For those not familiar with an 80'-Elco PT Boat to properly understand this sea tale, I must describe for them the position and layout of the 'Crew's Day Room'; also spoken of as the Ready Room or After Crew's Quarters.

This compartment was located aft the cockpit and forward of the engine room. It was above the center fuel tank and between the two outboard fuel tanks. When you stood on the deck (floor) of this compartment, your head and shoulders were above the level of the main deck and your feet were several feet below the level of the main deck. There were three entrances to this compartment. At the forward end, there was a hatchway opening to the lower deck of the boat. Also in the forward, starboard corner of the compartment was a ladder up to a top-side hatch that opened to the outside. And in the after end of the compartment was a hatchway leading down into the engine room. Bunks lined the two sides of the compartment; two on either side. It had several rectangular portholes on each of the outboard bulkheads.

Now, early on the morning of June 2, 1944, perhaps an hour after departing Glasgow, Scotland enroute to Portland, England, we were cruising along in formation with the other boats of the squadron. I was reclining on a bunk in the Day Room when I heard the very loud sounds of a machine gun being fired. I thought to myself, "They're shooting at us already - and we are still on the west side of the British Island! This is going to be a heck of a war!". With that thought, I jumped to my feet and scrambled up the ladder and threw open the hatch, ready to go to my battle station on the 40mm gun on the stern of the boat.

But, as my head rose above the hatch, I realized that the sound was remote and it was definitely was not the 50-caliber guns being fired.

In preparing the boats for the trans-Atlantic crossing on the decks of the tankers, the engineers had been instructed to remove all the spark plugs from the engines, spray a heavy oil into each cylinder, and to replace the plugs. This was done as a precaution against the sea spray rusting the cylinder walls while we were at sea in the convoy.

Apparently, one of the plugs in an engine had not been completely tightened and the plug had worked loose. Since each cylinder had two plugs, the other plug continued to ignite the fuel vapor and there was an explosion each time the cylinder came up on its firing stroke.

The engine was shut down, the plug reinserted and tightened and the engine restarted. There were no further problems during the day and we laid over in Pembrook, Wales that night before continuing on to Portland, England and the real war!