# Words at War: The Ship (Encore) (A0106)

An episode of [The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio| Daily Mystery Dramas](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/335549005), 18 Jul 2026, 33 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pdrl.fm/997ffb/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/73022059/a0106.mp3

Today's Adventure: A British light cruiser escorts a desperately needed convoy to Malta when the Italian fleet appears on the horizon, threatening to overwhelm the outnumbered Allied force. As the officers and crew of the HMS Artemis face impossible odds, courage, discipline, and tactical ingenuity are put to the ultimate test. Original Radio Broadcast: July 24, 1943 Originating from New York Program: Words at WarBased on the novel The Ship by C. S. Forester.Starring House Jameson, Alan Bunce, Victor Beecroft, Sid Cassel, Humphrey Davis, Eon McAllister, Shirley Oliver, and Alfred Shirley Adapted for radio by Edmund Bernbreier Original music by Frank Black Directed by Joseph Losey To subscribe to this podcast and hear more World War II stories, go to greatadventures.info Support the show on a one-time basis at support.greatdetectives.net Mail a donation to: Adam Graham, PO Box 15913, Boise, Idaho 83715 Take the listener survey at survey.greatdetectives.net Give us a call at 208-991-4783 Follow us on Instagram at instagram.com/greatdetectives Follow us on Twitter/X at twitter.com/radiodetectives

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: Hello from Boise, Idaho. This is your host, Adam Graham.
[0:10] Speaker 1: We're taking a break from posting new episodes, but I
[0:14] Speaker 1: still want to bring you the regular dose of adventure.
[0:17] Speaker 1: Please enjoy this episode, which was originally played on our
[0:21] Speaker 1: World War II series The War. Welcome to the War
[0:51] Speaker 1: from Boise, Idaho. This is your host, Adam Graham. If
[0:55] Speaker 1: you have a comment, send it to me at Box
[0:57] Speaker 1: thirteen at Great Detectives Dot Well. Today we have a
[1:03] Speaker 1: special treat for you. Today's episode is fictional, but it
[1:07] Speaker 1: could very well have actually happened that way. The writer
[1:12] Speaker 1: was associated with naval fiction, though definitely from another era.
[1:17] Speaker 2: However. CS Foster, famous for the Horatio Hornblower series, Broke
[1:22] Speaker 2: the Ship, a realistic novel of Navy combat in World
[1:26] Speaker 2: War Two that was so realistic that it was chosen
[1:29] Speaker 2: as a selection for Words at War. So here now
[1:32] Speaker 2: from July twenty fourth, nineteen forty three is the Ship.
[1:43] Speaker 3: Words that War presents the ship.
[1:48] Speaker 4: Well.
[1:58] Speaker 5: With half a million men in the Royal Navy, it
[2:01] Speaker 5: is inevitable that there should be some coincidence of names
[2:05] Speaker 5: and ranks between characters in this book and officers and
[2:08] Speaker 5: ratings now serving That is so inevitable that the author
[2:12] Speaker 5: has made no attempt to avoid any such coincidence. All
[2:16] Speaker 5: he can do is to assure the reader that he
[2:18] Speaker 5: has attempted neither portraits nor caricature of any living person.
[2:29] Speaker 4: You'll find that written on one of the front pages
[2:31] Speaker 4: of a book I read a few days ago, The
[2:34] Speaker 4: Ship by Sea US Forrester.
[2:57] Speaker 3: Words That War.
[3:00] Speaker 6: The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with the Council on
[3:04] Speaker 6: Books in Wartimes, brings you another in its series of
[3:07] Speaker 6: radio adaptations of.
[3:09] Speaker 3: Great books of this War. Each week at.
[3:12] Speaker 6: This time we bring you selected drammatic episode from some
[3:15] Speaker 6: of the most stirring of our war inspired literature. Tonight's
[3:20] Speaker 6: story End the Ship by C. S. Forrester, eminent English
[3:24] Speaker 6: author of Captain Horatio Hornblower and other fine books. Adapted
[3:29] Speaker 6: for radio by Edmund Burnbryer.
[3:49] Speaker 4: The Ship is a glorious yawn about a glorious British
[3:52] Speaker 4: vessel and the men aboard her. A novel, yet as
[3:55] Speaker 4: you read it, you feel you're reading facts. It's tough,
[3:58] Speaker 4: authentic gripping this yawn. I read it and I was excited.
[4:02] Speaker 4: I hope you.
[4:03] Speaker 3: Will be too.
[4:13] Speaker 4: If the convoy didn't get through marta might fall. The
[4:18] Speaker 4: convoy had to get through, and there were only these
[4:21] Speaker 4: five light cruisers and a dozen destroyers to get it through.
[4:25] Speaker 4: The ship HMS Artemis was a light cruiser.
[4:34] Speaker 7: Most did smoking the starboard vow green won nine. Most
[4:38] Speaker 7: did smoking the starboard bow green won nine.
[4:42] Speaker 4: Some men would have been uncomfortable in the crow's nest,
[4:45] Speaker 4: not so ordinary seamen Harold Quimsby, whose idea of happiness
[4:50] Speaker 4: was a full belly and nothing particular to do. Thanks
[4:54] Speaker 4: to many hours of practice, Quimsby was able to watch
[4:56] Speaker 4: the whole horizon forward of the beam without allowing any
[5:00] Speaker 4: of his automatic movements to break into his inner thoughts.
[5:04] Speaker 4: He was thinking now of his first sea boys, back
[5:06] Speaker 4: in the almost unbelievably distant days of nineteen thirty nine.
[5:11] Speaker 3: He'd been up on the crow's nest then, too, he
[5:13] Speaker 3: remembered when.
[5:14] Speaker 4: His binoculars picked up a dot on the distant surface,
[5:17] Speaker 4: and he'd rung down to the bridge with excitement and
[5:19] Speaker 4: sea sickness.
[5:21] Speaker 7: Just something over on the lip.
[5:23] Speaker 8: Where are you speaking from a head?
[5:25] Speaker 6: Masters?
[5:25] Speaker 7: I mean the master said, then that's what.
[5:28] Speaker 8: You say first, so that we know down here, and
[5:31] Speaker 8: you don't say over on the left to you, But
[5:34] Speaker 8: what do you say on the port Bow said, that's right,
[5:38] Speaker 8: but it's better to give a bedding. What does your
[5:40] Speaker 8: bedding indicator?
[5:41] Speaker 4: Reason twenty one said, how do you say it?
[5:45] Speaker 1: I've forgotten?
[5:46] Speaker 8: Said port is red and scarb his green. Remember that
[5:50] Speaker 8: port wine is read, and then you won't forget. And
[5:53] Speaker 8: the twenty one this is clean enough is it? And nursey,
[5:56] Speaker 8: I guess yen, And now let's have your report. Remember
[5:59] Speaker 8: to say where you speaking, drump.
[6:01] Speaker 7: And the Marstead sir Architect's side read two one.
[6:05] Speaker 8: Pretty good, Crimsby, that you must say it twice over
[6:08] Speaker 8: you remember being too vet the guns are padding. We
[6:12] Speaker 8: might not hear you the first time.
[6:13] Speaker 4: Yes, sir, I mean now, I I said. He'd been
[6:17] Speaker 4: a very green hand at that time, This ordinary seamen
[6:20] Speaker 4: Harold Quisby. He felt uncomfortable all over again as he
[6:23] Speaker 4: remembered it.
[6:25] Speaker 3: Now.
[6:25] Speaker 4: He looked attentively at the horizon, clinked, and looked again,
[6:28] Speaker 4: with his hand on the buzzer of the voice cube.
[6:32] Speaker 7: Allbred Marstead smoking the starboard bow green one nine. Marstad
[6:38] Speaker 7: smoking the starboard bow green one nine.
[6:41] Speaker 4: Most of the brains of the HMS artemists were now
[6:44] Speaker 4: on the bridge captain and torpedo officer, navigating lieutenant, an officer.
[6:50] Speaker 3: Of the Watch, and chief yeoman.
[6:52] Speaker 4: They stood there, unprotected even from the weather, nothing over
[6:56] Speaker 4: their heads and less than shoulder high around them, only
[6:59] Speaker 4: the thin plating to keep off the seas. When the
[7:02] Speaker 4: ship was taking green water over her bows. Death could
[7:06] Speaker 4: strike anywhere on that bridge, But then death could strike
[7:10] Speaker 4: anywhere in the whole ship, for the plating of which
[7:12] Speaker 4: he was constructed was hardly.
[7:14] Speaker 3: Thicker than paper.
[7:16] Speaker 4: Even a machine gun bullet could penetrate it if it
[7:18] Speaker 4: struck square. The ship was an eggshell armed with sledgehammers.
[7:25] Speaker 4: Mask he had reported, smoke green one ninzer.
[7:28] Speaker 3: Very good, Give yoman, signal that to the flagship, the.
[7:33] Speaker 4: Captain replying to his secretary Paymaster, Sub Lieutenant James Jerningham,
[7:38] Speaker 4: and giving the order to his chief Yeoman.
[7:41] Speaker 3: So that's that, just three.
[7:46] Speaker 4: Words spoken quietly to himself by Captain the Honorable Miles
[7:50] Speaker 4: Ernest Thawton Harrington Ure, a man of far fewer words
[7:55] Speaker 4: than name. However, the economy of a speech belied the
[7:58] Speaker 4: torrent of thought that went roaring to his brilliant mind
[8:01] Speaker 4: at the first report.
[8:05] Speaker 3: The Italian fleet is out in full force.
[8:09] Speaker 6: Difficult to tell how many seaworthy battleships they have out
[8:13] Speaker 6: to Toronto and Natavan. Well know now see them with
[8:19] Speaker 6: our own eyes, see them all, because Italians never venture
[8:22] Speaker 6: out except in fulliest possible force.
[8:27] Speaker 3: So that's that.
[8:31] Speaker 4: He twisted on his stool and looked round him over
[8:33] Speaker 4: the bulging sea. There on the port quarter wallowed the convoys,
[8:38] Speaker 4: the fat, helpless merchant ships that carried within them the
[8:41] Speaker 4: salvation of morton, food, new inner tubing, parantiaircraft guns, shells,
[8:49] Speaker 4: heavy guns, mountings and ammunition.
[8:52] Speaker 3: The convoy had to get.
[8:53] Speaker 4: Through, and if it were reckless to risk it for
[8:56] Speaker 4: such a frail as caught, then recklessness must be given.
[9:01] Speaker 6: You can see the smoke now, sir.
[9:03] Speaker 5: The flagship signal.
[9:05] Speaker 6: Sir letter k acknowledge the flagship signal gidioman.
[9:08] Speaker 4: The signal from flagship to port specified that Scheme K
[9:11] Speaker 4: would be carried out under the circumstances with moderate window
[9:14] Speaker 4: bass and the enemy to leeward. The captain had foreseen
[9:17] Speaker 4: these tactics were already open. On his knee were the
[9:20] Speaker 4: typerit noorders, which laid down what each ship should do
[9:23] Speaker 4: under Scheme K.
[9:26] Speaker 6: Signals down sir for ten do you want no revolutions
[9:30] Speaker 6: or d you want no revolutions?
[9:33] Speaker 4: The convoy was executing a wheel to port under full helm.
[9:37] Speaker 4: The cruisers were turning more gently and increasing speed, and
[9:41] Speaker 4: the destroyers in the advanced screen were doubling around. It
[9:44] Speaker 4: was a beautiful geometrical movement.
[9:46] Speaker 3: Stead eh medchips midship.
[9:49] Speaker 4: Then another signal ran to the mass out of the flagship.
[9:51] Speaker 4: It pludded, waiting for acknowledgment, and then went down.
[9:55] Speaker 3: Darb A ten midchips harve ten mitchi or bridge ten
[10:00] Speaker 3: tide chaps in hide up.
[10:02] Speaker 4: I'm getting more complete details from Quimsby. Aloft Paymaster Sub
[10:06] Speaker 4: Lieutenant James Jerningham turned to yell the message.
[10:09] Speaker 3: To the captain.
[10:10] Speaker 9: Six big ships, six destroyers.
[10:12] Speaker 6: Two leading ships look like battleships, mighty heavy cruisers.
[10:16] Speaker 4: Others are light cruisers. The captain figured quickly in his
[10:19] Speaker 4: mind that if Quimsby could see them now, the enemy
[10:21] Speaker 4: ships would be in sight from the bridge in about
[10:23] Speaker 4: four minutes.
[10:24] Speaker 3: The voice of the range taker began its chance.
[10:27] Speaker 7: Rhinds two or a rhinds two l five rhymes two double.
[10:34] Speaker 4: In exactly four minutes, the enemy shot up suddenly over
[10:36] Speaker 4: the curve of the world, climbing over it with astonishing speed.
[10:40] Speaker 10: For fifteen revolution for twenty seven knots.
[10:43] Speaker 11: Or revolutions for twenty seven knots.
[10:52] Speaker 3: Visibility was at its best.
[10:53] Speaker 4: The enemy ships made hard, sharp silhouettes against the blue
[10:56] Speaker 4: and gray background. Pay Master, the sub Lieutenant James Jerningham
[11:02] Speaker 4: knew himself to be a coward, but sometime ago he
[11:05] Speaker 4: made up his mind to be a coward.
[11:07] Speaker 3: Lacking and nothing.
[11:09] Speaker 4: He spent hours in his cabin carefully studying the pictured
[11:12] Speaker 4: profiles of hostile ships.
[11:14] Speaker 3: Study carried out in a mood.
[11:15] Speaker 4: Of desperation, of despair, and he had a photographic memory
[11:20] Speaker 4: which enabled him to recall the very pages on which
[11:23] Speaker 4: he had seen those profiles, even the very print beneath them.
[11:27] Speaker 12: The two leading ships are heavy cruisers Bozano sir. Nine
[11:31] Speaker 12: thousand tons, eight eight inch guns, thirty two knocks just
[11:34] Speaker 12: sure on the Nosa, and the last three cruisers look
[11:38] Speaker 12: like bandonai is. I don't know about the first one, though, Sir.
[11:42] Speaker 12: She's like nothing we've been told about. I suppose she's
[11:44] Speaker 12: the new one Codonna, and the intelligence people didn't get
[11:47] Speaker 12: her a prosia, right.
[11:49] Speaker 4: I expect to write, I think I am sir. Out
[11:52] Speaker 4: of five hundred who started as naval cadet, only one
[11:56] Speaker 4: man ever reached the lofty rank of a Captain r N,
[11:59] Speaker 4: only a few.
[12:00] Speaker 3: Grades lower than God.
[12:02] Speaker 4: That's the thought Journingham had at that particular moment. It
[12:05] Speaker 4: was followed by another that saved him from some of
[12:07] Speaker 4: his bitter feeling of inferiority.
[12:09] Speaker 3: He Journingham could spot shifts better than his captain.
[12:12] Speaker 4: It did not mean he respected the captain left admired
[12:15] Speaker 4: him less. He would have admired him even more if
[12:18] Speaker 4: he could have read the captain's cool, unflurried mind.
[12:23] Speaker 6: Out there six of the best. The Italians have the
[12:28] Speaker 6: vice admirals flag on the lead. There a Gentini, perhaps Abougette.
[12:36] Speaker 6: If they gate inches nearly on range, is now probably
[12:40] Speaker 6: open fired any moment our sixes couldn't put a share
[12:45] Speaker 6: within three thousand yards of them. Now they know their
[12:49] Speaker 6: superior strength, undoubted they've been informed about it from the air.
[12:55] Speaker 6: Possibly that's a screen out there for a stronger force,
[12:59] Speaker 6: more heavy users perhaps, and death of ships. Why should
[13:04] Speaker 6: they wait for reinforcements two heavy cruisers and four light
[13:09] Speaker 6: against our five light bruises. If they know that business,
[13:14] Speaker 6: they've turned to port close with us and finish us off.
[13:19] Speaker 6: If we knew ours, we would run like hares. That
[13:23] Speaker 6: the convoy go, that.
[13:25] Speaker 3: Malta go.
[13:29] Speaker 4: Later.
[13:29] Speaker 6: The captain's report read at one three one oho hours
[13:34] Speaker 6: the enemy opened fire.
[13:49] Speaker 3: It might be worth someone's wild it.
[13:51] Speaker 4: Phio analyzed why the column of water thrown up by
[13:54] Speaker 4: an eight inch shell should be so beautiful. It possesses
[13:57] Speaker 4: a faint yellow tinge, meaning it's of the high explosive type,
[14:01] Speaker 4: and it's really a charming sight against sky and sea.
[14:05] Speaker 4: They're beautiful to watch as long as they miss. And
[14:08] Speaker 4: these powerful, all destructive eight inches were all distinct misses,
[14:12] Speaker 4: showing us a gunnery control instruments in the Italian ship
[14:15] Speaker 4: were not lined up as accurately as they should be. Now,
[14:18] Speaker 4: the British flagship was leading round to the enemy. That
[14:22] Speaker 4: was the way to deal with them. If they won't
[14:23] Speaker 4: come out and fight, go in and fight them.
[14:31] Speaker 7: Nine one seven to below rine one seven do below.
[14:36] Speaker 4: It was leading seamen Alfred Lightfoot's job to take ranges quickly.
[14:40] Speaker 4: That was his personal contribution to the perfect fighting.
[14:42] Speaker 3: Hole which was the ship. And he did what he
[14:45] Speaker 3: was supposed to do without distraction. Niney.
[14:47] Speaker 11: If the shell's got me nine money, I'll get it
[14:49] Speaker 11: in from no weather shell.
[14:52] Speaker 4: Twenty one seconds ago, he's seen the flashes of the
[14:54] Speaker 4: guns at which he was pointing his range behinder, and
[14:56] Speaker 4: already Alfred Lightfoot had forgotten them. During those twenty one seconds,
[15:00] Speaker 4: those eight in shells had been hurtling towards the HMS Artemis,
[15:03] Speaker 4: hurtling through the air at the speed of more than
[15:04] Speaker 4: a mile in two seconds. Their path was curved, reaching
[15:08] Speaker 4: far up into the upper atmosphere, higher than the highest
[15:11] Speaker 4: out into the freezing stratosphere, before plunging down would toward
[15:15] Speaker 4: their target. Suddenly, Alfred Lightwood heard a noise as of
[15:23] Speaker 4: rushing water and of tearing sheets, and then the field
[15:26] Speaker 4: of his rangefinder was plotted out, and then a mess
[15:28] Speaker 4: upheaval of water. Is the nearest shell of the broad
[15:30] Speaker 4: Tide pitched close beside the star with a bow of
[15:32] Speaker 4: the art Twenty tons of yellowed water came tumbling on.
[15:36] Speaker 3: Board, saluting the upward.
[15:38] Speaker 4: Words were flooding over light Foot. Strange mind nine Hoopstuart
[15:43] Speaker 4: all hop time instantly training and professional pride masters, and
[15:48] Speaker 4: he definitely twirled the scows and brought.
[15:49] Speaker 3: The enemy into focus once again nine one nine tallllo.
[15:55] Speaker 4: It was then the paymaster's sub Lieutenant James Jerningham, saw
[15:59] Speaker 4: the Italian chap turn away, and he gravely noted the
[16:03] Speaker 4: time upon the pad in his lap. Later, the captain's
[16:06] Speaker 4: report read.
[16:09] Speaker 3: The enemy withdrew. Wasn't a surprise for you?
[16:14] Speaker 7: They're running away like that?
[16:16] Speaker 3: No, sir, not very much.
[16:18] Speaker 6: It made us be a trick to get us away
[16:20] Speaker 6: from the convoy. They're that pains would have a chance,
[16:24] Speaker 6: but I don't think so, no, sir. Something bigger than
[16:27] Speaker 6: cruisers out today are fans. They might be trying to
[16:30] Speaker 6: lead us into a chap.
[16:32] Speaker 3: Stop it.
[16:34] Speaker 6: We're staying between the eye Ties and the convoy, and
[16:37] Speaker 6: every minute brings us nearer to Malta.
[16:40] Speaker 4: Joining him at that point said yes, sir. He was
[16:42] Speaker 4: frantically searching about in his mind for some contribution to
[16:45] Speaker 4: make to this conversation other than yes or a no, sir.
[16:49] Speaker 3: Wanting to appear bright, he said, night is coming.
[16:52] Speaker 6: Yes, the eye eyes are losing time, the most valuable
[16:58] Speaker 6: asset they have and is squandering at the commonist mistake
[17:02] Speaker 6: to make in war is to think that because a
[17:04] Speaker 6: certain course seems to you to be the best for
[17:07] Speaker 6: the enemy. That is the course he will take. He
[17:10] Speaker 6: may not think it best, or there may be some
[17:13] Speaker 6: reason against it which you don't know about.
[17:15] Speaker 3: That's trucer. This was the longest beach ever heard from
[17:18] Speaker 3: the captain.
[17:20] Speaker 6: And the next Communist mistake is to give unnecessary orders.
[17:24] Speaker 3: Whipple up there, ordinary seamen.
[17:25] Speaker 4: Whipple was now climbing the difficult ladder to the crow's
[17:27] Speaker 4: nest to relieve Quemsby.
[17:29] Speaker 6: Whipple up there, will keep a sharp lookout without my
[17:31] Speaker 6: telling him.
[17:33] Speaker 3: He knows what he's there for.
[17:35] Speaker 4: Jerningham gates at him wordless. Now, in spite of his
[17:38] Speaker 4: efforts to appear bright. This was an aspect of the
[17:40] Speaker 4: captain's character which he'd never seen before, this courteous gentleman
[17:44] Speaker 4: with a smiling common sense and his insight into character.
[17:48] Speaker 4: When Whipple took over from Quemsby a lost and that.
[17:52] Speaker 8: Thing in the front of the line is the flagship.
[17:55] Speaker 7: Give my regard to the admiral when you get your commissioner,
[17:58] Speaker 7: no on, take your race.
[18:00] Speaker 4: Five minutes later, there was no kidding around Corrich.
[18:06] Speaker 11: Mastd more smoke visible on the port bow beyond the
[18:09] Speaker 11: enemy cruisers Red three eight masted, more smoke visible mastead
[18:18] Speaker 11: and a lot of new smoke is closing us.
[18:20] Speaker 6: Signed Baron No.
[18:22] Speaker 4: No.
[18:22] Speaker 11: Red three nine mastad battleship in sight two battleships in
[18:31] Speaker 11: a never cruiser hitting a little abaft about Baron as
[18:34] Speaker 11: the other ship to turning. Now his turn of them.
[18:41] Speaker 6: The behavior of the ship's company was most satisfactory.
[18:45] Speaker 4: Another phase of the captain's report. Not one man in
[18:49] Speaker 4: ten an automist could see what was going on. In
[18:51] Speaker 4: the captain's opinion, the sordid news was dangerous.
[18:54] Speaker 3: Go down to tell the ship about the situation.
[18:56] Speaker 4: Journingham's mind was feverishly turning over words and phrases as
[18:59] Speaker 4: he just handed the ladder. He didn't have time to
[19:01] Speaker 4: assemble any But on the other hand, he didn't have
[19:03] Speaker 4: time in those few seconds to become self conscious, nor
[19:06] Speaker 4: had his weakness time to reassert itself. I've a message
[19:09] Speaker 4: for the ship from the captain.
[19:11] Speaker 3: The petty officer.
[19:12] Speaker 4: Beside the loud speaker hanging on the vault get switched
[19:14] Speaker 4: on and piped brillly. Sound of its call audible in
[19:17] Speaker 4: every part.
[19:17] Speaker 3: Of the ship.
[19:23] Speaker 9: The captain has sid me to tell you that we've
[19:26] Speaker 9: got the entire Kai navy imposibles that will hit hitty
[19:30] Speaker 9: cruisers at all.
[19:31] Speaker 3: They've run away from us.
[19:32] Speaker 9: Once the hitty cruiser is half Now we're going to
[19:35] Speaker 9: see if the battleship to run two three hours of
[19:38] Speaker 9: daylight there and the convoys stop to reach Morta po.
[19:43] Speaker 7: Ducks with all the donelight the revolution, but anyone nuts
[19:48] Speaker 7: make smoke.
[19:49] Speaker 4: Three minutes of smoke mean a smoke bank a mile
[19:51] Speaker 4: and a half long, far too wide for the anim
[19:54] Speaker 4: to watch with care all along its length.
[19:57] Speaker 3: Later the captain's report.
[20:00] Speaker 6: I found the smoke screen to be extremely effective.
[20:03] Speaker 4: The smoke bank, allowing for spread, would be a quarter
[20:06] Speaker 4: of a mile thick. The captain had solved the complex
[20:09] Speaker 4: mathematical problem in his head.
[20:11] Speaker 3: He turned to the voice cube beside him.
[20:13] Speaker 6: Captain, Gunnery Officer, Gunnery officer, I'm turning to starboard now.
[20:18] Speaker 6: It will take us two minutes and ten seconds approximately
[20:21] Speaker 6: to go through the smoke. You'll find the eye ties
[20:24] Speaker 6: about red fire when we come out, but I shall
[20:26] Speaker 6: turn to port parallel to that course. Immediately open fire
[20:29] Speaker 6: when you are ready? All right, yes, sir, good by
[20:32] Speaker 6: guns then.
[20:33] Speaker 3: Eight point to starvad Quartermaster done of it if he.
[20:37] Speaker 4: Chip stop begging smoke, and the order went down through
[20:40] Speaker 4: five decks to stalk a petty officer Harmsworth in the
[20:43] Speaker 4: boiler room. Now the atomist was heading squarely into the smoke,
[20:47] Speaker 4: solidly away to starboard. One moment they were out in
[20:49] Speaker 4: that clear sunshine, and the next they were in wreeking,
[20:52] Speaker 4: oily darkness. Call the master didn't see that about it
[20:55] Speaker 4: in the smoke.
[20:57] Speaker 6: I did reports.
[20:58] Speaker 11: He's in the smoke and gone see anything.
[21:00] Speaker 3: Shut fifty second.
[21:03] Speaker 13: Fifty five seconds, one minute, fifty five seconds, ninety second,
[21:13] Speaker 13: one oh five seconds not long ago now, and the
[21:17] Speaker 13: smoke was just as thick as ever, extremely good two minutes.
[21:22] Speaker 4: The Captain could see the navigating lieutenant plainly now, and
[21:25] Speaker 4: the Italians could just about see the shadowy gray form
[21:28] Speaker 4: of the.
[21:28] Speaker 3: Automist emerging from the smoke.
[21:29] Speaker 4: Four fifteen, an artemist, beautiful in the sunshine, swung round
[21:33] Speaker 4: a turner broadside upon.
[21:34] Speaker 3: The colossal force. Long before the automist emerged, however, the.
[21:39] Speaker 4: Gunnery lieutenant had given order all guns look.
[21:42] Speaker 3: This took only fifteen seconds to accomplish.
[21:44] Speaker 4: Therefore, when Broadsides was affected and the last gun ready
[21:47] Speaker 4: lamp came on. It needed only one word to throw
[21:49] Speaker 4: a quarter of a ton of steel and high explosive
[21:52] Speaker 4: from one ship moving at thirty one knots to another
[21:54] Speaker 4: ship moving at twenty knots nine miles away.
[21:56] Speaker 6: Oh ho ho ha.
[22:03] Speaker 4: Later the captain's report read hits what observed Ha.
[22:10] Speaker 6: Ha ha.
[22:15] Speaker 4: Twelve shells were in the air at once, while the
[22:17] Speaker 4: fountains raised by the sixth preceding ones still hung poised
[22:20] Speaker 4: above the surface. Every ten seconds the guns were ready
[22:23] Speaker 4: and loaded, and every ten seconds the shells were hurled
[22:25] Speaker 4: out of them four hits. The six broadsides was good shooting,
[22:30] Speaker 4: and the Italian Navy was firing back straight at Artemis.
[22:33] Speaker 4: Now there were bright flashes all down the line, and
[22:35] Speaker 4: sea and air were flung into convulsion.
[22:40] Speaker 3: On the bridge. The sudden crash of the guns made
[22:42] Speaker 3: turning him jump it all. He hoped none of the
[22:45] Speaker 3: men on Beauty up here had seen him jump. The
[22:47] Speaker 3: second time he was sure his feet had left the deck.
[22:50] Speaker 4: The gin was appalling, and with every broad side he
[22:52] Speaker 4: was shaken by the hot flash of the guns. The
[22:54] Speaker 4: captain gave an order to the navigating lieutenant, and soon
[22:57] Speaker 4: hims Artem is healed and turned abruptly away from the
[23:00] Speaker 4: enemy and back into the comforting smoke and darkness and silence.
[23:04] Speaker 6: Captain got it there, hurry up, which should be opening
[23:08] Speaker 6: fired again in two minutes. An Artemis was already stealing
[23:15] Speaker 6: over on the turn as she punched back into the
[23:18] Speaker 6: seakouder enemies once more one minute. Every man of the
[23:21] Speaker 6: ship knew that the better he did his work and now,
[23:24] Speaker 6: the better would be his chance of life.
[23:26] Speaker 10: Being ten minutes oh say o ha, and.
[23:37] Speaker 4: The above part brought its tons of steel again toward
[23:40] Speaker 4: the eye tide part of this shooting superbric The captain
[23:45] Speaker 4: could see that with his own eyes as he turned
[23:47] Speaker 4: his binoculars upon the Italian flagship, the enemy Salvos were
[23:51] Speaker 4: creeping closer to him.
[23:52] Speaker 3: He was nearly time to retire again.
[23:54] Speaker 4: A mile away, another British ship, HMS Hero, had emerged
[23:57] Speaker 4: from the smoke screen, spitting fire from all our turn.
[24:00] Speaker 3: With hera out of.
[24:01] Speaker 4: The screen and the other cruises beginning to show beyond her,
[24:04] Speaker 4: it was for Automist to withdraw and leave the Italians
[24:07] Speaker 4: to their weary task of getting the range on these
[24:09] Speaker 4: new elucid targets FOURT ten and artemists plunged back into
[24:14] Speaker 4: the protecting spot.
[24:17] Speaker 3: Then it happened.
[24:29] Speaker 4: Fifty salvos if inspired at automist without scoring a hit.
[24:33] Speaker 4: Now when she was invisible in a smoky park, a
[24:36] Speaker 4: chance shell hitter.
[24:39] Speaker 3: It was an eight in shell that hit the cruiser.
[24:41] Speaker 3: It struck the ship's side a yard.
[24:42] Speaker 4: Above the waterline, and it penetrated the main deck as
[24:45] Speaker 4: at first, flinging red hot fragments of steel all around it.
[24:48] Speaker 3: And with the fragments came.
[24:49] Speaker 4: The flame of explosion. The ex gun turret bore the front.
[24:53] Speaker 4: The officer at the shell ring and the officer at
[24:55] Speaker 4: the ammunition poise killed by the jagged shield. One minute
[24:58] Speaker 4: they were alive and the next they were dead.
[25:01] Speaker 3: One moment they were.
[25:01] Speaker 4: Men, and then the shell burst right in their midst
[25:04] Speaker 4: and they were nothing nothing. The petty officer in charge
[25:08] Speaker 4: of the lobby and the others survived them only by
[25:10] Speaker 4: a few seconds. They died by fire, but it was
[25:13] Speaker 4: a quick death.
[25:18] Speaker 12: Ships on fire after yes, pretty badly, apparently.
[25:21] Speaker 4: Sir, very good, Jenny, Mum, oh, thank you, one turret
[25:26] Speaker 4: without but the A and D turts were firing away beautifully,
[25:28] Speaker 4: all four guns in white hot action at that moment,
[25:35] Speaker 4: a shell was fired from HMS Artemis, which changed the
[25:38] Speaker 4: face of the war, altered the whole history of the world.
[25:42] Speaker 4: Men and women in Nigeria or Czechoslovakia would feel the
[25:46] Speaker 4: impact of that shell upon their lives. Head hunting cannibals
[25:49] Speaker 4: in Papua, Iberian nomad seeking a scant living on the
[25:52] Speaker 4: frozen tundra of Asia, toddling babies in the cornfields of Iowa,
[25:57] Speaker 4: and their children's children, all in years to come.
[26:01] Speaker 3: Oh something to that shell.
[26:03] Speaker 4: Of the four shells fired in that salvo, three of
[26:05] Speaker 4: them missed.
[26:06] Speaker 3: The four the.
[26:07] Speaker 4: Shell from the left hand gun and turret a hit.
[26:13] Speaker 6: Later, the captain's report read, the enemy turned away and
[26:18] Speaker 6: the action terminated.
[26:25] Speaker 4: That shell hadn't done any particular damage when it hit
[26:28] Speaker 4: the Italian Majesty's battleship Lignano. But the duo Italian German
[26:33] Speaker 4: command of Sane Capitan surce Helmost von Bordica and Vice admiraljo.
[26:39] Speaker 3: Gaspara Gezzano nor Centini were.
[26:41] Speaker 4: Hesitating about what to do with a pesty little British ships.
[26:45] Speaker 4: And they were arguing politely, of course, on points of strategy.
[26:50] Speaker 4: Also they were suspicious of one another and well, you
[26:54] Speaker 4: know how it is with the Italians and the Germans.
[26:57] Speaker 4: The main thing is that when that historical sixteen shells
[27:00] Speaker 4: rucked full upon their beat turret and burst against the
[27:02] Speaker 4: twelve inch steel, it became the deciding factor that tipped
[27:06] Speaker 4: down the scale and swayed the balance of von Borica's
[27:10] Speaker 4: and Nocentini's hesitating mind.
[27:14] Speaker 6: The enemy turned away and the action terminated.
[27:21] Speaker 4: The enemies out of rain, sir, thank you guns.
[27:24] Speaker 12: I believe I saw a torpedo hit on the second
[27:26] Speaker 12: ship while you were speaking, sir.
[27:27] Speaker 6: Thank you, congratulations, thank you.
[27:30] Speaker 4: Jurninggum, there was only the faintest glow to be seen
[27:34] Speaker 4: of the fire that had raged minutes before, and a
[27:37] Speaker 4: few more minutes with the hose would extinguish even that.
[27:40] Speaker 4: The ship emerged into the fading dust, for it was
[27:42] Speaker 4: now beginning to grow dark. Then the captain suddenly tensed
[27:46] Speaker 4: himself as his roving eye caught sight of a twinkle
[27:48] Speaker 4: of light ahead. And then he was able to relax
[27:51] Speaker 4: and even smile a little to himself in the twilight,
[27:54] Speaker 4: for that was the evening star shining out over the Mediterranean.
[28:00] Speaker 6: Man's darkenship. Second degree of readiness, Yes, the captain could
[28:19] Speaker 6: now line his pipe, could now.
[28:21] Speaker 4: Inwardly only perhaps relax. He could now afford to indulge
[28:26] Speaker 4: in the luxury of quiet thought.
[28:31] Speaker 6: This long struggle will someday have an end, I suppose,
[28:35] Speaker 6: but not now, and not for months and years to come.
[28:41] Speaker 6: And even when it does end, the freedom which the
[28:44] Speaker 6: struggle will win can only be secured by eternal vigilance,
[28:49] Speaker 6: eternal probity, eternal good will, and eternal honesty of purpose.
[28:58] Speaker 6: That will be the hardest lesson of all. Peace will
[29:02] Speaker 6: be a severer test of mankind than war. Perhaps mankind
[29:08] Speaker 6: will pass that test when the time comes. As for me,
[29:13] Speaker 6: when that time comes, I will fight for the last die,
[29:17] Speaker 6: in the last ditch, before I will come fromise, in
[29:21] Speaker 6: the slightest with the blind or secret enemies of freedom
[29:27] Speaker 6: and justice. You have heard the seventh program of Words
[29:51] Speaker 6: at War, a series based on the great books of
[29:55] Speaker 6: this war. This evening we presented The Ship by C. S. Forrest.
[30:01] Speaker 3: The script was.
[30:01] Speaker 6: Written by Edmund Burnbryer of the NBC Script Staff. Next
[30:06] Speaker 6: week you'll hear Robert Saint John's book From the Land
[30:08] Speaker 6: of Silent People. The narrator tonight was played by Alan
[30:13] Speaker 6: bunts House. Jamison was the captain. Other members of the
[30:17] Speaker 6: cast were Victor b. Croft, Sid Cassell, Humphrey Davis, Ian McAllister,
[30:22] Speaker 6: Shirley Oliver, and Alfred Shirley. The original music was written
[30:27] Speaker 6: and conducted by Frank Black.
[30:29] Speaker 3: The production was under the direction of Joseph Lawsy.
[30:43] Speaker 6: This program has been presented in cooperation with the Council
[30:46] Speaker 6: on Books in Wartime for the National Broadcasting Company and
[30:49] Speaker 6: the independent radio stations associated with.
[30:52] Speaker 3: The NBC Network. This program came to you from New York.
[30:56] Speaker 6: This is a National Broadcasting Company.
[31:04] Speaker 2: Welcome back. Well a very well told story, and those
[31:10] Speaker 2: who have listened to, for example, or read Horatio Homeblower,
[31:15] Speaker 2: we'll see a lot of parallels in some ways with
[31:19] Speaker 2: the characterization. I guess that's the one advantage of the
[31:23] Speaker 2: novel being able to get into different characters' heads. In
[31:27] Speaker 2: terms of the adaptation, well, we didn't have one listener
[31:31] Speaker 2: comment I wanted to share. This came from C. Peterson
[31:35] Speaker 2: who says, these episodes and this was regarding that this
[31:39] Speaker 2: is war series and Behind the Gun give a very
[31:42] Speaker 2: interested and sanitized view of war. Being a veteran war myself,
[31:49] Speaker 2: I know how ugly it is thank you for putting
[31:52] Speaker 2: these glimpses into my father's war out there. Well, I'm
[31:56] Speaker 2: glad to help him to provide that information. Of course,
[32:00] Speaker 2: there's always going to be some limit in terms of
[32:02] Speaker 2: particularly when you're dealing with information that's broadcast over the airwaves.
[32:09] Speaker 2: But I think Man behind the Gun and certainly the
[32:15] Speaker 2: USS Boise episodes were very powerful, I thought, but there's
[32:19] Speaker 2: not a way to fully capture all of the ugliness
[32:25] Speaker 2: and of war within the limits of broadcasting essentially what's
[32:31] Speaker 2: required to be a family program. But I do appreciate
[32:34] Speaker 2: your comment, Thanks so much, and thank you for your service.
[32:39] Speaker 2: That will do it for today. If you have a comment,
[32:43] Speaker 2: email me Box thirteen at Great Detectors dot net. Welcome
[32:48] Speaker 2: your story or that of loved ones who serve during
[32:51] Speaker 2: World War Two. Ken Curlin provides our opening theme music
[32:56] Speaker 2: Kencurlan dot com. I am your host at This series
[33:02] Speaker 2: is provided as a service of the Great Detectives of
[33:05] Speaker 2: Old Time Radio. Great Detectives dot net.

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