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Jezebel - A Fightin' Ship
by J. W. (Jack) Sutherland
While patrolling off an atoll in the Western Pacific in the spring of 1945, the USS PC-586, a 173-foot subchaser, found itself on a collision course with a British carrier task force. The O.O.D., Ensign Jack Sutherland, had been admonished by his Captain, Lt.(jg) Paul Florian, to steer a course that would insure that the choppy seas would not disturb noon chow and the skipper's afternoon nap. The O.O.D. carried out the Old Man's instructions as long as he could, then he found himself bouncing around, as only PCs can, close aboard a huge carrier in the middle of the task force.
The flying bridge watch and Condition Three 2Omm gun crew, knowing that U.S. warships never initiated a salute to a friendly man-o-war and that the British, as lonq-term Queen of the Seas, had no need to; nonetheless wished to greet their British cousins. This they did by cheering and waving their caps.
Slowly and majestically the white ensign on the carrier fluttered down.
With heads held high, the cocky yanks, whose average age was 20 and whose ship would easily fit on the carrier deck, dipped the PC's colors in reply.
John Bull, meet Uncle Sam's fiesty little nephew!
This page created by Joseph M. Radigan and maintained by Tom Bateman
© 2005 Joseph M. Radigan © 1996 - 2005 NavSource Naval History. All Rights Reserved.
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