“I don’t believe it,” Captain Severn snapped. “Once a clown always a clown! I should never have endorsed your recommendation to give him command!”
“He’d earned my endorsement, sir, and yours,” Rudd said stubbornly. “He’s an efficient, loyal officer.”
A slim, dapper Commander sitting down near the end of the table smiled wolfishly.
“Since he was your Exec I presume you taught him to be efficient and loyal, Bob. Did you also teach him to disobey Captain Severn’s orders?”
“Go looking for your Brownie points in some other barnyard, Andrews,” Rudd growled. “I don’t need your comments!”
A frosty smile touched Captain Severn’s lips. He enjoyed seeing his staff quarrel among themselves. He believed that anger brought out a man’s hidden weaknesses and that he could take advantage of those weaknesses. He rapped on the table with a bony knuckle and winced as an arthritic pain shot through the finger. “Andrews is right,” he said flatly. “Hinman has disobeyed my orders, disobeyed every order he could! He attacked a convoy guarded by four destroyers! He attacked on the surface at night! He tampered with the exploders!” His words were dropping like stones into a pond.
“We’ve lost too many submarines too early in this war! We’ll lose more now that this idiot has broadcast his disobedience to the entire Fleet!” He raised his shoulders slightly to ease the tightness he felt in his chest.
“Commander Rudd, order the Mako to return to Pearl at once! Notify all submarines in Mako’s path to stand well clear and let her go through. I want Hinman back here!”
“Splendid idea!” The voice from the far end of the table belonged to Lieut. Comdr. Ben Butler, USNR. Butler was new to the Staff. A Reserve, he had volunteered for service and left his editor’s chair at a Chicago newspaper. Unsure of where to place a slightly paunchy, irascible newspaper editor, a personnel specialist in Washington had suddenly had what he thought to be a brilliant idea. His job classification manual indicated that there was a vague relationship between newspaper employees and public relations. The Navy badly needed public relations after the disaster at Pearl Harbor. He assigned Butler to the Submarine Staff, Pacific Command, where Captain Severn suffered his presence as part of the price a professional Navy man had to pay to fight a war.
“Splendid idea!” Butler repeated. “The country needs a Navy hero; we haven’t had any since Pearl Harbor. And now we have a man who charged right into the middle of an enemy fleet, sank ships right and left and got a Japanese warship as well!
“What a story! Every newspaper in the country will banner it on the front page! Think what a lift it will give all those people who work in the factories making war materials! Brilliant idea, Captain!”
Captain Severn’s face went blank as he marshaled his thoughts. He put his hands in his lap and began to massage his arthritic knuckle. He looked down the table at Butler.
“Go on, Butler. Tell me why you think Captain Hinman is a hero. And what it means.”
“I think it’s quite simple, sir. Do we have another submarine captain who took his submarine, on the surface as I read this message, took his ship right in among the enemy and killed them right and left and got away scot-free?”
“Using the jawbone of an ass?” Comdr. Andrews said softly.
“No.” Butler grinned broadly. “Using the torpedoes he was intelligent enough to modify so they would work! I don’t know Captain Hinman, sir, but I understand he is not a Samson in size so the jawbone of an ass with which Samson slew a thousand Philistines is hardly apropos. But a David with his sling and his pebbles, in this case torpedoes, that is fitting! Americans will take their heroes any size at all, sir. And I submit, as a newspaper editor of long experience, that America needs heroes!” He smiled broadly.
Captain Severn cleared his throat. “Mr. Butler, there are things you don’t understand. You are not a Navy man.”
“I know that, sir,” Butler replied. “But there are some things that I do understand, things that perhaps with the press of your duties you have not had time to study.
“I know how the average American responds to news. I know what excites his interest, what rouses his disapproval. We have a hero. We can use him. I suggest, sir, that Captain Hinman could be sent on a tour around the country and sell more War Bonds than any movie star. And we need money as well as heroes. I am sure that’s what you had in mind, sir.”
Captain Severn nodded. The ex-newspaper editor had him boxed in. The man cared nothing about how the Navy had to be governed. The man knew little or nothing about the necessity for strict discipline. If he brought Captain Hinman in and court-martialed him, as he had every intention of doing, and this Reservist with his talk of heroes should tell the story to his newspaper friends — Captain Severn shuddered inwardly. He could see his chances of wearing the broad gold sleeve stripe of an Admiral disappearing. He cleared his throat loudly and pulled a handkerchief from his sleeve and wiped his lips.
“We still face a problem, gentlemen,” he said smoothly. “Captain Hinman did disobey orders. But without doubt he did also conduct himself and maneuver his ship in a most heroic manner. We cannot afford to ignore that fact. This is a war, not a tactical exercise.
“However, we cannot afford to relax discipline, we cannot open the door for other submarine captains who may not be as skilled as Captain Hinman,” his voice dropped a tone, “or as lucky, to depart from orders that have been most carefully thought out before they were issued.
“I am fully aware, as Commander Butler has noted, that the nation desperately needs a hero. I am vigilant in the effort to provide a Navy hero, although as a career officer I must say that I resist the thought that civilians need to know everything we are doing to defend their liberty.”
He looked down the table. Commander Rudd was looking away from him, trying to suppress a smile. He’d have to put Rudd in his place and soon. The man obviously approved of what Hinman had done. Andrews was scowling. Well, he knew Andrews was on his side. He could be useful even if he did kiss-ass too openly. Butler was sitting, impassive as a Buddha. The best thing he could do, about Butler was to get rid of him as swiftly as possible. God only knows what the man wrote to his newspaper friends. Most officers who censored letters never looked at a fellow officer’s mail as a courtesy. He reached for his handkerchief and cleared his throat, hawking into the white cloth. He studied the blob of sputum. Clear and white, white as the cloth. No sign of blood or heavy phlegm. The humidity of the Islands irritated his lungs.
“Very well, gentlemen. Mr. Rudd, take care of the order to Hinman to proceed here at once. Andrews, please notify the exploder experts on the Base of Captain Hinman’s actions, with my direct order that what you tell them must not be repeated to anyone else.
“Butler, since this is your area of, ah, expertise, you will arrange for Mako’s reception in Pearl. The welcome will be restrained. We are fighting men, not idolaters. You will also make the arrangements for Captain Hinman to embark on a tour to sell War Bonds. Hinman will be available for that detached duty forty-eight hours after Mako’s arrival. Rudd will cut his orders. Anything else?”
“One item, not small, sir,” Commander Rudd said. “Mako will need a new skipper.”
“I have someone in mind,” Captain Severn said. “Comdr. Arvin Mealey. He’s a disciplinarian and without doubt the Mako needs some old-fashioned Navy discipline.”