I read about this years ago in some account of Pearl Harbor, and I remember reading that when the Marines drilled on the beach, they could hear the tapping in the hull. And then the taps became fewer and eventually stopped.
There was not much of a way to rescue them with what was available on Hawaii, so the decision was made not to bring in the equipment to cut into the hull, mostly because it wasn’t clear that any equipment they had available at that time would have been able to do it before the sailors died. So it would have been pointless to halt the war effort.
This was before modern wireless communications, so these men had no way of knowing what was going on outside their ship.
It still gives me nightmares and I always pray for these sailors in their horrible slow death, just as I pray for the poor people entombed under the WTC, who also took weeks to die.
God is eternal so time is nothing to Him, and he can use our prayers to alleviate sufferings at any earthly time. So I pray for them that he shorten or make more bearable their sufferings. And if we pray for them, surely they know this now.
It still gives me nightmares and I always pray for these sailors in their horrible slow death, just as I pray for the poor people entombed under the WTC, who also took weeks to die.
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In some mysterious fashion it could be merciful to die a slow painful death, though my natural person wishes it on no one nor wish it for myself.
The reason is that it can help one stop to reflect on how long eternity really is and how awful it will be to spend an eternity of torment in hell. For many a slow painful death may be the only thing in their lifetime that will get their attention and hopefully it will lead to a complete and perfect contrition for their sins, and produce the fruit of a longing for God and heaven which they had never dreamed was possible.
It still gives me nightmares and I always pray for these sailors in their horrible slow death, just as I pray for the poor people entombed under the WTC, who also took weeks to die.
I had not heard about people being trapped at the WTC, who took weeks to die.
Where did you get that information?