Tired of the everyday grind? Ever dream of a life of romantic adventure? Want to get away from it all? We offer you... Escape! Escape! For a half hour of high adventure! You are somewhere in the Pacific, out of Leyte in the Philippines, charting a course of south by southeast. When out of the deep of the sea, a new volcano is born and your ship is caught in the middle of it, from which there is no escape. Listen now as Escape brings you Vincent McHugh's story, The Boiling Sea. It should have been an easy trip. It was the spring of 45, the war was almost over and what few Japs were left that far south didn't figure to give us any trouble. I was first made of the hope by victory hauling cargo with the landings in the Philippines. But this trip we detoured south to the Tiley Island of Karazuruti in the Maluccas to pick up a detachment of Rangers, a demolition team and bring them up to Samar. We cleared for the north about 1830 hours and as darkness fell I went out on deck. There I found Lieutenant Drury, the Ranger CO and his top sergeant watching Gam Kamura, the volcano over on the island. Hi McAllen. Evening mate. Quite a sight isn't it? Sure it is but it will get better. We pass closer to it after 90. In the dark you can see the lava spouting like 4th of July. We got a look at a small one back on Karazuruti, inactive. This whole group of islands on both sides of the Strait is volcanic they tell me. You can try them. You can have my share of them. That big baby there used to keep us awake nights rumbling. They aren't exactly conducive to peace of mind I'll admit Sergeant but they're very interesting. I'd like a chance to study one more closely. Not for me Lieutenant. Well probably won't get another chance now. The men all comfortable Sergeant? Well it ain't the Queen Mary sir but they're okay. Sorry this baby wasn't meant for troop transport. No matter we're used to improvising. Well night gentlemen. Night Drury. Nice guy. The best. One of them guys with principles. Serious. You know educated. Them kind usually get clobbered first thing but he's come through. Plenty. You have a time back there on Karazuruti? Not much. Jap radio station. Half starved out already. Of course they put up a fight they always do. But not so bad. Hey look at that thing. Belch and smoke a mile high. Flashing like... Yeah. Spectacular all right. Hey Lieutenant could I interest you in a human scalp tanned with mangrove bark? Got me a couple extra back there. Sell one cheap. Oh thanks Sergeant. I got one scalp. I hope that'll last me the run. That night for the first time since we left home I couldn't get to sleep. I tried reading a while and gave that up too. Finally I got a cup of coffee and took one up to Hannigan on the bridge. Hey thanks Mac. Just what I needed. We sipped our coffee quietly. The bosun stood silently at the wheel. The time was over for 25 hours. We were steaming up through the Maluka Passage. Of course one degree true. Speed 18 knots. A smooth gentle swell. The phosphorescence in the bow wash was bright enough to show our hands and faces. It was peaceful. Hey Mac. Hey Mac. You smell anything? Coffee. Come here. Stand over here. Yeah. A little sulfur and something that smells like wet dust. That's what I thought too sir. Well couldn't it say? Isn't there a volcano over there in Halmahera where you might be getting a little land breeze? Yeah but we passed it an hour back. I'll take it. I got him. You guys spitting over the side up there? What's the matter Brian? I just happened to notice my intake water is heating up. How much? It's supposed to be about 25 degrees centigrade around here. It's 29 now. We're pulling sludge too. Looks like pumice. Okay. I guess you better call the captain Hannigan. Smell that captain? Yes. You checked the ship Mr. McCallum? Yes sir. Boyd and Foreman went over it too. Nothing wrong. Well stop the engine. Mr. Hannigan, you've checked our position? Yes captain. It's verified here on the chart. Sonic depth finder on Mr. Grenjean? Yes sir. Turned it on right away. Reads 1143 fabulous. Hmm. Now see here. This is where we are about 35 miles west of Gumbaki in Halmahera. Nautical miles that is. Yes sir. Now over here you see. Less than three miles northwest you've got a Vegea. Somebody reported a shoal there once. Hasn't been found again since. Might be anywhere in the general vicinity. You see here? It's marked 18 fathoms. ED. Existence Damp from. Reported February 1871. Well if there is something there it can't be anything but a submarine mountain. Not with those depths all around it. Yes. Probably volcanic. One of those buggers that push up you know and sink back down again. Got some of them up in the bone veins. But all we've got to go on is this old captain that came through here in 1871. Probably a whaler. Didn't care where he was so long as he had his foot on a fish. You think he could have got his bearings in Halmahera? Can't tell I suppose. Now here's this old fellow dawdling through here in February. Northwest monsoon at its height. Fairly good winds. Mostly north or west to north. Current sets about two knots with the wind so if he's out in his reckoning you see. It's probably because he's far older the south of east than we thought. Like this. That puts us pretty close to the trouble. We can't go up to the southeast because we don't know how far out he was. If he was out. Now here we could go this way but it seems foolish to backtrack on our course and then go west to get clear. Don't see why we wouldn't be safe if we cut across the angle to the southwest. Sounds right to me captain. Yes sir should be safe enough. Well let's hope so. Sir Grand Jean stand by the depth finder and sing out if you get any shoaling. Yes sir. The ship was at dawn GQ where the engine stopped. A neary ocean silence hung over everything. It was still dark but a soft glimmer was beginning to show behind the peaks in Halmahera. Start the engines half speed. Yes sir half speed. The returning pulse of the engines like a reviving heartbeat seemed to bring the ship back to life. We're about 225. 225. Our pie victory began to gather way turning. The Bosen got her around met her and settled on course. Hadigan stood by the bridge farm. For minutes we stood quietly watching and waiting. Now there was a rosy smear and the yeast behind us a gloaming on the sea. I could just make out the bow and a man silhouetted in a crow's nest above us. Hanigan. Right Browning. Engine room says 32 degrees centigrade captain. Up three degrees. Again. Stay on the phone Mr. Hanigan report any change. Another few minutes we'll be able to see a little more. Captain man in the crow's nest he's waving. Captain. Tom at a reach 38 feathers. Rock stead ahead full left rudder. Full left rudder. We could see it now not 500 yards ahead. Nothing in a nightmare had ever been so awful as that jagged rocky crest hunching and lifting like the back of a great dawn lizard in the yellow light. It came fuming out of the sea slimy with the first mud of creation. The slow swell pitched up on it. We could feel its deep grumbling roar through the noise of the engines. The ship was turning now no one spoke. We stared with slow understanding of the horror that began to form in all our minds. The monster was not a single peak. The ridge we'd seen coming up in the southwest was extending itself in a long curve of points and benches all across the south. Keep it turning. Keep it turning. But it was already too late. Clear across the red pink wash of dawn a black spur joined under the east and when we looked north the swell was slipping up on a jag of new rock that thickened to the west and hooked our down into the southwest. The hope by victory was completely encircled. We were trapped in the middle of an emerging volcano. You are listening to The Boiling Sea, tonight's presentation of Escape. Keep the family intact this holiday weekend by driving safely. Observe speed laws. Stay on your side of the road and don't try to save time at the risk of losing a lifetime. Driving is more relaxed, more fun that way, and safer too. And now back to Escape and the second act of The Boiling Sea. It took a few seconds for the full impact of the situation to hit us. Encircled. Trapped in a crater of jagged rising peaks on every quarter of the compass. Still, nobody said anything until Captain Hazard spoke in a quiet voice. All right. Stop the engine. Then we all know. The wash dropped away and the hope by victory settled, floating dead in a fuming black brown lake that bubbles like mud coming to a boil. The terrible stony rumbling jarred up through the soles of our shoes. Well, I got you fellas into this. Oh no, Captain, you did the best you could. How could anyone know where an uncharted mountain would come up out of the sea? Anakin. I don't want to get you fellas too excited up there, but you better quit smoking. We're getting 68 degrees centigrade on this thing. Got any eggs in what boiled? What is going on up there? Brownie, we're in a volcano. Well, I always told you something like this would happen. You know, you gotta watch where you're going. 68 degrees centigrade, sir. Well, Jonah made it. Yeah, we don't know. Maybe there's a hole in it somewhere. We can wait till it settles down, get the boats out. Yes, by golly. Have you an idea, Mr. McCallum, if we do a good job of surveying, maybe they'll forgive us for getting into it in the first place. No one mentioned the chance that we might never get out. We lived in the crater of a mountain in eruption. We were still working and thrusting, but its force had begun to die down. In the west and southwest, its highest peaks were maybe 50, 60 feet above the sea. In the north and northwest, much lower, we could see the swell breaking over it in places. Mr. Hannigan, you will check and recheck the position? Yes, Captain. Mr. Grandjean, you will take bearings and measurements of the rim, starting at zero degrees and working all around the compass. Yes, sir. Mr. McCallum, you will pass the word that we're going to try getting out of here just as soon as the first shock is over. Don't want them to think we're not doing anything. Yes, sir. You might let the people down in the engine room know and the gun crew and tell Lieutenant Drury and his rangers. Yes, sir. All right. Thank you, gentlemen. I carried the message to the other officers. Men were hanging over the rail looking at the dead fish in the putrid water. Everybody was coughing, sickly gases came up in spurts and slow blobs. Here and there a small geyser patted down stones and mud on the water. There was a wash of gloomy sun on the crags of the west. Beyond lay the glimmer of the Maluca Passage, like the hope of life itself. It seemed very distant now. At breakfast, the captain was still cheerful. All right, gentlemen, we may as well eat. May not have another chance for a while. What do you think, sir? Well, looks as if the first one is about over. We'll get the boats out after breakfast, see if we can't find a hole in it. Just a western omelet for me, mess. What if we can't do that, sir? Maybe we can find a place to get the boats across. Isn't far to Jalmahere, you know, about 36 miles, but I'd hate to... Wish I knew more about how these volcanoes behave. Might sink down again in an hour or two or it might keep building up. Could I make a suggestion, Captain Hazard? Yes, go ahead, Lieutenant Drury. My boys are trained in demolition work. If we can find the right place, I think we might be able to blast a hole big enough for the ship to get through. Yes, thank you, Lieutenant. Yes, we've been thinking the same thing. Only trouble is a blast like that might set the whole business off. I suppose we'd better wait till we've tried everything else first. We take the boats out right after breakfast, sir? Yes, Mr. McCallum. You will take one and go north to the rim. Follow it to the east. Mr. Hannigan will take the other south and follow it west. Lieutenant Drury, a detail of your rangers can go in each boat. What about communication, sir? Too bad we don't have radios in the boats. We'll have to use flare guns. One flare if you find a hole big enough for the ship. Confirm it with a handlet. Then two flares to command. The usual recall signal. Yes, sir. Well, gentlemen, we're in God's hands now. 50 yards, sir. These are in slowly, boss, and right into the rocks. Yes, sir. Take a look at that water, Mac. You ever see anything like it, slimy, gas bubbling up? Not very inviting. Take a look at what's ahead, Lieutenant. Yeah. Doesn't look like any rock I've ever seen before. There's something monstrous, something tortured about it. Yeah. It's all yours, Lieutenant. Ready, Sergeant Volta? Ready, sir. Easy, boss. All right, hold up. Steady. All right, you guys. Go! Okay. Good. Now hand over the pigs. Get specimens of the rock. Volta, you're going up the top and check. Yes, sir. This doesn't look very promising. No, it's only 20 feet high, but we haven't got enough explosives to blast through here. Must be gaps somewhere. There's Volta on top. Volta, can you see anything? About 40 feet across. And he breaks to the east. Can't see anything. Can't tell for sure, though. All right, come back. We'll go down farther. We cruise slowly along the rim through the dirty brown-black simmering water, stopping every few hundred yards to break off specimens of rock. It was hot. We felt as if our bodies were drenched in a heated grease. The crater had a general downhill trend to the eastward. In the northeast sector, it came to what appeared to its lowest point. Here, the swell broke clear across the shallow peaks. This is the best place for blasting we've seen yet. Yeah, it doesn't look bad. Might be possible. Let me take four of my men on those rocks and try to find some likely openings for charges, just in case. Okay. Move in close again, Bossen. Listen, Drury, those rocks are wet and that swell has plenty of power. Watch yourselves. Don't worry about us, matey. We don't mind wet feet. Uh-huh. Set her easy, Bossen. Okay, boys, over we go. Come on, get the lead out. All right, men. Spring out. Look for cracks. All of them are off, Bossen. You stand by with the lines secured, ready to toss them, just in case. How about this, mate? You think we'll have to try? Last resort. I don't know, Walt. Looks like maybe. If the mannequin found something, we should've done it. I don't know. Blasting in this stuff is like lighting a firecracker in a dynamite factory. We may have to take the chance. Yeah. Look back there, I told the ship. That dirty yellow gut. We ought to break out the gas mask if we had gas masks. What was that? An explosion, sir. Underneath us. The whole thing's going up. No, no, it's sinking. Look, the men, they're sinking. From that line, Bossen, hurry, heave. Drury, grab the line, get your men on it, we'll pull you in. That's it, pass it on, all of you, hurry. All right, they're all on. Heave, bring them in. Heave, fast as you can. Heave. Okay, here's Drury. Heave. Get them in. Hurry. Come on, come on. What's happening? The whole thing's moving. Keep heaving. Voto. Where's Voto? We got him right here. He's on a peak. God in heaven. Keep pulling, man, keep pulling. All right, here's the next one. That'll be close to the three. All right, coming easy now. Here's another. That's Hangley, four. Come on, fellow, grab. One more. Trouble. All right, get in quick so we can get out of here. The line's coming too fast. Hey, Trouble, where's Trouble? Wait, Lieutenant, stop him. Hold it, Drury, you can't do it. Trouble's still in there. You can't go back in without a line. Tie it around his waist wall. I'm going to. All right, but tie into that line, then we'll be able to haul you back. They went over the side, disappearing into the murk and the sludgy water. The shocks were increasing in violence now. They jarred their teeth in our heads. We looked toward this ship and saw the western rim of the crater thrusting up in a great wall behind it. Then Walt's head appeared close to the boat, his face black, and he shook a hopeless no. He dived again two or three times and then let us pull him in. But Drury wouldn't give up. Come on, pull him in. He's splitting us. Well, fight him back and get him into this boat. Yes, sir. Here, I'll give you a hand. Let me go. We've got to get Trouble. Let me go. You can't waste any more time. Get in. It's no use, Drury. But he's in there somewhere. We can't just let him stay there. No, no. Come on. Come on. All right, folks, take her up. McCollum. I'm sorry about Trouble, Lieutenant, but he is one man. There are a hundred men back there on the hope by victory. Yeah. Sorry. It's getting worse every minute. We're going to do anything. We've got to do it fast. Hey, look over there where the rocks sank. That gap's big enough for the ship. Yeah, maybe, but is it deep enough? It's got to be. The whole thing may go up any minute like a Roman camp. All right, Burson, fire one flare. Walt, get the hand lead. I've got it. All coiled. Don't have a drag at 10 fathoms. We'll quarter across the gap. Sing out if you feel anything. The boat moved slowly across the old edge of the crater and out into the open sea. Walt holding the lead line shook his head at me. He felt nothing. I turned carefully in the swell and quartered back into the crater. I could see the hope by victory creeping toward us. She'd recalled Hannigan's boat and was dragging ahead of her in a narrow S-curve. They were like vessels under shell fire. The whole center of the crater was writhing with smoke and erupting gasses of mud and stone. We could see rocks falling on the deck. Behind the ship, the western crags now jetted 300 feet high, lifting and working in black agon. The ship was coming on fast. We were the last chance. Did you feel anything, Walt? Nothing. Can they make it, sir? They've got to. Fire two flares. Now we'll stand out to sea and make a target for them. Hey, brother, hurry. This thing's about to blow its top. All righty, two-boss, in with that hand. They'll never make it. That gap's too small. We're tight-squeezed. The captain's got it perfectly centered. Yeah, it'll be better. It's coming full speed if he misses. Hating it's through. Another minute and we'll know. Man, if they crash, we'll have to work fast. Unless the shock is enough to set the whole thing off. Here they come. The swell's breaking on the bow. He's not slacking speed and it's too small. It's too small. They're in. She's coming through. She's coming through. Save your chance. We're not out of this yet. Hey, he's not cutting his speed. He's not going to leave us here. Calm down. He's turning between the two boats. He'll get us on one side and Hanigan on the other. Look, the captain's signaling from the bridge. Boston, give her full speed. Give her everything you've got. Parallel his course. Hang fast to Giswold and hang on. We'll pick you up later. You heard him. Boat that drury wolf. Help me get that line while it's thrown down and don't miss. Right. Here they are. Hold steady against the bow, I suppose. Hold riddle on, see if they can get us. They're coming. They're coming. They're coming. They're coming. They're coming. They're coming. They're coming. Hold riddle on side. All right, here comes the line. Got it. Make fast. Hurry before we lose the slack. And make it good and fast. Give it the works, Boston. Hold the riddle. We're fast. Brother, just in time. All right, Boston. You can cut the engine. We're under tow. Man, man. So we ain't gonna sleep on a bed of coals tonight. Brother, I ain't never felt anything so good as the pull on that line. 20 knots, full speed, pulling us away fast. Maybe two miles already. It can't be too fast for me. Just look at that thing, will ya? It's an inferno. Yeah, it sure is. Look. Look. All of it. The whole thing. It did blow its top. Walt, help the Boston with the tiller. Hold her in. Grab the guesswap, Drury. Help me natter back as far as we can. And stay down, everybody. Stay down. There's a wave coming. A tidal wave. Look at it. Come on. Come on. Pull. Hold. All right. Get down, everybody. Keep down. We thought we were safe. It's 50, 60, maybe 100 feet. It'll take the whole ship. Everythin'. Keep down and hang on, men. Here it comes. Here it comes. Look out! Everybody all right? I don't know how, but we're all right, Mac. That wave had lifted us to the level of the rail of the Hopi victory. But a seismic wave does not crest an open sea, so it came as one great smooth swell that lifted us high and passed and let us swoop back down again. A few minutes later, the ship picked us up and we all paused to look back at the emblem of fire we left behind us. Well, I guess maybe the captain was right. We must have been in the hands of God. All except trouble. Yeah. All except trouble. Well, Lieutenant, you wanted to study a volcano close to... Did I? Well, remind me, Vautor, to cross that study off my list. Escape, produced and directed by David Friedkin and Morton Fine, has brought you The Boiling Sea, a story by Vincent McHugh and adapted for radio by John Dunkle. In the cast were Ted D'Corsia, Herb Butterfield, Harry Bartel, Herb Ellis and Tony Barrett. Also heard were Jack Moyles, Clayton Post and Jim Hayward. Your announcer, Bill Anders. The special music for Escape is composed and conducted by Leith Stevens. Next week. You are stranded with a carnival just this side of the Iron Curtain, when out of nowhere a fortune is within your grasp. Riding a number on a roulette wheel, hundreds of feet high. One at your shoulder, laughing at you, a killer clown from whom there is no escape. So listen next week when Escape brings you David Friedkin and Morton Fine's story, Carnival in Vienna. Stay tuned now for Night Watch, which follows immediately over most of these stations. This comedy with My Little Margie, Sunday nights on the CBS Radio Network.
