15-18 OCTOBER 1942

                                     USS MEREDITH, DD-434 (cont.)

In ten minutes, all to be seen of MEREDITH was floating debris, life rafts, and the black heads of sailors bobbing in a thick mat of oil.  VIREO (AT-144) escaped the attack almost unscathed, but the wind drove the abandoned tug far to the lee.  LT Bates found himself in a liferaft with the medical officer, LT J.Z. Bowers, and some badly wounded sailors.  Bowers allowed only the sickest aboard.  One of the worst was the skipper, CDR Hubbard, who lay dazed and incoherent and would be one of the first to die in the hours to come.  Those more able clung to the raft from the water, resting in brief rotations on the gunwale.  An inventory of provisions revealed that the emergency rations were unfit, having been thoroughly soaked in oil.  Only one box of provisions, five gallons of water and a first aid kit could be salvaged.  In the rest of the boats the story was much the same.  With a marathon effort one lifeboat was able to reach VIREO, but the abandoned tug drifted further away in the wind.  Through the afternoon and night those in the water worked to stay together, while the wounded became delirious or quietly slipped away.

The following day dawned bright and clear.  The thick coating of oil that had nauseated most now proved protective against the burning sun.  A few sailors broke into the polluted rations, only to wretch all the harder.  With no sign of rescue on the horizon, Bowers began rationing the water to one teaspoon per man per day.  About noon the first shark attacked, taking the leg of a sailor who died shortly thereafter.  In the coming days sharks would prove a constant problem.  That afternoon a B-17 was sighted overhead but was too high to take notice.  The next day was also sunny.  Dehydrated sailors now began to hallucinate, requesting permission to “go below” to the scuttlebutt–never to be seen again.  Some struck out chasing mirages of islands or rescue ships.  The exhausted simply gave up.  The sharks became bolder, one four-foot specimen jumped into Bowers’ boat and tore a giant gash in a sailor’s thigh.  The shark was wrestled back; the sailor bled to death a few hours later.  That night a brief shower brought some measure of relief to the parched survivors.

It was clear the third day would be the last for many who lingered.  Even Bowers himself began to hallucinate.  But when everyone saw the PBY Catalina dropping smoke markers, it couldn’t have been an illusion.  Shortly the shadows of the destroyers GRAYSON (DD-435) and GWIN (DD-433) appeared.  They and SEMINOLE (AT-65) rescued the seven officers and 56 men who survived the ordeal; 236 from MEREDITH and VIREO had been lost.  VIREO was eventually recovered as well, after drifting for six days.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  22 OCT 22

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 4 “L-M”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1969, pp. 332-33.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 7 “T-V”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1981, p. 538.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol 5  The Struggle for Guadalcanal.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1948, pp. 179-80.

Parkin, Robert Sinclair.  Blood on the Sea:  American Destroyers Lost in World War II.  New York, NY: Sarpedon, 1995, pp. 88-92.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Hubbard’s actions are credited with saving the entire convoy (all of whom eventually reached Guadalcanal).  Only Meredith was lost to the enemy.  The Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer HARRY E. HUBBARD (DD-748) was commissioned later in the war on 22 July 1944.  She saw action off Okinawa and remained in service through Korea and Vietnam.  She and TICONDEROGA (CVA-14) earned the Navy Unit Commendation for action in the Gulf of Tonkin incident that opened our military involvement in Vietnam, 2-5 August 1964.

Our WWII destroyer escorts EDGAR R. CHASE (DE-16), ATHERTON (DE-169), NAIFEH (DE-352), COCKRILL (DE-394), DURIK, (DE-666), and ODUM (DE-670) were all named in honor of heroes of the Meredith disaster:  LT Dan R. Cockrill; LT Edgar R. Chase; LTJG Alfred Naifeh; ENS John M. Atherton; FN1c Joseph Odum and SN Joseph E. Durik.

MEREDITH was the second of four US Navy destroyers to remember SGT Jonathan Meredith, USMC, a hero of the Barbary Wars who saved the life of his superior officer during fierce hand-to-hand fighting with Tripolitan pirates, 3 August 1805.

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                                          USS MEREDITH, DD-434

The Gleaves-class destroyer USS MEREDITH (DD-434) was no stranger to the young War.  After a brief stint in the Atlantic, MEREDITH transferred to the Pacific, where in April 1942 she screened HORNET (CV-8) on the secret Doolittle raid against Tokyo.  She moved to the south Pacific, where the US forces were still reeling from the advance of the Japanese juggernaut.  This morning found her underway in company with NICHOLAS (DD-449) out of Espiritu Santo escorting a “convoy” of two stores ships, USS ALCHIBA (AK-23) and BELLATRIX (AK-20), the ex-gunboat USS JAMESTOWN (PG-55) and the fleet tug VIREO (AT-144).  Bound for American forces on Guadalcanal, the latter two were towing barges filled with 500# bombs and aviation gasoline.  As the little convoy passed San Cristobal Island, a lone Japanese scout plane was spotted circling high above, obviously radioing their position.

The Japanese carrier ZUIKAKU and her surface force were known to be in the area.  With an enemy strike a certainty, CDR Harry E. Hubbard prudently sent his convoy back home and braced for the inevitable onslaught.  Only VIREO and MEREDITH plodded on, barely making 15 knots.  At 1050, two enemy fighters strafed the pair but were turned away by MEREDITH’s gunners.  Word now reached Hubbard that two enemy warships lay just over the horizon.  Gravely threatened, Hubbard elected to scuttle the tug and dash the last 75 miles to Guadalcanal in the destroyer.  He transferred VIREO’s crew and was preparing to torpedo the tug when the skies were darkened by 27 enemy planes.

At once the destroyer’s decks were ravaged by a hail of bombs and machine gun bullets.  A torpedo slammed into her side; explosions racked the No. 2 gun mount and the fantail.  In rapid succession a bomb destroyed the carpenter shop while a fourth struck just forward of the No. 1 stack.  In one blast LT Charles J. Bates was blown skyward from the weather deck, and, suffering little more than a ruffled uniform, landed gently on the flying bridge.  He picked up a sub-machine gun and began pinging at six torpedo planes approaching from starboard.  Two of these were splashed by BM2c W.R. Singletary, who had run to one of the starboard 20-mm guns after his primary gun station had disintegrated beneath him.  Another torpedo struck the stern, and depth charges on the fantail began detonating.  CDR Hubbard had been blinded in an explosion that badly burned his face and hands and left him disoriented.  He turned to Bates for assistance and with the attack only two minutes old and the bow already awash, called “Abandon Ship!”  FN1c Joseph Hoban, who swore he would not leave his station until shooting down an enemy plane, was last seen strapped into his gun, still firing as the decks went under.  MEREDITH sank quickly, and after strafing the survivors briefly, the enemy planes retired.

Continued tomorrow…

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 4 “L-M”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1969, pp. 332-33.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 7 “T-V”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1981, p. 538.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol 5  The Struggle for Guadalcanal.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1948, pp. 179-80.

Parkin, Robert Sinclair.  Blood on the Sea:  American Destroyers Lost in World War II.  New York, NY: Sarpedon, 1995, pp. 88-92.

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