The Circle (59 page)

Q
. And you heard him, the captain, take the conn?

A
. Yes, sir, distinctly.

Q
. And he legally took control of the ship from that moment on.

A
. That is the way I understand it.

Q
. What was your status as a result of this?

A
. Mine?

Q
. That is correct. How did your status change as a result of the captain's taking the conn?

A
. I'm not sure. I suppose I was still the JOD.

Q
. And your duty then would be to assist whom?

A
. The captain?

Q
. Please answer.

A
. I suppose it would be to assist the captain, since he had become the conning officer.

Q
. And did you then assist him?

A
. I was confused. I went out on the wing to try to clarify the situation in my mind.

Q
. Mr. Lenson, in your opinion, was there anything that could have saved
RYAN
after the collision took place?

A
. I don't think so, sir. I heard DC1 Traven's testimony and it seems to me—

Q
. Personal knowledge, please.

A
. I don't think she could have been saved.

Q
. Even the forward section of a ship has considerable buoyancy. Did you consider staying aboard to try to save her, as Lieutenant Evlin apparently did?

A
. I trusted the judgment of the captain and followed his order to abandon ship. When I thought all of the crew had that word I went into the water, too.

Q
. Mr. Lenson, since the collision have you had any duties in regard to the survivors of
RYAN?

A
. Well, I spent the first few days after we got back to the States in the hospital. After that, in conjunction with the other officers, I've had to try to reconstruct the men's pay records. I helped the XO in getting them clothes and gear and so forth, and I helped write the letters to the next of kin. He signed those, but we wrote them.

COUNSEL FOR LT EVLIN
: Thank you, Ensign.

If I may make a brief summary of this cross-examination: The points I have established are, first, that Mr. Evlin was not properly assisted by Mr. Lenson or anyone else normally required to provide such assistance; second, that he had warned the captain in advance against this maneuver; third, that in the midst of a maneuver that he had executed safely only hours before, he was relieved of his post; and finally, that the last orders before the collision proper, which in fact rendered it inevitable, were given by the captain after he had relieved said officer.

I have no further questions of the witness at this time.

*   *   *

LIEUTENANT Commander Benjamin Bryce, USN, was recalled as a witness. He was warned that his oath was still binding.

Examined by the counsel for the Court.

Q
. Commander, you have listened to the testimony given this morning. I know that you were not present on the bridge, but do you have any comments on it?

A
. It seems to me that we have here a case of people doing their best to evade responsibility.

Q
. Please elaborate.

A
. I'm a little old-fashioned in these matters. I was taught that when you had a watch, you were responsible for what went on during that watch. Now, on duty that night we had Lieutenant Evlin and Ensign Lenson. So, the argument that Mr. Evlin's lawyer here seems to be using is that once Captain Packer got up there on the bridge, all Evlin's accountability just vanished away.

Now you have to have known this officer, Evlin I mean, to know that even at the best of times he was not the kind of man to actively seek responsibility. In fact, he was just the opposite.

COUNSEL FOR LT EVLIN
: I must ask the witness to refrain from personal opinion and stick to facts.

COUNSEL FOR CDR PACKER
: Certainly the judgment of his immediate superior as to Lieutenant Evlin's capacity to stand a watch is of interest.

COUNSEL FOR LT EVLIN
: But Commander Bryce has stated earlier that he himself did not stand watches, and that therefore—

THE COURT
: The examination will continue.

COUNSEL FOR THE COURT
: What do you mean, Commander, when you say Evlin did not actively seek responsibility?

A
. He had a lax approach to duty and a tendency to let the men get away with things. We've heard Lenson testify to the same attitude in his action when he found a man supposedly sleeping on watch. I had hopes for Lenson when he joined us, but found that he had, through association with Mr. Evlin, who he stood watch with, he soon took on this same coloration.

Q
. Do you feel Lieutenant Evlin was lax on the bridge?

A
. I can easily believe it. That would account for the casual attitudes of the lookouts, the slow response by the lee helmsman, the way everyone seemed to freeze or panic when collision was imminent. I don't know about this other maneuver he is supposed to have recommended, but I think what likely happened was Captain Packer arrived on the bridge, found a dangerous situation, and had to take charge cold.

I say this with reluctance, but the Court has to take into account the possibility that things are not exactly as Lenson described them. That is, in his eagerness to clear his friend, and of course himself, he has altered the sequence of events.

Q
. Go on.

A
. Let's say, for example, that the course change to zero-nine-zero was ordered before Commander Packer reached the bridge. Then the captain, arriving, realized that the ship was standing into danger. He summarily relieved Lieutenant Evlin, and ordered increasing amounts of left rudder in an attempt to save
RYAN.
Ultimately, he was unable to rectify the situation and the collision occurred. If events happened this way, you could hardly lay the blame on James Packer.

Q
. What evidence have you for such a scenario?

A
. That he was trying to straighten things out? Just that I know, knew, Commander Packer, and I knew Evlin, and that sounds a lot more likely than that he made the mistake and Evlin didn't. Not to put too fine a point on it, let's call a spade a spade. Evlin was a coward. He had refused orders in a very difficult situation, and at the time of the collision he was on restriction, scheduled to be flown back to the States for court-martial.

COUNSEL FOR LT EVLIN
: I must object. All this is mere personal vilification.

CDR BRYCE
: All this is a matter of record. Message traffic from
RYAN
dated 21 or 22 December will support me.

COUNSEL FOR THE COURT
: Why was such a man permitted to continue standing bridge watch?

A
. James Packer was too forgiving. I warned him not to, but he allowed Evlin to stand watches until he left the ship. This was the result.

Q
. The testimony of the enlisted men—the quartermaster and the boatswain's mate—support Mr. Lenson's version of events.

A
. I don't know about the QM. But Pettus, let me point out that he was in Lenson's division.

I think it's time to let a little light into the air here. So far in this investigation, it's been soft-pedaled that Lenson's division was the worst in the ship, that we had recently completed a search of its spaces—the night before, in fact—and found a large amount of marijuana, pills, drug paraphernalia, even weapons. By great good luck, I had in my pocket when I left
RYAN
the master-at-arms's list of these materials. Lenson wants to blame this collision on a seaman recruit. In fact, this man came up clean in the search. My attempts to break up this ring, and that's what it was, were resisted by Lenson and others. He even admitted at one point that he knew who the ringleader was, but refused to tell me.

Q
. May I have that list?

The list was submitted to the parties and the Court, and marked Exhibit C for identification.

Examination by the counsel for the Court continued.

Q
. Yesterday you intimated that you had serious accusations to make. Are these the accusations you were referring to?

A
. Yes.

Q
. Are you implying also that Lieutenant Evlin was involved in drugs?

A
. It's not impossible. He had a sluggish, doped-up attitude about him that in my view—though I'm no expert by a long shot—it could have been something like that.

Cross-examined by counsel for Commander Packer.

Q
. Commander, let us return to your idea that the commanding officer of
RYAN,
far from making an error, was trying to correct one previously made. You have served in the Navy how long?

A
. Twenty-eight years, starting as a seaman recruit.

Q
. In that time, you have served under many commanding officers. How would you rank James Packer among them?

A
. As one of the very finest.

Q
. As a ship handler?

A
. Flawless. A very good seaman, cool under pressure.

Q
. Did he take chances with the ship?

A
. No. But he didn't pussyfoot around, either. He was a destroyerman.

Q
. We have heard testimony that he was ill and exhausted the night of the collision. How would you respond to that?

A
. He may have had a sniffle. That's all.

Cross-examined by counsel for Lieutenant Evlin.

Q
. Commander Bryce, it's evident that you had a low regard for Alan Evlin. Let us go back to your grounds for this attitude. What were they? We are looking for facts, not suspicions or hearsay.

A
. Well, it's hard to—you're a civilian. It would be easier to explain to a military man.

Q
. Please explain to the Court, then.

A
. Evlin and I disagreed over many things. Basically, he had a disinclination to exercise discipline, either over himself or his men. Since he was the senior department head, this had a bad effect through the whole ship.

Q
. Could you be more specific?

A
. He had weird ideas.

Q
. What ideas?

A
. I don't know. I couldn't make any sense out of them.

Q
. Were those ideas spiritually based?

A
. Spiritual?

Q
. Yes.

A
. I wouldn't know. I never hold a man's religion against him. I'm pretty broad-minded that way. I don't even know what religion he was, if any.

Q
. I see. Let's examine your theory, or story, about what might have happened. What evidence can you offer for it?

A
. I said I had no evidence. It's just my interpretation, you might say, of what might have happened.

Q
. Unfortunately, Lieutenant Evlin is not here to defend himself. Because of that, Commander, I must ask you again what concrete evidence you have for this frivolous theory.

COUNSEL FOR THE COURT
: Mr. Barrett, your implication of frivolity is out of place.

COUNSEL FOR LT EVLIN
: Sir, it is the only word I can find for this kind of speculation by a witness who was not present and who, in fact, as other witnesses have testified, hardly ever appeared on the bridge.

THE COURT
: Proceed, but refrain from commenting on the witness's testimony.

COUNSEL FOR LT EVLIN
: No further questions of this witness.

THE COURT
: We wish to point out at this time that a court of inquiry is not bound by the strict rules governing objections that prevail in courts-martial. It is our desire to afford the widest possible latitude for examination.

The Court informed Commander Bryce that he was privileged to make any further statement covering anything related to the inquiry that he thought should be a matter of record in connection therewith, which had not been fully brought out in the previous questioning.

The witness stated that he had nothing further to say.

The Court then adjourned until 1400.

*   *   *

“CAN I help you with that, sir?”

Dan looked up from salad and coffee. He didn't know the man in line behind him. “No thanks,” he said. “I think I can handle it.”

He glanced cautiously around the cafeteria. It was almost empty; perhaps by design, the court had recessed after the normal lunch hour this time. He saw a corner table and aimed his tray toward it.

“Hey,” said a familiar voice. “It's the ensign.”

Lassard, Gonzales, and Isaacs were sitting at a table with paper cups in front of them. They looked like new men. Fresh haircuts, regulation shaves, the new uniforms the survivors had been issued in Newport.

“Swell testimony this morning, Ensign.”

He didn't look at Lassard. “What are you doing with these two, Isaacs?”

The first-class dropped his eyes without answering. Lassard said, “Talking to you, Ensign. Or didn't you hear him?”

“I have nothing to say to you, Slick.”

“Got plenty to say
about
him, sounds like.”

“Only the truth.”

“Only
shit,
man. Get over here.”

Dan went on, ignoring them. For a moment it looked as if Lassard would get up. Then he glanced around and settled back. He took a pull at his drink and bent his head toward the others, all three men looking after Lenson.