•;: closely with carrier battle groups, but CBG-14 had been £•-‘ operating without close sub support so far on this cruise. The ijl-. Sea of Japan had been too shallow for sub operations, while the
§”V Thailand crisis had been resolved before Galveston could rendezvous with the Jefferson. Her usefulness in the Gulf of ,^ Thailand would have been limited in any case, but the situation ?;•• here in the Arabian Sea was different. Here they were sur-£~-_ rounded by hundreds of miles of open ocean, and under a 4’.” potential threat from the world’s eighth largest navy.
•f It was, then, a far-flung empire that Admiral Vaughn
•|f: surveyed as he studied the lines and cryptic codings on the
!|: chart, a battle group spread across an area of ocean the size of
‘£•; his home state of Missouri. But it was the silent and unresolved
f£– hunt of the Biddle that occupied his mind.
if, “Henry!” he demanded. “Still nothing from Parrel?”
fs:”- Damn the man, he should have had something by now.
.if- “Nothing, sir,” Captain Bersticer replied, joining the admi-
|f> ral at the plot table. “His last message stated that the contact
H might be lying low, hiding on the bottom.”
JP|. Vaughn reached down and traced the line marking the limits
•p. of the continental shelf south of Kutch and Kathiawar. 8;.. “What’s the depth up there . . . about fifty fathoms?” “1*4-.? “Yes, sir. That’s probably what’s limiting their sonar.” ||p- “You’d think he could find something as big as a god-‘jjj^ damned submarine in water three hundred feet deep,” Vaughn <$$•• muttered. "How about we send Galveston in to help Biddle