Jim Downey
speaker
621 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 13 Jul
Jim Downey’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
Enemy ships are on both sides, and in the dark no less.
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He gives the only order that makes any sense.
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Odd ships commence fire at starboard, even ships to port.
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Every American ship fires, unleashing their combined guns in two directions simultaneously.
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Into the Japanese, yes, but inevitably, also into each other.
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And what follows defies any orderly description of a naval battle.
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This is chaos at close quarters.
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USS Laffey nearly collides with the battleship Hiyai, close enough to rake her bridge with machine gun fire.
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USS Cushing fires six torpedoes at Hiyai.
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None find their mark, but the Japanese battleship veers away, and the Cushing is destroyed by Japanese gunfire moments later.
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It's a mess, a nightmare.
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In fact, this battle will later be described as, quote, a barroom brawl with the lights out, close quote.
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Dan's own flagship, the San Francisco, firing blindly into the melee, puts shells into the already crippled Atlanta.
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Noting the friendly fire, Dan gives the order, cease firing our ships.
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But it's too late for the Atlanta.
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She's beyond saving.
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As she dies, so does her commander, Rear Admiral Norman Scott, a brilliant career naval officer who just weeks before had beaten the Japanese in a night surface battle at Cape Esperance.
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He and nearly his entire staff meet their end here.
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Nor is Norman the only admiral lost in this watery bar fight.
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The San Francisco has lost steering.
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Showing 441–460 of 621 · page 23 of 32
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