My father in law, Wesley Jack Taylor says he was on the Princeton when it was hit. He was an airplane mechanic and was below decks. He describes two or three supernatural events that got him off the ship without a scrape. BUT! he says he spent the night in the water with other men treading water and kicking sharks away. In the morning a destroyer picked them up.
I don't find any account that describes that. What do you think?
On the destroyer they put him to work in the bakery where he took off the end of his pinky with a bread saw. The medic wasn't giving that any morphine with all the burn victims on board so 3 big guys sat on him while the medic sawed and sewed his pinky.
When he got home to Ogden, his mother had been notified the ship had gone down and Jack was presumed lost. He arrived middle of the night and announced himself. She didn't even get out of bed to greet him, just told him where to sleep and would see him in the morning!