Down to the Sea by Bruce Henderson Read Free Book Online Page A

harbor—keeping a “short chain” on the anchor for a quick getaway if necessary. When a major Japanese naval force—consisting of two battleships, several cruisers, and a dozen destroyers—approached offshore to shell Henderson Field, Hull , “no match” for the enemy fleet, found deep water only 50 feet from shore and allowed “the trees to hide her mast.” After a week, with “nothing to eat but rice and beans,” Hull was relieved of her “artillery duty.”
    During a layover in Pearl Harbor, Hull picked up a handful of new crew members, including Seaman 1st Class Michael Franchak, twenty-three,of Jermyn, Pennsylvania, a small ethnic community where daily life centered around the local coal mines and the Russian Orthodox Church. Just shy of six feet and solidly built, Franchak was one of nine children born to immigrants from Galicia, Spain. He had quit high school after his second year and worked locally to help support his family. He eventually moved to New York City, where several of his siblings and friends had relocated, and found work behind a soda fountain and as a dishwasher. When war broke out, he followed two brothers into the Navy instead of waiting to be drafted into the Army.
    Before being assigned to Hull —where his shipmates soon shortened his name to “Frenchy”—Franchak attended fire-control school upon graduation from boot camp, both at Great Lakes Naval Training Station. Fire-control men operated the primitive computer that targeted a ship’s guns, and it was from this group of technically trained personnel that the Navy helped fill the ranks of a new technical rating to operate a new piece of equipment being installed on more ships in the fleet: radar. * Franchak eventually became a radarman after the high school dropout worked hard to pass the training course alongside classmates with more education, including some with college degrees.
    The day after Franchak reported aboard, Hull went to sea. Several days later—after day and night maneuvers and gunnery practice—they put in at picturesque Lautoka in the Fiji chain. Most of the excitement surrounding Franchak’s first liberty in the tropics involved watching gaming cocks fighting to the death in the street while locals cheered. That, and natives scaling trees and tossing down fruit to the sailors. Much to the disappointment of Franchak and his shipmates, the only available beer was “British and warm.”
    Hull joined the battleship Colorado (BB-45) in the vicinity of Fiji and the New Hebrides, helping protect the sea routes to Australia and NewZealand used by Allied shipping. In January 1943, Hull escorted a convoy to San Francisco and then entered Mare Island Navy Yard for repairs and alterations, including removing the plate-glass bridge windows and replacing them with portholes (reduced visibility in exchange for increased protection) as well as the installation of radar and sonar gear.
    Although Hull ’s crew had anticipated a return to the South Pacific, it wasn’t long before they got the impression they were headed elsewhere. One piece at a time, they were issued foul-weather gear: heavy peacoats, wool-lined gloves, fur-lined boots, and watch caps. Destroyer duty in the balmy Pacific was considered part of the “dungaree Navy”—smaller ships that did away with much of the ceremony of larger ships, such as wearing white (summer) or blue (winter) uniforms, inspections, and constant saluting. * On and off duty, Hull ’s men were accustomed to spending their days dressed casually in denim trousers and white T-shirts or blue chambray shirts.
    Sonarman 2nd Class Pat Douhan, twenty, of Fresno, California, a recent addition to Hull ’s crew, conjectured with his shipmates that the new issues meant they were “headed up north somewhere.” To their amazement, they were even given permission to grow beards as further protection