The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe - 21: The Coward of the Deep

Episode Date: June 14, 2016

Who will sing the praises of the famous warrior who refused to fight.

The ocean delights us as playful otters restore coastal kelp forests. The ocean teaches us how our choices impact even the deepest places. The ocean connects us. Visit Monterey Bay Aquarium.org slash connects. This is the way I heard it. Victor Sinise was the kind of man people wrote songs about. A sailor in the French Navy, he'd risen through the ranks, distinguishing himself in countless battles

and winning praise and admiration from his countrymen. Now, the legendary Admiral stood in the wheelhouse of his mighty warship and looked out upon the Adriatic. The hour was late. The sea, a mill pond, turned silver and the glow of a waxing moon. He didn't see the periscope, poking above the surface, nor did he see the torpedo racing toward his ship. In one terrible blast, both engines were gone, and the Admiral's ship was dead in the water. As the sea rushed in, the bow slowly rose. Victor gripped the useless helm as six hundred and eighty-four terrified men looked for a way out. Some leapt over the rails into the frigid water.

Others tried to launch lifeboats from the rising bow. The officers begged their admiral to attempt and escape. For the good of France, they pleaded. But Victor refused. If his ship was going down, he'd go down with it. 500 meters away, the U-boat commander watched the nightmare unfold in his periscope and wondered if anybody would ever write a song about him. Not likely. Where was the honor in this kind of battle?

Where was the glory? As the doomed ship slipped below the surface, the German commander sighed and turned to his first officer, I'd rather be fighting in a trench, he said. There, at least, you can hear the wounded groan. there a man can fill with rage but down here we drown masses of men like cold-blooded cowards masses of men was a fair characterization under his command thirteen allied boats were sent to the bottom of the sea along with thousands of sailors who never saw the face of the man who sealed their fate but cowardice that's a matter of perspective in the first world war there was no place more

hazardous or more harrowing than the pressure hull of an experimental U-boat. Of the 375 to leave German ports, 202 would never return. There was no reliable sonar. The batteries generated toxic gas. They had to resurface for air every two hours, which left them defenseless. But underwater, the crew was blind, choking on air thick with diesel and forever on the brink of some catastrophic mechanical failure. In short, they were death traps, and the men who commanded them knew it.

But this commander not only kept his crew alive, he kept his enemies on the run. Eventually, he would receive Austria's highest military honor and the abiding respect of his countrymen. In fact, the self-described coward of the deep became widely known as the dread of the Adriatic. In fact, this conflicted commander wound up inspiring a few songs after all, but surprisingly, not for his exploits in battle. When the Germans lost the war, Austria was annexed, and the Navy disbanded. So the dread of the Adriatic resumed his life as a civilian.

His first wife gave him seven children, but died of scarlet fever. His second wife would give him three more. With every passing year, his prominence grew, along with his reputation as a bona fide war hero. But when the world geared up for the Second World War, and his new commander-in-chief beckoned him back to service, the dread of the Adriatic did something extraordinary. He refused. Then he fled the country. At the time, many Germans called it an unthinkable display of cowardice and disloyalty. others called it treason. But when two American composers heard about Gayorg's insubordination, they took a closer look at his personal life. And before long, Broadway had a new musical,

and Hollywood was handing out five Academy Awards. Sure, they took some liberties with the facts. They always do, but they got the important parts right. Gayorg Ritter was a patriot and a soldier. He loved his profession, his country, and his family. And yes, he also loved the nanny, who raised his children, and burst into song while skipping through the Alpine Meadows. You might say that those were a few of his favorite things. But in the midst of singing nuns and precocious kids and all that other Doe Ramee, the magnitude of Georg's defiance is easy to forget.

And if Rogers and Hammerstein could have added just one more song to their timeless music, I'd vote for a haunting ballad called The Coward of the Deep, wherein our conflicted commander ruminates on the pitfalls of patriotism, the barriers of bravery, and the limits of loyalty. Because, really, long before anyone heard the sound of music, Georg Ritter was singing the sound of sedition in Nazi Germany. That was a very dangerous tune, and it cost Geyorg quite a bit his title, his position, his reputation, and all of his material possessions.

But it was better than the alternative, because fighting for Adolf Hitler, that just felt cowardly. And Geyorg Ritter von Trapp was no coward. Anyway, that's the way I heard it. If you're a maintenance supervisor at a manufacturing facility and your machinery isn't working right, Granger knows you need to understand what's wrong as soon as possible. So when a conveyor motor falters, Granger offers diagnostic tools like calibration kits and multimeters to help you identify and fix the problem. With Granger, you can be confident you have everything you need to keep your facility running smoothly. Call 1-800-Grangeer. Clickranger.com or just stop by.

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