From Book 2
The Chief came back down and asked me if I could handle the shift. I told him I would, as long as I had a wiper to help. He sent down the day wiper to help and I was back to being a watch engineer again. Mr. James never came back, I ran our watch all the way back to San Francisco, 6 days. When we had dropped off the McGinty at Hunter's Point Navy Yard and moored up to our home pier, Mr. James was taken off by an ambulance and we never saw him again. While we doing some housekeeping and upkeep, a new Assistant Engineer reported on board, he was hardly older than myself, but he had a pleasant personality and he certainly knew his stuff. His name was Glenn Doyle and we were destined to become lifelong friends. The Chief left me with the new Engineer and that was fine with me, he was easy to get along with and I learned a lot of things from him. We spent the rest of the winter and into the next spring on local runs up and down the California coast. I figured in another year, I would have enough saved up to pay my tuition at the Academy.
Chapter 1 - HAWAII BOUND
We hung around San Francisco Bay for a couple of weeks, with short runs to Los Angeles and Long Beach. The head office landed a big contract to do the hauling for a new petroleum refinery in Honolulu.
Bay Steel was to do all the fabrication and we would haul the assembled parts to Honolulu. We were the only ocean tug without a long term contract right then, so we were going to be sailing back and forth for quite a while.
They made up our first pull of eight barges; the assembled parts of the refinery were bulky, but not particularly heavy. In fact, the biggest problem would be the sail area of the load.
I had become used to my new Engineer, Mr. Doyle and, really, he was a pretty decent sort and didn't mind me picking his brains for information. He in turn, asked me a lot of questions about the Amelia, this was his first time on an ocean tug and he had lots of questions.
He had been in Hawaii once before, so I got lots of info on what it was like there.
We departed San Francisco Bay in a deep fog and I had to make sure that the sorry excuse for a low pressure air compressor stayed on-line.
It was early summer and the summer fogs of San Francisco Bay are legendary.
We had the first watch on departure, the Skipper had the wheel house and he ran the shaft speed up and down until he found the "sweet spot" at 93 rpm on the shaft and we would run that speed all the way to Diamond Head.
A long ocean pull can get pretty boring and I would try to find something productive to do during our 6 hours shift. As soon as we left the fog behind, I opened the run down valve from the high pressure starting air system to the low pressure service air and started to overhaul the low pressure air compressor.
It was an old Cooper Air Compressor, I am pretty sure it was an escapee of the Civil War!
The crankpin bearing was so sloppy that I could just about put a pencil in beside the bearing shell.
Johnny, the other Fireman/Oiler, had never worked on an air compressor before, so he left it all to me.
The only restriction the Chief gave me was that it had to be running by the time we got to Honolulu. There were complete spares in the parts box and it wasn't near as complex as our old tractor back home. The only hard part was jacking the old cylinder sleeve out of the casting and I had to make my own jig to jack it loose.
I think Mr. Doyle was a bit surprised when the compressor started up when I pushed the start button.
We entered the Maui Channel as I came up on deck from the morning watch. I saw the famous Diamond Head off to the right. For a farm boy, it was mighty impressive. The hills were bright green and there must have been a bit of rain up in the hills because almost every canyon had a rainbow in it.
The town of Honolulu wasn't much, there were no high rise buildings and there was lots of open space and trees.
We chugged on past the Aloha Tower and headed for the Dillingham pier. They were the prime contractor for the refinery. Their cargo handlers were quite efficient, by dark they had the first barge unloaded.
Since the pier did not have area lighting, everything was put on hold until the next day. I had all the 6 to 12 watches, so I couldn't go ashore until the next day. I suppose I could have gone at midnight, but I didn't think there would be much to see at that time of night.
The next day, I hurried up and showered and headed to the gangway. The Chief stopped me with his usual questions and we both had our usual red faces by the time he had finished. I found out a long time later that his son had contracted a venereal disease and that was why he wanted to make sure I had all my "stuff"!
Anyway, I did and I headed into Honolulu. I stopped at a Chinese Restaurant for lunch, it was kind of sleazy, but the food was world class. I knew I was going to go back to Wo Fat's again!
I took a bus that said "Waikiki" on the front and got off in the "HIGH PRICE DISTRICT"! Wow, those hotels were way out of my price range, but they were pretty to look at. I stopped in a place called International Village and had a drink they were pushing called a Mai Tai. WOOHEE!
I decided I had better not have any more of those things!
I tried a local beer, talk about nasty. It was called Primo, if that was their idea of prime beer, I would sure hate to taste something they thought was second class!
I went back for another helping of Wo Fat's cooking, I could get used to that stuff.
I couldn't find a bus that went out as far as the Dillingham pier in the late afternoon and I had to be on watch by 6 pm, so I caught a cab and got back to the tug in plenty of time.
I relieved Johnny and warned him about the Primo beer. When I told him about those Mai Tai things, his eyes lit up and he said, "Yeahhhhhh."
I wondered what he was going to look like at midnight when he was supposed to relieve me.
The Dillingham pier did not have shore power, so we had to leave the little Volvo diesel engine run all the time for lights.
Johnny came staggering in to relieve me at 5 minutes to midnight, he looked like he had been run over by a locomotive. I was pooped, otherwise I would have taken his watch, he looked so baaaaaad!
I guess he did alright, we were still floating on top of the water the next morning when I relieved him.
He looked like death warmed over and he was still snoring when it was time to relieve me at noon. I told the Chief I would stay and let Johnny sleep a bit longer.
They got two more of the barges unloaded that day and Johnny came staggering down the ladder to relieve me at 3 in the afternoon.
As I was headed up the ladder, I could hear Chief giving him hell.
I had another meal at Wo Fat's, that place was addictive, then I headed back to the pier. I sure didn't want the Chief to holler at me like he had at Johnny.
The next day was our last before heading back to San Francisco with two partially loaded barges and the rest were empties.
This back and forth to Honolulu became routine, we continued until the end of the year. The Chief had promised me a couple of days off around Christmas and I hoped to go home and finish patching up my relationship with my Father.
Chapter 2 - HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS
The Amelia was scheduled to be in port until January 2nd, and I held Chief to his promise of a couple of days off.
I threw some clean skivvies and socks in a grip and headed to the Greyhound Bus Depot.
My folks knew I was coming, they just didn't know what day. I had to change buses in Vallejo and I called home. Mom answered, I am pretty sure she was camped right by the telephone as it only rang once before she picked up. She said they would be at the bus depot waiting for me.
They were. It was a joyful reunion, even my younger sister was happy to see me.
Mom went all out in cooking my favorite meals.
Dad and I went out to the barn and had a long discussion, we both felt better for it and we walked back to the house, arm in arm.
I had to be back to the Amelia on the 1st; that gave us 4 days. My "honorary" Aunt and Uncle, Aunt Emma and Uncle Dick O'Donnel stopped by after supper and we had a fine talk about life on a tug boat. Uncle Dick was worried I might like it too much, but I assured him that my dream of the Academy was alive and well.
In just a few short days, I fell into the routine of not having watches every 6 hours and having a whole, full sized bed all to myself!
Even though I had round trip bus tickets, Mom and Dad insisted on taking me back to the Amelia. They both were surprised at how big she was. I gave them a quick "Cook's Tour" and then I had to go on watch.
Our barges were loaded and ready for us on January 2nd and we sailed for Honolulu the next day to begin, again, our back and forth hauling for the new refinery.
I celebrated my 20th birthday somewhere between Honolulu and San Francisco, we were so busy, it wasn't important at the time.
Our main engine was a six cylinder SunDoxford and two of the cylinders were misfiring. Every time number four and number six cylinder fired, the whole engine gave a lurch and a terrible "CATHUNK" sound. We nursed the engine all the way back to San Francisco, when we tied up to our pier, the Harvey Cawliss was in and Chief asked them for some manpower to help tear into our main engine.
The guys from the Harvey had the same engine as our own. When we got the injectors pulled, the nozzles on both were missing. That meant we had to pull the heads.
The bore on those engines was twenty-six inches and the heads were twenty-nine inches thick. It took a day each just to remove the heads, then we had to jack the engine over with a jacking bar to make sure every little piece of the nozzles had been accounted for.
The only way to make sure that the cylinder liners had not been scored was to crawl into the cylinder and inspect every square inch of the cylinder walls.
Number six cylinder was suspect and we had to pull the piston. We discovered a small piece of the injector pintle wedged in the ring groove. The ring had to be removed and the score in the ring groove wall honed smooth. The liner had to be jacked out and a new liner installed, it was a week before we had completed the repairs.
We must have done the job right, the engine sounded smooth and regular when we test ran it.
The next trip back to San Francisco, I had signed up to take the entrance exams for the Maritime Academy and Chief let me take the day and go up to Vallejo to take the test.
I was pretty sure I had done well on the test, leastwise I had a good feeling about it.
We sailed the very next day with another load for the Honolulu Refinery; it was getting to be a boring run. Even Wo Fat's had lost its lure for me.
The next trip back to San Francisco, there was a large brown envelope in the mail sack for me. I had been accepted as a midshipman at the California Maritime Academy!
My dream of the last 10 years was going to be fulfilled. I ran out on the pier and telephoned my good news to my parents.
Understandably, Dad was not as happy about it as my Mother, but they were both pleased that I was so excited about it.
I was to report on August 20th of 1957, for the Class of 1960!
It was a three year course going all year 'round, with three 10 day vacation periods each year.
We were scheduled to be back in port on August 10th and that would be my last day. That meant three more round trips to Honolulu.
I hoped and prayed they would be quiet and easy.
Chapter 3 - EMERGENCY IN SEATTLE
We had finished refueling in preparation for our pull to Honolulu when the head office sent a runner to the Amelia that the Skipper and the Chief were to report immediately to the offices on Francisco Street.
It seemed like they were gone for hours and the Skipper's face was white as chalk.
The Chief called us all together and told us we were making an emergency run to Seattle, the Jenkins had suffered an explosion and fire.
When I asked him if anyone had been hurt, he clammed up and said for us not to speculate.
We got underway that afternoon without a pull behind us. The Skipper had the turns up to 125 rpm on the shaft; that Ol' Sundoxford was "pickin'em up and putten'em down"! Fortunately the seas were fairly calm, we were crashing a bit, but at the turns we were running, that was understandable.
As we made our way up the coast, little things Chief said made me worry.
Then he asked me if I knew how to shoot a pistol! I told him to come "clean", what the hell was going on!
He took me into his stateroom and shut the door. He then swore me to secrecy and told me that the Chief on the Jenkins had gone berserk and shot the Skipper and the Mate and all three deckhands. Then he set fire to the tug and it blew up, there were no survivors!
I sat down in his chair with a thud, I knew Cale Berkett, he was a Fireman/Oiler on the Jenkins.
He told me we were to tow the wreckage home after the Transportation Safety Board and the US Coast Guard had finished their investigation.
I asked him, "Why do I need to shoot a pistol?"
Chief replied, "It was a drug deal gone bad and the dealers are looking for their drugs."
In that day and age, drugs meant opium or heroin. That was big time stuff and people died getting in those guys' way!
We were 4 days pounding our way north, before we made the turn into the Straits of San Juan de Fuca. We were met at Port Angeles by a Coastie (US Coast Guard) with sailors on the deck with rifles. A Harbor Police boat followed us up the channel, its red light flashing to warn all other vessels away.
We arrived at the far end of Pier Six, away from the main part of the port. There were Police boats all over the place. I stood on the open deck watching until it was time to go relieve the 6 to noon watch.
I could feel the Skipper whip us around and then he backed down the main engine, gave it one burp forward and then shut it down. He then dumped the coupling and restarted the main engine, I guessed so that he had DC power on the towing winch.
They banged and clanged around until the end of my watch, I stuck my head out the watertight door to see what was going on, a US Marshal shoved me backwards and said that it weren't safe out there.
Just then Chief called for me and I went to his stateroom. He again closed the door and handed me an automatic pistol and two spare clips of ammunition.
He said, "You carry that until this pull is done with and we are tied up to our own pier!"
I noticed that my Engineer, Mr. Doyle, also had a pistol hanging from his waist.
I got some lunch and took a quick shower before lying down for a couple hours, but sleep eluded me.
The wheelhouse was just starting the main engine when I went back on watch at 1800 (6 PM).
The wrecked and burned Jenkins Cowliss was a mess, it was twisted and the towing winch was hanging over the side, dragging in the water.
I noticed a stranger in the engine-room, Mr. Doyle said he was a US Marshal. He didn't purposely get in the way, but an engine room is not a place for someone to stand around and gawk.
I later found out we had six US Marshals on board, they soon discovered that an ocean tug is not a cruise ship, two of them were hot bunking with us Firemen/oilers and the deckhands and wipers had the rest.
It was a tense time for all of us. Johnny and I sure didn't like sharing our bunks with strangers and it seemed like every time I turned around on watch, I was stepping on a Marshal's foot.
They were nice enough guys but they sure seemed to know how to stand right in the way.
The Jenkins was a balky pull, half the wheel house and the towing winch were hanging over the side and dragging in the water. It took us twelve days fighting that pull to get back home.
To add insult to injury, we fought the Jenkins for two days trying to slip it into the dry dock at Todd Shipyard. The Skipper ran the high pressure air tank dry at one point and had to wait for the air pressure to recover before he could restart the main engine.
To be on the safe side, we had to carry those pistols until we departed on tow back to Honolulu.
Chief asked me to help, the sideways thrust pulling the Jenkins had sheared the pinion gear on the towing winch and it had to be replaced before we could pull again. It took him and me two days pulling and tugging on the stupid thing before we could slip the new gear in place.
Just before we left for Honolulu, we all had to attend a hearing down at the Federal Office Building and we each had to testify about what we saw and account for all our time and actions for the entire pull back to San Francisco! I don't know what that was going to prove, all the crew of the Jenkins were dead and the dope had been confiscated by the Feds.
Chapter 4 - BACK TO HONOLULU
We finally got free from the Feds and made ready to continue our work hauling refinery parts out to Hawaii.
We topped off the fuel and water tanks, I sure didn't want to have to depend on that sorry compression distiller we had for drinking water.
I don't know exactly what it was that the other Fireman/Oiler, Johnny, got on into, but he wasn't on board when it came time to sail. The Skipper was fuming mad when the San Francisco Police brought him back to the Amelia. He looked like a sorry wreck.
When he came down to relive me at noon, he didn't say anything and I wondered if he was in any condition to stand his watch. The Chief had the next watch, so I figured if Johnny couldn't handle it the Chief would call me back down. That never happened, but his face was a gawdawful mess when I relieved him at 1800 (6 PM).
Before we got to Honolulu, he told me what had happened. He had met some friends of his off the Ocean Tug, Robert Cowliss, and they had gone night clubbing somewhere up on Broadway.
He picked up a girl in one of the bars and they were having a good time until he suddenly discovered she wasn't a girl! Before he knew it, it was a free for all and the bartender called the cops.
He said it cost him $250 to get out of jail and he was gonna owe the bar another $500 in damages.
His face looked pretty bad and he had lost a couple teeth. By the time we got to Honolulu, his bruises had turned an ugly black and green color and his missing teeth made him speak with a lisp.
TBC
Our young ocean tug crewman will make his final trips to Honolulu before he turns himself over to the ministrations of the upperclassmen of the California Maritime Academy, thus fulfilling his long held dream.