An electrician’s account of the USS Leyte explosion

Nancy: Don't forget to tell them about that ship explosion you were on. That was famous.

George: Oh, wow. I had a couple of dangerous periods during the Korean War.

I worked on this carrier, and they were testing the catapult, and it exploded. I was talking to these two men that were in the ward room. That's where the officers eat. It's above the catapult room. I left maybe 15 minutes because it was time to go home, and then this explosion killed those two guys. It was as I was talking, and I was lucky I was in the ship's office a couple of doors down. The door blew open, we hit the deck, and there was another explosion. All the lights went out. 37 people died, mostly sailors, because they were going on leave. We used to quit work at Creek duty, and one guy was trapped below decks, and he was a customer of mine riding the car. So I waited, waited, and waited for him to get out of this. It was called the USS Leyte. It was the biggest loss of life in Boston Harbor history. 

On the same ship as an electrician, it happened: I hit this motor that had not enough tape, and I hit a couple of wires there, and I got electrocuted. Oh, and it's a 440 motor, and I couldn't let go. Good thing we were on a wooden platform. One of the workers working with me knocked me off and probably saved my life, because I couldn't let go, and that was the most horrible experience. And, you know, because a ship is in water, you have to be very careful with electrical work on a ship. I don't know if the sailor didn't put enough tape. I wasn't even working on that motor, it was a vent motor, and it almost killed me. Yeah, those are the two worst things that happened on the ship. But I was lucky again. I tell you, I've had nine lives ever since I was born, I was lucky to stay alive.