“Frenchy to Blue Jay—I have a possible sound contact,” squawked from USS
Guadalcanal’s bridge intercom at 1110 hours. It meant that “Frenchy,” codename for the Destroyer Escort USS
Chatelain, had located something during a sonar sweep.
This appeared earlier and is being reposted due to reader interest.
But Captain Daniel V. Gallery, commander of the escort carrier
Guadalcanal (BlueJay) was not going to get excited, at least not yet. The sound contact could be a whale, a layer of cold water, or any number of other things. On the other hand, a “possible” was always treated like the real thing until found out to be otherwise.