BATTLE OF THE PACIFIC: The Sinking of the Wasp

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In the wardroom of a nearby ship a group of officers, off duty, was watching the Dead End Kids in Tough As They Come. It was 2:51 p.m. when that most urgent of bugle calls, General Quarters, shrilled out on the speaker system. As the officers scurried up to their battle stations, one of them heard a ship's doctor say: "The Wasp got three fish in her."

From the deck they could see the elegant carrier Wasp, 14,700 tons of striking power, at the root of a great tree of smoke. She sat there, awkward in profile, still a dowager among ships, but dedicated now to fire, not to aviation.

The whole task force worked to screen the Wasp from further attacks. Cruisers and destroyers zigzagged like nervous terriers. When a junior officer grew excited trying to get in touch with the Wasp, his captain snapped: "Don't hurry them. Let them be calm." One of the ships in the screen kept flashing the submarine alarm by semaphore, as if the whole fleet did not know by the grim torpedo-wakes cutting in all directions what was happening.

Conversation with Fire. At 3:09 there was a mighty explosion; a whole piece of heaven seemed to catch fire. The torpedoes had hit near the Wasp's gasoline system, which was particularly vulnerable because the carrier's planes were then being refueled. Gasoline fires spread to the magazines; bombs and gasoline caused the explosion.

A yeoman of the new flagship—now that the Wasp was doomed —scrawled nervous notes in the Quartermaster's Log. At 3:14 he wrote: "Wasp abandoning ship; various ships picking up men." Destroyers had crept near, risking fire from burning gasoline on the water. They saved 90% of the Wasp's crew.

Some of the Wasp's planes were up on patrol, and their pilots, coming in, saw their floating landing field being consumed. One of them flew over the flagship at 3:36 and dropped this message: Wasp burning fiercely forward of island. 10° list to starboard (guess). 100 men or more aft on ft. deck. Destroyer close aboard. Eight Wasp planes due land 16:20. Wasp dead in water or just barely backing down. Ammunition on deck exploding.

On the flagship they could see explosions on the Wasp's deck. A few minutes later came heavier explosions on the after part of the hangar deck as fire reached the planes parked there. They looked like red fists striking out over the water.

A wiry little officer said grimly: "Some one's going to get relieved over this." A flyer, an old hand with greying hair and a cynical look, said: "Well, that's three I've seen go—the Lex, the Yorktown and now this baby." A thin-faced chief petty officer said: "I'm thinking of those boys on Guadal." The ship's executive officer said merely: "We'll just have to develop better methods of detection."