Sanity After the War
BUS "KIDNAPED BY MARE ISLE SUB SAILOR
NAPA, September 6, 1945.--(Special to the News-Chronicle)
---Cruising around in a Greyhound bus presents obstacles not encountered in submarine life, the crewman of a Mare Island submarine discovered today after a wild ride through local streets.
It all began, police said, when Authur Coates, radioman, 1/c, a crew member of the submarine Springer, now at Mare Island, "kidnapped" a bus at the local Greyhound depot, about 2:30 a.m.
Getting the machine in gear, Coates drove up Main Street to Pearl Street, turned east on Pearl and moved along at a merry clip--not knowing Pearl Street came to a dead-end.
Reaching the dead-end, Coates neither turned right, nor left, nor came to a halt. He and the bus continued directly ahead, just as though there was a Jap pillbox ahead and they intended to take it, come fire or high water.
Then things began to happen. The bus sheered off a power pole carrying two 2,300 volt lines, cutting electrical service to virtually every section of the city.
Four trees then went down before the onrushing vehicle before it plowed into a house at 1214 Edmonston Street, striking the rear of the structure and knocking it from the foundations.
Bart March and his son, Lloyd, sleeping three feet from the point of impact, were thrown from their bed, but escaped injury.
The Marche's went outside to investigate, found Coates fumbling in the bus, possibly wondering what had struck the submarine and whether was trapped under 1,000 feet of water. Police, arriving a few minutes later, said they would like to have a talk to Coates.