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CAPTAIN
Mc CLINTOCK TELLS HOW GILMORE RODE OUT THE HURRICANE
Capt. David H.
McClintock, USN, says it was the courage, capabilities and loyalty of
the officers and men that saved the big submarine tender Howard W.
Gilmore from being badly damaged, or possibly wrecked, when it was
caught by Hurricane Carol on Aug. 31, 1954 off Montauk Point, Long
Island. Mem-bers of the crew, on the other hand, say it was the superb
seamanship and maneuvering of Capt. McClintock that saved the huge ship
and its company of nearly one thousand.
The Gilmore, now at her, berth in the navy
yard, shows little sign of the battering the storm gave her, until you
see inch-thick plates dented and bulkhead joints and seams pulled
apart-one of the dents on the flying bridge way up, sixty feet above the
normal waterline. Green water broke clear over the bridge a number of
times during the worst of the storm, when the winds reached a top
velocity of 110 miles an hour.
The entire crew came through the ordeal with
no greater damage than severe seasickness on the part of a considerable
number. But Capt. McClintock says that there was never a moments delay
in response to signals at any of the stations throughout the huge ship,
despite the fact that the angry ocean swept over it time and time again,
and the winds and rains battered and shook and pitched it at terrifying
angles.
Taking the story chronologically, the
Gilmore left Key West on August 9, on a training cruise, going as far
north as New Foundland. At the conclusion of the exercise, the ship
headed homewards. The squadron commander was aboard and the Gilmore was
heading for New London, where he and some other officers were to go
ashore. At midnight, Aug. 30, Hurricane Carol was off Cape Hatteras, and
moving north-ward at about 15 miles an hour. The officers agreed that
they would have ample time to reach New London before the storm struck.
But Carol suddenly speeded up, until her
forward movement became close to 60 miles and hour - so fast that the
weather reports were unable to give ad-equate warnings. However, such
news as was received led Capt. McClintock to believe that the Gilmore
might skirt the hurricane by moving further out to sea. Accordingly, at
8 o'clock on the morning of the 31st, the Gilmore was southeast of
Montauk Point. The barometer started to drop and within an amazingly
short time the ship caught the full force of the winds, rains and seas.
The Gilmore's
normal speed is 15 knots and Capt. McClintock headed the vessel into the
wind, with the engines doing their best to keep from being blown
shoreward, and all the steering apparatus utilized to keep the ship from
getting side-wise to the winds - which when they first hit, came from
the east. The Gilmore was to the east of the eye of the storm,
throughout.
The hardest blows came between 8 o'clock and
11. The winds eased slightly before noon, but it was not until 5 o'clock
in the afternoon that they dared turn the vessel crosswise of the seas.
When the storm passed inland, the Gilmore followed it and landed its
passengers safely in New London.
The Gilmore is 530 feet in length - that is
nearly 200 yards - and of about 16,000 tons. There are nearly 1,000
enlisted men, and 35 officers regularly on duty, and most of them had
been looking forward to arriving at New York on the morning tide, Sept.
1. As it was, they made the port of the metropolis during the afternoon
and had five days of shore liberty.
While the bits of machinery and equipment in
the open were swept clear of the ship by the storm, there was no damage
that interfered with her return to Key West. On heading south from New
York, however, there were warnings of the northward movement of
Hurricane Edna. The Gilmore rounded Cape Hatteras by this time, however
and moved coastward toward St. Augustine and so did not encounter any
further strong winds. The tender arrived back in Key West on Sept. 10.
Captain McClintock was skipper of one of the
seven submarines lost at the Battle of Leyte, Oct. 22 - 27, 1944 and
barely escaped with his life. This battle, said to be the biggest naval
action ever fought, resulted in the loss to the United States of a light
carrier, three escort carriers, 6 destroyers, 3 destroyer escorts and
one high speed transport, in addition to the seven sub-marines.
"But
that Battle with Hurricane Carol, off Montauk Point," said Capt.
McClintock, "was the most frightening experience I ever had."
Most of the members of the crew, who were mercifully not sick, feel the
same way.
Key West Newspaper-August 31, 1954
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