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The Corsair in the war zone

Chapter 13: FOOTNOTES:
By Ralph Delahaye Paine
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About This Book

A close narrative account follows a naval vessel’s wartime service in European waters, detailing convoy escort duty, anti-submarine measures such as mines and depth charges, rescues of torpedoed ships’ crews, violent storms and emergency repairs, and visits to ports for refit and respite. Chapters weave action at sea with shipboard life, the radio-room, engineering work, and profiles of the ship’s company, offering scenes of daily routine, leisure, and crisis. The prose balances operational detail with human moments, showing how discipline, improvisation, and camaraderie sustained hazardous missions in a contested maritime zone.

I have had a delightful day. In the first place, the weather is like June and now it is moonlight and a dead calm is resting on the bay and I feel the joy of life and the beauty of Nature. This morning I went ashore to the Catholic church, and the entire population of the little Breton fishing town must have been there. Of course I couldn’t understand what was going on, but it was restful and soothing to say your prayers and think a little and listen to the organ. A Frenchman with a good voice sang “Hosanna, Glory to God,” and I prayed hard for the English armies in the great battle which is now raging. Their losses are heavy and I think of the terrible anxiety in England for their boys. Not that there is any doubt of the outcome, but so many brave men are dying, and when you read of the Ninth Division, say, as particularly distinguishing itself, you can imagine the feelings of the mothers of those men.

This afternoon several of us walked out to a little château built in the time of Louis XVI which was very interesting. The old French people were extremely hospitable, gave us tea, and showed us everything. They had a beautiful little garden with lots of vegetables growing, peach and cherry blossoms, wonderful hawthorn hedges, spring flowers everywhere, the birds singing, and the whole landscape peaceful and happy. It was hard to realize that the greatest battle of the war is raging in the north.

We walked back to the Y.M.C.A. where we each had four fried eggs with some of the Army engineer troops. They come from California and Oregon, and are the best and huskiest-looking soldiers I’ve seen yet. A darky was in the party, a Navy cook, and he was as good as a minstrel show. He ordered six eggs, and as soon as they came on the table he ordered another half-dozen. He said he was honin’ and pinin’ for to get to Dunkirk, and would probably get killed by a bomb if he did, but “befo’ the Lawd, boss, I jes’ itches to go anyhow. It’s mah destination, she sure is.”

I am mighty glad to have had this service in the ranks. I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. It is the only way to know the real Army and Navy.

FOOTNOTES:

[4] A Year in the Navy. Houghton Mifflin Co.

[5] H. B. Wilson.

[6] Commander Frank T. Evans, U.S.N.