dragged out some of those dying men and then charley lost consciousness he awoke TWO WEEKS later in the naval hospital in washington to learn that he was the only one of that brave crew of his that had lived it was a whole year before charley washout was out of the hospital now he lives in retirement on a little inland farm in new england A few years ago he was awarded the congressional medal of honor 44 yet says charley 1 I have never worn it for somehow I 1 feel I 1 am unworthy of it those men who stuck by me down there in that black inferno till the last they were the real heroes THEY PAID WITH THEIR thein LIVES C 0 service |
