Brett Ashton - Vengeance - Hatred and Honor

Several of the superheated steam lines were ruptured in the aft fire room and would need to be shut down within the next three hours, at best guess, to repair. Estimated repair time was about six hours.

The first torpedo struck the ship at frame thirty-two. The ship’s list at the time was about fifteen degrees starboard and counter flooding had begun aft and port to try to correct the list. The ship was riding down by the bow with about eight feet of freeboard left (normally, it was about twice that much) on the starboard side.

The lower decks of turrets one and two were flooding. The ammunition magazines were being deliberately flooded, as ordered, to prevent the possibility of fires from fuel oil touching off the powder in the magazines.

The only problem was that twenty-one crewmen were trapped forward of the number one mezzanine by the flooding to prevent fire in the ammunition rooms. The sound-powered phone circuit to the compartment they were trapped in was still operational, and they were in no immediate danger, but they were trapped. Damage control was attempting to pump out the compartments around them and rescue them, but several leaks from damaged pipes and fittings, as well as hatches, still needed to be found and plugged before the compartments could be dewatered.

Large areas of the forward half of the ship were losing buoyancy, and damage control was still trying to slow the flooding. Several critical hatches had not been closed when the torpedoes struck, and to make matters worse, several had been damaged by the explosion and were leaking because they no longer fit properly. “At best case, we can expect the ship to settle to within several feet of freeboard forward on the starboard side, if we can keep the bow above the water at all,” he reported.

Operational systems included electrical power, aft propulsion at about eighty percent and decreasing as time went on, most ship’s communications on line, although damage control was still being rerouted, and all secondary batteries on line as well as all anti-aircraft guns. The fire mains were fully functional, steering was normal, and the aft main batteries were still on line.

So the rapid assessment was that we still had most of our teeth but would soon not be able to move. All of that would be okay, relatively speaking, as long as we were able to remain above the water. The forward part of the ship was sinking fast, with twenty-one of the crew trapped forward because of my order to flood the powder rooms. And the enemy submarine was still out there, and for all I knew, with some of his friends.

I told two of the runners to set up a rotation between them. They were to shadow the damage control officer and give me updates every ten minutes. I told the first runner to tell Lieutenant Commander Schuller I wanted the best case he just gave me to happen as an order. We were not going to let the Buffalo sink under any circumstances.

“Report, captain,” the admiral said, reminding me he was still there.

I handed the admiral the report and watched his expression as he read it. When you watch people closely enough, you can tell what they are going to do. This man was nervous. He had never seen combat. He had never lost a ship or crewmates. And he was afraid. I saw it in his eyes: he was going to run.

I turned to the talker and ordered him to “Get Major Johnson and the XO up here now.”

About the time the admiral finished the report, the two float plane pilots appeared on the bridge.

“Captain, we have to abandon ship.” The admiral had said exactly what I had predicted.

Being unwilling to give up my new ship to the Japs as well as needing to stall for time, I ignored him and turned to the pilots.

“I want you two to work out a rotational schedule to keep this ship covered from the air. There may be more submarines in the area, and you need to keep an eye out for them as well, but your primary mission is to help the destroyers find the submarine that attacked us. We can’t get up enough speed to use the catapults, so you will have to have the crane operators put your aircraft down in the water, and you can take off from there.”

We spent another minute or two working out the details when the admiral decided he had had enough.

“Captain, you will not ignore me anymore. I order you to abandon ship now .”

The major arrived just in time to hear what the admiral said. If he was shocked by it his expression didn’t show.

“Yes, captain,” he said.

“Standby, major,” I replied, knowing full well he would listen to the discussion between the admiral and me.

“Admiral, we are not going to abandon this ship,” I said, looking him dead in the eye.

“Maybe you didn’t understand my order, captain,” he replied more firmly.

“I understand you perfectly, sir, but I maintain the Buffalo will not be abandoned until all hope is gone.”

“Damn it, captain!” he said “You’ve seen the damage report. This ship may be sinking, and an enemy submarine could be stalking us right now. This is not safe water to be in with a damaged ship. Navy policy is to scuttle the ship and get the crew off and leave the area.”

“Admiral, we have men trapped below decks, and I will not abandon them, as a minimum, until we have tried everything we can to save them and keep this ship afloat.”

“Those men are acceptable losses, captain!”

I was not at all ready to hear that. I raised my voice high above the rest of the noise on the bridge and shouted, “ They are not acceptable losses to their families or the rest of this crew sir, and neither would you be! ”

The admiral recoiled slightly and paused, thinking for a moment. I could see he was going to back down if I gave him a way out.

Commander Thompson appeared on the bridge at this time and quickly perceived something was not going well between me and the admiral.

“ Are you waiting for the enemy sub to come around and finish us off? ” the admiral shouted back.

“ God damn it, admiral ! I am not going to lose another ship to those slant-eyed sons of bitches!”

“This is a career decision, captain! The regulations state that during circumstances like this, a ship may be ordered abandoned.”

“According to the regulations, the safety of this ship and its crew are my responsibility alone!” I told him, giving him, the opening I hoped he would take.

“Damn, Williams,” the admiral said with a look of resignation on his face, “Halsey was right about you. You do have guts.”

He paused for a moment, pointed his finger at me, then continued. “Very well, captain. You try to save your ship if you can. But know this: if this ship sinks, you better go down with it, or I am going to personally hang your ass from the highest mast I can find.”

“XO,” I said, “the admiral and his staff will be transferring to the Lawe at the soonest possible time. I also want you to prepare a list of personnel that may not be needed, given our current circumstances, in case we need to offload them as well. Damage control, gunners for the guns that are still functioning in case we run into a fight, medical personnel, and a skeleton crew for engineering must remain on board.”

“Yes, sir,” the commander said and was off, with the admiral trailing him.

I noticed at that time the entire crew of the bridge had stopped their work and were silently staring at me. The major was looking at me, smiling slightly (which was rare for him), and nodding.

“Thank you major; your services are not required at this time,” I said, turning to him.

“Very well, sir,” the major replied, and was gone.

“Alright men, come on, we have a lot of work to do,” I said and sat back down in my chair.