At Bremerhaven, we finished loading the German ammunition, took on a Navy gun crew, slipped our lines, said our goodbyes to Germany and headed out into the British Channel. We had not been able to refuel in Germany as Bunker C was in short supply at that time. Our first stop was to be a fueling dock in Le Havre France and then on to the Mediterranean sea.
We were all pretty excited about the stop in France; the stories floating around put a young man’s mind to working overtime. It was about a four day run, but seemed like a month.
The Channel was an interesting run. ships of every kind in great profusion. All the ships that had been so busy during the war were now just as busy bringing food and reconstruction material to war ravished Europe. Most of it from the United Stares and Canada. We had made a rapid transition from the production of war materials to that of needed stuff like building, farming and those items needed to get their own manufacturing capability up and running.
Think about it; first we run up the largest national debt ever to destroy Germany and Japan, and then we double that debt to rebuild them with the most modern equipment available. And, in a few short years they are competing with us in the world markets, using newer more updated equipment than we have, that we provided them with for free.
What they must have been saying about us among themselves as they chuckled over their beer or sake, huh! You probably remember that story a few years ago ” the Mouse That Roared.”
A small country declared war on us just so they could lose and we would rebuild them. Satire of course. Boy, did I ever digress. Sorry; I got carried away with the memories.
So we arrived at Le Havre. Major bummer, to use the modern vernacular. The fuel dock was located about five miles from town, no way to get there and we would be there for only about four hours. I went down on the dock and walked around for about half an hour just so I could say that I had been in France. All those exciting prospects unattainable!
Leaving France we headed out into the Atlantic And set a coarse for Gibraltar. A lot of coaster traffic so we maintained bow and bridge look outs during night time hours just as we did during the war. The last thing you want to do when you are carrying several thousand ton of live ammunition is to run into any thing.
We still did not have radar. It was, however, only a couple of years away for civilian ships. As we headed south it got warmer by the day, and it was almost August. A beautiful time to be headed into the Mediterranean. It was a long haul running the length up to Turkey but a relaxed and uneventful trip.
Iskenderun Turkey on the other hand was magical. It hardly deserved to be called a city but yet contained all the color, smells and sights of an Arabian movie. I was fascinated and never tired of exploring as much of it as possible.
As I wrote earlier, Alexander the great had passed through here on his “known” world conquest and renamed it Alexandretta. After a few hundred years they took the old name back. The situation was pretty primitive and again we were required to use our own on board cargo handling gear to off load the ammunition and equipment necessary to deliver it. Remember, we were only unloading half of it here. I didn’t care how long it took as I was quite happy here.
More about old Iskenderun next time.
Shovelman's Blog 
It’s a shame that a young man could see more of France. It’s ironic that we destroy a country then turn around and help rebuild it; then they are our competitor.