THE FATE OF THE IRINIS LUCK

In the last story of the crew of the Irinis Luck, we left the crew in the capable and helping hands of an English fishing trauler, warming up in blankets and drinking warm beverages.
Several hours later, in fact almost an entire day, later our ship, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mendota, pulled alongside the trauler haaving the 24 members of the Irinis Luck aboard. We were to take them aboard and deliver them to a New York Harbor, as we were returning from our 42 day occupation of Ocean Station Echo, not too far from Bermuda. As the crew was brought aboard on a cable, stretched between the two ships, and a basket holding two crew members at a time, a very skilled and dangerous operation was about to unfold. The sea condition was turbulent and there were 15 to 25 foot waves, making the operation even more stressful and tense. Our ships crew had been trained rigorously in this procedure and they carried it out without mishap, and marvelous teamwork should be credited to both crews of both ships. There was only one time that the basket was subjected to the seas, and the two crew members were said to have nearly walked on water! Lets put it this way; their clothes were taken off immediately aboard and fresh dry ones given them. They were drenched and frightened.
After the crew was brought aboard and given access to berthing area and showers and a good hot meal they mixed amongst the crew of the Mendota, but there was obviously a huge language barrier. The crew of the Irinis Luck spoke only Italian, and no English, not even broken English! As the two crews tried to talk each others there were mostly smiles and shrugs! Occasionally someone would draw a picture, but that even was hardly interpreted correctly. It happened that I spoke some conversational Spanish, a far cry from Italian! But the two being “Romatic” languages, there were some small, occasional similarities between the two languages. I had spent much of my life around Italian families, and knew only a few words, but I was willing to give it a try. An annouoncement went out from the Operations officer that if there was anyone aboard who spoke a foreign language, they should report to the galley at eighteen hundred hours. So at 6 p.m. I showed up, solitarily, in the galley. The Operations officer was there with the chief Boatswains Mate. I was told to have a seat and that this was an informal meting. I was thanked for coming out, and then asked what foreign language I spoke, and I replied that I spoke some Spanish. The “Boats” and the “Ops” officer looked at each other momentarily, and then back at me, quizically. “So how do you expect to speak and understand Italian Petty Officer Ben?” I smiled, looked around and responded, “Uh, Sir, who else is here?” They laughed loudly for a moment and then asked if I could help. I said that I could only give it my best, somehow I could find a way of communicating with them. I was introduced to one of the Italian crew, and I still remember his name was, “Copa G. Miliani”. We sat down together over a cup of coffee and started talking. I spoke to Mr. Miliani in some Spanish, hoping that some of it could be understood, but giving it an Italian twist, “Comprendo poco Espanol pero no Italiano, mucho” His eyes grew big and a smile came across his weathered seafaring Italian face. He told me that he understood! Then he began to immediatly take off speaking in Italian, thinking that I would follow him competently. I laughed and said, “No no no rapido! Uno palabra por favor” slowly “No no not so fast! One word at a time please” I was trying to say. He laughed again and understood. We finally got the gist of the communication gap there, and worked to make our communications very simple and to the point for clear understanding, in as few words as possible. I gave him some paper and a pencil. I said to him, “los hermanos (the brothers) que es neccesario? (what do they need?) escribe aqui por mi, si? (write it down and give it to me ok?) this was very simple and understandable for both of us, and it went fairly smoothly from there on until we reached New York. I met some crewmenbers on the deck from time to time and attempted to talk with them, and we did get through to each other with some difficulties, but it was far worth the effort. It is an interesting footnote to mention that this Italian crew was very close. They would lay in each others’ laps and thought nothing of it, because there WAS nothing to think of it other than pure companionship between themselves.
Lets go back to the time the crew came aboard, and the ship that they abandoned for a minute. I was on watch in the radio shack and a sea going tug called my call sign on the international distress and calling frequency, 500 kcs. in morse code, summoning me up to 466 kcs to give me a routine message. He informed through the message that their ETA (estimated time of arrival) was about fourty five minutes from the sinking ship and they were ready to board that sinking vessel and bring bilge pumps with ATTITUDE! These pumps, when in place, could shoot thousands of gallons per minute overboard and this was a very dangerous operation for those coming aboard the sinking vessel. I immediatley took the message up to the Bridge and handed it to the Captain himself. I waited to find out if or what he wanted to respond to the tug. He read the message silently and then took it over to the very nervous Capatin of the Irinis Luck. I had heard previously that this poor Captain was so terrorized by the imminent sinking of his ship that he hadn’t eaten in days, even since he had come aboard our ship. Hw walked back and forth on the bridge, smoked cigarette after cigarette and drank coffee by the bath tub full! His eyes were blood shot and he was visibly shaking. If the sea going tug was successful in saving the ship it would go against his record and he would never command another vessel again in his lifetime. The vessel would be deemed as a Derelect At Sea, and an endangerment to sea farers, and the Captain would be sited for Derelection of his Responsibilities. No wonder this poor Captain was such a nervous wreck! As he read the message about the ETA of the seagoing tug the Irinis Luck’s Captain sat with his face in his hands. By now the sea had soon previously become more restless, and the waves were increasing in size and in power as they slammed against the hull of the sinking vessel. The vessel was now at a very large Starboard list, and taking on water moment by moment as the waves angrily crashed against its exposed and vulnerable deck, flowing down into the passage ways and all the way to the keel of the ship. It was obvious that the ship was further down into the water than the previous day. Now it was a race for time, with the tug fast approaching and the ship fast sinking as the sea conditions worsening moment by moment. As those minutes passed, the tension on the bridge intensified as the Captain of the Innis Luck walked back and forth wringing his hands and smoking cigaretts. Our Captain remained calm and underatanding, consoling the other Captain with kind words and hopeful information whenever possible. I was prouder than ever of our Captain the the great skills and team work of the entire crew. We received another update from the sea tug, informing us that it was merely fifteen minutes away and asking us the condition of the ship as much as we could tell. I passed the information to the tug. Many went to the deck to observe the Irinis Luck. The waters were very high and the sea was raging its fury on us and the sinking ship and the tug as well. Suddenly the lookout announced to the bridge that he had spotted the tug on the near horizon, hidden mostly by large waves and overcast weather. The tension was near climax for the Irinis Luck’s Captain, as you could imagine; that imminent time was coming quickly and conditions were very quickly changing in every direction possible. Then it happened. It came so quickly that we were left with our mouths wide open. The Irinis Luck had taken all the water it could stand. Suddenly, with the tug in visible sight, the sinking ship righted itself as if something were beneath it pushing its stern straight up, almost as if it were going to come straight up and out of the water. My mind was doing gymnastics as I beheld the mind blowing spetacle. The bow of the ship came straight up, skyward, fourth to fifty feet, stopped, stood very still, and began its downward, eternal journey into the depths of the Atlantic Abyss, joining thousands of thousands of vessels in this Atlantic graveyard. But before it would disappear it would give one of the most celebrated shows of tremendous power and almost fireworks ever seen. It really went out with a ‘BANG”! Suddenly, and without warning, as the ship slipped beneath the sea, the front hatch blew its hinges as large thick steel bars that held it shut, took flight nearly a hundred feet into the air. It tumbled over and over and over again as it crashed downward to the sea. Simultaneously the ship gave up a large violent cloud of pressurized air blasting from the hull’s open hole as with a crash of thunderous report. I wish there had been a band playing the Star Spangled Banner and a show of fireworks lighting up the skies as the ship went down in spectacular display. After the blast and the large cloud of pressurized air and fog, the bow of the ship diaappeard in just a few seconds beneath the waves, never to be seen again. We aboard the Mendota and those aboard the ocean going tug and….mostly…..the Captain of the Innis Luck, looked on. In that instant, it was as if the jury had come in and the foreman pronounced the poor Captain,…..an innocent man! He would not go to trial for the sinking of his vessel, and would be justified, if not heroized, for saving his precious crew, losing the ship and all cargo aboard. We learned, later, that it was someone else’s decision not to have the bilge pumps maintained and repaired, leaving the Captain faultless. He and the crew were the victims instead of the criminals. Poetic justice had prevailed. On the Bridge as the Irinis Luck was in the process of sinking its Captain passed out from physical and emotional exhaustion in the moment of climax. He was caught by our Captain who was physically close to him at this enormous moment. The fall to the floor was stopped by our Captain’s own arms, and the compassion of his own heart. That Captain was taken to Sick Bay Officers’ Quarters where he slept for several days. I heard from Copa G. Miliani several years later but we lost contact through the years. The memory of that incident remains clear to me as it if were just yesterday. I am so happy that nobody was lost in that sinking.