The Circle

by David Poyer

  A. That he was trying to straighten things out? Just that I know, knew, Commander Packer, and I knew Evlin, and that sounds a lot more likely than that he made the mistake and Evlin didn’t. Not to put too fine a point on it, let’s call a spade a spade. Evlin was a coward. He had refused orders in a very difficult situation, and at the time of the collision he was on restriction, scheduled to be flown back to the States for court-martial.

  COUNSEL FOR LT EVLIN: I must object. All this is mere personal vilification.

  CDR BRYCE: All this is a matter of record. Message traffic from RYAN dated 21 or 22 December will support me.

  COUNSEL FOR THE COURT: Why was such a man permitted to continue standing bridge watch?

  A. James Packer was too forgiving. I warned him not to, but he allowed Evlin to stand watches until he left the ship. This was the result.

  Q. The testimony of the enlisted men—the quartermaster and the boatswain’s mate—support Mr. Lenson’s version of events.

  A. I don’t know about the QM. But Pettus, let me point out that he was in Lenson’s division.

  I think it’s time to let a little light into the air here. So far in this investigation, it’s been soft-pedaled that Lenson’s division was the worst in the ship, that we had recently completed a search of its spaces—the night before, in fact—and found a large amount of marijuana, pills, drug paraphernalia, even weapons. By great good luck, I had in my pocket when I left RYAN the master-at-arms’s list of these materials. Lenson wants to blame this collision on a seaman recruit. In fact, this man came up clean in the search. My attempts to break up this ring, and that’s what it was, were resisted by Lenson and others. He even admitted at one point that he knew who the ringleader was, but refused to tell me.

  Q. May I have that list?

  The list was submitted to the parties and the Court, and marked Exhibit C for identification.

  Examination by the counsel for the Court continued.

  Q. Yesterday you intimated that you had serious accusations to make. Are these the accusations you were referring to?

  A. Yes.

  Q. Are you implying also that Lieutenant Evlin was involved in drugs?

  A. It’s not impossible. He had a sluggish, doped-up attitude about him that in my view—though I’m no expert by a long shot—it could have been something like that.

  Cross-examined by counsel for Commander Packer.

  Q. Commander, let us return to your idea that the commanding officer of RYAN, far from making an error, was trying to correct one previously made. You have served in the Navy how long?

  A. Twenty-eight years, starting as a seaman recruit.

  Q. In that time, you have served under many commanding officers. How would you rank James Packer among them?

  A. As one of the very finest.

  Q. As a ship handler?

  A. Flawless. A very good seaman, cool under pressure.

  Q. Did he take chances with the ship?

  A. No. But he didn’t pussyfoot around, either. He was a destroyerman.

  Q. We have heard testimony that he was ill and exhausted the night of the collision. How would you respond to that?

  A. He may have had a sniffle. That’s all.

  Cross-examined by counsel for Lieutenant Evlin.

  Q. Commander Bryce, it’s evident that you had a low regard for Alan Evlin. Let us go back to your grounds for this attitude. What were they? We are looking for facts, not suspicions or hearsay.

  A. Well, it’s hard to—you’re a civilian. It would be easier to explain to a military man.

  Q. Please explain to the Court, then.

  A. Evlin and I disagreed over many things. Basically, he had a disinclination to exercise discipline, either over himself or his men. Since he was the senior department head, this had a bad effect through the whole ship.

  Q. Could you be more specific?

  A. He had weird ideas.

  Q. What ideas?

  A. I don’t know. I couldn’t make any sense out of them.

  Q. Were those ideas spiritually based?

  A. Spiritual?

  Q. Yes.

  A. I wouldn’t know. I never hold a man’s religion against him. I’m pretty broad-minded that way. I don’t even know what religion he was, if any.

  Q. I see. Let’s examine your theory, or story, about what might have happened. What evidence can you offer for it?

  A. I said I had no evidence. It’s just my interpretation, you might say, of what might have happened.

  Q. Unfortunately, Lieutenant Evlin is not here to defend himself. Because of that, Commander, I must ask you again what concrete evidence you have for this frivolous theory.

  COUNSEL FOR THE COURT: Mr. Barrett, your implication of frivolity is out of place.

  COUNSEL FOR LT EVLIN: Sir, it is the only word I can find for this kind of speculation by a witness who was not present and who, in fact, as other witnesses have testified, hardly ever appeared on the bridge.

  THE COURT: Proceed, but refrain from commenting on the witness’s testimony.

  COUNSEL FOR LT EVLIN: No further questions of this witness.

  THE COURT: We wish to point out at this time that a court of inquiry is not bound by the strict rules governing objections that prevail in courts-martial. It is our desire to afford the widest possible latitude for examination.

  The Court informed Commander Bryce that he was privileged to make any further statement covering anything related to the inquiry that he thought should be a matter of record in connection therewith, which had not been fully brought out in the previous questioning.

  The witness stated that he had nothing further to say.

  The Court then adjourned until 1400.

  * * *

  “CAN I help you with that, sir?”

  Dan looked up from salad and coffee. He didn’t know the man in line behind him. “No thanks,” he said. “I think I can handle it.”

  He glanced cautiously around the cafeteria. It was almost empty; perhaps by design, the court had recessed after the normal lunch hour this time. He saw a corner table and aimed his tray toward it.

  “Hey,” said a familiar voice. “It’s the ensign.”

  Lassard, Gonzales, and Isaacs were sitting at a table with paper cups in front of them. They looked like new men. Fresh haircuts, regulation shaves, the new uniforms the survivors had been issued in Newport.

  “Swell testimony this morning, Ensign.”

  He didn’t look at Lassard. “What are you doing with these two, Isaacs?”

  The first-class dropped his eyes without answering. Lassard said, “Talking to you, Ensign. Or didn’t you hear him?”

  “I have nothing to say to you, Slick.”

  “Got plenty to say about him, sounds like.”

  “Only the truth.”

  “Only shit, man. Get over here.”

  Dan went on, ignoring them. For a moment it looked as if Lassard would get up. Then he glanced around and settled back. He took a pull at his drink and bent his head toward the others, all three men looking after Lenson.

  At the corner table, Dan tapped a tablet from the green-edged pharmacy envelope and gulped it. He’d skipped one to be clearheaded for his testimony and his shoulder seared as if the burning oil still clung to it. He thought about taking two. Then he forced himself to put the envelope away.

  He stared at the salad. He wasn’t hungry. The long session with Johnstone and Hauck and Barrett had wrung him out like wet laundry. His hands had trembled at the board; everyone had heard the clatter of chalk. And then Bryce … that bastard! Now he and Evlin were both on record as incompetent, worse, of being tied in with drugs and permissiveness. While the ones who were really responsible—

  He looked up to find Lassard leaning on his table.

  “Got a message for you, Lenberg. From the Man. Anything else, have a ball, but lay off me, lay off him, lay off the boat. Hear?”

  “What’s he got on you, Slick? I still don’t get what put you two toget
her.”

  “Negatory, man, no way. Nobody ‘got anything’ on Slick Lassard. He just got on the winning team. His ass is covered. Yours ain’t. You’re out in the wide blue open, my man. You’re in the nutcracker, and we’re gonna crack your nuts.”

  “Tell Bryce to fuck himself, Slick. That goes for you, too.”

  “Okay, man. The kinnicks just wanted to cut some slack for a shipmate. Give you one last chance to get in the boat. But you just stepped in it, man. The Man and me, we’re gonna waste you.”

  Lenson sat there for some time, picking at the food. In the middle of the Pentagon, he was alone.

  * * *

  THE Court reconvened at 1400. Present: All members, counsel for the Court, the parties, and counsels.

  Lieutenant Edson D. Talliaferro, USN, was called as a witness by the counsel for the Court. He was duly sworn and examined as follows.

  Q. Mr. Talliaferro, you were attached to RYAN as engineering officer. Is that correct?

  A. Yes.

  Q. How long had you been so assigned?

  A. About a year and a half.

  Q. I will pose to you the same question I posed to Mr. Lenson this morning. What was the material condition of RYAN when she joined TG 21.1?

  A. As he said, we’d sustained damage during storms and action in the Arctic, but by the 24th most of these were repaired. All evaporators, generators, and pumps were operational. Flooded spaces had been dewatered and accesses to the sea patched.

  Q. In your opinion, did any mechanical failure or material deficiency contribute in any way to the collision and subsequent loss of life?

  A. No sir.

  Q. What is your opinion of the state of training and morale aboard RYAN?

  A. In my department, engineering, they were good. As to the rest of the ship, I can’t say.

  Q. On the evening of 24 December and morning of 25 December of last year, where were you stationed?

  A. I was holding down Main Control.

  Q. In the engine room?

  A. Yes, in Main Control there.

  Q. State the sequence of commands you received after 0200, please.

  A. From memory, we had twenty knots rung up; then a flank bell for twenty-seven. A few minutes later, we got an increase to twenty-eight and then an emergency ahead flank.

  Q. You were on the throttle at that time?

  A. No. I was supervising the throttleman and other members of the watch.

  Q. But you were in a position to observe the throttle and so on?

  A. That’s right.

  Q. Did you answer the engine orders you received?

  A. Yes, sir.

  Q. All of them? Promptly?

  A. Yes, immediately.

  Cross-examined by counsel for Commander Packer.

  Q. What were the conditions of your engines at that time?

  A. We had three boilers on the line, the superheater fires were lighted and the plant was split.

  Q. You stated that all orders were answered immediately. Will you clarify for me what that means?

  A. We indicated on the engine-order telegraph that we had received the order.

  Q. But did this mean that it had been carried out? Correct me if I am wrong, but changing speed on a destroyer is not as simple as, say, pressing a gas pedal on a car, is it?

  A. No. On receipt of an engine order, the watch has to evaluate power available, decide routing, then set the valves. On major changes like a backing bell, it gets complicated. The engines have to be stopped, steam has to be shifted to the reverse turbines, and so on. The speed changes we are discussing here, all we have to do is use more burners on the boilers. But it does take time to accelerate.

  Q. So answering and responding are two different things. And there is a delay in response, even in normal operation, is there not?

  A. Yes.

  Q. How long is this delay?

  A. It can take as long as three minutes or just a few seconds to set up the plant. But then the ship has to gather momentum. From twenty to twenty-seven knots ahead, say, it can easily take ten minutes before she is actually at that speed.

  Q. That is when everything is working perfectly.

  A. Yes.

  Q. But we have heard testimony to the effect that everything on RYAN was not working perfectly.

  A. She was an old ship. The overhaul was cut short. There were lines I had to hold together with radiator clamps and wire. And we had problems left over from the Arctic.

  Q. Please elaborate.

  A. I think what you are getting at is the remark Lieutenant (jg) Silver, or maybe it was the boatswain’s mate, made about a problem with engine response. The reason for that was that we had water in the fuel.

  Q. How did water come to be in the fuel?

  A. When we were in a severe storm, some days previous, Commander Packer ordered me to ballast.

  Q. Which means?

  A. Pumping seawater into the empty spaces of the fuel tanks to give us more stability.

  Q. Did you think this was a reasonable order?

  A. Yes, given the ice we had accumulated. I thought at the time he had even delayed doing it too long.

  Q. But he had not?

  A. That’s hard to say, sir. According to the stability diagrams, ballasting was the right thing to do. But it’s risky, because later on when you refuel, you may have contaminated tanks, which is exactly what we got.

  Q. What was the effect of this water?

  A. It’s almost impossible to get all the seawater out of the tanks after you ballast. It settles to the bottom, but when the ship rolls, it mixes a little. Not much, but once in a while we were getting a slug of water in the fuel lines. This makes the boiler fires sputter, and, as a worst case, can put them out.

  Q. And you had this problem that night.

  A. Once in a while, yes.

  Q. Yet you said that you answered all bells immediately.

  A. What I meant was that the ship might not respond.

  Q. When you got the captain’s emergency flank order, did the ship respond promptly?

  A. That’s hard to say.

  Q. Why?

  A. I was not in Main Control at the moment we got that order.

  Q. Where were you?

  A. I had gone forward to use the head.

  Q. But weren’t you on watch?

  A. I didn’t say I was on watch. I was exempted from bridge watches to spend most of my time below, but there was no requirement that I be in a specific space at a specific time. I went where problems required my attention. Those members of the Court who have served in engineering billets will understand this arrangement. My chief was a qualified engineering officer of the watch. He was on watch, and he was there.

  Q. So you were in the head when the collision occurred?

  A. Yes, sir. It knocked me off the throne onto the deck.

  Q. Were you in Main Control before that, when the order for twenty-seven knots came down?

  A. Yes.

  Q. Was that responded to?

  A. The response seemed sluggish. I went forward, intending to go back to the boilers and check them out as soon as I was done. But there were good men on the controls and the throttle. I’m sure they did all they could to increase speed. Down in the hole, you don’t have much idea what’s going on topside, but when you get an emergency bell you jam every ounce of steam you got into the lines.

  Cross-examined by counsel for Lieutenant Evlin.

  Q. Mr. Talliaferro, do you think RYAN was ever traveling at twenty-seven knots through the water before the collision?

  A. I think we may have done that, yes.

  Q. But never at flank emergency, which was what—

  A. About twenty-nine knots would be all we would get out of three boilers, even all out. Calm water, downhill, maybe twenty-nine point five.

  Q. So the difference was about two knots. How far would a ship go in two minutes in that two-knot difference?

  A. What do you mean?

  Q. Perhaps I am e
xpressing it clumsily. How far ahead of its position at collision would it have been if it had been traveling at twenty-nine knots instead of twenty-seven?

  A. I don’t know. Too many variables in that.

  Q. In fact, in two minutes, would it not have been almost 150 yards farther on, and cleared the carrier by almost 100 feet?

  A. You seem to know more about it than you let on, Mr. Barrett.

  Q. I served in destroyers during the war. The point is, had not whoever was in charge on the bridge given an order that would have carried the ship clear if the engines had responded as they should?

  A. I wasn’t up there and can’t tell you that.

  Recross-examined by counsel for Commander Packer.

  Q. Let us return to the order to ballast. You assert that this was justified by weather and stability conditions?

  A. It was the right decision.

  Q. What would have happened had you not ballasted?

  A. We would have capsized.

  There were no further questions for this witness, and he resumed his seat.

  * * *

  RICHARD N. Norden, Lieutenant, USN, was recalled as a witness. He was reminded that his oath was still binding and was examined as follows.

  COUNSEL FOR THE COURT: Mr. Norden, go over again for us where you were at the time of the collision.

  A. I was in my stateroom, in bed. I explained earlier that Mr. Evlin and I had exchanged watches, so I expected to be called around 0330 to take the morning watch.

  Q. But in fact, you were awakened by the collision.

  A. That’s right.

  Q. Then what happened?

  A. I don’t remember much about it. Everything was confused. I remember talking at one point to Mr. Lenson. He told me KENNEDY had run us down, and said “abandon ship” had been passed.

  Q. Continue.

  A. I then abandoned ship.

  Q. That’s all?

  A. Apparently I went aft, got into the whaleboat, and abandoned ship.

  Q. Did you not have any duties, in the event of a collision?

  A. Not after the order to abandon ship had been given. My recollection of this is not the best, because I sustained a head injury at some point during the events of that night.

  Q. But you remember talking to Lenson?

  A. Yes.

  Q. Let us return to the allegations Lieutenant Commander Bryce has made about conditions in Mr. Lenson’s division, in fact throughout RYAN to some extent, if I understand him correctly. Were you aware of these conditions?