10-13-11
I couldn’t let this day pass without calling attention again to the incredible story of the tow of the Crippled Cruisers during the Battle of Formosa. I’m not going to spend much time on the details (see last year’s posts several pages back.) The Boston was at the heart of a week-long nightmare that saw her sister cruiser (Canberra) torpedoed once and replacement ship Houston torpedoed twice over three days.
Very briefly, TF 38.1 came under air attack on Oct 13 and Canberra (CA-70) was slammed by an aerial torpedo. Admiral Halsey ordered the Cruiser Wichita to take her under tow, and positioned light cruiser Houston to take her place in the formation. A day after joining this task group, Houston was slammed by an aerial torpedo and was severely damaged. Admiral Halsey ordered the Boston to take her in tow.
What follows here is Naval Historian Samuel Eliot Morison’s account of the actual setting-up of the tow between the Boston and the Houston. (Note: this is happening just before midnight on a moonless night – ships operating “darkened” to foil enemy reconnaissance.)
“A moderating wind and sea made the process of passing the towline from Boston to Houston less troublesome than in the case of Wichita and Canberra, but there were some new complications. Boston was rigged for passing the towline from her starboard quarter but found she could not keep station off the port (lee) side of the deeply settled Houston. Consequently, she had to take a new station to windward of the cripple and re-rig the line on her port quarter. The night was so black that when Boston’s stern was finally brought up to Houston’s stern, “nothing of Houston could be seen from Boston’s bridge, and conning had to be based on telephoned reports from the fantail.” After the hawser was secured at 2320, great difficulty was experienced in bringing Houston around from her dead-in-the-water heading of W by N, through the eye of the southwest wind, to the desired course of about SE by S, but the turn was finally completed by six bells in the midwatch, 15 October, and the tow proceeded at a speed of five to six knots on course 150 °. As the line appeared to be too short to give the proper catenary, Houston bent on her anchor chain paid it out to the extent of 120 fathom.”
{pages 99 and 100 “Leyte” by S.E. Morison}
p.s. “six bells in the midwatch” is 3:00 am (I had to look it up.)
steve