USS Hull (DD-350) - Typhoon Cobra

Typhoon Cobra

Fueling operations with the fast carrier strike force in the Philippine Sea began 17 December, but increasingly heavy seas forced cancellation later that day. The fueling group became engulfed in an approaching typhoon next day, with barometers falling to very low levels and winds increasing above 90 knots. After the Hull was ordered to change course to 140 degrees the wind increased to over 100 knots. At about 1100 18 December Hull became locked "in irons", in the trough of the mountainous sea. Unable to steer with the north wind on her port beam, yawing between 80 and 100 degrees, the whaleboat and depth charges were swept off. As the roll increased to 70 degrees, she was pinned down by a gust as the sea flooded the pilothouse and poured down the stacks. All hands worked feverishly to maintain integrity and keep the ship afloat during the heavy rolls, but finally, in the words of her commander: "The ship remained over on her side at an angle of 80 degrees or more as the water flooded into her upper structures. I remained on the port wing of the bridge until the water flooded up to me, then I stepped off into the water as the ship rolled over on her way down".A later finding was that additional sea water ballast could have helped the ship recover from the 70-degree roll.

Rescue work by USS Tabberer (DE-418) and other ships of the fleet in the days that followed saved the lives of 7 officers and 55 enlisted men. Reportedly some time before the ship became locked "in irons" the officers had debated whether to remove the commanding officer in order to turn to a safer course, but the Executive Officer refused to do so as there had never been a mutiny on a US Navy ship. This incident gave the novelist Herman Wouk the idea for the climax of his novel The Caine Mutiny, in which a captain is actually relieved of his duties by his officers in the course of Typhoon Cobra. The Executive officer, who went down with the ship, was the father of the rock journalist Greil Marcus.