Word: tierneys
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...Blame. He blamed the accident on the destroyer's captain, Lieut. Commander William J. Tierney, 32, of Philadelphia. He noted that the skipper had received a dispatch the day before from the destroyer squadron commander calling for "prompt and resolute action [in performing maneuvers], even at the expense of an occasional mistake . . ." He suggested that it might have "affected the attitude" of Commander Tierney in handling the ship...
...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...
...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...
...series of orders was not clear. Lieut. Hoefer did not deny that if successful they would have put the 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...
...searching, only 61 of the Hob son's men, many of them dazed and injured, were found. As the Wasp steamed slowly back toward New York, her bow sliced open along the waterline by the impact, 176 men, including the Hobson's skipper, Commander William J. Tierney, were missing and presumably lost-the biggest peacetime casualty list in modern U.S. naval history...