Word: wasps
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When the aircraft carrier Wasp began her precarious trip back to port after her mid-Atlantic collision with the destroyer-minesweeper Hobson (TIME, May 5), it seemed doubtful that she could be repaired in less than three months. Her whole lower bow had been chewed out, and a section of her hull 75 ft. long and 30 ft. high was missing. It was a blow to the Navy: ship, crew and air group had been painstakingly readied to replace another carrier in the Mediterranean...
...beginning of the maneuver, Lieut. Hoefer testified, the destroyer's captain, running on the inside of the Wasp's sweeping turn, ordered "right standard rudder," thus turning his vessel in the same direction as the Wasp. But shortly thereafter he called for "left standard rudder" and turned the Hobson toward the path of the onrushing carrier...
...asked the captain if he had the conn," i.e., if the captain was taking over responsibility for the ship's course. "He answered, 'I have the conn.' " After the vessel turned to the left, the O.O.D. went so far as to warn the skipper that the Wasp was closing perilously fast. Tierney, he testified, did not reply, and, with the Wasp 1,240 yards away, ordered "left standard rudder" a second time...
...point? "Right full rudder, hard full rudder!" he said. But the skipper, with the carrier only 750 yards away, had called, "Increase to left full-increase to hard left!" Then he signaled the engine room for flank speed. A few seconds later, with a fearful rending of steel, the Wasp crashed into the destroyer; only a few minutes after that, Commander Tierney leaped into the sea, never to be seen again...
...destroyer "expeditiously" on station-presumably if the Hobson's first left turn had been followed by a snappy turn to starboard. When he realized he was in danger, Tierney may have hoped that by cutting more sharply to the left and speeding up, he could dodge the Wasp. The Navy refused to disclose all the testimony or to assist in speculation about ho'w the crash happened. The Hobson, said the Navy, had been conforming to "highly confidential tactical doctrine...