In the Makassar Strait off what is now Indonesia, the USS Billfish (SS-286) was in imminent danger of succumbing to a relentless depth-charge attack at the hands of Japanese destroyers on November 11, 1943. The boat's chief engineer, then-Lieutenant Charlie Rush, describes the circumstances surrounding the attack in an exclusive interview featured in the June 2002 issue of the Naval Institute's PROCEEDINGS magazine. "He had us cold, and he let go six depth charges. That did a lot of material damage and it also damaged the psyche of the captain and the third officer. The captain was in the conning tower, and I was in the control room. The sonarman reported that he was worthless. 'He's out of it,' the sonarman said." "Who was out of it?" PROCEEDINGS asked. "The captain," said Rush.