SURVIVED  SINKING  OF  USS MONAGHAN

IN  TYPHOON  COBRA

Typhoon Cobra, also known as the “Typhoon of 1944” or “Halsey’s Typhoon,” struck Task Force-38 in December 1944.  TF-38 consisted of 7 fleet carriers, 6 escort carriers, 8 battleships, 15 cruisers and about 50 destroyers and had been operating in the Philippine Sea conducting air raids against Japanese airfields.  The fleet was attempting to refuel when the storm stuck.  Prevailing winds clocked at over 120 mph, mountainous high seas estimated 50 feet or more and torrential rain caused three destroyers to capsize and sink with a total of 790 lives lost.  Many other warships were damaged. 

The USS MONAGHAN was one of the three destroyers lost during Typhoon Cobra.  The ship was expecting to refuel and probably had reduced its ballast in order to take on fuel but the typhoon struck before MONAGHAN was ready to ride out the deadly storm.  The ship was violently tossed as she was pounded by the mountainous seas until she finally rolled over and capsized on the afternoon of December 18, 1944.  A few crewmembers who happened to be in the aft end of the ship felt the ship going over and ran out of their shelter only to be carried overboard by the heavy seas.  As debris rose to the surface they had difficulty seeing as the intense winds whipped up needlelike spray from wave tops like a blinding snowstorm and visibility was almost zero.  

As the men struggled, a life raft floated to the surface and soon a group of desperate men clung to it.  However, fierce winds and turbulent seas repeatedly rolled the raft over and the survivors struggled to find their way back to the raft.  By nightfall the group had dwindled to thirteen weak, desperate and exhausted men.  After it became dark, the lights of a ship was seen nearby but their hollering and yelling was not heard and the ship passed by without seeing the group in the still angry seas.  The next day several planes were seen at a distance but they failed to see the survivors in the water.  The night and next day passed the same way as the survivors fought to stay alive.  Unfortunately injuries, loss of strength and hallucinations claimed the lives of several men until only six survivors were left on the raft.  After being in the water for three days two carrier based fighter planes flew overhead, sighted the group clinging to the raft and the planes dropped water markers.  In less than an hour the sight of a destroyer steaming toward them was seen.  The ship was the USS BROWN (DD-546) which had been badly battered by the storm herself.  As the ship approached, the survivors were startled when gun shots rang out from the ship but as she came alongside the raft a line was thrown to the survivors and they were finally safe.  When the group of six survivors got aboard they learned that a shark was right beside them the whole time they were being rescued, thus the shots into the water around them.

When MONAGHAN sank, 256 crewmembers were lost and only the six men rescued by BROWN survived the ship’s sinking.  Water Tender Third Class James T. Story was one of the six exhausted and fortunate survivors.

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)