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An oral history and a diary reading, searchable by sound

A Navy nurse remembering how she left Corregidor in 1942, and a London diary of 1665 read aloud. Listen and read along; select any few words and Tierline finds where they sound again, here in your browser.

  • 4 passages, 4 min 52 s
  • 2 sources, from the U.S. Navy and LibriVox
  • Searched in this browser; nothing is uploaded

Five searches worth tryingThe thirty-second tourSearch your own recordings in the Workspace

A man in a white shirt and tie reads from papers at a desk in a recording studio, a microphone on a boom above him and a disc on the desk.
A reading recorded for the Library of Congress in its studio, 1966. Library of Congress Source

Searches worth trying

Five searches, and what each one shows.

Each starts from a few words in the passages below. “Try this search” compares them, by sound, with all four passages in your browser and lists the closest moments; the words beside each result are the reviewed transcript’s. Three find what you would hope; one is hard; one fails, and says why.

  1. 01 Repeated in her story

    She says “submarine” again and again

    the submarine Ann Bernatitus · Leaving Corregidor by submarine, 1:01.55

    Telling how she left Corregidor, she comes back to the submarine several times, in two different parts of the interview. Select one and see whether the others come back.

  2. 02 A phrase the diary repeats

    “Poor wretch”, twice in one entry

    poor wretch Nicole Lee, reading Pepys · 22 June 1665: sending my mother into the country, 0:08.60

    On 22 June 1665 Pepys writes about his mother and calls her a poor wretch twice. A search from the first finds the second, read by the same voice twenty seconds later.

  3. 03 A word from a working life

    Back to the office

    my office, and Nicole Lee, reading Pepys · 22 June 1665: sending my mother into the country, 0:43.05

    Pepys runs the Navy Office, and the word recurs through the day he describes. One “office” is enough to find the others.

  4. 04 A hard case

    “Don’t know”: short, common, and everywhere

    don't know Ann Bernatitus · Leaving Corregidor by submarine, 0:44.45

    Common words are short and sound like many things. Her other “know”s come back near the top, and so do passages that only sound similar: this is where a listener's judgement matters.

  5. 05 Where it fails

    “Corregidor” in two voices

    Corregidor Ann Bernatitus · Leaving Corregidor by submarine, 0:49.24

    Later in the same passage the interviewer says “Corregidor” too. This browser matcher compares the sound of a voice frame by frame, so it is strongest within one speaker. See whether his “Corregidor” is found.

Ann Bernatitus in a white Navy nurse's cap speaks at a microphone on a stage draped with bunting, beside a radio station's shield reading Mutual WBAX.
Ann Bernatitus at a war-production rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, her hometown, in 1942, months after she left Corregidor. The Library’s caption spells her name Anne. William Perlitch, Library of Congress Source

Source 01 · Oral history

Ann Bernatitus

Navy nurse; she was on Corregidor in 1942 and was evacuated by submarine on 3 May.

Recording
Oral-history interview, 25 January 1994, Exeter, Pennsylvania
Interviewer
Jan K. Herman, Historian, U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
Language
English
Held by
U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, published on the Internet Archive The record ↗
Rights
Published by the U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery under the Public Domain Mark 1.0.

Permissions

  • ListenYesplay here
  • SearchYessearch by sound
  • DownloadYessave the file
  • RepublishYesreuse elsewhere
A typed transcript page. A bold question asks how she was evacuated; her answers describe the two PBYs, meeting at Wainwright's headquarters, and the night trip by boat to the submarine.
Page 12 of the Navy’s transcript, an edited version of the same answers. The full transcript (PDF). U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Internet Archive Source

  1. Two PBYs came in first

    50 s · 0:35–1:25 of the source recording · includes a short example

    • I would rather go by submarine at 0:40

    BernatitusThe air two PBYs came in first, and they took a load of people out. They took some nurses

    out. Now, how they picked the people, I don't know. But we were called to the mess hall

    and saying, when we were leaving, that we were going to be leaving that night.

    And the thing that they stressed the most was that weight did not matter as much as size.

    And I always said, I don't want to go out of here on an airplane. I would rather go by submarine.

    Never dreaming that that was exactly what was going to happen to me. But I always felt that.

    Machine transcription (faster-whisper medium.en), checked against the Navy’s transcript. Word times are approximate; point at an underlined word to see what was corrected.

    On the page and on the tape

    The Navy’s transcriptI always said that I didn’t want to go out of there on an airplane. I would rather go by submarine. We were dreaming that that’s exactly what was going to happen.
    What she saidI always said, I don't want to go out of here on an airplane. I would rather go by submarine. Never dreaming that that was exactly what was going to happen to me.

    The transcript has her “dreaming”; on the tape she says “never dreaming”. A search by sound finds the words she spoke.

    Download this passage (WAV, 1.6 MB)

  2. Leaving Corregidor by submarine

    2 min 13 s · 2:22–4:34 of the source recording · includes 4 short examples

    • Their own minefield at 0:57
    • Gotten the message at 1:04
    • Taking us so long to get out there at 1:15
    • The slapping of the water at 1:50

    Bernatitusand

    Wainwright would, you know, your name would be called and you'd

    step out of the crowd because everybody was gathered round to see this, you know, and

    he'd shake your hand and wish you godspeed, and he'd say, tell them how it is out here.

    And then you'd get in a car and they'd drive you out of the tunnel and take you down to the dock.

    And, you know, everything is pitch black, just trees standing there, you know, with nothing, no, no, no leaves,

    no nothing on them, you know, just charred.

    And when we got down there,

    this, whatever it was that we were on, I don't know, but it was

    even smaller than the one that took us to Corregidor.

    And

    just put us on the boat and

    shoved off.

    They had to go through their own minefield

    to get to the submarine.

    And

    the submarine had gotten the message. In fact, I have it

    someplace here.

    Well, anyway, the submarine

    wasn't sure if it was taking us so long to get out there, that they weren't sure

    that it hadn't already fallen.

    HermanOh, the submarine, they didn't know where the Corregidor had fallen.

    BernatitusYeah.

    HermanThey were waiting out there beyond the minefield.

    BernatitusThey're getting a little edgy, you know.

    And finally, just out of the,

    you know, just all of a sudden you saw this dark shape

    you know, and we come alongside of it, and, you know, all you could hear was the

    slapping of the water against, between the two

    objects. And

    somebody would say,

    you know, get over, get your foot over the rail, and

    somebody just kind of pulls you, and then the first thing you know, you were going down.

    The hatch.

    Machine transcription (faster-whisper medium.en), checked against the Navy’s transcript. Word times are approximate; point at an underlined word to see what was corrected.

    On the page and on the tape

    The Navy’s transcriptWe had to go through our own mine fields to get to the submarine. We learned later that it was taking us so long to get out there that the submarine wasn’t sure Corregidor hadn’t already fallen.
    What she saidThey had to go through their own minefield to get to the submarine. And the submarine had gotten the message. In fact, I have it someplace here. Well, anyway, the submarine wasn't sure if it was taking us so long to get out there, that they weren't sure that it hadn't already fallen.

    The transcript is shorter and smoother: “they” becomes “we”, and the message she went to look for is gone.

    Download this passage (WAV, 4.3 MB)
A painted half-length portrait of Samuel Pepys in a brown gown, holding a sheet of music.
Samuel Pepys in 1666, the year after these entries, painted by John Hayls. John Hayls, National Portrait Gallery, London Source

Source 02 · A diary, read aloud

Nicole Lee, reading the diary of Samuel Pepys

Pepys (1633-1703) was a naval administrator in London; in June 1665 the plague reached the City.

Recording
The Diary of Samuel Pepys, June 1665, read for LibriVox (2022)
Language
English
Held by
LibriVox, published on the Internet Archive The record ↗
Rights
LibriVox recordings are in the public domain in the USA; the 1665 text is in the public domain.

Permissions

  • ListenYesplay here
  • SearchYessearch by sound
  • DownloadYessave the file
  • RepublishYesreuse elsewhere

The diary's text, Project Gutenberg. The reading follows the public-domain text of the diary.

  1. 2 June 1665: home at almost one in the morning

    42 s · 2:48–3:30 of the source recording · includes a short example

    • Home at almost one in the morning at 0:35

    ReaderAnother letter also come to me from Mr. Hater, committed by the council this afternoon to

    the Gate House, upon the misfortune of having his name used by one, without his knowledge

    or privity, for the receiving of some powder that he had bought.

    Up to court about these two, and for the former, was led up to my lady Castlemayne's

    lodgings, where the king and she and others were at supper, and there

    I read the letter and returned, and then to Sir G. Carteret about Hater, and shall

    have him released to-morrow upon my giving bail for his appearance, which I have promised

    to do.

    Sir G. Carteret did go on purpose to the king to ask this, and it was granted.

    So home at past twelve, almost one o'clock in the morning, to my office till past two,

    and then home to supper and to bed.

    Machine transcription (faster-whisper medium.en), checked against the printed diary. Word times are approximate; point at an underlined word to see what was corrected.

    Download this passage (WAV, 1.3 MB)

  2. 22 June 1665: sending my mother into the country

    1 min 7 s · 30:31–31:38 of the source recording · includes a short example

    • Not very late, to supper and to bed at 1:01

    Reader22nd.

    Up pretty betimes, and in great pain whether to send my mother into the country to-day

    or no.

    I hearing by my people that she, poor wretch, hath a mind to stay a little longer, and

    I cannot blame her, considering what a life she will through her own folly lead when

    she comes home again, unlike the pleasure and liberties she hath had here.

    At last I resolved to put it to her, and she agreed to go, so I would not oppose it, because

    of the sickness in the town, and my intentions of removing my wife.

    So I did give her money, and took a kind leave of her, she, poor wretch, desiring that I

    would forgive my brother John, but I refused it to her, which troubled her, poor soul.

    But I did it in kind words, and so let the discourse go off, she leaving me, though,

    in a great deal of sorrow.

    So I to my office, and left my wife and people to see her out of time, and I at

    the office all the morning.

    I knew my wife tells me that she is with much ado gone, and I pray God bless her.

    But it seems she was to the last unwilling to go, but would not say so, but put it

    off till she lost her place in the coach, and was fain to ride in the waggon part.

    After dinner, to the office again till night, very busy, and so home, not very late, to

    supper and to bed.

    Machine transcription (faster-whisper medium.en), checked against the printed diary. Word times are approximate; point at an underlined word to see what was corrected.

    Where the reading and the printed diary differ

    • 0:17 Heard: liberties. The text reads liberty.
    • 0:45 Heard: out of time. The text reads out of town.
    • 0:49 Heard: I knew my wife. The text reads At noon my wife.

    From the Project Gutenberg text of the diary. Two recognizers hear the words as given; they are kept as heard.

    Download this passage (WAV, 2.2 MB)

Rights

Permissions for each recording

Every recording here carries its record and four separate permissions: to be played, searched, downloaded and republished. Both sources are in the public domain, so all four are granted.

Permissions for each passage
PassageListenSearchDownloadRepublish
Two PBYs came in firstYesYesYesYes
Leaving Corregidor by submarineYesYesYesYes
2 June 1665: home at almost one in the morningYesYesYesYes
22 June 1665: sending my mother into the countryYesYesYesYes

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