The Voyage of a Death Ship

Everywhere Around Us Were Bodies with Blackened Faces and Purple Lips

This is the fifth in a series by George Weller of the Chicago Daily News Foreign Service on the "Cruise of Death" taken by some 1600 American prisoners from Manila to Southern Japan. Approximately 300 men survived the ordeal. Their stories were gathered in prison camps, rest camps, on hospital ships and at U.S. bases in the Pacific.

By GEORGE WELLER
Chicago Daily News Foreign Service

The Oryoku Maru which was being continually bombed and strafed by American planes finally went aground off Olongapo Point. The prisoners who had spent more than 24 hours in the stinking, airless holds were not even allowed to have the hatch covers open.

The ship was aground about four hours but was finally freed during the evening and immediately began discharging the Japanese passengers at the American naval base at Olongapo.

The Japanese knowing the conditions in the holds by the number of dead stacked on the deck feared the prisoners would try to make a break and doubled the guard around the hatches. The prisoners were forced to spend another night of suffocation and stench and many more either died or went insane as the night dragged on.

In the last hours of darkness of the second night the Japanese sent down a new word to Commander Portz, the leader of the Americans, and the three Commanders of the different holds.

In the aft hold Bridget announced it: "Good news, boys! We’re going to he put ashore here. The Japanese civilians who are still alive have all been put ashore, and our turn is next."

What had happened was that the Oryoku Maru’s steering gear had been broken by the persistent strafing, and she had become unmanageable. But the Japanese did not forget to make a special stipulation before releasing the Americans from the ship where nearly a hundred had already died.

The prisoners might take their pants and shirts, but could not take their haversacks, except for mess kit and canteen. And they were to wear no shoes; the Japanese were sure that barefooted Americans could not go far if they attempted to escape. Mr. Wada, the Jap interpreter, stopped at the middle hold and told Commander Maurice Joses to instruct the men to leave the ship in 25 man groups.

Dead in the Water

The Oryoku Maru was almost dead in the water, about 300 yards off Olongapo point. At Joses’ order, Chief Boatswain Clarence M. Taylor of Cloverdale, Va, and Long Beach, Cal., took the first 25 men up past the Japanese guns and out of the hold. He lined them up at the accommodation ladder over the side.

The Japanese signed that the American prisoners were to be used as oarsmen. Taylor took six man and himself as the first boat crew, and ordered the other 19 prisoners to follow as crews in the next lifeboats. There were eight Japs in the first boat with him.

"As we got in," says Taylor, I heard the sound of airplane motors. I looked up and saw 12, all fighter bombers, in four flights of three each. They were American and they were circling for their dive."

Lieutenant Toshino, the Jap in charge of the prisoners, signaled the boat from the rail to shove off. Taylor did so. The first wave of planes dived and dropped their bombs, small ones. The Oryoku Maru began to list. She still had four lifeboats swinging at her davits on her starboard side. But the list was to port, and she was so far heeled over that the lifeboats, if released, would have bottomed on her deck, rather than in the water.

Another plane came around and selected Taylor’s lifeboat for a strafing job. "What happened was the most lace-edged example of selective strafing I ever saw," says Taylor. "Of eight Japs, six were killed. We looked straight into the faces of those machine guns, firing just 18 inches apart. And as I sat in the stern the Jap on my right was hit in the face and his whole head disintegrated, and the Jap on my left was hit in the chest and body and died instantly. Some day I’m going to find out who that pilot was and tell him he did the fanciest trick shooting since Wild Bill Hickock."

Oarsmen Unharmed

The oarsmen, who included three pharmacists mates second class, John T. Istock of Pittshurg, Lester R. Tappy of Niagra, Wis., and Roy E. Lynch of Waynesboro, Tenn., were unharmed.

But the lifeboat had turned over, and two of the Americans were non-swimmers. The Japanese had provided life belts for themselves but none for their prisoners. The prisoners therefore stripped the dead Japs in the water and put their life belts on the non-swimmers.

As Taylor lay on his back, striving to rest before starting for shore the next wave of American planes dove on their target. "I saw the whole thing, a bomb fall, hit near the stern hatch, and the debris go flying up into the air. It looked as thought it would fall in the water near us. I dove below the surface as far as I could go."

This bomb caught the aft hold just when the bodies of those who had suffocated in the second night were being removed. They included the Lieutenant O’Rourke who had tried to escape from the hold earlier, Lieutenant Commander Adolph Hede, former executive officer of the USS Canopus, and a Navy Lieutenant Williams, former executive of the Mindanao in the Chinese river patrol.

The bomb, striking barely aft of the hatch, rained splinters into the hold full of naked men. The iron girder supporting the hatch planks blew into the hold, felling and braining several men. There was a wild, uncontrollable rush for the ladder.

"I saw the first man get it," says Major F. Langwith Berry of Burlingame, Cal., taken on Bataan with 86th Field Artillery. "He had just put his feet on the bottom of the ladder. If he had not been there, I would have got it. He fell back dead in my arms. I did not know who he was. I put him down and jumped back into the dark bays, out of reach of the Japanese fire. There I reached out and touched the two men on each side of me, who seemed to be asleep. They were cold. Both were suffocated."


She’s on Fire

The deck above the prisoners was perforated with many holes, light was plentiful now. But suddenly a yellowish haze began to appear in the bays, and a smell of smoke. "She’s on fire," yelled someone. "The coal dust down here has caught. Let us out of here! We’d rather be shot than suffocated!"

"I was standing right under the hatch," says Chief Boatswain Jesse E. Lee, ‘and I saw the plane go into its dive. I had been talking to an Army Lieutenant, and he was saying how thirsty he was. Then the bombs hit. I was hit by one of the hatch planks, but I got up. I remember the big yellow flash and the hot blast of the explosion. I looked for the Lieutenant. He was so full of holes that he looked like a pepper shaker."

In the aft hold under the hatch was always the most favored position, being the lightest and airiest, and some of the healthiest men had been gathered there. Captain Charles Brown of Deming, N.M., was one of the few who survived, and he was bleeding at the nose and mouth from the concussion. Seeing him, another member of the 200th Coast Artillery, Captain Ted Parker of Albuquerque, made a wild rush for the ladder, which was now sagging and splintered. A sentry shot him from above three times; twice through the body and once through the head.

Another 200th officer, Captain Gerald B. Greeman of Deming, who had been sitting at the foot of the ladder, was sought by his brother officers, Captain James McMinn (of Carlsbad) and Lieutenant Russell Hutchison (of Albuquerque).

Bodies, Bodies, Bodies

They could find no trace of him. In Hutchison’s words: "We looked up and saw that after they shot Captain Parker the Japanese sentries had gone away from the edge of the hatch. Everywhere around us were bodies, bodies with faces blackened and lips purple. The guns had stopped and there was a kind of terrible silence. We took hold of the shaky ladder and climbed up through the smoke. We found the deck covered with Japanese and American bodies. Our men were scooping up sugar from the luggage and eating what they could of it before they jumped over. We had a hard time finding life belts. Only when we got over the side, in that clean cool water, we felt better."

(Continued tomorrow)