| Jeff... you wrote about your father: "He and my great uncle used to talk about that typhoon as much if not more than they did their other wartime experiences. Dad served as the navigation officer for a flotilla of LCI's." One look at this rare photo says it all. Consider how tall a carriers rides in the sea (freeboard) and what the power of 110 knott winds and 70 foot seas can do to a ship her size. If you connect the # 5 dots in the chart below and imagine human beings thrust into that sea, only God's hand could have spared those few brave men.
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USS Langley (CVL -28) on a roll to starboard. "Even the largest and most seaworthy vessels become virtually unmanageable and may sustain heavy damage." |
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The green dots are where Weather Central said the storm was and the purple dots are where Halsey's aerologist said it was. The red dots represent the storm's actual center at those times and the red and black dots numbered 5 mark the position of the storm and of the Third Fleet respectively at 0900 on 18 December. |
| The actual time of Monaghan's loss has never been determined, nor is the exact location of her sinking known. She was last heard from at 1007 on the 18th. Watertender Second Class Joseph C. McCrane spoke of sounding the fuel tanks at sometime between 1000 and 1030, in preparation for ballasting The ship was rolling too heavily to continue that operation so he sought shelter in the after five-inch gun-mount, which he found crowded. I suspect my dad, a Chief Gunner's mate, was among them. "We must have taken at least seven or eight heavy rolls to starboard when the ship finally rolled over on her side," McCrane said The weight of the gun mount door and the wind blowing against it made it difficult to open "But eventually, we did get it open and managed to crawl out. Thankfully, none of the men had panicked, nor was there any confusion among them. They did the best they could to help their shipmates." They were all thrown into the sea and eventually McCrane found himself on a life raft with nine others. One, Gunner's Mate Joe Guio, who had stood outside the gun mount hatch pulling sailors out, died from exhaustion. During the next three days, two more died from exposure. Another thought he saw land and houses and swam off into the night. On the third day, the raft was spotted by search planes and, within an hour, USS Brown (DD-546) came to their rescue. There were six of them - all that was left of Monaghan and her crew. Evan Fenn, is likely the last living survivor of the U.S.S. Monaghan.
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