Up to now, all of my experiences had been in the Pacific. But, here I was on the James M. Gillis. Another Liberty ship, and headed for Bremen Germany with fourteen thousand tons of Stockton grown raisins under the Marshal Plan. We let go of the lines at Stockton just after noon on a beautiful day in May.
I had the twelve to four watch in the engine room as fireman watertender so did not get to stand on deck for the trip down through the delta to San Francisco Bay. I did however finish my watch in time to enjoy the experience of sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge. I remember however, that the feeling was one of excitement and high expectation rather than one of trepidation and uneasiness that one usually felt when leaving safe harbor during the war.
A little more about Liberty Ships. These ships were designed for quick construction and large cargo capacity. They were anything but fast and elegant. But they were user friendly and fun to operate. In the engine room there were no secrets. Those reciprocating engines were about as uncomplicated as an engine could be. A high pressure cylinder, an intermediate and a low pressure cylinder, completely exposed piston rods and crank shaft, all tied to the propeller shaft. Two boilers provided the 200 pound steam pressure that drove these engines.
The engine room watch consisted of a Watch Engineer, The Fireman water-tender an an Oiler.
The speed of these ships was of course effected by wind and sea conditions, but never exceeded twelve knots. One knot equals 1.15 miles per hour. During the war when traveling in convoy, the entire convoy traveled at the speed of the slowest ship. Usually the Liberties. We always squeezed every possible RPM out of them to the detriment of the engine longevity. After the war, the War Shipping Administration issued a standing order that these ships not be operated at an engine speed exceeding 76 RPM. This resulted in a ship speed of around 11 knots. A good place to see one of these engines in operation is in the movie Titanic. The supposed shots of that ship’s engines were actually taken in the engine room of the Jeremiah O’Brien in San Francisco.
Or, you can go over to San Francisco and see the engines turning over slowly on most weekends. Any way, all of this is in way of explanation as to why it will take us so long to get anywhere on this trip.
It took us just under two weeks to get to the Pacific side of the Panama Canal. We overnighted at anchor before our scheduled transit of the canal giving us a chance to go ashore and see the sites and take on some personal supplies. We were warned in no uncertain terms to be very careful as this was a very dangerous place to be after dark. It also turned out to be a hell-hole during the day. In the course of any two blocks you would be offered for sale almost any illicit, illegal, immoral object or activity you could imagine. Sorry not to be more descriptive, but my Mom taught me to be polite; but that’s the way it was.
The next day we made our ten hour trip through the canal. What a beautiful and exciting trip it was. It also gave you a great sense of pride in that we had built it.
We had some unusually good weather in our almost three weeks steaming up and across the Atlantic to enter the English Channel. When you are in the center of the channel you can frequently see either France or England. It seemed such a shame to be so close and yet not able to land. We entered the Wesser River At Bremmerhaven, Germany, and traveled slowly up to Bremen. I say slowly because there was so much devastation along the river. We and the British had bombed the bejeebers out of everything in sight.
The Germans had several submarine building shipyards and tender pens along this river and were a prime target area. The Germans were always very aware of the importance of the supply lines from America to Europe and spent a lot of effort in their attempt to disrupt them with submarines. Sometimes with a lot more success than we like to admit. I saw several submarines in various stages of construction that had been hit and partially destroyed in the building ways.
We tied up at docks that had been repaired just enough to be used. There was no equipment shore side capable of helping us discharge cargo. We rigged our own gear and used our steam winches to handle cargo off loading. A slow process. We didn’t care, as there was much to see and explore.
I was itching to get ashore but we had to go through quarantine, get various shots and clearance passes. The U.S. and British Military Police ruled the roost and for some unexplained reason they did not like civilian seamen. You had to be careful as they always seemed to be looking for some reason to hassle you. Later, some regular GI’s told us that it wasn’t just us and that they were that way with everybody.
Next time: The devastation of Bremen.
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