Story of USS Sperry endangering involving the Diodon and four other boats of Squadron 7, in 1947

Attached is a series of pictures involving the Diodon and four other boats of Squadron 7, in 1947, including Capitaine, Carbonero, Chivo and Cusk.

 Disastrous occurrence but what I remember is this: 

 

    The tenders USS Sperry and USS Nereus were moored bow to bow in San Diego.  The boats of Squadron 7 were berthed alongside Nereus.  Boats from Squadron 3 were normally berthed alongside Sperry. 

    One morning the Sperry lost her stern mooring lines and began to swing to starboard and toward the port side of Nereus where the five boats of Squadron 3 were tied up.  Recognizing that if the wayward Sperry continued drifting without abatement she would swing into the boats of Squadron 7 and seriously damage one or more of them--she would pinch them between her starboard side and the port side of Nereus. 

    So, on someone's orders, the boats were told to depart from their births, starting with the outboard boat.  This can be seen in the upper left photo.  Each boat untied and began to back away from its birth, as can be seen in top right photo and continuing clockwise.  Shortly before the inward most boat, the one tied directly alongside Nereus, backed away from its birth the drift of Sperry was halted--by what I do not recall but probably by one or more tugs.  The furthest point that Sperry swung toward Nereus can be seen in the lower right photo where one boat is still tied alongside the tender.

    The photos were taken from the Sperry and I no longer recall who was the photographer.  The thing that I most recall is the near panic scramble to get all of those boats underway in order to avoid the impending disaster should Sperry catch any of the boats between the hulls of the two tenders. 

 

DonB