The Saber and Scroll
As Juneau and her consorts passed San Cristobal , the southernmost island of the Solomon chain , the Japanese submarine I-26 , skippered by Commander Minoru Yokota , lurked nearby . 43 Cruising at periscope depth , I-26 fired a spread of torpedoes at San Francisco , the largest ship in the formation , but missed . With no means of warning the others , its radios wrecked and signal flags shredded , San Francisco ’ s crew watched helplessly as a single torpedo shot past her stern and straight towards Juneau .
At 1101 , the torpedo detonated on Juneau ’ s port side under the bridge , igniting the cruiser ’ s torpedo magazine . The Juneau seemed to disintegrate wholly and instantaneously . The only trace was a pillar of smoke seen forty miles away . “ The Juneau didn ' t sink ... she blew up with all the fury of an erupting volcano ,” recalled Lieutenant Commander Bruce McCandless , who witnessed the detonation from San Francisco .
Similarly , Fletcher ’ s executive officer Lieutenant Commander Joseph Wilely watched in awe as a 40-ton , 5-inch gun mount flew a mile through the air and crashed into the destroyer ’ s wake just 100 yards astern of his ship . 44
When the smoke cleared , the Juneau had disappeared . Captain Hoover did not believe anyone could have survived such an explosion . Fearing the submarine inside his destroyer screen , he chose to exit the area at top speed . Hoover did not even order a life ring thrown overboard , so firm was his conviction . Nor did he break radio silence , later testifying that he did not want to give his position to the enemy . In retrospect , Hoover ’ s was a specious argument considering that I-26 must have already reported the cripple ’ s location .
A B-17 , piloted by Lieutenant Robert Gill ( USAAF ), was attracted to the location by the pillar of smoke , and Hoover signaled the patrolling aircraft to report the Juneau ’ s sinking and position . Gill ’ s crew saw the vast oil slick and approximately 180 men in the water . Later , the Juneau survivors estimated that , at the time , there were between 125 and 140 men in rafts and clinging to floating nets and debris . 45
Hours passed before Gill , who also elected not to break radio silence , landed at Esprítu Santo and reported the Juneau ’ s location and the number of survivors to an Army Intelligence officer . 46 Another three days would pass before anyone read Gill ’ s report , as it became buried deeper and deeper in the officer ’ s inbox . In the meantime , Gill dutifully overflew the survivors daily and reported their dwindling number and position to the same officer . 47
For the men in the water , hours turned into days , and the surviving Juneau ’ s crewmen began to die . Mercifully , the severely wounded men perished quickly . For a short time , the survivors had fresh water and meager rations stored in the rafts that survived . However , when the water was gone , sailors drank seawater and became delirious .
By day , the drifters were scorched by the tropical sun , despite a coating of fuel oil , which gave them some protection . At night , men urinated on them-
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