"My Duty"

For more than three days, the North Atlantic seemed to give up to Captain Kurt Carlsen and his crippled Flying Enterprise. The British tug Turmoil plowed homeward through a placid sea, her five-inch steel towline dragging the wallowing Flying Enterprise. Aboard the listing Isbrandtsen freighter, Carlsen and Mate Kenneth Dancy of the Turmoil settled down for the trip into Falmouth. People all over the world read the headlines, and hoped.

But the Atlantic was only resting. Eighty miles from Falmouth, the wind began to rise. Soon, heavy seas were crashing over the Enterprise. The Turmoil cut her speed, hove to for more than five hours, then got under way. The Flying Enterprise rolled drunkenly. A towering wave snatched the only remaining lifeboat from her davits, tumbled and smashed it to kindling. Carlsen coaxed his battery-powered radio to life.

Carlsen to escorting U.S. Destroyer Willard Keith: "Don't worry. Everything is O.K."

The Towline Rarts. The storm got worse. At 3 a.m., now less than 55 miles from port, Carlsen and Dancy were awakened by a blast from the Turmoil's siren. The towline had snapped. Aboard the Turmoil, an engineer heard the cable "racing [in] on us as if it was being pulled by elastic. I had to turn away, like in the movies when you don't want others to know you're crying."

All next day, Carlsen and Dancy fought to free the fouled tackle and rig a new line. Once, when they were on the verge of success, a great wave smashed over the ship. Carlsen was swept off his feet, skidded along the slanted deck, barely saved himself from going overboard. He and Dancy settled down to wait for a break in the weather, but within minutes the Keith's radio operator was picking up new gale warnings. Carlsen and Dancy moved higher, scrambled up to the captain's office on the starboard side. At 10 a.m. next morning, the storm was still blowing at gale force. Another tug, the Dexterous, arrived from Falmouth to help; the radio began crackling out urgent messages :

Keith to Carlsen: "A helicopter is standing by to take you off."

Carlsen to Keith: "I'm not abandoning . . . The sea is playing heck with the ship."

By noon Carlsen and Dancy were on chairs in the flooded captain's office, huddled in blankets.

Carlsen to Keith: "It's icy in here. We have rigged a rape up to the doorway, just in case we have to quit in a hurry. Send a message to Agnes, my wife. I am anxious because I have not heard a word from her . . ."

At 2 p.m. the Enterprise was almost on her beam ends. A helicopter took off from Culdrose Naval Air Station ten miles from Falmouth and beat southward into the storm. The wind was too strong. It had to turn back.

Carlsen to Turmoil, 2:30 p.m.: "Captain Parker, things aren't so hot here now, captain. She's taking a lot of water."

Turmoil to Carlsen: "Your hatches are awash and may give way at any time."

For half an hour more the Enterprise heaved in the sea, then she began to settle rapidly.

Turmoil to Keith, 3:08: "The Flying Enterprise is going down . . . The Flying Enterprise is going down."

Keith to Turmoil, 3:15: "She is still afloat. Captain Carlsen and Mr. Dancy are standing on the starboard side of the deckhouse."

British tug Dexterous to Turmoil, 3:16: "Come to windward. They are going to jump from the top of the funnel."

Keith, 3:19: "Enterprise now taking water down the stack."

Turmoil, 3:22: "Captain Carlsen and Dancy have jumped. They are in the water. We are going to pull them in."

Turmoil, 3:27: "I've got them. Both of them. They were in the water about four-and-a-half minutes. We got Carlsen first, then Dancy."

Keith to Turmoil: "Beautiful work!"

Dexterous to Turmoil: "Good show, old boy."

Forty-One Miles from Safety. Carlsen stood on the Turmoil's deck and watched his ship go down. Convoy sirens wailed a requiem as the Flying Enterprise's stern rose up, cascading foam. It dropped heavily back. The bow shot up 20 feet and the Enterprise plunged into 40 fathoms, 41 miles, southeast of Falmouth. On the Turmoil old sailors were in tears. Carlsen took one last look and stumbled below to sleep. "I have done my best . . ." he said wearily. "It could not be helped."

Britain's press broke down completely at the news that he was safe and was headed for Falmouth. Almost every paper carried a banner. "We cry 'Hard luck, Carlsen,' " intoned London's Daily Herald, "but we rejoice that he lives to stand on the bridge of another ship." Whispered the News Chronicle in large type: "Hush, They're Asleep!"

At Falmouth, a crowd of 10,000 lined the Prince of Wales pier to welcome the brave captain. His aged parents had been flown over from Copenhagen to greet their son. The mayor of Falmouth was there to give one of the most important speeches of his life; Denmark's King Frederik sent his naval attache with a message of congratulation.

Poundcake & Candles. Tired and stiff-legged, his hands heavily calloused from crawling along the Flying Enterprise's decks, Kurt Carlsen stepped off on to the pier and embraced his parents. When the speeches were over, he faced the mob of 350 newsmen and, in a quiet voice, filled out the story of his ordeal.

Carlsen told how he had been wet to the skin for two weeks, how he had eaten poundcake washed down with Rhine wine from the ship's store, warmed his hands over a candle, and slept jammed between the tilted deck and bulkhead of the radio room. He said that he had read a book on maritime law and prayed. He told how he and Dancy had decided to jump when the pressure of air and water burst open the wheelhouse door, how they had swum hand-in-hand toward the Turmoil. "I cannot, please do not ask me too hard, to tell you how I felt as I saw her go."

By week's end, Carlsen had performed his last formal act as skipper of the Flying Enterprise. Before a panel of underwriters, he signed an affidavit that his ship had been lost by an "act of God" which neither he nor the owners could prevent. Then, he turned his back on offers for movie and story rights, radio & TV appearances (estimated at more than $84,000), and made ready to fly home for a ticker-tape parade up Broadway.

Before he left, Skipper Carlsen answered the question uppermost in everyone's mind. Why had he stuck it out so long? Said Carlsen: "I thought I could bring her into port. I felt it was my duty to the owners and all those who had insured the ship and cargo. I am a sea captain, a seaman."

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