The Castaways of Ocean Island

The USS Saginaw was sent to Midway to terminate the channel project and take a group of Boston divers home. To their credit, Townsend's men continued to work at blasting and hoisting on the bar, weather permitting, for the week following the ship's arrival. If the Navy Department wanted to find a reason for the failure of the Midway project, it wasn't going to be for lack of effort on their part. Sicard also pushed his own men to extremes, for it was late October and he was eager to get clear of the area before the storms that could trap them inside the atoll and put the ship onto the reef....

The USS Saginaw was sent to Midway to terminate the channel project and take a group of Boston divers home. To their credit, Townsend's men continued to work at blasting and hoisting on the bar, weather permitting, for the week following the ship's arrival. If the Navy Department wanted to find a reason for the failure of the Midway project, it wasn't going to be for lack of effort on their part. Sicard also pushed his own men to extremes, for it was late October and he was eager to get clear of the area before the storms that could trap them inside the atoll and put the ship onto the reef. The sailors commenced to dig laboriously a sand canal on the island, a trench into which the work scow could be hauled and safely secured.