Where Away: A Modern Odyssey

George Sessions Perry was a journalist and novelist who served as a war correspondent through the course of the Second World War. The author Isabel Leighton co-wrote Where Away: A Modern Odyssey with Perry, a book which was first published in 1944.

On February 4, 1942, the light cruiser, USS Marblehead, was part of a combined American, Australian, British and Dutch fleet patrolling the seas around the Dutch East Indies when 36 Japanese bombers attacked.

In the ensuing battle the Marblehead received two direct hits. Fires swept through the ship, she listed dangerously to starboard and her rudder jammed. The gunners continued fighting, while the crew helped the wounded and brought the fires under control.

Unable to dock in nearby ports, the ship limped home in a long odyssey across the Indian and Atlantic Oceans to enter the drydock at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.