Typhoon Kezia

        Soon after the ships of Admiral Doyle’s amphibious armada for the invasion of Inchon put to sea from the ports of Kobe and Yokohama, Japan, they faced age-old enemies, howling winds and raging waters.

        Navy weather planes and aerologists had warned Admiral Doyle days earlier that Typhoon Kezia was headed his way, which caused him to speed up the fleet’s loading and departure process.

       Hard work on the docks and on board the ships allowed the task force of 260 ships to depart Japan by 11 September, one day ahead of schedule.

        Doyle’s flagship, Mount McKinley (AGC 7), already being pounded by the rising swell, was the last vessel to leave Kobe.

        Still, on the 12th, Typhoon Kezia battered the fleet with *90-knot (103.7 miles per hour) winds and massive waves. Admiral Doyle later described it as the worst storm he ever experienced. The tempest sorely tested the ships and sailors of the flotilla.

* Knot....nautical mile, knot, international nautical mile, air mile -- (a unit of length used in navigation; equivalent to the distance spanned by one minute of arc in latitude; 1,852 meters). One knot is a unit of speed defined as one nautical mile per hour. It is therefore 1852 metres per hour exactly.