Tapping on the Hull
Richard Fiske was a Marine on the USS West Virginia . On December 8, the day after the ship was sunk at her Pearl Harbor berth, he and other crew members heard a desperate, insistent tapping sound from inside the hull. An urgent search began of the accessible compartments, but, despite their best efforts, they were unsuccessful in finding the trapped crewmen. Fiske described with difficulty the events that followed:
That tapping went on all week long. They sent divers down 14 times to find those guys. They did the best they could, but they just couldn’t find them. We didn’t know who was down there, but the tapping continued until December 24th. When we went into dry-dock on June 18, 1942, we found them. They were in the last watertight compartment we opened. We found a calendar and a clock with them. I often wonder what they were thinking about. Their lives were cut so short and they never had a chance to realize their dreams.55
This incident deeply affected Fiske for the rest of his life. He could never forget what happened and could only state that, “I pray every day because the good Lord was with us.”56 Today, we also hope and pray with this survivor that the Lord was with all the crew on the West Virginia that day, including those men trapped below. We pray that they were sustained by the strength that can come only from God to calmly face such a hopeless situation. We need to remind ourselves today that God is the source of our own strength. He promises to be beside us, no matter the time, place, or crisis.
“Am I only a God nearby,” declares the Lord, “and not a God far away? Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?” declares the Lord. “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” declares the Lord.
—Jeremiah 23:23–24