On 25 October 1944, the destroyer escort USS Samuel B. Roberts and the rest of task unit Taffy 3 took part in the Battle off Samar during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. After a valiant effort, the “Sammy B” was sunk, her compliment abandoning ship into the treacherous water. In this video we experience the story of their survival in shark infested waters.
Bibliography
Hornfischer, James D. The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy’s Finest Hour. New York, NY: Random House Large Print, 2004.
Wukovits, John F., and Robertson Dean. For Crew and Country: The Inspirational True Story of Bravery and Sacrifice Aboard the USS Samuel B. Roberts. Ashland, OR: Blackstone Audio, Inc, 2013.
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Great work as always!
Can you please put subtitles in your videos? Most historical channels do, thanks!
Love to see Pacific War content! Would be great to see you do more of it! I'd suggest the Battle of the Bismark Sea and the the story of the attacks on the enemy lifeboats afterwards, that's a tale that's strangely unknown, and a terrifying reminder of how easily we accept circular logic to excuse atrocities that we'd rightfully condemn from our enemies.
You see, this is a great Hollywood movie right there. Courage in the face of certain death. Why make up stories when the real thing is so much better?
Now I gotta read the book.
Gawr Gura ate well that day.
These days we have crooked cowards living luxurious lives and the people in charge are all villains. Thank you for helping us remember that good people did their best and often died while doing so.
– Those days and nights of long distant thunder and light, memories and stories of battles lost and won, we stare long into the starry nights, horizons far and remember them, shed a tear and weep for those that live. Will never forget you. –
wouldn't say it's "infested", it's where they live.
The desperation one must feel to put their fate in the hands of mythology. Before you holy nitwits start in, I've been there and I felt no need for it. But do go on and on and on and on.
Excellent video 👍 Thank you 💜
You know, this reminds me of the USS Indianapolis, her sinking, and the crews horrifying experience.
Sounds like Moore (sp?) was a real leader. Leaders take care of all their people and teammates. Non leaders, no matter their rank, take care of themselves doing things like hoarding rations and refusing to help those who need aid to avoid any risk and difficulties themselves. Leadership doesn't come naturally to most, it requires you to care more about others than yourself.
The wreck of the Sammy B was discovered around 22 June 2022, at a depth of 6,895 meters (22,621 ft), making it the current record holder of deepest wreckage site. For addition context, that's just shy of about double the depth of the RMS Titanic.
First time hearing these accounts…. truly heartbreaking but fascinating. Great video.
Love your channel keep up the great work 👍
Dick Rhode (sp?) is a hell of a name
Reminds me of that scene in Jaws where the former crewman of USS Indianapolis is telling his tale of surviving the sharks.
I love how the sailor was weeping over the ship and not his mates. That man LOVED his ship. I would have really wanted him taking care of my ship.
43 being the oldest man on board hit me hard. I’m nearly that old now.
so good thank you.
Heart rending.
Great video.I have never heard of this rescue before.😊😊😊
At 1:32, radioman Dick Road found a raft with ensign Jack More? Somebody get this man a calendar… it's not April Fool's yet.
This was a hard one…thank you for posting
It's amazing that all of those shark attacks were mistaken identity and less likely to occur than lightning strikes (they weren't). Sharks eat people. The more accounts I read about in ship sinkings the less I trust the modern shark science party line.
20 years in the USN and falling overbroad was the only thing I never wanted to happen.
The sea is never kind to anyone.
I heard somewhere that if you're still hydrated, you can tolerate drinking a certain amount of sea water without it giving you delirium
What a horrific ordeal!
❤
Cool to see Hornfischer featured. His most memorable book to me was Ship of Ghosts which is about the captured crew of USS Houston and their survival on the Burma Railway.
it's a harrowing story, and i won't lie and say i didn't have watery eyes when the friendly call-response was "who won the world series last year?" im no die-hard baseball fan, but i dare say there's nothing more classically american than a ball game, and the american public certainly believed that during the war. i was recently reminded of the US's efforts to keep america's game going during the war and all the good, bad and ugly that came of that, so that quote hit hard this week. i love your videos on both channels for the [as much as anything can be] unbiased, straightforward historical accounts of these important moments in history. i do however appreciate these more human stories from time to time. well done, sir
It's a bit of a pet peeve of mine when people say "shark infested waters", rather than "shark rich waters" or something of the kind. That's a bit like saying "human infested cities".
Like, I get what you're trying to say, but sharks are supposed to be out in the middle of the ocean. Humans are not.
My great grandfather had his ship go down in the Pacific. This is a pretty close description to what he told my father and mother of his experience and trying to keep everyone sane and alive while awaiting rescue. It was one of the worse things he went through in the war. The sharks. The fuel oil in the water. The risk of fire from it. The risk of getting captured. The very real likelihood that no one was coming to rescue you as the paltry rations disappeared and dehydration in the tropical heat set in over a few days. It's just a brutal experience to go through after having survived a naval battle, only to go through that and know for days that you may not make it, but you need to stay alive as long as possible because rescue could happen at any time and even a few minutes longer of life could save you.
"…rapidly degraded their ability to resist death."
I work in an ER. I'm using that one at some point.
o7
Black like a dolls eyes
shark-infested is only and always used with a hyphen connecting the words. It is a compound adjective. Otherwise no faults found much praise to your channel.
Thank you for doing such an excellent telling of this insane situation..🦈