WEBVTT

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Would you see the ship actually splitting in half?

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Not at that time, because we were too busy with our other duties.

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Was there any explosion?

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There was no explosion at that time. The explosion came when the very last part of the stern was going under.

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Well, I was thrown into the water with a raft come right on in behind me.

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What?

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Was Frank with you at that time?

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No, Frank was on the raft and he was thrown about four feet beyond there.

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Beyond the raft, when he went off, he was thrown off.

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And he came right back too. See, we were in close. I came up within about a foot of the raft and I would judge Frank came up with about four feet of the raft.

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What happened to the other men on the raft? You said there were two others.

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We lost them during the night.

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What's your name?

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Frank Mays.

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M-A-Y-S.

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What's your name?

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My name is F-L-E-M-A-Y-S.

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Okay, everybody rolling?

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Okay.

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I understand some of these questions you're going to ask.

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You ask first of one man and then the other.

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All right, we're ready.

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Elmer Fleming, where were you on the ship when this first happened?

34
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I was in the powerhouse on watch. I stand on a 48 watch and I'm the pilot on a 48 watch.

35
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Frank, how about you? Where were you?

36
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I was in the conveyor belt at the time.

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Now what was the first warning that you were in trouble?

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Oh, the first warning that I heard a thud and then the alarm bells sounded.

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You were down below deck.

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I was down below deck at the time.

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And how about you?

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Well, I was in the powerhouse and the captain was there and him and I were there together in the quartermaster.

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And I, at the time on the thud, we were both looking forward ahead.

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And he heard this thud.

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Naturally, we spun around, both of us, to look where it came from.

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We looked down the deck.

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It wasn't hard to see what it was.

48
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What did you see?

49
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We already saw the stern of the boat sag.

50
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So we knew right then and there we were in trouble.

51
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Were any shipmates alive after the disaster?

52
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We could not see any shipmates.

53
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We did know a couple of them were there in the debris and that kind of stuff.

54
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I saw our little work boat come sailing across through there.

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It was pretty well crushed.

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Of course, it would have been no good anyway as the sea.

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And I saw a couple of oars.

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But I did hear some fellows hollering.

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And we did quite a lot of hollering in this way.

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There was a lot of rainbows floating around with water lights on at that time.

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Our area was fairly well lit up, but the sea was so great that men were hid most of the time.

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You really couldn't tell where they were.

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We did see these two fellows that weren't on a raft.

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And we called to them.

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And Frank, my other fellow with me here, he called them too.

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And we finally got those fellows to swim over to us.

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And we were able to get those two fellows on the raft with us.

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How did you and Frank find the raft?

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Well, it's strange. That sounds funny.

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Actually, by the time I finished my distress call on the radio telephone,

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while I was putting out the distress, I still hadn't no life jacket.

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And one of the fellows came up. I asked to bring a life jacket up and said he couldn't find one.

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He bought me a ring buoy, which I didn't like. I wanted a life jacket.

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So the moment the line broke between forward and aft, telephone and everything else was useless anyway.

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I did manage to get through the coast to WLC Roger City and then the Coast Guard.

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The Coast Guard heard me all over the Great Lakes from what I understand now,

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but I never did get an answer because we broke all our power in between before that.

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So by the time I came up back up there, we were just about awash then.

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And I stepped over the handrail out to where the life raft is.

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And I lifted one corner of it at that time to see whether it was going to float free or not.

81
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Because we really thought we were going to go straight down and float.

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About that time, evidently our superstructure being so heavy or enough,

83
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we start to go over sideways from there.

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And believe me, the time she started to go over sideways, there wasn't any time to move.

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And contrary, I watched the other fellows working their way up the handrail, going to the high side,

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which according to all theory is good seamanship.

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But I was stuck on this side and I had no time to get out of there. I had to go with it.

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Any idea how long you were there before they were lost?

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Well, we lost the first man about 1130 when we took a complete flip in the air and come down, upside down.

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All I remember is that when the raft came back down again, I was underneath it.

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In high seas like that, how did the two of you manage to get back on the raft?

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Well, I gurgled and bubbled and swam under there until I finally bobbed my way up on the top.

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I got a hold and the first man that gets up on it reaches around and helps the other man.

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Homer, I'd like to ask Frank a question.

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Frank, did you think at any time that you wouldn't make it?

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No, I never did. I had a feeling once we were on the raft that they'd find us sometime.

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Did you see any other lifeboats or rafts after you got aboard?

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No, not after I got aboard. I saw nothing.

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Did you hear anything?

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I heard a few yells. We hollered and that was it. Everything seemed to get quiet.

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This was real just after it happened, is that right?

102
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Yeah, that's right.

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From then on, nothing?

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From then on, nothing except us four there together.

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Did you pray at any time for help?

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Yes, I did all night. I never slept a bit.

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And I guess your wife was praying too?

108
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There was a thousand of us.

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That's why we got help.

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Of course, I knew that as soon as we got daylight, we'd be rescued. I had that much hope.

111
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I knew they wouldn't leave us out.

112
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They were all out there looking for you.

113
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How about you, Homer? Did you do some praying too?

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Yes, I prayed. I don't know lots of times when I could get myself laying face down where the water wasn't going down the back of my mouth all the time.

115
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I prayed, but when quite a few ships missed us, I started getting pretty hopeless.

116
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I figured we were going to make it then.

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Was praying going on at home?

118
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Yes, and we never lost hope.

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Were you terribly cold? Did you get numb?

120
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Did you get cold or numb?