Dec. 17, 2012
The conversation about Typhoon Cobra with original crewmembers who survived the terrible storm that sank three ships and claimed over 800 lives, continues:
George Pitts: The ship, during all this floundering around, I’m down below in my bunk and there wasn’t anything for you to do — so you just lay in your bunk and you try and relax. And the damn ship turned like this — a 46 degree roll — now fifty would be sideways. 46 degrees — just a couple of feet more and that thing would have tipped over sideways. It got to 46 degrees and the whole ship started trembling. My whole life flashed before my eyes. I was knocked out of my bunk. I couldn’t get up because the ship is sideways. So I’m just holding on and I’m saying ‘Oh my God we’re going . . . ’ and it’s shaking and shaking and shaking. Finally, slowly but surely . . . voom . . . she came back. I got up off that deck and I flew up that ladder and I went topside and I didn’t go back down below again until we were well out of that typhoon. I thought for sure we were gone!
Julian Goldstein: We’re going along and the ship is going up and down, up and down. At some point during this horrific storm, I looked over the side and there was this destroyer, this one destroyer, and it was going up and down and I watched it. All of a sudden it went up, then it went down and it disappeared.
Occasionally, I recall it. Even now. I sometimes wake up from a horrible dream – no, a nightmare is what it is. I sometimes see it happening in my dreams. I finally have gotten over it after all these years.
During the typhoon, which lasted several days, I found that sleeping wasn’t such a problem, but eating . . . that’s a different story. We would eat off of these trays, which you would have to hold with one hand and hold your tool with the other so the tray wouldn’t go flying.
steve