WTWHTAS
Chap 12, part 4.a

Col. Adamson also forbade me to leave. He repeated that he was the senior officer of the party and added that he was commanding me to remain. He was still wrong. As co-pilot and second in command of the plane I had succeeded to command of the raft party with Cherry's departure. I din't argue the point, however. Having already cast off I made no comment and the rafts began drifting apart.

Our boat took a slightly different course than Cherry's and after a few hours no raft was nearer than two or three miles to another. By late afternoon we could sight the others only by straining our eyes. The evening patrol plane roared across our stretch of sea and must have passed almost directly over at least one of our fleet. Again nothing happened.