Russell Moran: The Gray Ship

The Confederate administration briefly considered waging a guerilla war against the Union, but the plans were abruptly abandoned. Robert E. Lee would later write in his memoir that the nation could thank a persuasive colored woman for the South’s capitulation. No historian has been able to decipher what he meant, or who the woman was. The Confederate States of America declared a truce, and Davis presented a plan of peace to Abraham Lincoln on August 5, 1861.

Slavery

On August 5, 1861, the same day that he delivered a plan for peace to Abraham Lincoln, Confederate Jefferson Davis freed all of his slaves. The next day he announced that slavery was abolished in all of the Confederate States. The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution formally abolished slavery in all of the United States. It was ratified unanimously by a vote of the state legislatures.

The Presidency

Barack Obama, a former United States Senator, took the oath of office for his first term on January 20, 2009. He was the third African American to be elected President of the United States. In 1921 Virginia Governor Ashley Bardwell had become the first black president and also the first woman to be elected. Her parents were once slaves, owned by Confederate President Jefferson Davis. In her memoir Ashley Bardwell wrote that her parents named her after a sea captain who they had never met.

Abraham Lincoln died of natural causes in 1899 at the age of 96. The most important part of his legacy was his diplomatic and fair treatment of the Confederate States after the brief Civil War in 1861. He was also instrumental in reconciling the racial animosities that existed because of slavery. He appointed seven former slaves to high posts in his second administration.

The Gray Ships

The Gray Ships are shrouded in historical mystery. They were sleek modern vessels that supported the Union in the American Civil War. Much about them is still unknown. Many accounts held that the Gray Ships were not a fleet, but only one vessel, the USS California , and that the ship changed appearance and names every night as a ruse to confuse and strike fear into the Confederacy. It, or they, suddenly disappeared on August 10, 1861 and there were no further records of a Gray Ship sighting.

Japan

In November 1940, the Roosevelt Administration negotiated a treaty with the Japanese Empire. In exchange for Japan’s abandoning its claims in China and Korea, the oil embargo would be stopped. Japan also agreed to remain neutral in case of hostilities between the United States and Germany. Yoshuri Yamato, one of the Japanese negotiators, was an historian and an expert on the brief American Civil War. Relying heavily on the memoirs of Robert E. Lee, he wrote a book entitled, Strategic Capitulation: When Peace Overpowers War .

Germany

After Japan signed the treaty with the United States, Hitler declared war on America in January 1942. Germany had been secretly working on an atomic bomb. The United States had abandoned its Manhattan Project after signing the treaty with Japan. In May, 1945, a German battleship off the United States East Coast fired a V2 rocket bomb with a nuclear warhead. It was targeted to hit Washington D.C., but, because it had a rudimentary guidance system, the rocket missed its target and landed in a rural area of Pennsylvania. The officer in charge of the operation, Luftwaffe Colonel Kurt Schweightkopf, was a history buff. He had always been fascinated by the stories about the Gray Ships in the American Civil War, and how the use of swift and violent force could bring about peace. As a result of Germany’s action, all neutral nations declared war on Germany, including Switzerland, Belgium, Ireland and Japan. In December 1945, Hitler was assassinated by one of his own body guards. The Third Reich was disbanded, and the new German government sued for peace.

“But there was no surrender at Appomattox,” Father Rick said to Jack. “I wonder how Great Grandpa Sampson made it to Iowa. If he didn’t, how am I here?”

“We’re all amateurs when it comes to time travel, Father. Maybe there is such a thing as a parallel universe. We left 2013 and returned seven hours later local time. But even though the calendar says 2013, it’s not the same one we left.”

Any time an unforeseen major event involves a ship of the United States Navy, a Naval Board of Inquiry is convened to sort out the facts. Typical events that would result in a Naval Board of Inquiry would be a grounding, a fire, a sinking, or a collision. When a ship goes missing for over seven hours, that event more than qualifies for the appointment of a Board.

The Naval Board of Inquiry into the Disappearance of the USS California convened on April 24, two weeks after the California came back to 2013. The Secretary of the Navy appointed Retired Rear Admiral Floyd “Hoss” Miller, the first Commanding Officer of the California , to chair the Board. Eight other admirals served on the panel.

Ashley had met Admiral Miller once, at a Change of Command ceremony. She admired and respected him. At a dinner with him and his wife Kay, and Miller regaled her with stories about the early days of the California . Retired admirals can sometimes be stuffy, even pompous. That wasn’t Hoss Miller. He is the kind of person you think of as an old friend after meeting him once.

The Board convened behind closed doors in a conference room at the Navy Department in Washington. A team of investigators fanned out to interview each sailor on the ship. Because there were over 600 stories to be told, if each crew member testified it would go on for months. They would call witnesses as they deemed necessary.

The first witness was Captain Ashley Patterson, as she expected. She didn’t feel nervous at all. Maybe these guys can help figure out what happened, because she sure as hell can’t.

According to procedure, a lawyer from the Judge Advocate General’s office was appointed to sit next to Ashley and advise her. His name was William Braden, and he held the rank of Commander. He immediately got on her nerves when he whispered in her ear. Do these guys feel important by whispering in people’s ears, she thought. But she realized that it was his job to look out for her legal rights. If he’d only stop whispering.

Promptly, at 0915, Ashley began her testimony. She told THE STORY .

As the hours went by, she was interrupted several times by questions. Everyone was impressed by her simple, direct answers.

Ashley didn’t hold back. She told everything. Well, she did edit out a few scenes with Jack Thurber. Ashley was at the microphone for seven hours, including a one-hour lunch break.

When they returned from lunch, Admiral Miller thought he would break the tension with some humor.

“Do you have your flux capacitor with you, Captain?” asked Miller.

“Yes Sir, I do,” said Ashley without missing a beat, “but it’s on the blink. I’ll have to get it to a flux capacitor repair shop.”

The room broke out in laughter.

“To summarize Gentlemen,” Ashley said, “at 0309 on the morning of April 10, 2013, the California slipped through a time porthole, a wormhole, and found itself in the year 1861. We spent just shy of four months in 1861, going through all of the experiences I’ve discussed today. Then, at 1400 hours on April 10, 2013, we came back.”

“Captain,” said Admiral William Ferguson, “there is one thing that concerns me, well, one of many. You engaged in combat operations. You fired nine Tomahawks and dozens of Harpoons and Hellfires. But Captain, you had no orders of engagement. You had no authorization.” Braden, her appointed lawyer, leaned over to whisper in Ashley’s ear. Would it be inappropriate if I broke this jerk’s nose, Ashley thought.