15. A Nutty Plan That Works Is Not That Nutty
The plan of the Abraham Crijnssen’s crew and captain to camouflage their ship as a tropical island was not as nutty as it seems at first glance. The Java Sea, through which the small minesweeper had to wend its way to safety, has over 18,000 islands of varying sizes. Quite a few of them are mere specs, with just a few trees growing on them. The Crijnssen, which measured only 184 feet in length, was not a huge ship, but it was still big enough to pass itself off as a tiny island if properly camouflaged.
So the minesweeper stopped off at the nearest island, and its 45 man crew began to cut down vegetation with a will. The main detection threat faced by the Abraham Crijnssen was getting spotted from the air by Japanese planes. So to effectively camouflage the ship, its crew needed to cover its entire surface area with tropical vegetation and foliage. The result was one of the more fascinating WWII survival stories. It was hard and backbreaking work, but where there is a will, there is a way.
