Master Mariners' Written Histories, A Proposal Capt. Harold D. Huycke Last year I had a small pa1t in helping a retired shipmaster get hi s autobiography edited , printed and illustrated . He is Captain Do nald Johnson , a long-time captain with Grace Line- now retired- whose seafaring career began in the mid 1920s on Puget Sound. Originally, hi s intent was to simply type and reprint hi s autobiograph y for his kids and grand-childre n. So we had a discussion at o ne of the monthl y meetings of the Council of Ameri can Master Mariners, and I said I'd root th rough my photos and other collecti ons fo r pictures of his ships. One thing led to another and I gave him a hand in editing the manuscript. Good photos we re found in local coll ecti o ns , and the manu script was fini shed on a word-processor, with the e nd res ult being a first -class job not o nl y for Captain Johnson and hi s fa mil y but for the readers a nd s ubscribe rs o f th e Sea Chest , the quarte rl y jo urn al o f the Puget Sound Maritime Histo ri cal Soc iety in Seattle. The broad subject of World War II ships and their operation over the course of the three decades followin g the war, has been on my mind for a few years. They are gone, and the generation of men who went to sea before World War II and are now retired is going the same way. It is inevitable that we will soon be looking upon the Liberty Ship sailor and even a steamship sea man as somethin g o ut of hi sto ry. Digging out hi sto ry whe n it is ma ny miles astern is an awful lot hard er , and less accurate, than preserving it with the partic ipants still at ha nd. Using Ca ptain Johnson 's example as a starting po int , I would like to propose th at a proj ect be
undertake n to acquire autob iographies by men of comparable ex perience fo r publicati o n. The idea is not compli cated: obtain auto biographies o f as many shipmas te rs as care to take the time to write o ut at le ngth all th at is pe rtine nt to the pro fessio nal a nd pe rso nal life they spe nt at sea. 1 quit go ing to sea fi ftee n years ago and already th e shape o f things is radi ca ll y diffe re nt. The mea ns o f nav igatin g th ese mode rn ships is c ha nging qui ckl y . Skill s required of th e seama n o f 1940 and 1986 are diffe rent- new skill s have take n over fro m o ld o nes . New pu sh-butto n skill s require a know ledge of which butto n to push and whe n . The needs of maintaining a bi gge r and fas te r ship are diffe re nt in many ways today th an they we re thirty o r fort y yea rs ago . The o ld ways are going, and with th e m the skill s and th e people who prac ti ced th e m. I e nvision an edito ri al progra m fo r a publi shed work o n the fo ll ow ing lines : A re presentati ve edito ri al board to revie w submitted manuscripts sho uld be establi shed with a fair mi x of seafarin g authors and expe ri e nced and kno wledgeable scholars of th e pe ri od . They should es tabli sh in adv a nce what cross section o f Ame ri can shipping sho uld be re presented. For example, three autho rs who spe nt time in the intercoastal service , ge neral cargo, lumbe r, steel a nd o il be ing th e re prese ntati ve commodities. T wo o r three in th e No rth American-Medite rra nea n and Transatlantic service ; two or three No rth Ame ri ca-South Afri ca a nd ro und -thewo rld ; Alas ka, So uth America (east and west coasts) ; Austra li a/New Zea la nd ; Far
To the South Pacific ... (co ntinued) and its port of Pago Pago. My most lastin g impress io n o f Pago Pago was of a yo un g native boy about nine years old wh o scampe red up a coco nut palm tree full y fifty feet o ff the ground and knoc ked down three coco nuts. The n , prying o ff the g reen husk with a sharpened sti ck stuc k in th e ground , he picked up a machete full y as tall as he was, lopped o ff the coconut top with three blo ws and ha nded us the cool milk y juice to enj oy. We were about fort y- fiv e days o ut of Australia . Landing in Sydne y , we worked our way up th e coast to Ne wcastl e, Bri sbane, Townsville , Ca irn s, and the n o n to Port Moresby, Tufi , Morobe , Lae and Fin schhafe n in steamin g New Guinea. There , ri ght in the midst of the war zone , a great USO troupe was entertainin g th e Gl s . We me t the m in man y of the front line ports. The troupe was led by the great Holl ywood star John Wayne . Years late r I ran into " The Duke " in Rome, and was able to express my appreciatio n , not only for hi s be ing o ut the re, but also for the great USO pe rformances. It was many months before we turned the Barbara C o ve r to the United States Arm y in Australia , and I ha ve ma ny me mories o f my time o ut the re, not just the endless days o f loadin g and unl oading a millio n-a nd- a-half board feet of lumbe r into a nd o ut o f the Barbara C. 20
East , inc lud ing pre-War C hin a, Japa n and Indi a; and Atla ntic , G ul f a nd Pac ific coastw ise shippin g. Emphas is sho uld be o n the eve ryday runnin g of th e ship , the headac hes , ru sty li fe boats, fi sh oil slo pped o n deck , color sche me a nd company colors, dri ving wedges to sec ure hatches , stow ing and sho rin g cargo, send ing seame n to th e marine hos pital fo r rea l and imag ined ailme nts, resc ue at sea, leaky do ubl e botto ms , los t deck loads and so o n . By what rul es we re dail y c hores o n a ship set? Wh at we re the hours o f wo rk , the rates o f ove rtim e- a nd fo r wh at kind of wo rk ? What skill s had to be learned , retained and practi ced by all me mbers o f the c rew? What was the foo d like? Who ra n the slop chest? Who made the coffee fo r the o n-coming watc h , and what was the ro utine of standin g watch? What was the effect of th e ri se and influe nce of th e licensed and unli censed uni ons? 1 be lieve that a primary qu ali ficat io n sho uld be a caree r which began some ti me before th e war. At the ve ry least , th e careers doc ume nted sho uld be th ose th at spanned th e steamship era and " breakbulk " mode l of ship , of th e 6, 000 to 12,000 Dwt to nn age ca pac ity , with o ld conve ntio nal cargo booms and steam o r electri c w inc hes. In othe r wo rds, and putting it simpl y , careers th at started befo re the container revo lution changed it all . '1i Captain Huycke , who spent most of his career at sea, is an advisor of the NMHS and active in the effort to save the schooner Wawona in Seattle (SH2 I & 22).
In Finschhafen we swam o ff th e ste rn in water that was too salty for the crocodiles and too fres h for the sharks. (We still pos ted a loo kout in the a ft g un tub with a rifl e to scare off th ose th at ventured too close.) At Lae, the re was " C harli e ," the Japanese Ze ro pilot wh o almost dail y came o ut o f th e sun low over th e airfie ld and did barre l ro ll s and loo ps before di sappea ring aga in bac k into the sun . He neve r bo mbed or strafed the airfield or the po rt and o ur P-38 pl anes , fas t but not so maneuverabl e, could neve r catc h him . On o ne occasion we were sent o ut of Po rt Mo resby to search fo r two navy sailors who disa ppeared fro m the ir ground ed vesse l during a salvage operati o n. We located them the nex t day on a re mote island . As th e loca l chie f came alon gside in hi s du gout canoe , our Chief Mate started to di spl ay hi s kn o wledge o f th e local pidg in Eng li sh: " Last moon two long pigs . . . " at which point the C hief ra ised hi s arm and said , in pe rfect O xfo rd Eng lish , " If you are re fe rrin g to the two Ameri can sa il o rs, they are in camp res tin g and doing fin e." Afte r almost a year in Austra li a and New Guinea we fin all y turned the ship ove r the Arm y, and we re shipped back Stateside in the Dutch troopship , Klip Fountain . We arrived in San Francisco fourteen months afte r we first signed on our "old pirate ship. " u, SEA HISTORY , AUTUMN 1986