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Looking For A Ship |
Ship Ahoy |
First Foreign Soil |
Ashore In Sydney |
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Peace At Sea |
Typhoons Etc |
Far East |
Fire In The Hold |
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Good Old USA |
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Feb 14, 1949 
Signed off Mosbay in Sydney, Australia. We finally had enough money
to sign off in Sydney. And now what to do?? The customs officials confiscated some
of our stuff. I lost a silk smoking jacket. We were told we could get
them back when we left the country. I don't know whether we really believed
them or not . We might have been able to use them for barter but we never
had the chance. Where to go and what to do!. Sydney was a new place for us. We had
our sea bags and some money. We felt a freedom but I imagine if the truth
be told we might have felt a little scared. There is a Kings Cross area in Sydney which is like the Greenwich
area in New York City and that drew us like moths to a candle .and we
found a room. Yanks were not an oddity in Australia. Some had been in and out
during WWII. They had money so they attractive to the ladies but the male
side didn't like them a bit. All of this slowly sunk in to our thick heads.
I remember once one of the blokes told us that the US swabies had given
the girls chiclets and told them they were birth control pills. Sounds incredible doesn't it?? Of course we learned to tell stories back
and forth that weren't always the whole truth. About a year and a half before this, I was sailing on the Siboney
as an Aerographers Mate. The Siboney was a "Baby flat top" and was a flagship. This means
that there was an Admiral aboard. Ours happened to be Admiral Whitehead
and he was a navy man who had worked his way up through the ranks. Those
of us who were white hats had a a great deal of respect for him. He had
a sense of humor and although he had sense of the protocol of the service
he had a twinkle in his eye over some of our slippage's. He had some of
the same personality traits of Captian Salverson on the Mosbay. One of the things about being a Aerographers Mate was that a lot
of people did not kno what you were supposed to do. We went around a
lot without our white hats on and nobody seemed to challenge us. One
day I was on the flight deck taking measurements on the winds aloft. We
used a piball balloon and sent it up and I looked through a theodolite
,which is an instrument to measure height of the balloon.. . Every minute
Shorty Dugan would call " time" and I would read off the coordinates for
him to write down. We chattered a little and then I noticed he got quiet.
I felt a presence behind me and I figured it was another swabie or a
chief. Soon I heard a request, "Can I take a look?" I replied, "Just a minute. I have to get up to ten minutes" . When I did
and turned around and said, "Okay, Chief, Here you go" and it was the admiral.
He just grinned and looked. And then just said, "Thanks" and walked away.
Another day, Shorty and I had to take the weather map up to the
Captain, which was a daily occurrence. He was in the wheel house and we
passed by the Admiral's cabin and went on up to the bridge. Shorty was
full of fun and on the way back down he had the map rolled up and was ahead
of me. He passed the Admiral's cabin and ducked around the corner. I was
following behind and just before I got to the Admirals Cabin, the Admiral
stepped out and got between me and the corner where Shorty was hiding.
I was dumbfounded and watched in horror as Shortly jumped around with
the rolled up map and pointed at the Admiral and said, "Bang Bang. I got
you" and he saw what he had done and straightened up to attention. The Admiral just smiled and walked on by.. I guess it was a wonder that we didn't get put on report. Being in Sydney was full of exploration, smelling the smells and
seeing the sights. We learned to look right instead of left when we stepped
off the curb because the Aussies drove on the wrong side of the street. We went to Bondi Beach and around Sydney. We even bought "civilian"
clothes, since we had left home without them. After awhile we started
to run out of money and we had a few optionsÉ.Write home (not really
an option for us). Go to the US Embassy and get sent home as an indigent
( but we were told we could never go to sea again if we did). Go to college
on the G.I. Bill ( a thought but not a very attractive one) catch another
ship ( but we soon found out that ships tended to hire their own nationals
and Americans usually had to sign on for tour out and back) so we moved
into Surrey Hills which was much cheaper and found jobs at the Ian Marr
Iron foundry and now for the rest of the story. As common laborers we made about 8 pounds a month or about $26 dollars.
Our job was shoveling moulding sand and metal.. We needed the job and
money. Wouldn't you know that when we got on the job the Ironworkers union
was poised for a strike. The Sun of Sydney for Thursday April 07, 1949
blared that the UNIONS FAILS TO GET ALL IRON MEN OUT. The union had some success and called another
meeting. It seemed that most of the workers did not want to go out on
strike. It was just before a holiday and the workers would not get paid
for the holiday. It was a little complex as to why there was an attempt
by "our Leaders" to get us out. It had to do with the "Months Gaol sentence
on Mr. L.J.McPhillips, the unions assistant national secretary". There were, charges, meetings and fights and we were lucky enough
or dumb enough to be in the middle of it. Being in pretty good shape
from our days at sea we could stand up well in the struggle. As an aside one of the articles in the paper said "Television is
the most marvelous:and greatest thing invented since the wheelbarrow.
É. And I were televised at televisions premier at the Australia
yesterday" this was on April 7, 1949. Another paper told of a Vice ring that was Raided in Chicago on
the same day. The Australians were very interested in what was going on
in the US. Needless to say the Strike did not last long. Even though there
were many Communists in the Iron Workers Union most of the workers were
anxious to get back to work and we were among them. We enjoyed our work with the laborers in the Marr Ironworks, Inc.
We soon found out that the workers were a fun loving bunch and wanted
to know about America. And we enjoyed swapping stories.. They asked us
about Al Capone.. they got a lot of their opinions from the newspapers
and the movies. Once they found out we were from Kansas they figured we
wore guns and fought the Indians. We did nothing to dispel them of their
mistakes. And since we had been in Chicago we must know about the gangsters.
We on the other hand fell for their stories about there being kangaroos
outside. We got invited to a home of one of them to try his home made beer.
It was so smooth and we almost did make it back without making fools
of our selves.. Since I had played tennis and their country were tennis
fans we got invited out to one of the homes where there was a tennis
court. We had no equipment They loaned us some to participate. We had
a lot of interesting experiences. The EASTER SHOW was going on while we were there and we went out
to see the events. It was like our STATE FAIRS with their own events.
There were tree and logging events and "football games" which were rugby
games. There was a lot of enthusiasm in the foundry about those games
and when some player bit a blokes ear off. Our friend Ted McBratney was to get married and we had a party for
him at the Club 
Sydney. Some place I think I have a picture of it with Ted, Dave,
Les Jabara, and I think Ole Olson, and me. If I can find the picture
I'll try to scan it in. It was fun and I'm sure we drank too much. I
remember one woman announced that with our youth and vigor and her experience
we could have a lot of fun. I didn't see anyone taking her up on that
but then I had a lot to drink by that time.. |
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Although we didn't know it at the time , we were going to
have about three months in Sydney working, and playing |
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Still in Sydney. Ted gets married. We never saw him again.. |
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Signed on the Mosbay. Left Sydney. We had the worst time trying
to get a ship out of Sydney. Most ships tend to hire their own nationals
and American ships hire their mates for a trip out and back. We saw
in the paper that the good old Mosbay was coming to port and so we went
down to talk to Captain Salverson on bended knee. We had been good sailors
for him and he had a couple spaces so were hired. Not for the Able Bodied
sailor jobs we had before but at least we were going to be on board again
and heading out to sea. The rumors were always rife .We were going to????
And who knows were but the truth of the matter our first port out was to
Brisbane |
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Traveled to Brisbane, Australia, Singapore, Palembang & Oeban.
this is the next chapter |