Seven Days in Imminent Danger of Capsizing: The S. S. Robin Sherwood 20-27 February, 1944 and the U. S. Navy...
- ISBN-10
- 1937632717
- ISBN-13
- 9781937632717
- Pages
- 200
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2013-09-20
- Author
- William Lebus
Description
This book was written by the author over 20 years ago. To preserve its authenticity, it is presented in its original form and format. An Amazing battle with death, equaling any sage of the sea, was told by a group of Armed Gaurds who returned to the Center recently without the loss of a single member of the gun crew. Bound westward, the vessel was thrown into s 25-degree list by the heavy seas which caused the slag, carried for ballast, to shift. Before any progress could be made to right the ship, a second shift threw her into another list, tilting the ship to a seemingly fatal 65-degree angle. Her topmast hovered a bare 20 feet above the gale-lashed sea. In a frantic endeavor to launch a lifeboat, six merchant men were lost when the tiny craft capsized. Two more met death when a shuddering of the ship impelled them to leap overboard to escape being trapped alive when the vessel turned hull up. In some unexplained manner, the ship wallowed but remained afloat while the Navy and merchant crew redoubled their efforts to shift the ballest. They shoveled for their very lives. For seven days the shoveling continued. Up in the wheelhouse, the skipper three times fell heavily, unable to keep his footing on the nearly vertical deck. Realizing a 45-degree list was sufficient to capsize the vessel and trap everyone aboard, this heroic group labored night and day, sustained by broth from the crippled ship's galley. Any moment could have been their last. Providence watched over this unequal battle of men against the sea. From its 65-degree list, the vessel finally started to right itself and at last the men won out Partially righted and proceeding at a snail's pace, the 'ship that wouldn't sink' finally made an Eastern port.
