For reasons no longer recalled, Rick Canada, Stacy and I decided to "capture" this Frigate. It was early Saturday evening, our second night in the port of Palermo, Sicily and I guess we were restless. Knowing how prone to officialism the Limeys are we realized that we couldn't simply board their ship and declare it captured, (not without exploring the reported English preference for fisticuffs over fornication) so we formulated a plan.

First we "borrowed" a fine linen napkin from the wardroom. To two of it's corners, we attached what amounted to clothes stops (oh, suffer on, non-Naval personnel) and using a black marker, we very carefully wrote the following message: THIS SHIP has been CAPTURED by the USS COBBLER SS-344. Our "official flag" was carefully rolled up and stowed in a pocket.

We then went calling on Her Majesties Frigate. Our ruse was that we wanted to borrow a movie. (I believe at that time Rick and Stacy were our projectionists and in fact taught me how to operate the contraption, but that's another story.) We climbed the gangway, rendered all the honors we could imagine so as not to excite our prospective captives and approached the deck watch.

The explanation of needing a movie brought out a fellow who was assigned to us as our "guide". Evening had slipped over the harbor (or mayhaps I should say "harbour" in this instance) and under the cover of darkness, Rick Canada slipped away as Stacy and I questioned the English sailor about the "hedgehog" mount and it's operation.

Rick found his way to the "flag-deck", located the halyard to the tallest mast and using the clothes stops securely attached our "flag". It was three- quarters of the way raised when a voice behind him querried, "What'cher about mate?" Rick said later he damn near ruined his dungarees, but regaining a little composure, he managed to reply, "Oh your flag fell down and I'm putting it back up." With a final yank on the halyard our "flag" reached the top pulley. He expertly tied it off on the cleat; turned smartly and never looking back, beat feet for where he'd left Stacy and me.

We were still there, being lectured in the absolute killing power of the English hedgehog. Rick came up, apprised us quietly of the urgency to abandon ship and we excused ourselves. "But what of your movie?" we heard as we retreated. "We'll come back for it later, gotta go!"

We literally ran once we reached the pier. Safely aboard the Cobbler, we stood on deck and watched. Several minutes passed, then two men appeared on the flag deck and our flag was unceremoniously lowered. We expected some sort of reaction and waited. Suddenly a bright light pierced the darkness between the ships and quickly went out, then "ON" and "OFF". They were sending flashing light signals to us!

Now I don't know if this is true today, or even if it was true of all submarines during this time period, but we had almost no one who could read flashing light. (I could get into another story here, about entering a torpedo unloading area and being challenged by a DD via flashing light, the meaning of which was utterly lost on us and damn near got us blown out of the water, but I won't) suffice it to say, we hadn't a clue what they were trying to convey to us.

The after-topside watch had an idea. "Percy can read flashing light!" That was brilliant!!! Percy was probably the only rated Skivie Waver in the entire submarine service. He was trying to become a QM, but hadn't quite made it yet. (Percy is also a story into himself, one of which we shall save until later.) Someone ran below decks and rousted Perc' who finally made his way to the deck.

After studying the flashes for a few minutes, (flashing light is S-L-O-W), he announced, "They are saying, "WE WILL KEEP YOUR FLAG, YOU CAN HAVE OUR SHIP". And that shipmates was the beginning of a short but wild relationship between the USS Cobbler and the first English Frigate captured by the US Navy in well over a hundred years!!