Ship of Ghosts by James D. Hornfischer Read Free Book Online

captain, with the
Houston
moored at Cavite, Rooks returned to his stateroom after an evening on the town and wrote Edith, “It is an interesting fact to me that there seems to be no particular fear or nervous tension here at all. Everyone seems calm, cool, and cheerful. They have of course been facing such crises for months, not to say years, and are inured to them…. As for me, I face the future with the utmost confidence. My job is turning into one of the biggest in the Navy at this time, and I am fortunate to have it. The ship is in excellent condition as far as material and training is concerned. Whatever weaknesses she has are those of design. Service in these hot southern waters is of course very uncomfortable when the ships are sealed up for war operations, but we will have to take that.”
    He seemed eager to revoke his farewell prophecy in Honolulu. “I have a feeling that fate is going to be kind to me,” Rooks wrote to Edith, “and that on some happier tomorrow we will be walking the streets of Seattle in company, as we now do in spirit.”

CHAPTER 4
    I n November 1941, the tension that gripped the naval base at Cavite was palpable. A war warning was circulating. Aware of the Asiatic Fleet’s vulnerability in Manila, Admiral Hart scattered the vessels. * The
Houston
was stripped down for action. The admiral’s flag quarters were cleared of all unnecessary accoutrements. The nicer furniture was stored ashore in Manila, including the silver service and the baby grand piano. One afternoon, when the
Houston
’s softball team went out to meet a challenge from sailors at Canacao Naval Hospital, the familiar peacetime routine prevailed. Three hours later, the ballplayers returned to find the well-ordered chaos of a warship preparing to get under way.
    A shore patrol went to round up stragglers still on liberty. Yard workers hustled to reinstall the ship’s four carbon arc searchlights, which had been detached and set aside for replacement by newer models. They doubled their efforts to install two additional four-barreled 1.1-inch antiaircraft mounts. Welders dropped over the sides to burn portholes shut. The ship’s degaussing cable, wrappedaround the ship’s hull to produce a magnetic field to defeat magnetic-triggered mines, was hurriedly tested and calibrated. The
Houston
was going to sea. FDR would fish with it now from afar, pursuing more formidable quarry.
    At nine a.m . on December 1, the
Houston
set course for Iloilo, 238 miles south of Manila, while the light cruiser
Marblehead
and the destroyers headed for bases in Borneo. Navy war plans had long provided for such a withdrawal. The prewar consensus had been that the Asiatic Fleet would leave the area entirely, biding time in the Indian Ocean until the main Pacific Fleet had advanced far enough west to join in a counteroffensive. Hart was initially reluctant to abandon the Philippines without a fight. As late as October 1941 he suggested keeping his small fleet in Manila and fighting alongside General MacArthur. But Secretary Frank Knox’s Navy Department deemed it too risky. A compromise was reached under which the
Houston
would move further south but stay nominally in the region, leading the fleet from Surabaya, Java.
    Stopping at Iloilo, Rooks rendezvoused with Admiral Glassford, recently evacuated from China. When Glassford’s Catalina flying boat splashed down in the bay just before dark on December 7, a motor launch from the
Houston
retrieved him and brought him to the ship. “Let’s get the hell out of here,” Glassford reportedly said upon stepping aboard. The
Houston
was soon en route to Surabaya.
    The
Houston
’s escape was a close one. The Japanese swung their blade east and south on December 8 (December 7 in the United States). The
Houston
radioman who received Admiral Hart’s Morse code transmission perfunctorily copied the block of characters, dated the sheet three a.m . local time, tossed it into the basket, then asked himself,