Who am I?

I went to sea for the first time, on this ship, the Great Lakes ore carrier Shenango, sixteen months before Japan attacked the United States, at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; and four months before I was born. One of my earliest memories is bunking in the top dresser drawer, in the Third Assistant Engineer's (my dad's), cabin, on the Shenango. Before I was age six, I could only make trips with my mother. During his twelve years on the Shenango my dad was an Oiler, Third and Second Assistant Engineer. I grew up on the Shenango and the two other Shenango Furnace Company ships, Col. James M. Schoonmaker and William P. Snyder, Jr.



Left. Age 6, downbound, in front of the fountain, at the Soo.

Right. Age 8. An old "army" blanket shields my backside from the sun heated steel hatch cover. Ice cream and cookies cure sunburn, right? Downbound in the St. Marys River.







Age 10. Johnny Mansaka and the kite he built me.
Shenango, upbound light, Lake Superior.

1959 was the only time our whole family made a trip together. My dad was Chief Engineer on the William P. Snyder Jr. Our mother, Margaret, in front of him and my sisters Kay to her left and Peggy to her right, my brother Jim in front. I took the picture.

Against my dad's better wishes, at age nineteen I ran away to sea.
I shipped out in 1960 on the Great Lakes with the Hanna Mining Company

as a coalpasser on the Edmund W. Mudge.
I was a Wiper on the Leon Falk, Jr. in 1961.
"Steamer Leon Falk departing Superior August 1977"
Photo courtesy of the photographer,
Richard Bibby, long time Duluth - Superior Hanna Vessel Agent.

A Fireman / Watertender on the Joseph H. Thompson 1962 / 63
( I sailed the Joe T. Ordinary Seaman from the April fit-out until June 1961,
then flew to Baltimore to join the Leon Falk, Jr. Also, I fit-out the Joe T. as Third Assistant Engineering Officer in 1966, my first licensed job, and sailed her until August. )

and an Oiler on the George M. Humphrey 1964 / 65.
Photo courtesy of The Marine Historical Society of Detroit

Here I am, dressed for work as a F/WT, leaning against the Joe Thompson's
starboard side Hanna stack star.

While the Great Lakes lakers were layed up, during the winters of 1961-65, I went to Florida or California. I spent winter 1966 at the Lake Carriers School in Cleveland. Competently taught by George Rector and Eli Rantanas, I sat for and received my original Third Assistant Engineers license, Steam - Any Horsepower - March 2, 1966. I fit out, as Third Assistant, and sailed the Joe Thompson until August 1966. Then went offshore and sailed with Ogden Marine Transport, Victory Carriers and Seatrain Lines / Hudson Waterways; mostly to the Republic of South Vietnam.

Offshore I sailed a C2, a C3, several C4's and T2's.

SS Seatrain Maine. This is one of the most unique ships I sailed. Originally converted in the early 1950's, from a 10,000 HP Turbo-Electric drive WWII Mission Class T2 Tank Ship, to carry railroad cars between New Jersey and Cuba; there were three sets of railroad tracks on the main deck, and two sets in the 'Tween and 'Lower holds. For the Vietnam War it was converted to a Fueled Vehicle Carrier. Capable of completely flooding our holds with CO2. We had CO2 bottles EVERYWHERE! There were two CO2 bottles in the back of my clothes closet, seven more in a bank in a spare space of deck in my room. CO2 bottles lined the passageways. The total cargo working equipment were those two electric Letourneau cranes. We'd carry containers, and aircraft, and other light stuff on the upper 'flight-deck', anything on the main deck, and in the cargo holds. We'd carry fully fueled jet fighter planes, all sizes of helicopters, tanks and trucks to South Vietnam, returning with 'retro-grade' -- broken equipment. The one time we carried a railroad locomotive in the lower, from Taiwan to Vietnam, it was the wrong gauge to fit on our American tracks. To compensate for it's height, this ship carried 4,000 tons of permanent salt water ballast.

Awarded December 21, 1968

Here I am when I sailed 1st. Assistant Engineer, standing in front of the throttle station, on Hudson Waterway's turbo-electric drive, jumboized T-2 tankship, SS Trans Erie.



Here I sit atop the main engine on the SS Jeremiah O'Brien.
She stopped in San Diego for a few days on her way back from Normandy in 1994.

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10-03-2003