“I don’t know that yet, sir,” I replied. “I still haven’t gotten reports from damage control or engineering.”
Just then, the talker notified me that the aft engineering had reported in. There were several injuries because one of the high pressure steam lines ruptured and was leaking. It would have to be shut down for at least several hours for repair soon, but for now, they could still maintain some power.
That explained why the ship was still moving, albeit much slower, but there was still nothing from the forward engine room. I began to guess at that time that the forward engine room was gone.
“Captain,” the admiral said again, “do you think we will have to abandon?”
“I really don’t know at this time, admiral, but what I do need to know is, can we order the destroyers to cover us as I proposed?”
“Yes, proceed,” he replied.
“Signal, radio the destroyer Lawe; tell them to pull alongside and prepare for possible tow or rescue operations. Contact the Fletcher and the Barton and tell them to continue with the hunt for the Jap sub. Admiral’s orders.”
I turned to the bridge talker at that point and told him, “Tell the gun boss I want all watches to look for periscopes and not to hesitate opening fire on any submarine that surfaces. If they stick their heads up, blow them off.”
“Yes sir!” he replied.
“And get the pilots of the Kingfishers up here on the double,” I added.
Several minutes had gone by when the talker told me the forward main guns had reported in. The upper parts of the guns were manned and ready, but the lower decks of the turrets and mezzanines were slowly flooding. There were also reports of fuel oil leaking into the forward magazines.
“Flood the power rooms and ammunition areas of the number one and number two main guns on the starboard side now!” I told him. “And after that, evacuate the forward main guns and reassign any crew to damage control.” We did not want a fire down there. If something touched off the powder in the magazines, it would blow the ship in half.
About then, the first runner returned to the bridge. He had the rest of the badly needed reports from the missing areas all at once from the damage control officer.
Damage control central was flooding, and Lieutenant Commander Schuller was injured by a piece of debris from one of the explosions. The injury was not very bad, so he was still on duty. That was why damage control was so slow reporting. They had begun to set up operations in a compartment on the next deck above their normal compartment and had to recoordinate all of their efforts from there.
The forward fire room was a total loss and flooded within seconds of the second torpedo hit, which struck the ship at about frame sixty-two. Only two of the crew got out alive, and they were badly burned. The forward engine room was flooding by a ruptured bulkhead at frame sixty-nine, separating it from the flooded fire room. Efforts were continuing to stop the flooding, but the chances didn’t look good. The forward engine room compartment could be expected to be flooded within about twenty minutes.
Several of the superheated steam lines were ruptured in the aft fire room and would need to be shut down within the next three hours, at best guess, to repair. Estimated repair time was about six hours.
The first torpedo struck the ship at frame thirty-two. The ship’s list at the time was about fifteen degrees starboard and counter flooding had begun aft and port to try to correct the list. The ship was riding down by the bow with about eight feet of freeboard left (normally, it was about twice that much) on the starboard side.
The lower decks of turrets one and two were flooding. The ammunition magazines were being deliberately flooded, as ordered, to prevent the possibility of fires from fuel oil touching off the powder in the magazines.
The only problem was that twenty-one crewmen were trapped forward of the number one mezzanine by the flooding to prevent fire in the ammunition rooms. The sound-powered phone circuit to the compartment they were trapped in was still operational, and they were in no immediate danger, but they were trapped. Damage control was attempting to pump out the compartments around them and rescue them, but several leaks from damaged pipes and fittings, as well as hatches, still needed to be found and plugged before the compartments could be dewatered.
Large areas of the forward half of the ship were losing buoyancy, and damage control was still trying to slow the flooding. Several critical hatches had not been closed when the torpedoes struck, and to make matters worse, several had been damaged by the explosion and were leaking because they no longer fit properly. “At best case, we can expect the ship to settle to within several feet of freeboard forward on the starboard side, if we can keep the bow above the water at all,” he reported.
Operational systems included electrical power, aft propulsion at about eighty percent and decreasing as time went on, most ship’s communications on line, although damage control was still being rerouted, and all secondary batteries on line as well as all anti-aircraft guns. The fire mains were fully functional, steering was normal, and the aft main batteries were still on line.
So the rapid assessment was that we still had most of our teeth but would soon not be able to move. All of that would be okay, relatively speaking, as long as we were able to remain above the water. The forward part of the ship was sinking fast, with twenty-one of the crew trapped forward because of my order to flood the powder rooms. And the enemy submarine was still out there, and for all I knew, with some of his friends.
I told two of the runners to set up a rotation between them. They were to shadow the damage control officer and give me updates every ten minutes. I told the first runner to tell Lieutenant Commander Schuller I wanted the best case he just gave me to happen as an order. We were not going to let the Buffalo sink under any circumstances.
“Report, captain,” the admiral said, reminding me he was still there.
I handed the admiral the report and watched his expression as he read it. When you watch people closely enough, you can tell what they are going to do. This man was nervous. He had never seen combat. He had never lost a ship or crewmates. And he was afraid. I saw it in his eyes: he was going to run.
I turned to the talker and ordered him to “Get Major Johnson and the XO up here now.”
About the time the admiral finished the report, the two float plane pilots appeared on the bridge.
“Captain, we have to abandon ship.” The admiral had said exactly what I had predicted.
Being unwilling to give up my new ship to the Japs as well as needing to stall for time, I ignored him and turned to the pilots.
“I want you two to work out a rotational schedule to keep this ship covered from the air. There may be more submarines in the area, and you need to keep an eye out for them as well, but your primary mission is to help the destroyers find the submarine that attacked us. We can’t get up enough speed to use the catapults, so you will have to have the crane operators put your aircraft down in the water, and you can take off from there.”
We spent another minute or two working out the details when the admiral decided he had had enough.
“Captain, you will not ignore me anymore. I order you to abandon ship now.”
The major arrived just in time to hear what the admiral said. If he was shocked by it his expression didn’t show.
“Yes, captain,” he said.
“Standby, major,” I replied, knowing full well he would listen to the discussion between the admiral and me.
“Admiral, we are not going to abandon this ship,” I said, looking him dead in the eye.
“Maybe you didn’t understand my order, captain,” he replied more firmly.