Repair of the Caine’s Fuel Pumps

The repair of the Caine’s fuel pumps was a brief, improvised effort that gave the ship a chance of making the journey home as the Navy shifted abruptly from wartime operations to postwar retrenchment. Willie Keith obtained two chief shipfitters for seventy-two hours, rallied the black gang with the prospect of a ride home, and the pumps were fixed in two days. The repair solved an immediate problem, but it could not erase doubts about the Caine’s condition or win it a place in the next fleet operation.

A ship caught in the postwar transition

The work began amid a sudden change in priorities. At Okinawa, the repair program had collapsed into confusion: expensive refits and round-the-clock labor were no longer assured now that the war had ended. On Keith’s fourth visit in a week to the repair officer aboard the Pluto, he learned that the Bureau might not authorize even a small additional expense for an old destroyer-minesweeper. The officer warned that a survey board might simply leave the Caine to deteriorate where it was.

That uncertainty made the fuel pumps more than a routine repair. Without them, the crew risked being stranded while waiting for transportation home; with them, the Caine might provide its own passage. The ship’s machinery thus stood between the crew and an uncertain delay, while the Navy’s newly changed priorities left its repair and future unresolved.

Securing help and organizing the work

Keith’s courteous approach changed the repair officer’s response. Although the officer was overwhelmed with paperwork and could not promise the Navy would fund a full repair program, he offered two chief shipfitters for seventy-two hours. The arrangement placed a short time limit on the work and made its success depend on cooperation between the specialists and the Caine’s own crew.

Back aboard, Keith gathered the black gang on the forecastle and set out the stakes plainly: if the Navy surveyed the Caine, the crew might wait on shore for a year for a ride home; if they repaired the pumps, the ship might carry them home within a week. He made the work a shared choice rather than merely passing down an order. The pumps were repaired in two days, within the limited window for outside assistance.

A repair that did not restore the ship’s prospects

The repair enabled Keith and Tom Keefer to argue that the Caine was ready for sea, but readiness remained disputed. When destroyer-minesweepers were ordered to prepare for a Tokyo harbor sweep, the Caine was left off the list. At the MinePac office aboard the Terror, Captain Ramsbeck acknowledged their determination but questioned whether the ship could withstand another breakdown en route, particularly during typhoon season. He raised the prospect of facing a typhoon with only twelve knots of power.

Keith and Keefer accepted the decision with rueful resignation. That afternoon they watched the other minesweepers leave Buckner Bay, while Keefer remarked that he would have liked to see Tokyo. The pumps had been fixed, but one successful repair could not establish that the decrepit Caine was safe for a demanding mission. The episode therefore ends with a limited victory: the crew completed the work that might help them get home, yet the ship remained excluded from the fleet’s advance.