Read Clear the Bridge! for Free Online Page A

was nonetheless disturbing: We had several reluctant sailors. Our deep-deep dive, the knowledge that I was dead serious concerning the
Articles, Tang’
s pending departure from stateside—any or all of these might have led several of our hands to request transfers. I did not ask who the specific individuals were, though I did suspect a few. Fraz and Ballinger would handle this under my instructions: First, in fairness to men at Pearl who deserved some time stateside, there would be no exchanges or transfers before we reached the Islands. Any hands who still wanted to leave
Tang
at that time would be transferred without aspersion when a replacement volunteered. More and more were the outstanding qualities of both Fraz and Ballinger becoming evident, for I heard nothing more about the matter.
    A change in schedule was greeted by cheers from the bachelors and jeers from the family men, for
Tang
would proceed to San Francisco, or more specifically to Hunter’s Point Naval Shipyard, right after Christmas. With gas rationing, commuting would be difficult if not impossible for many of the family men, but the reason for the change was most urgent.
Tang
would dock to receive newly designed low-cavitating propellers. We already knew we would be able to dive deep enough to find a temperature gradient should one exist in the seas we patrolled. An abrupt change in the water’s temperature, a temperature gradient meant a change in the water’s density as well and would bend the wave front of the enemy’s echo range back toward the surface, clear of any submarine below the gradient. With the new, quieter propellers and reasonable ocean depth to dive in, we would likewise be able to avoid detection by passive means—listening—and still run at most any speed.
    Our high-speed run to Hunter’s Point—only two hours from under way till our bow crossed the sill—left the signalmen on Treasure Island still challenging as we disappeared down the bay. Early liberty and late quarters took care of the family men, and San Francisco showed our bachelors how to truly ring in a New Year.

    The U.S.S.
Tang
(SS306) slides down the building ways at Mare Island Navy Yard, August 17, 1943. U.S. NAVY PHOTOGRAPH (MARE ISLAND)

    Tang’s
officers at the time of her commissioning, October 15, 1943. Left to right: Lieutenant Bruce (Scotty) Anderson, Ensign Henry Flanagan, Lieutenant Commander Richard O’Kane, Lieutenant Murray Frazee, Lieutenant Frank Springer, Lieutenant William Walsh, Ensign Fred (Mel) Enos. U.S. NAVY PHOTOGRAPH (MARE ISLAND)

    Tang’s “front porch,” the forward 20-millimeter gun platform; the open hatch leads to the gun access trunk. In the background, the 4-inch, 53- caliber deck gun. U.S. NAVY PHOTOGRAPH (MARE ISLAND)

    Final layout of Tang’s bridge instruments, viewed from the lookout platform (left to right): target bearing transmitter, speaker-microphone, gyrocompass repeater, rudder angle indicator, diving alarm. The whistle pull is below the diving alarm, and below the gyro repeater is the open hatch to the conning tower. U.S. NAVY PHOTOGRAPH (MARE ISLAND)

    Tang viewed bow on. U.S. NAVY PHOTOGRAPH (MARE ISLAND)

    Tang viewed from 45 degrees off port bow. Her 312-foot hull with 28-foot beam and a surfaced keel depth of 16 feet displaced over 1,500 tons. She carried 24 torpedoes, each 21 feet long and weighing more than 2,000 pounds, and had ten tubes—six forward and four aft—from which to launch them. U.S. NAVY PHOTOGRAPH (MARE ISLAND)

3
    Her bow sliced through the crests of the winter seas and then eased down through the troughs. As the diesels drove her steadily on, there was none of the hesitancy or shudder that would be felt in a surface ship of her tonnage. Down the dual lines of her wake, the Golden Gate was fading in the mist; but ahead lay the whole Pacific and the seas beyond, where
Tang
would seek out the enemy.
    The navigator took his departure with a range and bearing on the Farallon Islands and