|
A copy of the newsletter produced aboard the SS Jonathan
Worth for
troops onboard. The newsletter let the men know where they were and
where they were going, and other information such as meal menus.
Photo by Bureau of Aeronautics taken Feb. 23, 1944, of
the SS Jonathan Worth, the Liberty Ship Bernard Smith
served aboard for a couple of years at the end of WWII
while he was in the Merchant Marine.
Certificate of Service, with photo of Bernard Smith as
he looked in 1942.
W.W.II: History soon to be the past of many
Vets, now gone on.
At 82 I am hanging in there despite a series of heart attacks.
You may not know, but we of the Merchant Marine were called
the dungaree Navy. We operated those Cargo Ships as civilians.
Civilians as young as fifteen, I was seventeen, and as old as men
in their eighties.
The Compliment of men on those ships was 38 or 40. Compare
this to the Navy, which was 120 men. I served in the Deck Dept.
I was called by a nickname, "Sparks." A Radio Operator, to the
uninitiated. I carried the rank of Ensign, in the US Maritime Service.
I like many, have stories of that life aboard those 'creaking' ships.
You never got time to feel lonely, for you were always on the
alert for the "GQ" alarm. I have heard it go off more than once.
So this will give you a bit of a preview of what it is like to
'ship-out'
on those 'creaking rust buckets."
|
