Rescue At Sea

The photo on the left shows a Seahawk plane perched on the end of a catapult which is about to be turned seaward for launching.The other photo was snapped when the plane reached the end of the catapult and was about to climb.The pilot was never home free at this point. The plane can be seen descending to almost sea-level before making the climb. Quite an adventure!

The photo shows the pilot reaching from the cockpit for the hook from the crane. Once the plane is hooked,the deck crew will bring the pilot with his plane up to the deck.That's,of course,if everything goes as planned.Under the plane,in the water,there is a cargo net that the pilot hoped to snag with a hook that descends from the body of the plane. It is not known if this is the plane that sunk during recovery,but it sure looks like it was when one wing is under water and the plane is veering away from the ship instead of nose to fan-tail as it should be.

The following account is the experience I had during the above recovery procedure. I was given whale boat duty during take-offs and landings.There were about five men who had to climb into a boat on each side of the ship.Landings were especially troublesome for us because we couldn't see what was transpiring from our vantage point hanging over the side of the ship in a boat. We were on the port side,and referred to as MOTOR WHALE BOAT NUMBER TWO .The ship had to turn to make a slick on the water for the pilot. We could barely see the plane as it made its approach.The deck crew was ready to let us down if necessary.

Then it happened.The loudspeaker came out with MOTOR WHALE BOAT NUMBER TWO AWAY.There are two hooks holding the boat that must be undone, one on the bow and one on the stern that the coxswain handled.Precisely what happened,I didn't learn until fifty years later from a guy in the boat who was the Bow Hook,George Greer from Hilliard Ohio.I remember the boat going down fast,bow pointing to the water and the boat slamming against the side of the ship.I learned later that the boat was being dragged alongside by the Missouri while I was under water.My lifejacket brought me quickly to the surface.Someone managed to unhook the boat and set it free.I had to swim about twenty yards to get aboard. By the time everybody was secure we looked for the Missouri,found it and noticed it looked about the size of our boat on the horizon.

The plane wasn't in sight;it had sunk.When we got to the pilot,who was bobbing around in the water,we noticed his flight suit was covered with red.The boat captain,an Ensign,about one year older than the rest of us,told me to prepare for first aid since it looked like the pilot was severely injured.When we located the first aid kit,it wasn't needed because we found out the red was marker dye. The Ensign carried a 45 caliber handgun which he claimed was necessary in case of sharks or barracuda. He took the gun out of its holster and swept it along the sides of the boat, anxious for an opportunity to fire it.Thankfully,for us,he didn't have to.I didn't know which was more frightening..the sharks or the Ensign with a loaded gun.

The Signalman stood up in the boat and did his thing with flags.The Missouri was so far away they would have needed a telescope as big as a 16 inch gun to see anything.A battleship doesn't stop on a dime and it doesn't turn at right angles, so we had a little wait,even though we were underway to meet her with our boat. The deck crew was unable to bring us aboard with the boat due to the confusion surrounding the launching.That meant we had to climb a cargo net up the side.The last time we did that was in boot camp, the net was only about 10 feet wide and there was no ocean under us.

Fifty years later in 1996, I wrote a letter to the Missouri Association newsletter, the Missourian II. In the letter I asked if anyone could confirm an account I gave of the boat launching. George Greer replied and his letter is shown here.

I also inquired of the Naval Archives the official account as it appeared in the deck log of the Missouri.After reading George Greer's letter about the direction the Missouri turned, one can understand why the official account has no explanation for the loss of the plane.

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RESCUE AT SEA