Jiu-jitsu in the Sea

Four of the pluckiest ships in the U.S. Navy were the old four-piper destroyers which had some of their guns taken off and boilers taken out, and then were camouflaged to look like palm-fringed jungle, so that they could shuttle Marines to the Solomons in the first phases of the campaign. All four were sunk. What it felt like to be on--and later off--one of them, the Gregory, what it feels like to be sunk in any sea battle, was vividly described in the U.S. last week by Machinist's Mate George Thomas Rhodes of the U.S. Coast Guard, who had a nightmarish adventure on top of the sinking:

"Just as we started to go overside a shell hit the stacks over our head. Two of my friends were killed and I was wounded. That shrapnel is so hot when it hits you--I don't know what it does to you but you don't feel it. I think I was stunned by the shrapnel, though. I know I dove from the boat about 20 ft. to the water. When I hit the water--it was warm, about 78, I would say--my head cleared. I swam along for a short while when I came to a group of guys off the ship. We tried to help the guys who were wounded--they couldn't stay up by themselves.

"After swimming with them for a while I got separated from them. I don't know how it happened or why it happened, but I was alone. Gosh, I was thinking about everything. I was thinking about home mostly and whether I'd ever get back there and whether I'd ever get to see the baby that was coming.

"After a couple of hours in the light from burning ships I saw someone floating in the water, I thought he was one of my shipmates who had been wounded. I swam over to see if I could help him. I was pretty weak myself from loss of blood. My jaw was torn open--about three and one-half inches--and I had two other wounds, one on my thigh and one on my ankle. But I didn't know about them then.

"As I came up I called out, 'Are you hurt?' He came toward me. Then he made a grab for me--right for my throat--and he was mumbling something I couldn't understand, but I knew it was Japanese.

"Afterwards I figured he was trying to get my lifejacket. Then, I don't know what I figured, except to get away from him. The lifejacket was tied right at my throat. The Japanese kept clawing at my throat, trying to choke and scratch me. He tried to gouge my eyes out, and he dug his nails into my cheek.

"I felt as though I were being entangled by an octopus. His arms and legs were all around me. Then at one point I was strangling from water that went in through the hole in my jaw.

"It was hard to get a good hold on him. I tried to grab his hair, but it was cut too short. I kept smashing out at him with both fists but it didn't do much good. He knocked me under several times, like he was trying to drown me. Every time I came up I got big gulpfuls of air.

"I remembered something about lifesaving, so I tried to place myself in such a position so I could put my feet against his stomach, catch him by the shoulders and shove him away. Well, I got hold of him somehow; I think it was about the shoulders but I'm not sure. Then I swung an overhead blow right into his face. He loosened his hold and I didn't see him any more.

"I guess he sank."

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