"They that Go Down to the Sea in Ships"

It has been reported that this morning that groundhog saw his shadow -- doesn't he see it every year? -- which means six more weeks of winter.  For many it has already been a long winter and the prospect of six more weeks may seem daunting.  Remember that this, too, shall pass.

In May 1943, the submarine USS Jack (SS-259) was in transit from the Panama Canal to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, when she encountered some bad weather.  For several days the sub slowed her pace as she rode out the storm.  Jack was a new boat, on her way to war in the Pacific, and many of her crew had not experienced weather like this at sea, thus many became seasick.

Ensign James F. Calvert, fresh out of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, and submarine school at New London, Connecticut, was not troubled too badly by the storm, at least not initially.  On the first night of the big storm, Calvert was determined to not miss a meal, but when he reached the wardroom, where the officers ate, he was surprised to find only one other officer in the cramped compartment.

Lieutenant Miles Refo* was an experienced sailor, having served in the fleet for two years before going to sub school, and his surprise at seeing Calvert was "more than mild."  Calvert stuck it out long enough to get through the main dish of pork roast, but he skipped the apple pie desert.  Even so, he won respect from Refo.

"Day after day the storm went on," wrote Calvert many years later.  "Our speed of advance was well below plan; we were going to be at least a day late getting to Pearl.  Slowly but surely, however, our seasick casualties were getting their sea legs and returning to their watches, despite the continuing storm."

Clavert went on to say, "I have always been blessed with a strong stomach, and seasickness has not been one of my problems.  But there is such a thing as sea-weariness.  You're not sick, but you are so tired of hanging on, so tired of being unable to sleep without being tossed out, or nearly out, of your bunk that you wonder if the storm will ever abate -- and if you will ever feel normal and energetic again."

Calvert pulled out his Bible and read from Psalms 107:

"They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; these see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep.  For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits end" (verses 23-28).

According to Calvert, the psalmist could have written that passage after a walk through Jack during the storm.  "It was strangely comforting for me," he would write, "to read those words, for they reminded me that men of the sea have been going through such storms for centuries -- and most of them survived in ships not nearly as sturdy as ours."

As with the storms of the sea, so with the storms of life.  Men and women have been experiencing adversity for centuries, and most of them survived as well.

"Finally, as will all storms," wrote Calvert, "this one began to subside.  The gray skies, which seemed to have been there forever, began to break and show patches of blue; the wind swung around to the east (a good sign in that part of the Pacific) and eased to a pleasant ten or twelve knots."

Again, so it is with life.  The moments of adversity we experience end.  Sometimes we are called upon to experience an intense challenge of a relatively short duration, while at other times the challenge may be less intense but may also last much longer.  There will even be times when with little or no rest we will go from the short, intense challenge straight into lesser but unremitting challenge.  Whatever their nature, the storms of life will subside sooner or later, though they may be succeeded by other storms.

"Life at sea," wrote Calvert, "is not filled with diversions comparable to those ashore.  Any break in the daily routine is welcome -- even a storm.  But there is nothing, absolutely nothing, so wonderful as the feeling of having weathered a truly bad storm and come out the other side with the ship in good condition, all hands surviving without injury, and normal routine reestablished.  Things are made shipshape once again below.  Wet clothes are dried out and restowed.  Best of all, the platform under your feet once again is nearly stable.  If that experience does not lift your spirits, then they are not liftable -- at least not at sea."

There are other kinds of storms, not just of water, but of fire.  During the early morning hours of March 10, 1945, B-29 bombers of the U.S. Twentieth Air Force, firebombed the Japanese capital city. Flying from air bases in the Mariana Islands, the Superfortresses were loaded with high explosive and incendiary bombs. In six hours nearly seventeen square miles of Tokyo were burned out, and more than 100,000 people were killed.

To put this into perspective one of the most severe bombing attacks on a German city was against Hamburg. Operation Gomorrah took place in the summer of 1943 over a period of ten days and nights. After the bombing finally ended just 12 square miles had been burned out.

"What the city of Hamburg suffered is unique unto itself," says historian Martin Caidin, who wrote books about both the Tokyo raid and Operation Gomorrah, "and it will never be known by any other people, no matter what their tribulations. Dresden lost many more people is a single night than died in Hamburg in ten flaming nights; yet survivors of Hamburg would gladly have chanced death in Dresden, if only to have been spared the continuing, unremitting savagery of Gomorrah."

There may be times when the only way to get to the other side is to go through the fire.  As Sir Winston Churchill once said, "If you're going through hell, keep going."  But how can we protect ourselves from the flames?

Recall, if you will, the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who were carried away as captives from Jerusalem to Babylon and later cast into a furnace of fire for refusing to worship a golden idol.  Instead of being burned by the fire, or harmed be the heat, the three young men were protected by their God because of their faith in him.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell said: “We will [not] always be rescued from proximate problems, but we will be rescued from everlasting death! Meanwhile, ultimate hope makes it possible to say the same three words used centuries ago by three valiant men. They knew God could rescue them from the fiery furnace if He chose. ‘But if not,’ they said, nevertheless, they would still serve Him!”

But as President Gordon B. Hinckley said, “The Lord would want you to be successful. He would. You are His sons and His daughters. He has the same kind of love and ambition for you that your earthly parents have. They want you to do well and you can do it.” (See: Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley (1997).
 
Additionally, as Nephi said when he was commanded to return to Jerusalem to retrieve the Brass Plates, "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them" 1 Nephi 3:7).

"By pressing forward," said Elder Maxwell, "we can stand on what was yesterday’s horizon, thereby drawing hope from our own experiences. Hence Paul described how 'tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope' (Rom. 5:3–4). Therefore we sing, “We’ve proved him in days that are past” (Hymns, 1985, no. 19).

In facing the challenges of today, in staying clean, keeping his commandments, preparing to serve a mission and marry in the temple, and enduring to the end, he wants us to succeed and he will prepare a way for us that we may accomplish that which he has commanded us if we humble ourselves before him and exercise faith in him.  His grace is sufficient and he can make weak things become strong (see Ether 12:27).  "Wherefore, let us be faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord" (1 Nephi 3:16).


Sources:

Caiden, M. (1960) A Torch to the Enemy. New York: Ballantine Books.

Calvert, J. F. (1995). Silent Running: My Years on a World War II Attack Submarine. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Maxwell, N. A. (1994) "A Brightness of Hope." https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1994/10/brightness-of-hope?lang=eng
 
*Calvert does not give Refo's rank, only states that he was Annapolis class of 1938.  I presume that Refo was at least a Lieutenant (junior grade), particularly as he did not like the idea of ensigns without prior sea duty serving in submarines.