This trip took us 20 days to complete. We were about 15 days out when disaster struck us. I had just finished my 8 to 12 watch. I was tired and cold when I hit the bunk. Suddenly the gunners mate was shaking my shoulder and shouted “The Captain wants you on the con; hurry.” I put my foul weather gear on and raced up the ladder from the crew’s quarters and as soon as I stuck my head through the manhole leading to the upper deck, I knew what was wrong. Even in the darkness I could see no other ships around us anywhere. I made my way up to the conning tower where Captain Riley was giving Engineering Officer Rufus holy hell. Mr. Baker also came on the con as we faced a dilemma. Where the hell were we? No one on board knew how to take a star sight to get our position. There were no stars out anyway, so it didn’t really make any difference.
Instead of following the wake of the taffrail being towed by the ship ahead of us the crew on the 12 to 4 watch apparently mistook a school of fish for the taffrail wake. At night it was a frequent sight to see schools of fish surface causing a luminous glow on the surface of the water. As we were lost, a decision was made to head due east because we knew we would hit land some place. We cranked up the engines and ran at flank speed which was about 12 knots and pointed the bow due east. Daylight came and nothing in any direction could be seen. Then about 6:00 AM, Boats and I spotted something off our port bow, and in an hour we could see a boat that had been sent to search for us. What a welcome sight! The sub chaser had as back to the convoy and put in our positions. What a day and night!