The USS Nawat, the author's fi rst command f rom December 1941 to March 1942.
fo r thi s reason [submarines lay ing mines] during the entire war. " He gives the date as November of 1942, but he does no t go into the exquisite detail that I do here. When the port was opened YMS -20 was on station and doing her duty. T he first thing out was a British destroyer who came roaring down " The Gorge " doing over 30 knots, the White Ensig n streaming out. We could see an R .N . three-striper on the bridge, in command . He headed into shallower water bes ide the channel. We hadn ' t swept there yetnot that we were concerned . We were supposed to do an exploratory sweep. We thought we' d have some fun. I s ignalled him with the Aldi s lamp : '' Get bac k in the channel.''
He kept go ing- he wasn't going to pay attention to a little bucket li ke ours. That gentleman up there with three stripes on hi s sleeve had a lot of rank, yo u can be sure . I signalled again. He gave me an answer that was not polite. Finall y I made one last effort: " You are entering a suspected enemy mine fie ld. " That did it. He changed course. He changed course so abruptly that he lay right over in a tight, fast turn . I thought he was going to put his stac ks under. Anyway , on the YMS-20 we thought it was pretty funn y. At the height of the U-boat ·campaign, when we had absolutely nothing in this
country to protect coastal shi pping , they took us off minesweeping and put us on convoy escort duty . They gave us two K-guns (depth charges) and two depth charge racks. We could do about 12 knots downhill. If we released a "can" the explos ion would kick out all our circui t breakers and all engines wou ld qu it . As I have mentioned , we had no radar or sonar. We did have a th ree-inch fifty caliber gun fo rward and two 20mm on the boat deck. I remember taking a thirty-shi p convoy fro m New York to the Delaware. The escort consisted of the YMS-20 and two 83ft Coast Guard picket boats . I don't think they had any arms at all. Would yo u be lieve it , Schu yler M. Meyer, Jr. , as the senior officer connected with the thing, was Escort Commander! A Junior Lieutenant in the Naval Reserve. I remember the convoy conference in the Port Captain 's office before we left. There was always such a confe rence. The merchant skippers, l thought , were looking at me wi th disdai n- at least the ones who even bothered to give me a glance . lt gives you an idea of what a mess we were in during those unhappy months of the year 1942. w
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