Monday

By
Monday, December 20, 2004

*Shrimp industry sees big decline: Even though individual boats are bringing in an average number of shrimp this year, the number of shrimp boats in South Carolina waters has gone down
-Hilton Head Island Packet Online, 12-20-04

*Harbor dredging this week; East Pass planned next month
-Destin Log, 12-18-04

Hello,

My name is Rebecca Costello. My father Alfred Rutledge served on the USS Blue, a destroyer in the Pacific. He never spoke much about it but we would like any information you can give us. Please help us if you can.

Thank you so much.

Yours truly,
Rebecca Costello

Rebecca,

Thank you for your message, I have a lot to be thankful for due to USS Blue, when my Australian Cruiser was in a devasted way at the Battle of Savo Island in August of 1942, Blue came close to us, I was able to jump the
distance between the ships to be saved by her and her crew. As were many others of my shipmates.

If you go to my Ahoy. Web site at URL: http://ahoy.th-jk.net and look at my story of the sinking of HMAS Canberra, there is a photo of me with some shipmates on the deck of USS Blue.

Your father was probably on board her at that time.

I will send you some details of the ship in another E-Mail.

Best wishes,
Mac. Gregory.

Hi,  Mac

Great site.

Particularly that my Uncle was a Royal Navy gunner on the ill fated Gharinder.  He was witness to the sinking of the Selvistan which took two torpedo's in the stern and sank immediately stern first, with only one survivor. They, the Royal Navy gunners, ( the crew were all Indian and could not speak a word of english, to this day my uncle
has not been able to face a curry) had christened this ship the 'ghost' ship as not a single soul was ever seen on deck or the bridge for that matter. That is until the explosives in the torps literally blew one fortunate chap clean off the bridge and into the water, breaking both legs in the process and was next seen by my uncle in a hospital in Canada some time later.

In his references there were two oilers one British Lady and one American the Argon.  Only just started reading but your account is adding a lot of extra detail.

For my Uncles' benefit and he really is the archetypal, shy retiring type, are there any reunions for survivors of ONS 5 or meetings I could take him to? He is very proud of his war record and was sunk twice. To be honest I am very proud of him to and would dearly like to do my bit for him doing his bit.

Thanks for that will speak later.

Paul.

Paul,

Thank you for your message.

Convoy ONS5 was the defining one in the Battle of the Atlantic, and your Uncle is so right to be proud in being part of that running fight with the U-Boats. I am not aware of any reunions of those who took part, now such a long time ago. I guess many participants would have died ere this. It is always great to learn about those who were
involved, and many times, another piece of the huge jigsaw that comprised the voyage of ONS5 falls into place.

Wishing you all the best for Christmas and 2005.

Mac.