So many Japanese ships were firing on the Heermann that the ship was like a chameleon. Each time a new salvo landed near, she was doused in a different color. Each time the destroyer’s bow bit into a wave, the water rinsed the decks and gunwales clean until a shell bearing a different hue crashed a column of seawater across her decks again. Green, yellow, red, and undyed splashes rose near the ship, one after another. Chief yeoman Harold Whitney looked at his skipper and noticed that Hathaway had been dyed red from head to foot.
