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“One Fineart, Aerology advises Conditions Not Right For A Freeze Over...
Over.”
"
Fineart, The Fair Wing 5 Duty Officer Advises The Sound Has Never Frozen
Over, Over.”
“Tower, 1 Fineart, Yeah, But… .. Naaahh, Out.”
The wind was too strong to enable beaching of the P5M from VP-45 when it arrived from Bermuda at about
2330 Sunday so the crew was advised the plane would have to spend the night
attached to a mooring buoy. The flight’s purpose was to
transport the Naval Station Bermuda’s stellar basketball team to the
regional playoffs and to make the routine “bread and eggs” run for
the goodies and military supplies not available in Bermuda. After the team had
departed for terra firma, the crew, including LTJG Agnew PPC, LTJG Hugh
Flanagan, LTJG Jim Dilweg and five members of crew 8, had a rough night. The
next morning, lower temperatures, high winds, rough seas and the fact that the
oil had congealed in the engines, preventing their starting, precluded beaching
all day Monday. It was a weary crew that was relieved on the buoy that Monday
afternoon.
LTJG
Bestul had arrived earlier at NAS Norfolk aboard USS Grampus (SS 523), having
served a week as an air observer for VP- 49’s ORI. He, along with two
aircrewmen who had been attending school there, was awaiting transportation
back to Bermuda. The following is his recollection of the events that led to
this unique sea story.
I arrived in Norfolk aboard the U.S.S. Grampus (SS 523)
on Friday, 22 Feb 1958 after serving a week as an air observer for
VP-49’s ORI, (That’s another story!) and awaited pickup along with
2 aircrewmen who had been attending school there. Frank Agnew and Crew 8
arrived on the evening of Sunday, 24 Feb in LN-1. Because of the cold and windy
weather, several members of the beaching crew had been sent to the dispensary
suffering from exposure after beaching a previous arrival, so the decision was
made to put LN-1 on a buoy until the next day. On Monday Crew 8 had already put
in a full day and night so I volunteered to sit on the buoy along with 2
aircrewmen whose identity I can’t be sure of. The line handling boat
making the transfer collided with the port float in the rough seas, holing it.
We immediately transferred fuel into the right wing to keep the damaged float
out of the water. Due to the freezing temperatures and the high seas, ice began
building up on the starboard float and struts (this is evident in the picture).
As that float became heavier we transferred fuel back to the port wing to keep
the starboard float from sinking. It was not a pleasant evening as the wind was
howling, the seas high and the ride rough. About 2 AM, with everything under
control and the airplane riding the rough seas pretty well, I lay down on the
flight deck for a little nap. About 4 AM I awoke with a start, noticing
absolutely no movement in the airplane — and silence. I
then heard one of the crewmembers say, “We had better wake up Mr.
Bestul?” I leapt up and bounded down the flight deck ladder, visualizing
our being aground. At the bottom of the steps, I encountered the crewmembers
pointing out the refueling hatch. I couldn’t believe the sights. The wind
was almost calm and we were surrounded by ice! Willoughby Spit had frozen
over! It wasn’t too thick but the wave action was causing the
ice
to break up and slide over itself making some areas quite thick and endangering
our thin hull.
I called
the tower (our APU
was running so we had
electricity and heat) and had them advise FAIRWING 5 of our predicament.
Shortly thereafter, the reply arrived: Aerology advised the conditions are not
right for a freeze over and the FAIRWING 5 duty officer advised the Sound has
never frozen over. Obviously they didn’t believe us.
There must have been
some red faces ashore when the sun came up because we were frozen in! Sending boats with water
cooled engines out to us didn’t work since water was freezing in their
intakes. All day long they struggled with the problem of getting us beached. We
sat there in our warm airplane, with plenty of food aboard, watching this whole
show and listening to the local news items about the poor cold, hungry crew in
their “giant flying boat” frozen in the ice. Local newspapers took
pictures from airplanes circling us, one of which is the picture above.
Finally
a yard craft with an air cooled engine made it out to us and attached a tow
line. The picture was taken during the tow. We were hauled out just about
sunset. To add insult to injury, someone with an ax, trying to chip ice off the
starboard float, holed it!
Excerpts from the newspaper account stated …..
Patrol Squadron 56 volunteered its services to help the P5M, stranded in Willoughby Spit.
Using one of
their amphibious Ducks, a WWII DUCK with a sealed cooling system, 12 men from
VP-56 dressed in foul weather gear and equipped with fire axes managed to get alongside the plane. In a small wherry, a 12 foot plastic boat, the men were
able to get close enough to the hull to use the axes on the ice. It was
estimated that over 1000 pounds of ice were removed from the right wing float
alone.
With the help of a NAS YSD (Mary Ann) the P5M was towed to clear water where the
beaching gear, which was also encrusted with ice that had to be removed with
axes, was attached. Nearly 48 hours after take-off, LN-l finally made the ramp!
The newspaper related that the existing weather was the worst in the area for
the past 25 years. ALCON concur!
(Ed. Note: Both Frank Agnew and
Jim Bestul contributed their recollections and other data for this story. Thank
you both!
