Disasters: Death on Old Shaky

Braced against the roll of his little Navy supply ship T-AKL 17, Skipper Sixto Mangual stared at the soft glow of a radarscope. In the center, a ragged splash of light reflected the "sea return," the radar echo bouncing back from the vicious waves of the gale-roiled Atlantic. Beyond the sea return—twelve miles away by the scale of the scope—a smaller blob of light pinpointed the position where Texas Tower 4,* a man-made Air Force radar island, was riding the storm. Suddenly, silently, the tower echo disappeared. Beyond the sea return there...