“And?
“Lennox asked, “They’re rated at two hundred pounds, “the chief said.
“Which is just about what them ‘film’ boxes weigh.”
“You mean put a life jacket around a film box,” Whittaker asked, “in case the bottom lets go?”
“I mean wrap jackets around the boxes, tie lines to them, and tow them ashore,” the chief said.
“And around them boxes with the weapons and the ammo, too.”
“Could they be towed?”
“There’s only one way to find out, Skipper,” the chief of the boat said.
“Put people on it, Chief,” Lennox ordered.
“Carefully, Chief,” Whittaker said. Both the chief and Lennox looked at him in surprise and annoyance, but then smiled when Whittaker went on.
“If we were to lose just one of those ‘film’ boxes out here, your beloved captain and myself would spend the rest of our days in Alcatraz.”
“I take your meaning, Sir,” the chief said with a smile.
By midafternoon, each of the boats had been brought on deck, inflated, twin Bofors aft of the conning tower.
The top was cut from an empty fifty-five-gallon oil drum, and then the drum three-quarters filled with seawater. Each outboard motor was test-run for five minutes, the noise incredible inside the hull.
The chief torpedoman was placed in charge of floating the “film” boxes. He cut the notation packets from life preservers and tied them around the ‘wooden boxes. The available light line was soon exhausted, and two sailors made what was needed by first sawing through a length of four-inch manila hawser and then untwisting the strands.
After that, there was nothing to do but wait until dusk fell.
Commander Lennox waited until he was sure that Whittaker -was in the control room, and then he started the dry run.
“Close all hatches and watertight doors,” he said, and the talker repeated the order.
Lennox could see the hatches on the deck closing, and he could hear a dull metallic clanging from all over the boat. With the exception of the hatch from the bridge, which would be his responsibility to close, the boat should now be watertight.
“All hatches and watertight doors secured, Sir,” the talker confirmed.
“Prepare to dive,” Lennox ordered.
“Clear the bridge!”
“Prepare to dive,” the talker repeated.
“Bridge being cleared.”
“Dive!
“Lennox ordered “Dive! Dive! Dive! “the talker said, and dropped through the hatch. Lennox followed him, then closed the hatch after him.
The sound of the Klaxon hurt his ears.
“Take her to one hundred feet,” the captain ordered, and put his hand out to steady himself as the bow of the Drum nosed downward.
Ten minutes later, the bow of the Drum broke the surface again.
The moment it did, Lennox started his stopwatch.
As soon as he was on the bridge, with water still spilling over the deck, he started issuing orders.
“Battle stations,” he ordered.
The talker repeated the command, and the Klaxon went off.
“Man all cannon,” Lennox ordered.
Submariners erupted from the hatches and went to the guns.
“All astern one-third,” he ordered.
“Make her dead in the water.”
The pitch of the just-started diesels changed.
It was time for another command, but there was nothing standard that Lennox could recall that fit the situation.
“Make all preparations to launch the rubber boats,” he finally ordered.
As crewmen freed the rubber boats from the Bofors mount and handed them to crewmen on the deck, other crewmen emerged from other hatches.
The weapons and ammunition boxes were first placed on the deck in a line, then tied together with ten-foot lengths of line.
By the time the crewmen carrying the limp boats had reached the forward deck, others had air hoses waiting. It took what seemed like a long time for the boats to be inflated, and by the time they were, Whittaker, Hammersmith, and Radioman Second Joe Garvey had come onto the deck, wearing their gear, and were waiting.
The chief of the boat and the chief torpedoman put the rubber boat over the side themselves, lowering it with ropes until it touched the nearly horizontal section of the hull, then they jumped down onto it with ropes around their waists.
Then they pushed the boat off the hull into the water and raised their hands to help Whittaker from the deck to the sloping part of the hull and into the boat itself.