Homeward Bound

The tow was moving along at speeds varying from 3 to 6 knots and had just crossed the International Date Line (two Sundays in a row and it was Charlie Zobie’s birthday - two birthdays) when the weather began to deteriorate. The tow got in the tail-end of a typhoon with waves up to 30-40 feet. This bucket of scrap is in no shape to weather much of this kind of seas.

The line to the BOBOLINK parts, followed by the tow line to the GULF STAR. The FOOTE is adrift and wallowing helplessly in heavy seas. There were several attempts to reestablish the tow by BOBOLINK with no luck. Normal approaches to get a line over by the BOBOLINK proved unsuccessful, so the skipper of the BOBOLINK, Ensign Reed, (A mustang), one of the best in the Navy, decided he would have to put the tug in the same trough (between waves) with the FOOTE in order to pass a line. This he did, and one minute they would be looking at the bottom of the FOOTE and the next they would be looking down the stacks. Once in the same trough the two ships began riding together and they were able to get a couple of lines across.

However, the going was too dangerous and Ensign Reed ordered the lines cut with fire axes to free the BOBOLINK before the FOOTE sunk her. The only alternative left was to wait for calmer seas.

The FOOTE rolled around helpless for three days. One of the FOOTE’S resourceful Machinest Mates fashioned a large fishhook to go fishing for sharks. This fishhook and a length of manila line plus a generous portion of good old New Zealand mutton was rigged through a block attached to the forward port boat davit. The baited hook was tossed overboard and almost immediately a large shark grabbed the bait (and the FOOTE had been floundering in these waters for three days). A dozen eager sailors grabbed the line and two-blocked the shark on the davit. One brave sailor with a pair of pliers in hand scurried up the davit determined to extract some teeth from the shark. This whole operation was being observed by the bridge and when the skipper saw this activity he ordered the shark released. Some say the shark was 12-feet long (it has grown over the past 62-years) and in retrospect it should have been shot, hauled aboard and butchered for steaks. The going price for shark steaks is around $6/lb. in today’s market. I’m sure the crew would have preferred shark to the mutton that Chief Commissary Stewart Frank Collins was serving the crew that day. Of course, Chief Collins had no choice because that was about all the meat on board.

After 62-years can anyone remember the Machinest Mate who made the fishhook? Who was the brave sailor who was going to do the dental work on the Great White Shark? Is there a picture out there somewhere that can settle once and for all, the size of the shark?

After the seas calmed, shortly after dawn on the fourth day, the SS GULF STAR was able to take the FOOTE in tow and make way for Pago Pago, Tituila, American Samoa to await the arrival of new cable. It was another two days before the cable arrived and the tow was able to continue the miserable, monotonous, anxious trip to San Pedro. The progress was slow and the food was bad. The only thing that sustained the crew was the fact that they would get a 30-day leave once the ship was in drydock stateside.

At dawn on 4 March 1944 when the crew was called to morning G.Q. the good old U.S.A. was visible on the horizon. Lieutenant I. E. Elrode, harbor pilot, came aboard at 0743 and took the conn. The FOOTE cast off the SS GULF STAR tow cable at 0857. Yard Tug #239 assisted the BOBOLINK in bringing the FOOTE along starboard side to Pier #2, in Berth 22, Terminal Island, San Pedro and she tied up with standard mooring lines. The time was 1016. THE FOOTE WAS HOME.

After giving docking assistance to the FOOTE, the BOBOLINK gave a farewell salute with her whistle after the 43-day and approximately 8,000-mile saga and headed for Long Beach for overhaul and refitting.

(USS FOOTE War Diary and USS FOOTE Deck Logs.)