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thanked Dorothy for making our stay in Bremen so interesting and we sat with her father until our train reached Bremerhaven, where we all joined our ship. Three days later wp prepared the ship for the short voyage to Hamburg where we spent fourteen days. When I asked a stevedore why they deliberately held our ship in port so long, he replied, "We want to make sure that all the crew is broke when you leave. This way American dollars stay in Germany!" Itwasa certainty that only one man had a dime when we sailed - the captain. I was chipping rust on the salon deck as we were running down the English Channel in a dense fog when suddenly I heard the fog horn of a light ship off to port. When I heard it again it was off to starboard and very close. I ran to the rail in time to see the Dover light ship EAST GOODWIN appear out of the fog. Just before we struck her on our quarter, I saw her well-trained four-man crew jump overboard with life belts on. They were picked up later by a fast rescue boat out of Dover. We stopped and dropped anchor to wait for inspectors to examine our ship. Luckily neither ship was leaking and after about a four-hour delay we were allowed to proceed. However, a hearing was held when we reached the States, and Captain Hart was cleared of negligence.
We stopped in Tampa, Florida, for two days to load phosphate. Keith asked me if I was going ashore. At first I said no, but later decided to go. When I got into the city about 8:30 that evening, I saw a character leaning against a lamp post with cap pulled down over his eyes, in deep concentration. It was Keith, conducting one of his studies of fellow humans, many of whom, I feel sure, he found to be quite inhuman! We found a good restaurant, had steak and potatoes, and walked back to the ship together. I never saw Keith after that voyage and have often wondered what became of him. Certainly he must have contributed a lot to our society; he really had a brilliant mind. He became a cavalry major in his sophomore year at the University of Arizona, an honor that had never been awarded there. God bless him wherever he is. It was the first day in August when we arrived in New Orleans. Keith went back to the University of Arizona and I went home.
I had been home only two days when my good friend Butch Mongeaux called me from Mobile to say an able bodied seaman
was negded on his ship, the CHICKASAW CITY. Did I want the j job? I said "yes" and caught the train to Mobile next morning. I signed on as a quartermaster for a four-month trip around the world. The CHICKASAW CITY was a twelve thousand ton vessel and carried steel for the United States Steel Company. She used three quartermasters and we stood four-hour watches at the wheel with eight hours off. It was quite an experience to actually steer a ship one third of the way around the world, down through the Panama Canal, and hack through the Suez Canal!
We departed Mobile the first week in August. After we left the Pacific side of the Panama Canal (Balboa) we did not sight land for forty days! On the forty-first day we docked in Honolulu. Our ship was like a tanker, never spending more than four days in any port. But this had one great virtue - we saved a lot of money and we never got into trouble. We never had time, because we never broke sea watches; it was four on and eight off for four months! From Honolulu to Manila, Philippine Islands to Kobe, and Nagasaki, Japan to Shanghai and Hong Kong, China. Then through the Bay of Bengal into the Arabian Sea and Bombay,India, and across the Arabian Sea to the Red Sea and through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean for a stop at Alexandria, Egypt. On through the Dardanelles and Bosporus into the Black Sea to Odessa, Russia,\and down to Istanbul, Turkey, back: into the Mediterranean to Piraeus, near Athens, Greece. From there to Naples, Italy, and to Barcelona, Spain, through Gibralta to Lisbon, Portugal, then across the Bay of Biscay to Brest, France. From Brest to Greaves End, England, to Antwerp, Belgium, and to Bremerhaven, Germany.
Here, I caught the train to Bremen, walked to the hotel where Keith DeKalb and I stayed only a few months ago, and asked about Dorothy and her father. I was told by the manager that Dorothy was now married and lived in Bonn. Her father was still out to sea. I knew Dorothy was engaged, but I didn't think she would marry while her father was away. She must have gotten lonely.
I caught the train back to Bremerhaven that same night and joined my ship. One day later we headed toward the North Sea and Bergen, Norway. It was getting mighty cold and I was glad I did
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True, Jim Yours Truly-010
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