In this installment of The Ouija Sessions, one of the most incredible survival stories ever.
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Tag Archives: navi
The misfortunes of Willie Dee
As I was going down impassive Rivers,
I no longer felt myself guided by haulers.
(A. Rimbaud, The Drunken Boat, 1871)
In the hypotetical Museum of Failure I proposed some time ago, the infamous destroyer USS William D. Porter (DD-579) would hold a place of honor.
The account of its war exploits is so tragicomic that it sounds like it’s scripted, but even if some anecdotes are probably no more than legends, the reputation the ship earned in its two years of service was sadly deserved.
The career of “Willie Dee“, as the Porter was nicknamed, started off with an exceptional task.
Soon after its launch, the ship was assigned to a top-secret, crucial mission: escorting Franklin Delano Roosevelt across the Atlantic ocean — infested by nazi submarines — to North Africa, where the President was to meet Stalin and Churchill for the first time. The summit of the Three Greats would later become known as the Tehran Conference, and together with the following meetings (the most famous one held in Yalta) contributed to change the European post-war layout.
Yet, on account of Willie Dee, the meeting almost failed to happen.
Destroyers are agile and fast ships, specifically designed to shield and protect bigger vessels. On November 12, 1943, the Porter was ordered to join the rest of the fleet escorting USS Iowa, a 14,000-tons battleship on which the President had already boarded, together with the Secretary of State and the executive top brass.
Willie Dee‘s crew at the time consisted of 125 sailors, under Captain Wilfred Walter’s command. But in times of war the Army needed a vast number of soldiers, and therefore enlisted boys who were still in high school, or had only worked in a family farm. A huge part of military accidents was caused by inexperienced rookies, who has had no proper training and were learning from their own mistakes, directly in the field. Nearly all of Willie Dee‘s crew had never boarded a ship before (including the 16 officials, of which only 4 had formerly been at sea), and this top-secret-mission baptism by fire surely increased the crew’s psychological pressure.
Anyway, right from the start Willie Dee made its debut under a bad sign. By forgetting to weigh anchor.
As Captain Walter was maneuvering to exit the Norfolk harbor, a terrible metal noise was heard. Looking out, the crew saw that the anchor had not been completely raised and, still hanging on the ship’s side, had tore out the railings of a nearby sister ship, destroying a life raft and ripping up other pieces of equipment. The Willie Dee had suffered just some scratches and, being already late, Captain Walter could only offer some quick apologies before setting sail towards the Iowa, leaving it to port authorities to fix the mess.
But it wasn’t over. During the next 48 hours, the Willie Dee was going to fall into a maelstrom of shameful incompetence.
After less than a day, just as the Iowa and the other ships were entering a zone notoriously infested by German U-boats, a heavy explosion shook the waters. All units, convinced they had fallen under attack, frantically began diversion maneuvers, as radar technicians in high alert scanned the ocean floor in search for enemy submarines.
Until the Iowa received an embarassed message from Captain Walter: the detonation had been caused by one of their depth charges, accidentally dropped into the water because the safe had not been correctly positioned. Luckily the explosion had not injured the ship.
As if accidentally dropping a bomb was not enough, things got even more desperate in the following hours. Soon after that a freak wave washed one of the sailors overboard, who was never found. Not one hour after that tragedy, the Willie Dee‘s boiler room suffered a mechanical failure and lost power, leaving the destroyer plodding along in a backward position behind the rest of the convoy.
At this point, aboard the Iowa the anxiety for Willie Dee‘s blunders was tangible. Under the scrutiny of all these high personalities, the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Ernest J. King, personally took the radio microphone to reprimand Captain Walter. The skipper, realizing that the opportunities of a high-profile mission were quickly turning into a catastrophe, humbly vowed to “improve the ship’s performance“. And in a sense he kept his word, by causing the ultimate disaster.
Even proceeding at full speed, it would have taken more than a week for the fleet to reach destination. It was therefore of crucial importance to carry out war drills, so that the (evidently inexperienced) crews could prepare for a potential surprise attack.
On November 14, east of Bermuda, the Iowa Captain decided to show Roosevelt and the other passengers how his ship was able to defend itself against an air attack. Some weather balloons were released as targets, as the President and other officials were invited to seat on the deck to enjoy the show of cannons taking them down one by one.
Captain Walter and his crew stood watching from 6,000 yards away, growing eager to participate in the drill and to redeem their ship’s name. When Iowa missed some balloons, which drifted into Willie Dee‘s fire range, Walter ordered his men to shoot them down. At the same time, he commanded a torpedo drill.
Belowdecks two members of the crew, Lawton Dawson and Tony Fazio, made sure the primers were removed from the torpedos — otherwise they would have actually launched — and gave the OK signal to the deck. The bridge commander ordered fire, and the first “fake” torpedo was activated. Then the second, “fire!“. And the third.
At that point, the bridge commander heard the last sound he’d wanted to hear. The unmistakable hiss of a real torpedo trailing away.
To fully understand the horror the official must have felt in that moment, we must remember one detail. Usually in a drill one of the nearby ships was chosen as a practice target. The closest target was the Iowa.
The Porter had just fired a torpedo towards the President of the United States.
Aboard the Willie Dee, hell broke loose. One lieutenant ran up to Captain Walter, and asked him if he had given permission to fire a torpedo. His answer was certainly not a historic war dictum: “Hell, No, I, I, aaa, iiiiii — WHAT?!“.
Only a couple of minutes were left before the torpedo hit Iowa‘s side, sinking it together with America’s most important personalities.
Walter immediately ordered to raise the alarm, but the strictest radio silence had been commanded to avoid the risk of interception, as the fleet sailed in a dangerous zone. So the signalman decided to use a flashing light instead.
But, falling prey to a justifiable panic, the young sailor who had to warn Iowa of the fatal mistake got quite confused. The mothership began receiving puzzling, uncomprehensible messages: “A torpedo is moving away from Iowa“, and shortly after “Our ship is going in reverse at full speed“.
Time was running out, and realizing that Morse code was not a viable option, Walter decided to break radio silence. “Lion, Lion, come right!” “Identify and say again. Where is submarine?” “Torpedo in the water! Lion, come right! Emergency! Come right, Lion! Come right!”
At that point the torpedo had already been spotted from the Iowa. The ship made an emergency manoeuvre, increasing speed and turning right, as all cannons shot towards the incoming torpedo. President Roosevelt asked his Secret Service bodyguard to move his wheelchair to the railing, so he could better see the missile. According to the story, the bodyguard even took out his gun to shoot the torpedo, as if his bullets could stop its course.
Meanwhile, over the Willie Dee a ghastly silence had fallen, as everyone stood frozen, holding their breath and waiting for the explosion.
Four minutes after being fired, the missile exploded in water, not far from Iowa, providentially without damaging it. The President later wrote in his diary: “On Monday last a gun drill. Porter fired a torpedo at us by mistake. We saw it — missed it by 1,000 feet“.
With the best will in the world, such an accident could not be overlooked — also because at that point there was a strong suspicion that the Willie Dee crew might have been infiltrated, and that the claimed clumsy error was in fact an actual assassination plot. So the Iowa ordered the Porter out of the convoy and sent it back to a US base in Bermuda; Walter and his crew shamefully made a u-turn and, once they entered the harbor, were greeted by fully armed Marines who placed them all under arrest. Days of interrogations and investigations followed, and Dawson, the 22-tear-old sailor who forgot to remove the primer from the torpedo, was sentenced to 14 years of hard labour. When he heard of the sentence, Roosevelt himself intervened to pardon the poor boy.
The rest of the convoy in the meantime reached Africa unharmed, and Roosevelt (despite another, but this time real, attempted assassination) went on to sign with Churchill and Stalin those deals which, once the war was over, would radically change Europe.
The Willie Dee was sent off Alaskan shores, where it could not cause much trouble, and in time it became some sort of a sailor’s myth. Other unverified rumors began circulating around the “black sheep” of the US Navy, such as one about a drunk sailor who one night allegedly shot a 5-inch shell towards a military base on the coast, destroying a commander’s front yard. Humorous, exaggerated legends that made it a perfect scapegoat, the farcical anti-heroine into which the anxiety of failure could be sublimated.
The resonance of Willie Dee’s infamous deeds preceded it in every harbor, where invariably the ship was saluted by radioing the ironic greeting “Don’t shoot! We’re Republicans!“.
The ship eventually sank during the Battle of Okinawa — ingloriously taken down by an already-crashed plane which exploded under its hull.
On that day, more than a seaman probably heaved a sigh of relief. The unluckiest ship in American history was finally resting at the bottom of the ocean.
(Thanks, Andrea!)
Two underwater graveyards
Along the cove named Mallows Bay, the Potomac River flows placid and undisturbed. It’s been doing that for more than two million years, you’ll have to forgive if the river doesn’t seem much impressed.
Its fresh and rich waters glide along the banks, caressing the hulls of hundreds of submerged ships. Yes, because in this underwater graveyard at least 230 sunken ships lay on the bottom of the river — a surreal tribute, here in Maryland, 30 miles south of Washington DC, a memento of a war among “featherless bipeds”, and of a military strategy that proved disastrous.
On April the 2nd, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson called Americans to arms against imperial Germany. This meant carrying dietary, human and military resources across the Atlantic Ocean, which was infested by German submarines. And supporting an army overseas meant to build the most majestic fleet in the history of mankind. In february 1917, engineer Frederic Eustis proposed an apparently irreproachable plan to lower costs and solve the problem: the construction of wooden ships, cheaper and faster to assemble than iron ships; a fleet so vast as to outnumber the inevitable losses due to submarines, thus able to bring food and weapons to European shores.
But, amidst beaurocratic and engineering delays, the project ironically did not hold water right from the start. Deadlines were not met, and in October 1918 only 134 wooden ships were completed; 263 were half-finished. When Germany surrendered on November 11th, not a single one of these ships had left port.
A legal battle to assert responsibilities ensued, as only 98 of the 731 commissioned ship had been delivered; and even these showed a weak and badly built structure, proving too small and costly to carry long-distance cargo. The maintenance costs for this fleet soon became excessive, and it was decided to cut out the entire operation, sinking the ships where they stood, one by one.
Today Mallows Bay harbours hundreds of fallen ships, which in time turned into a sort of natural reef, where a florid ecosystem thrives. As they were made of wood, these ships are by now part of the river’s habitat, and host algae and microorganisms that will in time erase this wartime folly, by turning it into a part of Potomac itself.
Mallows Bay is the largest ship graveyard in Western Hemisphere. As for the Eastern one, we should look for Truk (or Chuuk) Lagoon in Micronesia.
Here, during the course of another bloody war, WWII, hundreds of airplanes and other Japanese outposts were taken down during the so-called Hailstone operation.
On February 17, 1944, hell broke loose over this peaceful tropical lagoon, when US airforce sunk 50 Japanese ships and aorund 250 airplanes. At least 400 Japanese soldiers met their end here. Most of the fleet still remains in the place where it went down, under the enemy fire.
Foating on the surface of the lagoon’s clear waters, it is still possible to see the impressive structures of these wrecks; and several daredevils dive to explore the eerie panorama, where plane carcasses and battleship keels cover the ocean floor.
Rusted and sharp metal sheets, fluctuating cables and oil spills make the dive extremely dangerous. Yet this graveyard, the largest of its kind in the world, seems to offer an experience that is worth the risk. Among the bended metal of a by now ancient battle are still trapped the remains of those fighters Japan never managed to retrieve. Broken lives, terrible memories of a momentous conflict that claimed more victims than any other massacre.
And here, life flourished back again, covering the wrecks with luxurious corals and sea animals. As if to remind us that the world goes on anyway, never worrying about our fights, nor about the heroic victories we like to brag about.
(Thanks, Stefano Emilio!)
Gente blu
Lo sanno anche i bambini: gli alieni Navi del blockbuster Avatar hanno la pelle di un bel blu acceso. Ma cosa direste se anche il vostro vicino di casa un bel giorno uscisse dal portone con un look simile?
Per quanto possa sembrare assurdo, la storia medica ha registrato diversi casi di gente dalla pelle blu. L’uomo fotografato qui sotto (al centro), per esempio, era del tutto normale.
Oggi, all’età di 60 anni, la sua pelle ha assunto un colore blu smorto. Come è potuto succedere?
La trasformazione di Paul Karason (così si chiama il simpatico vecchietto dell’Oregon) è avvenuta gradualmente, nel corso degli ultimi 17 anni. Tanto gradualmente che, a detta dello stesso Paul, né lui né gli altri parenti se ne sono resi conto immediatamente. È bastato però rivedere un amico rimasto lontano per anni, per sentire la fatidica domanda: “Ma cosa ti è successo?”. Da quel momento, la sua vita è cambiata. Paul Karason ha cominciato a vergognarsi, ad evitare i posti affollati. Fino alla difficile decisione di lasciare il suo Stato per emigrare in California, dove “la comunità è molto più aperta e spero di vivere una vita normale, in cui mi accettino per quel che sono”.
La sua fidanzata, Jackie Northrup, afferma di “ricordarsi” che lui è blu soltanto quando sono in spazi pubblici e la gente comincia a fissarlo. “È gentile e dal cuore generoso”, lo descrive Jackie.
Sembra che lo strano cambiamento sia da attribuire all’assunzione prolungata di argento colloidale, uno di quei rimedi a cui la medicina alternativa attribuisce poteri benefici e curativi che possono risolvere praticamente qualsiasi problema di salute. Si ottiene liberando l’argento nell’acqua tramite energia elettrica, e molti lo considerano una panacea universale. E, nonostante tutto, Paul ne è ancora convinto. Secondo lui l’errore non è stato bere la pozione d’argento, ma passarsela sulla faccia per combattere delle eruzioni cutanee, provocando così un brutto caso di argiria. Quali che siano le cause, comunque, Paul ha deciso di non curarsi e si è rassegnato a vivere così il resto dei suoi giorni.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahihGKZC5Kk]
Ma la pelle blu può derivare anche da problemi di tipo genetico. Divenne celebre il caso di una famiglia del Kentucky, residente sui monti Appalachi, la familia Fugate.
Poiché risiedente in una zona montagnosa sperduta, questa famiglia installatasi a Troublesome Creek nel 1800 e ivi stanziata fino agli anni ’60 del XX secolo, dovette ricorrere spesso ai matrimoni consanguinei. Questo fece emergere dei geni recessivi responsabili della malattia denominata metaemoglobinemia, un’alterazione che produce alti livelli di metaemoglobina nel sangue. La metaemoglobina è una variante dell’emoglobina che non si lega con l’ossigeno, e quando è prodotta in dosi massicce può portare a ipossia dei tessuti (poco ossigeno nelle cellule). Questo spiegherebbe il colore bluastro dei Fugate, con labbra viola ematoma.
I Fugate furono curati dal medico che si prese a cuore il loro caso con iniezioni e pastiglie di blu di metilene: il trattamento ridonò loro il colorito naturale (anche se l’effetto era temporaneo e le pastiglie andavano assunte quotidianamente). “Erano gente povera, ma brava gente”, ricorda il medico. Diverse troupe di documentaristi e programmi televisivi hanno da allora cercato di intervistare i Fugate, ma sono state regolarmente respinte dai feroci cani da guardia della famiglia. Dagli anni ’60 si è persa traccia dell’esatta localizzazione del ranch dei Fugate, e ora la famiglia dalla pelle blu può vivere in pace.
I fuochi di Sant’Elmo
Il Fuoco di Sant’Elmo è una scarica elettro-luminescente provocata dalla ionizzazione dell’aria durante un temporale, all’interno di un forte campo elettrico. Fisicamente, si manifesta come un bagliore brillante, bianco-bluastro, che in alcune circostanze appare come un fuoco, spesso in getti doppi o tripli, che scaturisce da strutture alte e appuntite, come alberi maestri, guglie e ciminiere. Può anche apparire tra le punte delle corna del bestiame durante un temporale, o tra oggetti appuntiti nel mezzo di un tornado.
Prende il nome da Erasmo da Formia (detto anche sant’Elmo), il santo patrono dei naviganti. Il nome è dovuto al fatto che il fenomeno spesso appare sulla testa dell’albero maestro delle navi durante i temporali in mare. Contrariamente a quanto ci si potrebbe aspettare da un fenomeno così misterioso, i fuochi di Sant’Elmo erano visti dai marinai come segno di buon auspicio: gli alberi della nave erano, per così dire, “protetti” dall’anima del Santo. Infatti si narra che sulla punta della pira del rogo su cui Sant’Elmo venne arso vivo comparvero fiamme bluastre, ritenute dai presenti i segni dell’anima del Santo che si innalzava al cielo dal luogo del martirio.
Del fuoco di Sant’Elmo scrissero nell’antichità Giulio Cesare e Plinio il Vecchio; ne parlano il diario che Antonio Pigafetta scrisse nel suo viaggio con Ferdinando Magellano, e il capolavoro di Herman Melville “Moby Dick”. Un fenomeno affascinante, magico, che persiste tuttora sui quotidiani, tecnologici voli a bordo dei nostri sofisticati Boeing.
