vv 2-18

February 3, 1943
By: John Bielun / Time Traveler
On February 1, 1943, a six-ship convoy slipped
out of the sanctuary of St. John’s,
Newfoundland. It was bound for Greenland. It was
bound for war.
Conditions were typical for that time of the year. The North Atlantic
was treacherous and choppy. Water temperatures bordered upon
freezing.
The convoy included a former luxury liner: The U.S.A.T. Dorchester.
It had since been converted into a transport carrier. The ship carried
902 souls - including 751 soldiers, seven officers and four chaplains.
The men of the cloth were of varied faiths: A Catholic priest, a rabbi,
a Methodist minister and a pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church. They
got along well. After all, they all prayed to the same God.
On February 3 rd , 150 miles short of safe harbor, a German submarine
surfaced in their midst. Escort ships rushed to intervene but, alas, too
late. At four in the morning, with daylight yet to break, the U-boat fired
five torpedoes. Four missed.
The one that didn’t miss hit the Dorchester - on the starboard
side, stark dead midship deep below the water line. Scores of men
instantaneously died, as well as the power to drive the engines and the
wireless.
The Dorchester tilted over and began to sink.
Unable to send off a radio signal, a warning blast or even a flare,
the captain ordered, “Abandon ship!” No mean feat in the pre-dawn
darkness in the wintry North Atlantic. Especially for one who has just
lost his command.
Pandemonium
broke out throughout
the ship. The captain,
now in the midst of
trying to launch the few
serviceable lifeboats,
was pre-occupied. Not
so the chaplains.
Father Washington,
Rabbi Goode, Reverend
Fox and Pastor Poling organized the men as best they could. They said
prayers and consoled their interchangeable flocks as they opened a
storage locker and distributed life vests.
When they had given out the last, with more men still a-begging, the
four chaplains in unison removed their own life belts and handed them
out to whoever was next, religious denomination notwithstanding.
They watched as their shipmates scrambled overboard. They did so
knowing that they had chosen to save other people’s lives at the expense
of their own.
As the Dorchester sank beneath the waves, its survivors remember
watching the four chaplains standing on a tilted deck, embraced arm
in arm, as they sang praises to the Lord.
I truly doubt that many of us have ever seen such selflessness.
I would ask that God bless these worthy gentlemen. I suspect however,
he already has.
28 February 2018