The Story of the Sinking
The night of March 11, 1942, the Gill put into Charleston, SC after planes spotted a sub tailing it. At 12:45 the next day, they were given the all-clear to continue on to the Atlantic Refining Company in Philadelphia.
Herbert Gardner, 22, a wiper on the Gill, was sitting in the mess about 10 PM and wondering what he would do if the Gill were ever torpedoed. At 10:15, he got his answer. "When it hit, it was like it picked the chair up and moved it out from under me. We knew what had happened."
Outside, someone had thrown a life preserver into the oil slick. It was equipped with a self-igniting carbide flare, which burst. "When this happened..., we started burning. That was West Texas crude; it had a very high gasoline content, said Floyd Ready.
Ready, Gardner, and Potts made their way to the stern where a 5-51 breech-loader gun was and met the rest of the crew. They stayed at their post 15 minutes after the rest of the crew had abandoned the ship.
Sailing on board a ship loaded with potentially explosive oil through U-boat infested waters is not my idea of something I would like to do.
Continued. --Cooter
No comments:
Post a Comment