Awnings fend ojfrh e blazing sun in Malaysia, where U-861 arri ved ro deliver machinery and pick up a ca rgo of ra w marerials. Phoro, J. Oesren.
/ search for something. Was it a U-boat or a fri endly vessel? We didn't know. After a few minutes, th e beam located the raft and blinded us in its glare. The vessel moved closer until it reached a distance of perhaps a hundred ya rds. Then a vo ice with an amplifier sang out , "Ahoy there! Stand by to take a line." A line-firin g gun on the deck boomed in our directi on, fir ing a projectile over the raft and dropping a ro pe in the midst of our crew. Several men joined in lashing it to the raft, and the ship, using a deck winch , began to pull us toward the vessel on her lee side. As we approached we could see a nava l vessel about the size of a destroye r with some lights on deck, crew men at the ra il s, and a gangway extending from th e main deck down to the surface of the sea. Although none of our crew was injured or ill , we were weakened and emoti onall y spent and had to be half-ca rried aboard the ship. We we re given water and soup and ass igned to bunks of the ship's crew. We learned th at th e ship was USS Matagorda , a seapl ane tender and fl oating base fo r the Mariners. Her captai n was Commander Andrew Crinkley, USN . She had previously picked up one of William Gaston 's lifeboats, and Captain C rinkl ey had been informed that there could be two more life boats in the area . So Matagorda continued to cruise about , scanning the seas with her searchlight. Peri odi call y, Captain Crinkley ordered lights extinguished and speed stepped up. He did not wish to be unnecessaril y exposed to U-boats, particularl y as the ship carri ed a sizeable crew and a large cargo of anti -submarine bombs and av iation gasoline. Several times during the night I was awakened from a fitful sleep by ship's offi cers seeking my help in determ ining the size
U-861 wasa Type !XD U-boar, 1600 gross rons, builr by A.G. Weser in Bremen, launched /are 1943. Armamenr :four bow and rwo srern rorpedo rubes, srowagefor 24 rorpedos; a 4.1 in deck gun, 2-20mm anriaircraft guns. Speed: 19kr surface, 7kr submerged.
of William Gaston 's crew. I knew there we re Y7 Navy pe rsonnel and I thought 40 in the merchant crew, a total of 67 men . Befo re daybreak, Matagorda located and picked up two more life boats, one carry ing Captain Chase. The boats were destroyed by machine-gun fire as th e other boat and raft had been earlie r. In the mo rning all hands from William Gaston were thrilled to learn th at the entire crew of 67 men had survived and that the re we ren't even any injuries, despite the horrendous circumstances of taking two torpedoes and abandoning ship in a violent sto rm . Matagorda proceeded to F lo rianapolis, Brazil , her temporary operating base, arri ving th ere around midday on Jul y 26. Our crew was turned over to the custody of the US Vice Consul , William Preston Rambo of Hamilton , Ohio. On Jul y 29 the 67 survivors of William Gaston were taken aboard the old Braz ili an passenge r ship ltabera fo r a four-day passage to Rio de Janeiro, where th e merchant and Navy crews were permanently separated and lost track of each othe r.
Part Two : 1984 In 1980, after retiring fro m US business , I undertook a personal research proj ect to determine what lay behind our experiences in 1944. Excellent cooperati on was provided by the US Navy Department , National A rchives, Library of Congress and the FBI , which suppl ied me with copies of scores of declass ified wa rtime documents. Thus, the places, dates and names mentioned in this article are based on official ship's logs, intelligence reports, crew lists, etc., and not just on my own memo ri es 40 years after the events. The first breakth ro ugh came in 1980 from the Naval Histo ri cal Center, which identified William Gaston 's ad versary as German U-boat 861 , Commande r Jurgen Oesten . That agency also gave
U-861 ends her cruise ar Trondh eim, Norway, a few weeks before German surrender makes her voyage moor. Phoro, J. Oesren.