[groanup]

One night in the Ionia Sea we picked up a distress call from a Greek freighter that was dead in the water with a shifting cargo of iron ore in 40 foot seas.

At first light we made several passes by the freighter and finally got a line to her so we could get her out of the trough and into the sea. Many of the bos'ns mates got medals that day for manning those lines on the main deck. It was incredibly dangerous down there.

[R. Scott]

I know what they were going through.
The Army tugs working out of Okinawa did emergency response (no Coast Guard there). The only time we were needed was during typhoons – the old Victory ships only seemed to break down during storms.