The S. S. Mactan comes through

Title

Language

English

Source

Philippines 3 (4) June 15, 1943

Year

1943

Subject

Philippines--History--1898-1946

Philippines--History

Warships

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

In Manila were 224 wounded soldiers, 157 of them Americans and 67 Filipinos. To leave them to the Japanese-who would be within the city gates any time now might mean consigning them to death. The Philippine Chapter of the Red Cross took over the old Mactan, called for volunteers to care for the wounded en route to an unnamed destination. Volunteers had co be unmarried and obviously expendable.

Fulltext

THE S. S. l'\'IACTAN COMES THROUGH The f;t// .<torr of how Filipino ,md ,-J111cric<111 11·01111dcd zurc c1·am111ul hy !he Red Cross 011 the mercy ship. ··s. S 1"<1rta11." . fro111 ,i!.111i!.1 to ;Jm1r,t!i<1. ,1 fezc hnmr hcforc the Japa11eJe na11p.11io11 of the Philippine C.:pital. SHE was an oJJ .fashioned little ship. perha ps. bur iriendh- J nd fa mil i.ir to thous.111Js oi Filiri nos. They recoF,nized her bl.ick hull :ind her white supersm1nurc. her single fu nnel wirh rhe feather Lli smoke Jriiti ng skyw:1rJ. her prow slirrin5 rhe w.Hcrs at a proud twelve knots. Twenrv ye.!fS .1go. she \\'JS the fastest inrer- isbnJ ship in the Philippines. She used l<l nuke trips out of i 'vlrn1l.1. down through rhe curl ing blue WJ t<:rs co rhc Vis:1y:is. ro /\[indJ nao .. 1s far JS the Sulu isbnJs. C.lfry ing schoolbooks :ind sc.,,·ing nu chines. students com ing home for the holidays and business men out m line up a de.I! in Cebu. and goYernmenr otfici:1.IS coming down ro Z;1mbo~rngJ on .u1 inspection rr ip. HE R 1L1mc w:1s the ,\L1rtan. She Ind sennl 1n1r her time " ·d i .. 1nJ she \\JS t1 reJ. !3ut her career luJ nut tnded. On<: J.n· in December. I 'J.1 I. pbnes omc out uf the sun .rnJ poured dea th onto the· Philippines. The bomb' pitted M.m ib .. 1imed especially cJt the str.Jtcgic docks. They plu n;.:cd through the docks of anchored ships, thty rurt through m.lsts .111d rigg ing, they :He great gaprng holes 111 f.it freighter hulls. One afte r another. the trapped Yt>sels >ettled to the l"1tt• nn . Hy De· ccmbcr 29, only one: 'h 1p \U S ldt · tilt' .\ l.1<1.;11. Her ,-en· n:ime reo llcd ,·.dor ,ind ddi.1nce fur c\l.ilLin is the isl.ind where. in 152 1. trccdnrn-lo\'mg Filipinos ki lled the im·odcr Ftrdin.ind l\1.1gcll.111. \\·hn l.li~Ul\· cr cd dK Phil1ppir1c·_..; fr ir Spain. -Courten)' vf The Phili1>1>1ncs :Stnr Pres:> Filipino doctors and nurses from the Mercy ship "M<tC/<111 .. " These were 1he men and womeu who 111med the wounded soldieTJ from Manila to Amtralia. At prc1e11t they are detailed to vario111 military units by the U. S. government. front row, left to right: Mrs. ViJilt1ci6n C. Rodriguez, Mrs. Salttd Valencerina, Mrs. Miriam Fowles, Miu Basilia Hmumdo, Mr1. Maxima C. A1piras, Miu Dolores Bolante, Mrs. EliJa Domingo. Second row: Mrs. Mercedes Scmlos, Doctors Mmmel Escudero, Conrado Topacio, Gregorio Chua, Francisco ]. Roman, Bernardo Li111li11g<111, lre11eo Pa11ta11gco, Jlli11 1\•l<trit1 Perez. Last row: Dr. Benjamin Setias, and mtrses George Golookef], Pedro Carpio 1111d Apoli1111r Sanchez. There was violence in 11.fanila Ba)' on char day. The capital had been declared an open city. Filipino and American forces had evacu,ued before the overwhelming numbers of the enemr. President Manuel L. Quezon. wirh his family and official scafl, had mO\·ed ro Corregidor. The galbnt defense of Bar,rnn under General Douglas MacArthur was soon ro begin. IN MANILA were ~~-i wounded soldiers, 157 of chem Americans and 67 Filipinos. To kwe chem co the Japanese -who would be within the cir:y gates any time nowruight me~n consigning chem to death. The Philippine Chlpter of the Red Cross rook O\"er the old Mact.111. called for volunteers to care for the wounded en rouce ro an unnamed destination. Volunteers had co be unmarried and obviously expendable. Six young docrors. twelve nurses and two ateendants came forward. 11.fanila-born were Dr. Gregorio Penaflor Chua and Dr. Irineo Enriquez Pantangco. Dr. Francisco Jose Roman came from Baranes, in the northernmost part of the Philippines. and Dr. Manuel Miguel Escudero from Zamboanga in the far sour:h. Dr. Conrado Stuart Topacio was from Cavite and Dr. Aguilus Limlingan, from Pampanga. In addition, there was an American medical officer, Colonel Percy G. Carroll. commandant of the U. S. army's Sternberg Hospital in Manila. OF THE twelve nurses, ten were Filipinos, also from the various provinces. Two of them, Apolinario G. Sanchez and Pedro Carpio, were male. The ochers were Basilia Dunapay Hernando, Elisa Nava Domingo, Mercedes V. Sancos, Maximina Corpus, Salud Ferrer Valencerina, Dolores Alacamara Bolaoce, Visitacion Cortes and Maria Alcentara Perez. The rwo attendants were also Filipinos. By the afternoon of December 31 this group had be· come a closely-knit, hard-working unit. From the various military hospitals they had transported the wounded soldiers and carried them aboard the Mactan. They worked unril long after nightfall, when the Mactan began its odyssey, under the command of Captain Julian Tamayo, with a crew of eighty Filipino seamen. The ship was jampacked. Eighty of the wounded were bedridden, and the ocher 144 were suffering from shellshock. There were wounded men everywhere from seem to stern-three to a mattress--on decks and below decks. T HE FlRST scop was ac nearby Corregidor for military orders. Since che Mactan was an inter-island steamer, she had no ocean charcs. Bue at Corregidor, the Captain got hold of a map from a geography cexrbook. Before dawn the ship again weighed anchor. A pilot boat guided her through the mine-infested bay out into the open sea. The China sea was rough. It cossed the wounded men around mercilessly. Doctors and nurses were on 24-hour duty during the whole voyage. One of the patients was Salvador Deyem, a Filipino soldier from the !locos. Deyem had seen action in Lingaycn during the first Japanese landing attempts. His left ,um had been amputated in a Manila hospital, and on board it was necessary to oper;l!e again, amputating ac the shoulder. DEYEM's last thoughts were about the war and the enemy. "I wish I could kill more ]Jpanese, .. he whispered. "They are easy to kill. They do nm seek for cover." Several days later, the M<1ct.iu reached M:icassar in in· vasion-rhreacened Cdebc;. The Dutch oflicials furnished much-needed food. w.Her .rnd mcdic1l supplies. Herc thl' ship picked up an additio1ul p.11icnt. ;m American sailor alRicced with poliomyelitis. Hc·r<: .dsn Sah·ador Deyern and .1nothcr Filipino patient were bun"d Fifteen days out of 1\-Lind.1. the :\f,1<1.111 re.1d1cd D.1rwin. Australia. Herc the R(·cl Cm» "or kc" prc,cnrcd a com· piece medical report to rhc r\u;tr.di.1n r\rrn1· ~kd1ul Corps. Captain Tam.1yo w,1s urd<:rcd r<> prncccd '" ~vJ1ic1. by way of Townsvillc and Brisbane BETWEEN Tuwnwdlc ,rnJ l.lr"b'llll". lire· broke our: 111 the engine room. W'hik the nwJ1c.d st;ili' """ r(".IS>unng the patients. Private Jose Sen.1ros.1 .. 1 "·oundcd Filipino soldier, offered tu go down imo the rng111t' mom. Armed wirh a gas m.1sk anJ a fire ('Xtinguishcr. he br;l\·ed smokt" and flames ro puc out r:hc lire. Between Brisbane and Sydney, ;in 18-year old Filipino patienr. whose left arm had been ,1mpur:ated, and who apparently could no longer stand funher suffering, jumped overboard. His body was never recovered. Twenty-seven days aicer leaving Manila, the Mm·1a11 arri,·ed at its destination. The pacienrs were cransferred co an Australian A~my Hospital. "After the novelty of our "heroism·· wore off, we found ourselves biller:ed in a Sydney hoed and subjected to a long period of enforced idleness," said Dr. Roman, senior member of the medical staff on the Mt1ctm1. in his report to President Quezon. AFTER six months in Australia, the Filipino docrors and nurses arrived in Los Angeles aboard a United States Army transport. The Filipino doctors, except one who became seriously ill, were commissioned in the United States Army as fuse lieutenanrs, and assigned co the First Filipino Infantr)' Regiment now training in California. Later they were sent co the Medical Field Service School ar Carlisle, Pennsylvania, over whose main entrance is carved a quotation from Jeremy Taylor: "TO PRESERVE A MAN ALIVE IN MIDST OF CHANCES AND HOSTILITIES IS AS GR.EAT A MIRACLE AS TO CREATE HIM." Four of the women nurses are now serving ar the Henry Street Settlement in New York. One is working at the Methodist Hospital in Los Angeles. The rwo male nurses are with the California University Hospira! in San Francisco. And the old Mactmz when she was last heard of some months ago, was in war service in the Southwest Pacific. PffiLIPPINES

pages

3-4

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