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off on others, we would shuffle the officers’ watch list.
    Fraz took the con when we got under way, and Frank brought us alongside a week later. There was not much that a submarine does that we hadn’t tried out during that short period, though Mexican fishing boats had substituted for Japanese
marus
. I had a last cup of coffee with the commodore, and he nodded approval of our patrol, though of course he was not responsible for our operations. We had done well not to inquire about the missing area boundary beforehand, for Commander Swinburne was quite aghast when I told him what we’d been doing.
    “Why, you could have caused an international incident if you’d been sighted!”
    “Sir, if
Tang
can’t avoid the Mexican fishing fleet she doesn’t have any business going on patrol,” I replied. He seemed to come around to my way of thinking, or perhaps he’d just remembered that tomorrow
Tang
would start back for San Francisco, and we’d be out of his hair.
    There was no escort and we were given an outside route back up the coast. This permitted extending our patrol a bit, though it soon became evident that the troops were thinking of the city and Christmas. We settled down to a routine that would approximate that of a submarine returning from patrol. In two days,
Tang
moored at Mare Island shined up so that leave and liberty could commence immediately.
    The yuletide days were full, though business proceeded at a modest pace. Among other things, this included the required reading to the ship’s company from
Articles for the Government of the Navy
. These regulations left little in doubt, especially the first 70 articles. Informally known as “Rocks and Shoals,” they spelled out the conduct required of all members of the naval service in peace and war, stating the penalty that would be imposed for any breach. By way of emphasis, the severity of the punishment preceded the listed offenses.
    I stepped into the crew’s mess as Frank was reading to the duty section and found myself standing as stiffly at attention as I had when I first heard the articles under John Paul Jones’s flag. The firstthree articles covered conduct and morals, divine services, and irreverent behavior, but with Article 4 came the blood and thunder: “The punishment of death, or such other punishment as a court-martial may adjudge, may be inflicted on any person in the naval service found guilty of….” The offenses included mutiny, disobedience, intercourse with an enemy, desertion in time of war, sleeping on watch, striking the flag or attending to an enemy or rebel, or when engaged in battle treacherously yielding or pusillanimously crying for quarter.
    In submarines, most of these offenses were extremely unlikely if not physically impossible once the hatch was closed. But fully applicable was Article 19, pertaining specifically to the duties and obligations of a commanding officer: “Or does not do his utmost to overtake and capture or destroy any vessel which it is his duty to encounter.”
    If there were any doubt about the proper action to be taken, this article would point the way in
Tang
. No other words were necessary; we all knew our mutual responsibilities. But just in case someone needed reminding, all 70 articles were posted, as the
Articles
themselves required.
    The reading of the
Articles
seemed a bit incongruous with the spirit of Christmas, but our fellow submariners were firing torpedoes that very day, and being in every way prepared was a part of my charge. Adding to
Tang’s
preparedness, Fraz had somehow stolen the senior instructor from the radar school. Lieutenant Edward Beaumont, from Paxton, Massachusetts, reported on board with bona fide orders and would fill two important niches. He would be our radar and assistant engineering officer and he would round out the watch list, making it possible for
Tang
to have an OOD and assistant OOD on watch at all times when under way.
    Another development, not too unexpected,