The USS Flier: Death and Survival on a World War II Submarine

11. Black Water

85 11 Black Water Immediately after the Flier sank, the survivors began to gather in the water. In the dark they shouted out their names, and fourteen men were accounted for. The ocean was mercifully warm, with a relatively low swell of about two feet. There was an oil slick, however , that discouraged them from opening their eyes or mouths. The oil clung noxiously to exposed body parts, but later this may have offered some protection from the tropical sun.1 Alvin Jacobson , recalling his lifesaving training, stripped down to his underwear (though he later considered this a mistake). He decided to keep the binoculars that hung around his neck, since they practically floated on their own.2 According to executive officer James Liddell, who was interviewed in October 1944, he and John Crowley discussed a plan of action and decided to head for the nearest island. However, Crowley ’s various accounts differ from both Liddell’s version and each other in some respects. According to Crowley’s survival report, although Comiran Island was the nearest land, at an estimated three and a half miles away, they believed that Japanese soldiers were garrisoned there. Rather than risk capture, they decided to head for coral islands to the northwest. In contrast, in an account published in 1981, Crowley indicated that without stars or moonlight to guide them, it was futile to set off for land, and they agreed to tread water until the anticipated moonrise.3 86 The USS Flier Whatever the case, the survivors made little headway in the almost pitch-black conditions. Crowley later told a news conference , “You couldn’t see three feet in front of you.”4 Occasionally a flash of lightning and a break in the clouds afforded a glimpse of land, but Crowley and Liddell agreed that they probably spent much of the night swimming in circles. Liddell noted, “I think we swam back and forth through that oil slick several times before moonrise.”5 The relatively warm water at least reduced the risk of hypothermia. Studies of rescues during the war indicated that in temperatures below forty degrees Fahrenheit, survival time in the water could be only a matter of minutes. Even at temperatures of sixty degrees, men were unlikely to survive more than five hours.6 By the time the moon afforded some light at approximately 3:00 a.M., a number of men had already disappeared into the black water. An early casualty was Edgar Walker Hudson, chief motor machinist’s mate from Dickson, Tennessee. Among those who eventually reached land was Arthur Gibson Howell, originally from East Moriches, New York. Howell was the Flier’s chief radio technician, and Crowley had singled him out on the previous patrol for his excellent work with the radar system. As Howell later described the events, he tried to assist Ensign Philip Stanley Mayer, but Mayer lost consciousness after about twenty minutes in the water. Howell had to let him go, and he believed that Mayer sank below the surface.7 Not long after Mayer lost consciousness, Lieutenant Paul Knapp, the Flier’s third officer and engineer, became separated from the group. A 1942 graduate of the Naval Academy, Knapp had impressed Crowley on the first patrol by his calmness under pressure. Liddell described him as “one of the finest naval officers I have ever been associated with.”8 Knapp was also popular with the crew; Earl Baumgart characterized him as “a likeable guy, and a person you could easily communicate with.”9 Knapp had been on the bridge at the time of the explosion. Although he was initially spotted in the water, he would not be seen or heard from again. Despite their experience at Midway, none of the men in the water wore life preservers. As noted earlier, submariners did not wear 87 Black Water them as a matter of routine—perhaps because they would rather not even contemplate the possibility of ending up overboard. Another explanation is that it would have been bad for morale if only the crew on deck were wearing life preservers.10 In any case, apart from oil, the only things that surfaced from the Flier were baseball-size chunks of cork. Men who came across these pieces of cork put them in their pockets for added buoyancy.11 Crowley had gained some notoriety at the Naval Academy for his lack of swimming ability. But fortunately...