Northern Atlantic Convoy Runs
Ricketts sailed from New York 22 February 1944 on the first of 12 escort voyages to Northern Europe and back. She saw a burst of flame in the convoy at 2035 on the stormy night of 25 February. Two merchant tankers, SS El Coston and SS Murfreesboro had collided, and both ships were badly damaged and burning. Ricketts snatched 33 survivors from the sea, which was covered with blazing gasoline. Her commanding officer received the Bronze Star for his part in this daring rescue, and two other officers and six enlisted men received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal.
Rejoining the convoy, Ricketts received Capt. John Roundtree, Commander, Escort Division 20, when his own flagship, USS Marchand (DE-249) departed to escort the badly damaged El Coston to Bermuda. The convoy continued on to Lough Foyle, Northern Ireland, and Ricketts anchored at Lisahally 6–12 March. She then sailed with a return convoy to New York, arriving 22 March.
Ricketts made 11 other round-trip escort voyages: first from New York to Lough Foyle and back (6 April – 3 May 1944); then from New York to Lough Foyle to Boston, Massachusetts (21 May – 17 June 1944); followed by three voyages from New York to Lough Foyle and back (2–27 July; 11 August – 5 September; and 20 September – 16 October 1944). Others were from New York to the River Clyde, Scotland, and return (7 November – 7 December); from New York to Cherbourg, France, and the Isle of Portland, England, and back (26 December 1944 – 23 January 1945); from New York to Le Havre, France, and Southampton, England, and back (31 March – 30 April 1945); and from New York to Southampton and back (20 May – 11 June 1945).
Read more about this topic: USS Ricketts (DE-254)
Famous quotes containing the words northern, atlantic, convoy and/or runs:
“There exists in a great part of the Northern people a gloomy diffidence in the moral character of the government. On the broaching of this question, as general expression of despondency, of disbelief that any good will accrue from a remonstrance on an act of fraud and robbery, appeared in those men to whom we naturally turn for aid and counsel. Will the American government steal? Will it lie? Will it kill?—We ask triumphantly.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“We recognize caste in dogs because we rank ourselves by the familiar dog system, a ladderlike social arrangement wherein one individual outranks all others, the next outranks all but the first, and so on down the hierarchy. But the cat system is more like a wheel, with a high-ranking cat at the hub and the others arranged around the rim, all reluctantly acknowledging the superiority of the despot but not necessarily measuring themselves against one another.”
—Elizabeth Marshall Thomas. “Strong and Sensitive Cats,” Atlantic Monthly (July 1994)
“Pilgrim-manned, the Mayflower in a dream
Has been her anxious convoy in to shore.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Seek and Hide: the Lover gazes at the Beloved. The Beloved looks away. The Beloved turns and looks at the Lover. The Lover runs away.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)