“It’s in the book,” Captain Jernigan said, a touch of annoyance in his voice. “You mean you don’t have the book out?”
“No, Sir,” Clatterman replied. “Mr. Lacey didn’t tell me to, Sir.”
“My God, Lacey!” Captain Jernigan said, went to the safe, worked the combination, opened the safe, and removed a notebook.
He looked at Mr. Lacey.
“You did remember to take the contingency codes out of the safe, Mr. Lacey?”
“I thought I would wait until we established contact with the Devil Fish, Sir. I don’t like TOP SECRET material lying around the radio room.”
“Mr. Lacey, go find the Exec. Tell him I’ll be here for a while, and would he please remain on the bridge. And then see if you can make yourself useful to him.”
“Aye, aye, Sir. Do you mean you don’t want me to return here?”
“That is correct, Mr. Lacey,” Captain Jernigan said. He turned to Radioman First Class Clatterman. “GHR, Clatterman. See if you can raise them, please.”
“Aye, aye, Sir.”
Clatterman put his hand on his key.
GHR, DSI, GHR, DSI.
There was no response from the Fleet Tanker Nantucket, call sign GHR.
“Try HJI,” Captain Jernigan ordered. “That’s the Biloxi.”
Clatterman turned to his key.
This time there was a reply:
GHR, HJI, GA GHR, HJI, GA.
“Send them, in the clear, Contingency Code Six,” Captain Jernigan ordered, and headed for the cryptographic machine.
Radioman First Class Clatterman heard the Captain mutter, “Now if I can only remember how to operate this sonofabitch.”
Twenty minutes later, Captain Jernigan examined a decrypted message from the Fleet Tanker USS Biloxi, which advised that she and the Devil Fish were proceeding according to orders, and that they expected to reach Point J at 0345 Greenwich time 1 January.
“Send them in the clear: “We will maintain established radio schedule and will monitor frequency,’” Captain Jernigan ordered.
“Aye, aye, Sir,” Clatterman responded.
The Captain waited until there was acknowledgment from the Biloxi, then ordered: “Now try HKG. If they respond, send Contingency Code Six, and if they reply, relay the Biloxi’s radio to us.”
There was no response in four tries from HKG.
“Try HKG at hourly intervals,” Captain Jernigan ordered. “If they respond, send them Contingency Code Six, then relay the last radio from the Biloxi. Notify me at any hour when you establish contact.”
“Aye, aye, Sir.”
Captain Jernigan then left the radio room for the bridge, where he asked Mr. Lacey to join him in the chart room. He delivered there a five-minute lecture to Mr. Lacey, whom he caused to stand to attention. During the lecture Mr. Lacey was advised that his performance of duty in the radio room half an hour before was below his expectations of his communications officer, and that if Mr. Lacey did not wish to spend the balance of the war serving as a permanent ensign and a venereal-disease-control officer aboard a yard tug operating in the Aleutian Islands, it would well behoove him to learn how to do what was expected of him, and then to demonstrate his ability to perform his duties when called upon to do so.
[FIVE]
Radio Room
USS Alfred Thomas, DD-107