From Book 1
We loaded with a mixed cargo, one hold had bagged rice on pallets and the rest was in huge sea crates. It about drove me nuts, we were dropping off cargo at almost every sand spit in the Caribbean, I spent so much time on deck keeping the winches operating, I got sunburned! It was almost a relief to come back to Mobile to take on cargo although Mobile had to be the cesspool port of America. It was dirty, trashy and half their cargo handling gear either didn't work or it dropped cargo all over the pier!
It was a relief to finally get loaded and we sailed for Long Beach, California.
Chapter 1 - SCORCHED BEARD
After several weeks of hauling short cargos up and down the California coast, we picked up a cargo for Manila. It was all crated and labeled for a hardwood lumber firm. Some of the crates were pretty heavy and the cargo geared strained, getting it aboard. I worried about that damned swing boom, but it performed faultlessly.
I had been out on deck all day, nursing the winches, so I had to chase myself through the shower and gobble my supper to relieve the First so he could eat. I just stayed down in the engine room, as we were scheduled to sail at 1900 (7 pm).
Our new (kind of) skipper was one fine seaman, three bells and we were headed out of Long Beach Harbor! (I later learned it was the Third Mate who took us out)
We settled down for our evening 8 to 12, we were riding pretty deep in the water and the engine was groaning a bit. Jeremy had all four boilers on line and the fires were near maximum and I could see the louvers on the forced draft blowers were wide open.
I wandered around, checking all my equipment and made a quick test of the output of the distiller before heading to the fire room. I was standing there, talking to Jeremy and we both heard the outer door of the fiddly airlock open.
Out of habit, we both glanced up and saw the hand wheel of the inner door start to turn, but we did NOT hear the outer door close! Jeremy ran for his firing controls and I raced up the ladder to try and stop the inner door from opening.
Neither of us made it!
The fire room depressurized with a violent whooooooosh and the fires roared out the burner registers. I slid down the ladder and dove into the engine room to shut the main engine down, the forced draft blowers were in runaway condition and the over speed trips dumped them offline.
I notified the bridge on the bitchbox that we were in trouble before running back to the fire room to help Jeremy.
I found him holding the poor little Filipino steward by his neck and banging him against the steel bulkhead!
Fortunately, Mr. Connolly, the Chief Engineer, arrived just then, it took both of us to pry Jeremy's hands from the boy's neck.
There was nothing except a burned frizz left of Jeremy's pride and joy, his beard. The earpieces of his safety glasses had melted and even most of the hair on the top of his head was gone.
As the Chief was leading the frightened mess steward away, Jeremy was screaming that he would kill him!
I got some burn cream out of the First Aid box and plastered it on Jeremy's face and head. His shirt had kind of melted a bit, he would probably have to cut it off himself after our watch.
I helped him relight the boilers and, while he was building up steam, I went and started the auxiliary air pump on the main engine condenser, and the steam feed water pump.
As soon as there was a little steam pressure, I got the generators started again, so I could see what I was doing. Mr. Connolly came back down and helped me get the main engine ready to roll.
Our watch was nearly over before we had the main engine back on-line and all the bilges pumped out. The fire room was a wreck, there were burned fire hoses all over the place and many of the gauges were going to have to be replaced.
The Chief was not a "happy camper"!
Jeremy was still muttering to himself, I hoped that mess steward stayed far away from him as possible. I was a soot covered mess and it took three times through the shower before I was clean. I gave up on my shirt and just tossed it in the trash.
They were still talking about the problem the next morning as I ate my breakfast, I figured the less I said, the better everyone would be, so I kept my mouth shut and hurried down to relieve the First as fast as I could.
We made Honolulu and tied up at Dillingham Terminal to offload some deck cargo. I saw the Chief Steward leading the young mess steward down the gangway, the boy did not return to the ship.
We stayed only long enough to offload the cargo and we headed back out to sea. At our speed, it was a long trip across the Pacific and Jeremy had pretty much calmed down by the time we reached Manila.
We worked almost a week offloading all the machinery, the cargo handling gear operated by the Port of Manila was pretty slow and they did not work at night.
I went ashore a couple of times, once with the Third Mate. He was a pretty decent fellow and we were near the same age. I discovered a beer there that was to my liking, San Miguel, and we had a good time.
The streets of the capital city seemed relatively safe, except for the waterfront park. We were warned about the park and told we should stay clear.
After a couple of forays into the city, I decided to just stay aboard. I had my Hallicrafter radio to assemble and I finished it just before we sailed to Sasebo, Japan. I was able to get a number of English Language stations and it was kinda nice to hear some American news once in a while.
We ran empty to Sasebo, where we loaded with US Armed Forces Dependents' household goods and automobiles headed back to Honolulu. The weather was good and it was an easy voyage back, about a week out from Honolulu, the First Mate fumigated the cargo holds. That was a requirement, the state of Hawaii had no snakes what so ever and they didn't want any.
The Mate fumigated with sulfur dioxide candles, much like railroad flares. I was standing out on the deck a couple of days later, as he went down the inspection hatch to check the cargo. He flew out the hatch, I am not sure he didn't climb that ladder like a monkey going up a rope!
He slammed the hatch cover down and his face was white as a sheet. By that time, there were several of us standing around. Seems he just happened to look down before stepping off the ladder, where he saw a hooded cobra weaving around between his legs!
Another armload of sulfur candles were dropped into the cargo holds and the hatches dogged down tight.
After two days, he again inspected the holds, using a strong flashlight. The durned snake was still there!
We ended up making a sheet metal hood, much like an upside down funnel and attaching a CO-2 bottle and a hose to it. The mate then dropped the funnel down over the snake and blasted it with frozen carbon dioxide.
One frozen snake!
We didn't find any more snakes, but the officials for the City and County of Honolulu thoroughly inspected the ship before they would let us offload any cargo.
While we were still in Honolulu, I received a radio message asking me if I would accept a transfer to another ship, the Peter John.
It was a much newer ship and I asked both the First and The Chief and they both advised me to take the transfer, otherwise those that make those decisions would figure I wasn't interested and would never offer me another chance.
I wrote out my reply and asked the Radio Officer to send it for me. Later that evening I received a reply that I was to be transferred in San Francisco as soon as we returned from Honolulu.
It was bit sad, the Taylor had been my first ship and I had made some good friends aboard the ship.
My last night on board as we sailed into San Francisco Bay, everyone came by to say goodbye, Jeremy hugged me and told me thanks for not letting him hurt that little steward.
The Chief shook my hand and told me I was welcome to sail in his Engine Room any time and Danny Spivie, my oiler had tears in his eyes. I packed up all my junk and Danny volunteered to help me carry it down the pier to where the Peter John was tied up.
I thanked him and told him I would be happy to be his engineer any time in the future.
I struggled up the gangway of the Peter John and was met by one of the stewards, who helped me get everything on board. I reported to the Chief Engineer and handed him my license and we talked for a while.
I was surprised to learn that the Third Mate was a classmate of mine. Even better, the Peter John carried a Fourth Engineer who handled all the deck machinery and electrical problems.
He told me we were headed to McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. Hoo boy, I DO NOT like the cold, but, to be able to say goodbye to cranky winches and antique swing booms, I could live with the cold!
Chapter 2 - THE PERILS OF THE PETER JOHN
The Peter John was a much newer vessel, it was a geared turbine drive ship with two Combustion Engineering water tube boilers. On this ship, the boilers and the turbines were all in the same space. A watch consisted of more folks too, an Engineer, Oiler, Fireman/Water tender, Wiper and a Helper.
Even better differences from the Taylor, the staterooms had air conditioners and were a bit better furnished! We engineers had our own mess, separate from the mates and my stateroom was half again as big as the one I had on the Taylor. There was even a throw rug on the deck so I didn't step out of my bunk and put my bare feet on cold steel!
Watch standing was the same, and I found myself on maneuvering watch first thing the next morning. Fortunately, I had spent a couple of hours the night before poking my nose into every place I could find.
I met my crew, Tommy Bledsoe was my Oiler and John Cameron was my Fireman/Water tender.
The crew was rounded out by Carlos Montoya, wiper, and Fowler Jackson was the Helper.
Steam was already up when I dropped into the Engine Room and Tommy had begun to crack the steam to the air ejectors on the main condenser. We were still on the auxiliary feed water pumps and there was 450 pounds of steam at the turbine stop. I opened the bypasses and started warming both the high pressure and the low pressure turbines.
The bridge called down on the bitchbox, warning me that they would be ready to leave in about 20 minutes. We started up the main circulator and adjusted the cooling water to the air ejector condensers and the lube oil coolers.
I ran down and checked the firing flat, John had two burner sticks in each boiler with both on low fire. I was pretty sure the first bell we would get would be Astern, so I bled a little steam into the reversing turbine to warm it up.
Sure as hell, the first bell was ASTERN SLOW. I could feel us pulling away from the pier, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the Chief and the First standing there watching the "New Guy".
We must have pulled out into mid-channel before we got a STOP and the AHEAD ONE-THIRD. I spun the astern turbine valve closed and started the main turbine.
It responded more quickly than the engine did on the Taylor and it began to overrun me a bit before I backed the throttle down.
I saw the Chief give a little smile, so I figured I was not to be shot at dawn and went about getting us underway. I sent Fowler down to help change over from the auxiliary feed water pumps to the main and by the time I felt the surge of waves through the deckplates, we had the plant pretty well settled out.
Once I had the plant evened out, I set the turbine governor for 135 turns on the shaft and made my rounds. I had been so busy, I didn't even see the Chief and the First when they left the Engine Room. I figured if they had any complaints, I would hear about them soon enough.
I had the habit of keeping a note pad in my hip pocket, so all I had to do was look at my scribbling to write up the log book.
I was the new boy on the block so I guess I made more rounds than I would have normally, it felt good not being the low man on the totem pole.
In any case, by the time the Second relieved me, I was pooped. He was far different from the strange duck on the Taylor. Bill Cummings was a friendly man, who had a ready smile. We discussed what was going on and how everything was running before I headed topside.
I washed up quickly and headed to the mess, I was hungry as I had been a bit nervous in the morning and had skimped on breakfast.
My stomach was demanding to be fed, NOW!
The meal was pretty good, true, hunger makes a great sauce, but corned beef and cabbage had long been a favorite of mine.
When the mess steward rolled a lemon pie into the room, I was thinking I would have to marry the guy.
I was stuffed and waddled back to my stateroom to get a shower and take a nap before I had to relieve the First so he could eat his supper.
They had a movie that night, something that starred Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, not my cup of tea, so I settled in to read some more of my book before I had to go back on watch.
We were on the long haul to Port Littleton, where we would pick up our final cargo for the Research Station at McMurdo. They planned on making several round trips between New Zealand and McMurdo Sound before the ice closed back in.
We were moving a good bit faster than the old Taylor and it was at least a week less time between San Francisco and Port Littleton.
There were a few little quirks and secrets to making the Peter John run smooth, the generators were all turbine driven, but they didn't share load worth a hoot, so we had to keep the bus separated between fore and aft.
The distiller was fully automatic, except it wasn't, if you didn't watch the damned thing, it would spill salt into the test tank and you had to dump all the water it had made and clean the test tank before you could return the drains to filling the water tanks.
The Peter John didn't leak near as bad at the old Taylor, so it required a lot less make up feed water to keep the boiler feed water tanks full.
I suppose the most critical thing about the Peter John was the main turbine governor, if one didn't lock down the clamps on the throttle lever, the governor would creep upwards. The Mates up on the bridge loved to call down and tell us how to run the plant, they seemed to take delight in telling us our throttles were creeping!
It was a simple matter to lock the throttle, but you had to remember to really screw down hard on the locking clamp.
Chapter 3 - NEW ZEALAND ROUNDABOUT
We added mostly deck cargo to our load and then had to wait a day for the Ice Breaker. We were the first ship in line to follow the ice breaker and we hit ice three days out from Port Littleton.
The lowest level in the Engine Room was at least ten feet below the surface of the ocean; it was eerie to hear blocks of ice scrape along the hull above your head! We were on low suction for the cooling water and even at that depth we had to keep steam shooting into the suction box to prevent ice buildup.
I went topside after my watch, as far as I could see, there was white ice, except for where we were following the ice breaker.
There were four other ships behind us and I borrowed the Mate's binoculars, the ice sheeted over almost directly after the last ship. The thermometer on the bridge read 8 degrees below zero and this was summer here!
We finally arrived at the ice shelf near the Research Station. The ice was solid enough, they could run sledges right up to the edge of the ice, and we swung our booms out to set the cargo directly on the sledges. They were pulled by large Caterpillar tractors that they never shut down. I was told, if they ever stopped, the crankcase oil would solidify and they would never be able to start the tractor again.
I wrangled me a trip to the station, it was interesting, but not what I would want to do. It was coldern' the gates to Hell and the wind never stopped blowing.
We would make four round trips before the ice would close up.
The young guys on the four ships got together and we rented an apartment in a residence hotel in the port. Not every ship was in port at the same time, so it worked out pretty well.
Andy Scott, the Third Mate, and I went in on the deal. He and I graduated the same time from the Academy and we seemed to hit it off well together.
We would be in port a couple of days while we loaded cargo for the next run south. Our first stay, we decided to play some tennis. Neither of us was very good but it was good fun.
We met a couple of girls from England, who were staying in the same hotel and they invited us to play a couple of rounds with them. It wasn't real hot, just pleasantly warm and we all worked up a good sweat.
Andy and I asked the girls if they would like to go up to Christchurch for dinner that night and they agreed. Andy and I dashed back to our room and went through the shower and a quick shave.
From our Academy days, we had learned to do all that in about five minutes flat!
In less than ten minutes, we were back down in the bar, where we said we would meet the girls. They were both there already and had half finished their Gin and Tonic!
In the taxi, we discovered that all they had done was dump some perfume on themselves and climbed into their party dresses! Needless to say, we made it a short night and didn't bother looking them up again.
The next ship in was the Benjamin Moore and we warned the guys when we passed the room key on to them.
The girls were gone by the time we returned again and we were careful who we invited to dinner in the future.
By the time we were on our last trip to the ice shelf, the short summer was ending and we fought ice all the way in and back out. We were blowing so much steam in the sea chests, it was affecting our fuel economy.
We were the last ship to leave McMurdo and, if it had not been for the ice breaker, we might well have had to spend the winter there. Ice was pounding against the hull something fierce and the way the turbine governor was behaving, the condenser inlets were fouled with ice.
The ice was forming around the screw as we passed through the opening the ice breaker had made and the main turbine governor was jumping.
The mates all lived in staterooms up just beneath the bridge and they were all asking for more steam heat. The pressure reducing valve was already wide open, there wasn't any more that we could send them.
It was so cold, the stewards had to shut down the laundry until we got back to Port Littleton because the water pipes to the washer had frozen!
We loaded cargo for Singapore and Rangoon and took on fuel oil for the ship before we departed, little did I know that it would be another fifty years before I made it back to Christchurch.
Chapter 4 - THE MALAY COAST
We took our leave of Port Littleton headed for Singapore, with a short stop at Sydney. There is a lively trade between Australia and the Malay states and they filled up all the remaining space in our cargo holds.
I swear, we were half way to Singapore before any of us felt warm again.
When we were just north of Darwin, the May Day alarm went off in the Radio Room. All ships are equipped with a radio set on the May Day channel and when a signal is received, an alarm rings in the Radio Officer's stateroom and also on the bridge. They calculated the bearing from where the call had come and we immediately turned in that direction.
By international treaty, all signatories of the treaty are required to do that.
We were the only ship in the area and the coordinator required that we respond at our best possible speed. The bridge called down and advised me of the situation and that I run the main turbine up to "EMERGENCY".
I let my crew know and the main turbine began to howl in protest. I started up the off-line turbine-generator and split the busses before sending the wiper topside to collect some bag lunches, we would be on emergency stations until we reached the disabled ship or the coordinator called us off.
We were making good speed, The Peter John was in good repair and her bottom had recently been cleaned. About four hours into the emergency I was advised to start backing the main turbine down, the emergency was in sight.
The next bell I got was for AHEAD-SLOW and then, almost immediately, I got an ASTERN-FULL and then STOP.
A short while later we all got relieved and I went topside to see what was going on. There was a small freighter in the process of sinking and the sorriest looking crew I ever saw was standing on the deck wrapped in blankets. They were mostly Malays and they looked as if they had been fighting fire.
I later learned that they had, their ship caught fire and they were forced to abandon ship.
Their ship was home-ported in Singapore and that was where we were going anyway. They seemed likeable enough guys, but only a few of them spoke English. They kept pretty much to themselves and the Harbor Authorities collected them as soon as we tied up in Singapore.
The Captain had to fill out a bunch of papers on them and the Chief had me make a short write up on what we did in the Engine Room. As far as I know, we never heard anything more about the incident.
We offloaded our cargo and the First Mate mapped out where he wanted the Rangoon cargo to be placed. We were there a couple of days and I went ashore out of curiosity, mostly. There was a whole lot of construction going on and brand new buildings were rising out of fields of wrecked buildings and trash.
It was like they were building a new city on top of the old one.
Everyone seemed to be hurrying somewhere and the streets were crowded with buses and rickshaws. Some were on the back of bicycles and a few had motor scooters up front.
I found a fairly good restaurant near the head of the pier, it wasn't near as good as Wo Fat's in Honolulu, but it made a nice change of pace. They had a kind of weak, watery beer, I didn't bother with a second glass. I was told later that it was probably rice beer.
The pier was short-handed, they had only a few longshoremen and one of the two cranes was not functioning. I saw the First Mate out on deck, he looked like he was tearing his hair out, we were already behind schedule and it was going to take at least another day to get the ship loaded.
He was NOT a happy camper!
There were no shore connections, so we had to run one boiler and our generator the whole time we were there.
All in all, we were all happy when the last cargo hatch had been dogged down and we started to bring up steam for departure. I wasn't topside, but either it was a very small harbor or the Captain was in a hurry to get out of town because, almost immediately, I got an AHEAD FULL bell and we were on our way to Rangoon.
The Chief came down every morning to look at our fuel reports, I think he was worried about excess consumption. I know he got blasts from the head office regularly about saving money, but, you can't break the laws of physics - it takes so many pounds of fuel to move so many tons of ship so many miles.
No way around it.
Anyway, a day out from Rangoon I started having trouble with the sea strainers. All my cooling water lines were plugging up and, when we cleaned them, they were full of rags and dead seaweed.
The closer we came to port, the worse it became. I went on watch just as we were entering port in the morning and the Chief left word in the night orders to shift to high suction as we entered port.
I figured he didn't want any bottom mud in his condensers.
The next day, we were working cargo and I had the morning watch. The first sign of trouble I had was the turbine generator started shedding load. The exhaust temperature at the condenser inlet had shot up to 175 degrees and the generator would carry no more than 1100 KW.
I started up the other generator and it was just as bad. There was nobody I could call, they were all ashore, I tried blowing the sea chest, but I couldn't clear it.
The generator was beginning to overheat and I "pulled the plug" by opening the breakers.
Boats (Boatswain) went over the side in a sling chair and could see "something caught up in the sea chest, but he couldn't pole it out.
I knew we had to get cargo moved, we were already late in our schedule, so I took a chance and pumped all the fuel oil over to the tanks on the opposite side of the ship.
Of course, I lost cooling to the generator and we had to shut it down, going over to the diesel emergency generator.
As the ship tilted and the sea chest came up to the water's surface, Boats went back down the side of the ship and pried a dead body out of the sea chest. As it floated away, he signaled me to pump the fuel oil back into the port side tanks.
When we had the ship plumb again, we restarted everything and had good cooling water flow.
When I got off watch, I asked Boats what we should log about a body and he said, "Nothing, it weren't but a dead cow."
Then he said quietly. "If'n we report a dead body, they will keep us here for a month investigatin'!"
I wrote it up as a dead cow and asked the Chief if I should correct the entry. He me told be just to be quiet, there are a hundred dead bodies floating in the harbor every day, and they would keep us here until they had investigated every one of them.
I didn't much like the idea, but he was signing my pay chit, soooooo.
That incident has bothered me for the rest of my life, off and on.
We were finally done with Rangoon and we got the "Hell out of Dodge" as soon as we had steam to the main turbine.
It was a long haul back to Honolulu and the First Mate went through the drill of fumigating the cargo holds. He didn't find any snakes or other surprises in the holds and we docked near the Aloha Tower eight days behind schedule.
Part of the cargo we took on in Honolulu was a large steel box, about 10 feet square and marked US TREASURY.
As we got away from Honolulu, I discovered we had two "passengers", they were Treasury Officers and the box contained gold.
One of the officers was an unpleasant brute, he was constantly challenging us, demanding we account for all our time and movements aboard the ship.
I had to call the Chief down to the Engine Room on my evening shift, the man made it so we could hardly do our work.
The next morning at breakfast, he threatened to have me arrested for interfering with a Treasury Investigation.
The Chief just walked in as he said that and the Chief grabbed him by the shirt collar and goose-stepped him up to the Captain's Office.
We never saw the man again until we docked in Oakland and two uniformed officers escorted him off the ship.
It was goodbye to bad rubbish as far as I was concerned. In any case, we were rid of him and I never heard anything more about it.
It had been a long, hard voyage and I was happy to be back for a while. I called my folks and asked them to come down to Oakland Ocean Terminal and I would take them out to supper.
We had a nice reunion and I guess my Dad and I have finally patched all our differences, we both had a great time.
We spent the next couple of months running up and down the Pacific Coast, mostly between Long Beach and Seattle.
I noticed on the bulletin board a note from the Captain that we would be heading to Europe the next month and would probably be there for several months. That was OK with me, I had never been there and it would make a nice change of scenery.
I picked up some new clothes and a top coat and hat as I had heard that most European men wore them.
We took on stores and the fueling barge topped off our tanks before we headed for Los Angeles, where we were to take on a cargo of heavy equipment and saw mill machinery.
There would probably be more when we got there, the schedulers are always sticking last-minute freight onto our manifest.
We got a new Second Engineer, he was an older man and seemed kind of standoffish, but only time would tell.
We made an on-time departure from Oakland and headed out the Golden Gate. It would be nine months before I saw it again.
TBC