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heaving lines and trailing lines into the sea, using them to drag the shipwrecked sailors over to the side of Morris. Once alongside, they could pull themselves up the cargo netting hung over the destroyer’s side. Sistrunk was among the ¤rst men rescued. A sailor hurled him a line, but, suffering from a severe knee and leg injury, Sistrunk couldn’t make it up the rope. The destroyer’s crew lowered a stretcher for him. Once he was on board, however, Sistrunk insisted that Morris’s sailors provide him with a rubber raft with which he could go back into the water and rescue other survivors. It was a request that his rescuers wisely chose to ignore as they continued their grim work. In a remarkably vivid after-action report, Morris’s skipper, Commander F. T. Williamson, recalled the scenes confronting his men. Liscome Bay’s survivors, he wrote, were all very badly shaken up and some them had suffered bad burns, broken limbs, and blast shock. One man died while the medical of¤cer [Lieutenant (jg) H. L. Armentrout] was administering blood plasma while another died in the water before being picked up by the ship’s motor whale boat. The other stretcher cases were all in frightful condition with injuries ranging from severe internal hemorrhages to shattered limbs, head concussion and completely dis¤guring ®ash burns. This ship has rescued survivors from the Lexington, Yorktown, and Hornet, but it was agreed unanimously that the sinking of the Liscome Bay and the condition of the comparatively few survivors constituted the most heartrending disaster yet seen.30 Despite the remnants of tragedy around them, the men of Morris and the survivors of Liscome Bay rose magni¤cently to the occasion. Once again, the words of Morris’s captain provide the best description: Inspiring is no word for the conduct displayed by the men picked up in the water around the Liscome Bay. Every time our motor whale boat would approach a man in the water, he would invariably say, “Never mind me, there are others who need the boat because of their injuries.” The oil and wreckage was heavy on Pacific Dawn / 183 the water throughout the entire area of our rescue operations and many of the men couldn’t see for the oil in their eyes. Despite this fact, and many more pressing physical disabilities . . . the absolute courage of these men was electrifying. As one man would be taken aboard, he would turn around and assist the ship’s company in getting other of his shipmates out of dif¤culties.31 As his destroyers continued their work, Grif¤n stood grimly on New Mexico’s bridge. Despite the passage of time, he still knew little beyond the fact that one of his carriers had disappeared in a ®ash of ®ame. If her attacker was still out there, it had yet to be discovered. At 0610, the excited voice of the destroyer Maury’s radio operator crackled over the airwaves. “Torpedo wake on 160 off port side of Maury!” “Roger. Out.” “I am running down that torpedo wake now. Over.” “Maury, Chestnut. Which way was torpedo heading? Over.” “Torpedo wake was heading 160 coming from 340. Over.” “All ships except New Mexico avoid danger area. Danger area is in vicinity of New Mexico. Mississippi, Corregidor, acknowledge. Over.” “Wilco. Wilco.”32 Actually, Maury had spotted two torpedo wakes. One had missed the destroyer by a scant ¤fteen yards. The second was slightly farther away. The wakes seemed to solve the mystery of Liscome Bay’s attacker, but the idea that an enemy submarine remained in the area only increased Grif¤n’s discomfort. He radioed the destroyers picking up the survivors. “Report conditions your vicinity. Over.” “About sixty percent of survivors have been picked up. Sixty percent of survivors. Over.” “Roger. Proceed with rescue. Do not make reports. Over.” “Roger. Out.”33 The rescue work continued while the task group waited for further word from Maury regarding the torpedo wake. Minutes later, Morris’s sonar operator reported screw noises. The ship was jumpy; it was later determined that she was detecting the sound of Baltimore’s engine. By then, Maury still hadn’t found the source of the torpedo, and Hull was 184 / Chapter 10 dispatched to join the search for the elusive submarine. She carried on board seven survivors whom her whaleboat had plucked out of the oily water. Grif¤n also ordered Corregidor and Coral Sea to commence...

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