Word: raft
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Nicholas Nagurney, a fireman, of the Hull, aboard another raft, had the strangest delusions and a unique experience. "Glenn Wilkerson told me to see how deep the water was. Then a shark bit me. I don't remember feeling it when he bit me, but he was about eight feet long...
Said Seaman Doil Carpenter, of Pasadena (a Monaghan man): "I was at No. 3 gun, aft, when she went down. . . . The suction pulled me under, and I was out cold when I came back up, but a cook pulled me aboard a raft. He died the night before they picked us up, from drinking salt water. Every time a wave would hit the raft, some more men would be missing...
Double Jeopardy. Sharks played around most of the rafts constantly, yet three men who had no raft, and were kept afloat only by life jackets, never saw a shark. These three, from the Spence, found themselves drifting separately and tied themselves together around a life ring. All had suffered strange hallucinations: the sight of land, a Jap girl bringing water, rescue by a Russian submarine, relieving the gun watch...
...shark had bitten a thin slab off the top of the right forearm. On the under side were teeth marks, half an inch deep. Back on the raft, Nagurney had his arm bandaged, but he was not finished. A lieutenant (j.g.) had become delirious and had taken a swag of sea water. Nagurney pounced on him, rammed his finger down the officer's throat to make him vomit. The lieutenant bit Nagurney's finger. Nagurney's summation: "I guess I'm the only guy that's ever been bit by a shark and an officer...
...join a fleet of over 1,000 ships engaged in the landings, in South France. LST 282, the one to which the lieutenant was assigned, was destined to be the only ship sunk in the entire action. After 20 minutes in the water, the men on the life raft were picked up by the crew of one of the other Allied vessels in the D-day engagement...