Home

WWI
USS Richmond 1927 

US Navy Ships Other Periods

USS Cavalier
USS Charles S. Sperry
USS Houston
USS LST 767
USS Macon
USS W.A. Mann
USS Maryland
USS McDermut
USS Oklahoma
USS Pennsylvania
USS Perkins
USS Ranger
USS Richmond
USS Wyoming

Written by Commander serving aboard the USS Richmond, in October 1927. From the letter………We’ve had quiet an exciting weekend, just enough to make a break in the monotony of things, and to get the name of the Richmond in the paper, which is always good stuff, for the morale of the crew.
I’ll start the account in the proper order. I think I wrote last on Friday. Saturday morning was Captain’s inspection of the crew, he left in the middle of it to make an official call on the Japanese transport in the harbor. I went ashore with Bates, Heath, and Riggs to play golf at Fort McKinley. Bates and I played against the other two, and both of us were off our game and lost. We played for the caddie fees. We got back too late for the 6:30 boat, and while we were sitting around, Bates conceived the bright idea of having a dinner party. The A and N club was having a grand cabaret that night. He scurried around to find some girls, and then we went back to the ship to get into mess jackets. He had a hard time finding enough girls, he only had two, Mrs. Nixon and Mrs. Tarbutton, there were four men, Bates, Riggs, Holmes (a class mate of Riggs), and I. We had a vary nice dinner. The cabaret was a troupe of Russians, and they certainly weren’t much. We danced some, I was pretty tired and didn’t get much kick out of the party, and caught the 1:30 boat back to the ship.
The next morning it began to blow up a bit, with rain and a falling barometer. About 10:30 it looked very much like typhoon weather, and I was very glad the Captain was coming off to the ship at 11 o’clock. In the mean time I started preparation for heavy weather. Shortly after 11 we got our first typhoon warning, it was evident that it was a small one and that it would come pretty close to us…….We ordered steam up, and made all preparations, hoisted one boat and sent the others in shore, and we intended to get underway and move out where we’d have more sea room, out into Manila Bay. Then we got the message that the steamer Bicol had grounded near Pasacao, with 66 passengers on board, and no help in that vicinity, the typhoon still blowing strongly. Well, we got underway, not really expecting to make that trip, but after we got underway, we intercepted a broadcast to the effect that the Richmond was proceeding to her assistance so we just had to go to make face. We had been delayed by the visibility, which was practically nothing, a driving rain and a 40 mile gale. Incidentally we saw the calm center of the typhoon go by, it was quite a sight, heavy rain and wind all around, and this 8 or 10 mile circle with no rain, and no wind. That of course meant that weather conditions would improve. We found it not bad at all outside, some roll, but not much, so we put on more boilers and speeded up to 25 knots. It cleared up by the time the island passages had to be made, fortunately, for the lights are poor, and you just had to go by the ? of the land. The moon came out and aided very ?. So we plowed along and got to our destination at about seven A.M. Pasacao is in a bay in the south eastern part of Luzon, just a little village. The Bicol was a short distance to the southward, resting on a sand bar between two coral reefs.
We knew the passengers were safe, but this dispatch made it necessary to go. I had been up since about four A.M., the Captain had sent for me for moral support, I think, when things got pretty dark and a narrow passage to negotiate. When it was time to land boats I suggested I’d better go. We ? a motor launch, and manned a whaleboat, we towed that in. The Captain didn’t want to get too close to the rocks, and stayed pretty far out. We proceeded in, but while still some distance away we got a sounding of 1 fathom, so sent the whaleboat the rest of the way. It was pretty choppy, too. Miller, in the whaleboat went alongside the Bicol to get the dope. We found they wanted us to transport 39 passengers, who were at Pasacao, so we proceeded in to the dock. It was rather exciting, for there were some pretty good rollers, but the boats lay very nicely at the dock. Of course we signaled the ship and got permission to take the passengers. The Bicol had been at the dock at Pasacao loading Saturday night. At 2 A.M. the indications of a typhoon were very plain so they shoved off and tried to get around the point, but a strong gale hit them, the ship couldn’t be brought up into the wind, so she drifted over, just missing Refugio Island, and hitting a reef in the way which knocked a hole in her bottom and flooded her holds, The skipper did petty well to land on the sand. This was at 3:40 A.M. At about 2 P.M. the ship took bad list, so the boats were lowered all hands loaded on the beach. We took the passengers off, it was rather ticklish, for I didn’t want to take water and alarm them, but we got in on board safely and then set out to get some mail from the Bicol, also more information, for the Admiral wanted to send a dispatch for the press. This time I transferred to the whaleboat and went to the village near the Bicol, where the mail was being kept. We couldn’t land, too rough, so we dropped an anchor and dropped back toward the beach close enough for people to get off into water breast high. I didn’t get out but the Captain came and told me what I wanted to know. The Bicol was in about 2 fathoms of water, her main deck awash at high water. She can probably be saved if it doesn’t blow up from West to South. We came back at 22 knots, anchoring shortly before midnight yesterday (Monday) got our passengers and the mail off. The passengers presented the Captain with a testimonial thanking the ship for their kind treatment………

Custom Search
USS Richmond, 1923.