April 7, 2012: Encore Presentation – Surviving Typhoon Cobra (1944)

Encore Presentation (Originally Aired 19 June 2010)This was one of our late partner, Gary Lillie’s, favourite programs. Hosted by Gary with his guests, Charles Raymond Calhoun, the captain of the Dewey, and sailor Murl Eastman, who worked below-decks. During the typhoon the captain gripped a vertical pipe that became horizontal as the ship rolled, looking between his feet at the ocean below, while down below, Eastman and his fellow crew members walked on the bulkheads (walls), as the deck became verticalTyphoon Cobra in World War II sunk three United States Destroyers, the Hull, Monaghan and Spence. It took the lives of more than 800 sailors. Only the heroics of the commanders and crew of ships such as the destroyer Dewey, which rescued men in the water despite the darkness of night and the worst typhoon to ever hit a fleet. The Dewey recorded possibly the lowest barometric pressure ever, 27.30 inches, and rolled close to 90 degrees, more than any other ship known to history that still recovered.