CHARLES HENDERSON
...where I find the British social structure to be strictly from hunger...
by Joe Hafford

I was sent promptly from the Union Hall to the docks of the Delta Shipbuilding Co. on the Industrial Canal in New Orleans. The Charles Henderson was a Liberty Ship that had just been built. It had gone through a shakedown cruise and was back for final fitting. I was sent out as an oiler.

The first thing I did was to check out the engine room, as this was the first Liberty I had been on as part of the engine crew. Everything was brand spanking new and shiny, a stunning contrast to the Amelia and the Pan Crescent. I ran into the 2nd Asst. Engineer and discovered he was a native of New Orleans, so I promptly requested to be on his watch. I didn't get any argument from the other oilers because the 2nd always was the engineer on the 12-4 watch, which was generally least preferred. The 2nd was a big man, at least 6'3" and albeit not fat, a bit heavy. An impressive individual of about 30. If I ever knew his name, I forgot it because he was only 2nd to me.

It had been almost exactly a year since I graduated from high school and this was my fifth different ship; I must say I was getting a very broad education. We signed articles on May 22, 1943. It was odd being on a totally empty ship. The waterline seemed miles below the main deck and the propellor stuck way out of the water. This presented an operational problem as the propellor had to be at least half submerged or the engine would run away and tear itself up. If there were the slightest pitch in heavy weather, someone had to stand by and reduce steam to the engine whenever the propellor raised out of the water. The oiler was primarily responsible for this but as he had to make the rounds, the engineer had to spell him. This was a serious problem on the North Atlantic run as ships were usually light coming back from Europe during the war. Rapidly cutting steam to the engine was an arduous task requiring franticly spinning a rather heavy wheel geared to the main steam valve which was then followed by just as franticly opening the valve as soon as the propellor became submerged again. On older ships this task was more readily performed since there was an easily operated butterfly valve in the steam line for the purpose. Economics probably dictated the design on the Liberties.

While still in the shipyard the captain had called us all together to announce that he couldn't tell us where we were going but that there would be "music". He was a small nervous man. It didn't bode well for us as events proved. No, we didn't see any enemy action but I think the Henderson was ill-starred from the start. I made only one trip on her and as time told it was just as well I did.

It was no surprise to find we were headed for New York. The bulk of wartime cargo shipped out of New York. The seas were calm this time of the year so we didn't have any problem riding as light as we were. We got there in a few days and started loading, mostly things like trucks and all sorts of vehicles. No ammunition that anyone could see.

While loading, I had a chance to get up to the Music Box Canteen again and have another date with Dorothy. She was there only once a week, but I got there almost every evening and it was then that I met Lucretia Herrera, a cuban girl whose family had come to New York when she was very young. She was a lovely person, dark hair and eyes and a very fair complection. For some reason I have never fathomed, hispanic women seemed attracted to me and Lucretia was no exception. She lived with her mother in Greenwich Village right off Columbus Square. We dated quite regularly whenever I was in New York, but it was always the typical 'dating' of the times.

On this trip I was relativly strapped so I didn't go out on many dates. I did get down to Times Square frequently and went to Radio City Music Hall as I immensely enjoyed their stage shows, the Rockettes and their ballet troupe as well as invariably a good movie. Also there was the Paramount Theatre on Times Square. This may have been the time that Frank Sinatra was performing there. I went mainly to see the movie and got seated in the middle of his act. I had never heard of him, so as far as I was concerned he was just another so-so crooner attached to a big band - one of the Dorseys I think. At any rate I had never been exposed to the teen squealing phenomena. It completely turned me off. Silly girls jumping up and down and screaming and clapping. I couldn't enjoy the show. I have never been much of a fan of Sinatra's since. In fact, when he got to the point in his act where I came in, I got up and left in the middle of a song.

When we left New York, everyone knew we were headed for England. There were four letter code names for all destinations stenciled on the cargo and it had become common knowledge where each code name represented. England had several different ones, but the only one I remember now was 'UGLY'.

A word about the engine room. The Liberty Ship had a triple expansion engine, similar to the Amelia and the Pan Crescent but smaller. The high pressure cylinder was about 24 inches in diameter, the intermediate cylinder was about three feet diameter and the low pressure cylinder about 70 inches in dia. The engine developed about 2500 horsepower and propelled the ship at a maximum speed of about eleven knots. By comparison to my past experience, the engine room was quite roomy. There was all the expected equipment but in this case, the boilers were of the watertube type. Sort of the inverse of the previous ships I had been on. The so called scotch boiler had a firebox and the gases from the fire passed through tubes immersed in the water. The Liberty Ship boilers were designed so the water was in tubes located in the furnace, and the heated water discharged steam to a cylindrical tank that acted to separate water and steam. Water tube boilers were safer and more efficient and lent themselves to using oil for fuel. The main disadvantage of the water tube boiler was the careful attention that had to be paid to the level and condition of the water and the greater attention needed to keep the fire side of the tubes clean. It was routine to blast the exterior of the tubes with steam on a daily basis to keep them clean. This was the 2nd's job to be done at night. Night time was chosen because the operation resulted in a dense black plume of smoke emitting from the stack, which would be a great aid to submarines searching for ships to attack.

On a Liberty Ship there were only two boilers that faced each other. This way the fire room opened to the rest of the engine room, leading to more closeness within the engine crew. This arrangement had the boilers in 'front' of the main engine. The rear of the main engine was connected to the propellor shaft. The propellor shaft was a heavy steel tube some 15 in. in diameter that ran some 100 feet from the engine to the propellor. It shaft was separated from the cargo hold by a watertight cover, the shaft alley, big enough for a man to walk through and inspect the several bearings supporting the shaft. It was required that the oiler inspect these bearings, and the steering engine twice a watch. On the earliest versions of the Liberty Ships, there was no access to the shaft alley directly from the engine room, ostensibly to prevent flooding the engine room in event of a torpedo striking the propellor (a real danger from acoustic guided torpedos.)

The absence of access to the shaft alley from the engine room created a problem for some oilers, as some of them were rather big and heavy. This was because the access to the shaft alley was through a rather cramped vertical shaft from the main deck. A large man simply couldn't manage it, especially if he was even the slightest bit claustrophobic. The impracticality of the arrangement forced the installation of a watertight door being installed between the engine room and the propellor shaft, which fortunatly, by the time the Henderson was built, had become standard. Neither the engineer or the fireman was allowed to leave the engine room while on watch except for an emergency, so it fell to the oiler to provide any mid-watch sustenance. Once during each watch the oiler had to check the steering engine. To do this he had to leave the engine room and go back to the fantail where the engine was, and oil it and check it out. On the midnight to four watch, I would stop in the messroom on the way back and make a couple of sandwiches for the others.

My efforts were generally good, I thought, but finally, the 2nd complained that his was too bland and would I put some hot sauce on his. The next night, I gingerly applied a touch of Tabasco to his sandwich, but he still complained saying that I must have just thought I put some on it. The next night I was generous with the Tabasco, enough to have set me on fire. He said, "That's better, but next time put some on!" The next night I spent five minutes shaking the stuff, through the tiny hole provided for normal usage, on his sandwich: I was going to fix him -- he loved it!

The Atlantic crossing was uneventful. The spring of the year is about the only time the North Atlantic is reasonable, weatherwise. The only problem that might crop up was fog. The convoy consisted of 30 to 50 ships and about a dozen escorts, mostly destroyers and corvettes, and one cruiser. By far the most impressive array I had been part of. It was truly formidable, but German sub packs often attacked such a gathering. A couple of ships had experimental nets hung over the sides at night held away from the ship by the cargo booms. We heard stories about ships that raised the nets in the morning and found torpedos caught in the steel netting. Made us wish for the nets. The nets were probably installed on ships carrying special cargo and possibly special circumstances but they slowed a ship to a point that their value was marginal at best and they never came into general use.

The North Atlantic is always cold, once you leave the Gulf Stream. If a person were dropped in the water, even in the summer, he wouldn't last long and it was imperative he get picked up quickly. As a measure of protection we were all issued rubber coverall type suits to put on if we ever had to abandon ship. The suits were bulky - one size fits all - awkward and difficult to don. I expect I would have put one on if needed, but I always wondered if there would be time. Thankfully, I never had to find out. When I was on the Amelia, two of the Armed Guard sailors had been on a ship that had been torpedoed in the North Atlantic. They had clung to the bottom of an overturned lifeboat for several hours at night along with several crew members. About half the men didn't last until daylight. One man had held on to a mate for hours until he found out his buddy was dead when it got light enough to see.

Ordinarily a ship like a Liberty would have two generators, one for standby while the other was operating. Three were necessary, however, if we were to have a standby because of the need to dedicate one generator for the degaussing system. The Germans had developed a nasty type of mine - a magnetic mine. Previously, a mine was merely anchored in shallow water in a shipping lane, floating a few feet below the surface waiting for the unwary ship. Minesweepers had a relativly easy time removing them, but the magnetic mine was far below the surface, well out of the range of the sweepers. The mine was triggered by the distortion of the earths magnetic field by the massive steel in a ship's hull. In order to counteract this, the ship was turned into a giant electromagnet. Huge copper cables were wrapped around the ship with just the right amount of current to neutralize the distortion thus allowing the ship to pass over a mine safely.

The first time I saw a ship with degaussing coils was before we were in the war when I saw a British ship in Buenos Aires with a cable wrapped around the outside. New ships all had cables built in during construction, along with the extra generator. All Liberty Ships had the coils built into the inside of the hull.

The convoy took a northern route and dumped us off at Glasgow, Scotland. We just anchored out for a couple of days but of course, I had to get ashore for a look see and possible adventure. It was downright chilly, which I found out was a chronic year round condition in Scotland. The place was somewhat dead for activity I was interested in. The only thing I managed was to get my picture taken in a kilt. Now kilts were not general wear by men in Scotland. It seemed that only country folk wore them as a routine. In fact, the only kilt I saw being worn was by a very young man who looked true country. The kilt was well worn so he obviously wasn't wearing it for effect.

While we were at anchor, we were fitted with a barrage balloon. The barrage balloon was ubiquitous in England - they were everywhere. I recall a reported remark made by a disgruntled Yank after a bit of shore leave that upon returning to his ship and observing the array of balloons over the city, "They ought to cut them all loose and let the place sink!". Not everyone was enamored of England. They did serve a purpose, however, as the Germans had made effective use of dive bombers and the balloons made them release the bombs higher than they wanted to and thus reduce their accuracy. The cables holding the balloons could be lethal for a plane. Our balloon was attached to the stern and floated about 200 feet in the air. I did wonder if the balloon would provide a good marker for location of a target and have the opposite of the intended effect.

We soon proceeded around Scotland to Hull England. Hull is about 2/3 of the way down from the northern point of Great Britain. Being on the East Coast, it was a favorite target for the Luftwaffe and there was extensive damage evident. The bombers could get in and out before effective countermeasures could be taken. By this time, the Battle of Britain had passed its climax and air raids had become infrequent and ineffective. We never did get any of the "music" the captain had predicted.

The British were in serious need of foreign exchange so it was a simple matter to get ration coupons for just about anything as I was spending American dollars. I picked up some for clothing and found a tailor shop that had some really nice things. Someone earlier had had a suit tailored but never came back to pick it up. I bought it, even though the coat was a bit tight across the shoulders. The jacket was a brown Harris tweed that I still have 50 years later. The trousers were a wonderful greyish tan flannel that I just loved. I am still angry with the cleaners in Fairhope about them. I had left them to be cleaned but couldn't get back in time to get them out and asked my father to pick them up for me. Unfortunatly, he forgot and they never said a word to him even though he went in frequently for his own cleaning. About eight months later I came back and went to get my pants, but they were gone! I had no recourse, but what really chapped me was that they had kept a couple of rather worn old shirts waiting for me to claim them. I should have raised hell; today I would but then I just swallowed and walked away and asked my father not to deal with them any more. All this was in the future, and for the present, I was able to enjoy having the new suit.

We were in Hull about a week. Long enough to find our way around a bit. There were a lot of American soldiers around so finding feminine companionship was not easy. I scored only once, but that wasn't bad. The only air raid warning that sounded during our stay occurred during the night I was with her. She didn't budge so I just went back to sleep. The next day I found out that a lone bomber had approached the coast and had sort of randomly flung his bombs toward the waterfront and hightailed it back home. He didn't hit anything. In my mind it was a tribute to the effectiveness of the defenses the British and Americans had established by then. On board we speculated that the 'attack' might entitle us to the $100 bonus for undergoing an enemy attack. The powers blew it off and we got nothing extra.

I found a bar near the dock that dock workers frequented that had the typical potent British ale - room temperature of course. As it was much stronger than American beer, two became my limit. The mugs the ale was served in were very interesting; made locally with a black rim. After my first visit I learned the rim was to cover the fact that they often didn't take much care in washing the mugs between uses. Many of the customers were mine or industrial workers and often had grimy dust around their mouths. It didn't take me long to find another watering hole not too far from the docks. Beer was cheap and they really washed the glasses - relatively high toned. There were a couple of good looking girls frequently there, but I found out they were hustling and were expensive, far beyond my means, but nice to look at.

In my wanderings around Hull, I went into a ritzy hotel that had miraculously escaped damage and had a couple of drinks there to just absorb the atmosphere. I had my new suit on and felt I was in high cotton. While there, I struck up a conversation with a Scottish Lieutenant who was all rigged out in a black kilt. The kilt was smooth in front and generously pleated in back. He really looked impressive. The thing I remember about our conversation was that he was utterly shocked at the informality on American ships. He recently had occasion to be on an American ship in port one day talking to the 1st mate when a mess boy came up to the mate and said, "How about a f------ cigarette?" The mate gave him one whereupon he said, "What good is a f------ cigarette without a f------ match?" So the mate supplied him with a match. The Scot found this totally incomprehensible. I couldn't explain it to his satisfaction. I mused to myself, "Wonder what he would say if he knew I was a mere oiler?"

I remember walking down a street in Hull and seeing a sign in a butcher shop 'Dog meat for sale.' Meat for dogs - right? WRONG! Thats what I thought until someone enlightened me. No. Dog meat for people! A sign of the tough times the British had been going through.

We finally left Hull and headed up the coast toward Scotland still under the gun from Germany. We still had our balloon but tied close to the deck. I presumed we would send it up if needed, but obviously it would have been a great signal to the Germans of a prime target.

A word about signaling between the bridge and the engine room. On the bridge there is a drum like cylinder mounted on a pedestal with a handle pivoted at the center of the drum. The face of the drum has indicated the speed desired from the bridge, full, half, or slow, both for ahead or astern. There is a corresponding instrument in the engine room that has an arrow in the center that corresponds to the selection from the bridge. A very loud bell sounds whenever the handle is moved, getting the attention of the personnel. A corresponding handle is in the engine room that activates an arrow on the bridge instrument to acknowledge the receipt of the signal. The movements are effected by a set of wires. There is also a telephone and a voice tube between the brodge and the engine room, but maneuvering orders have to be responded to immediatly and the telegraph is the fastest and surest way to get the informatiion back and forth. The telephone and tube are back-up systems during maneuvers. I might add that the system aboard Liberty Ships was archaic even then and modern ships have taken advantage of far superior technology.

It was a short trip up the coast to Newcastle where we were to pick up a change of convoy. I was on watch about 2:00 PM when we entered the harbor. We were traveling about half speed when a sudden call for full astern came down to us. Reversing such a large engine as on a Liberty is no trivial task. In routine forward operation, the steam is admitted alternatly to each side of the piston with a slide valve that functions from an eccentric cam on the shaft, as described elsewhere (essentially a very short crankshaft.) For reverse, the slide valve has to reverse the sequence of steam admission to the cylinders. This is accomplished by shifting the actuating cam by means of a small reversing engine. At sea the reversing engine is essentially shut off and it can take 15 or 20 minutes to get it going. Fortunatly the reversing engine had been warmed up and was ready for use and the engineer, who was stationed at the throttle, was able to throw the main engine into reverse immediatly. As we were heading into port, we could quickly meet the command.

Optimally, it can take several minutes for a ship as massive as the Liberty to effectivly change direction. Keep in mind that, even empty, a Liberty weighed in at several thousand tons. In less than a minute the ship collided with something. We of course didn't know what was happening outside. The effect in the engine room was dramatic. The floor plates actually buckled and we were tossed a few inches in the air. We got a stop signal, then a brief slow ahead and another stop. We felt fortunate that no steam or oil lines had ruptured. It was a testimony to the solid construction of the Liberty and we were able to carry on in the engine room without difficulty.

What had happened was that we rammed a British merchant ship, square in the engine room. Fortunatly there were no injuries, but the ship was laoded and was in imminent danger of sinking. Somehow it was beached before it sank. The collision made a huge gash in the bow of the Henderson about six feet wide and 20 feet long, but the location of the gash, above water, didn't pose any threat of sinking to us.

It turned out that the Captain had been drinking and lost his judgement. He had been on the bridge, in command, and violated the rules of the road, thus was responsible for the collision. It was the understanding that the only man aboard ship legally allowed to possess liquor was the Captain. It seems that he had stayed in a state of intoxication since leaving the States, having his private supply of booze. Subsequently in New York there was a hearing regarding the collision and we all had to hold ourselves ready to testify. I was never called. A point of interest was that it was never brought out that a slow ahead signal came down to the engine room AFTER the collision. I would have insisted on that point, which in my judgement was a proper course of action as it may have kept the British ship from sinking, but the CAptain never brought it out and the 2nd backed him up. I never found out what happened to the Captain but he probably kept his license as there was a severe shortage of seamen at that time.

The rules of the road are a complex set of protocols governing the maneuvering of ships under proximate conditions. For example, a sailing vessel always has the right of way over a powered vessel and the powered vessel must always take action to avoid the sailing vessel. In our case the British ship, an ordinary freighter, had the right of way but our Captain didn't obey the rules.

We had to stay in Newcastle a few days while temporary repairs were made to allow us to return to New York. Fortunatly, it was at a time of the year that the Atlantic was at its best behaved, although it could be a bit bad even then.

Newcastle was a rather grim looking town and it was obvious where the aphorism, 'carrying coals to Newcastle', came from. We weren't there long enough to do any exploring, but we did get off long enough to sample the local pubs. It was in Newcastle that I was exposed to a facet of English Society thet bothered me a lot. I was in a pub, relaxing and observing when I noticed what appeared to be a couple of obviously well to do businessmen also relaxing over a pint of ale or two. Also over to one side were several obvious working men enjoying a bit of ale in quiet conversation. One of the working men detached himself from his group and approached the businessmen but keeping a 'respectful' distance. He was wearing a dark grey baggy suit that hadn't seen a dry cleaner in a long time, if ever, and had a typical shabby bill cap common to England. After a few minutes one of the businessmen deigned to acknowledge his presence and abruptly asked, "Well, what is it?" The worker had a cigarette in his hand and politely asked for a light, which was given and he returned to his companions.

Along with the episode in Hull with the Scot Lieutenant it drove home to me the strict class structure that existed in England. I suspect that there has been much evolution of this out of the society there, but there is doubtless a residual that will take generations to be gone entirely, but I am sure it will come about.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. We coasted around to Belfast, Ireland where we waited a day or so and picked up a convoy back to New York.

The Charles Henderson came eventually to an unhappy end in Italy, about two years later. After a number of crossings it was in Bari unloading ammunition when it exploded.

'On 9 April 1945 thirteen ships were discharging at Bari. On berth 14, in the centre of the dock system, the CHARLES HENDERSON, with 2000 tons of 1000 lb and 500 lb bombs still aboard in five holds, was working with five gangs of Italian stevedores supervised by British sappers. Just before midday, without warning, a sheet of flame shot up from the after holds which still held a 1000 tons of bombs and this was followed by a tremendous explosion. A column of smoke and debris rose several thousand feet in the air as the after part of the ship disintegrated. The forepart of the vessel surged forward, crashing into the quay, a tangled mass of burning wreckage still containing 1000 tons of badly shaken bombs.'

The above is from a history of Liberty Ships. (I had been long gone from the Henderson of course.) The port of Bari was out of commision for a month. And in fact, it was back in service just about the time the cease fire in Europe was reached. There is nothing in the text that says the Germans were responsible. It could well have been an accident as the Germans were so close to total defeat.

Back in New York I took Lucretia out to dinner at a smorgasboard restaurant. Quite an experience for this unsophisticate! It had to be seen to be believed. A huge table with every conceivable type of Scandinavian food. One could return for seconds as often as one wanted. I had never seen the like anywhere else. Another good eatery was a place on Times Square that was essentially a bar. You just stepped off the sidewalk a couple of feet and had a chioce of a tremendous variety of great sandwiches. Their ham on rye and pastrami on rye were the best I ever had, and at a good price. Ever since I have had a soft spot for pastrami, but I have never found it to equal that in New York on Times Square.

Needless to say, I took in the Radio City Music Hall again. Of course I made a habit of the Music Box for the few days I was there after this trip. But, I headed home soon. There was another missive for me in Montrose from the Draft Board. Another questionaire or notarization needed; I forget which but I took care of it and went on my way, and that was back to New Orleans.

This time I went straight to the McArthurs and was warmly welcomed as usual. To this day I marvel at the way I was treated by them. I just dropped in out of the blue and never felt the slightest negative feelings. This was indeed a rare situation and I cherished it.

I was only in New Orleans a few days this time. Chris Berg was in town on leave from the Army. He had a hot thing going with a girl and I got my old girl friend to go out on a picnic with them. We drove out along the river (I had my Dads old Dodge and a few ration coupons) south of the city and found a deserted area with high grass that we could pack down for a blanket and at the same time enjoy some privacy. We had a great time and finally loafed back to town about dark. Unfortunatly, my old flame had relit the fires and it was plain she was interested in more than an occasional date. This was the last time we went out together. I was still very gun shy.

My money didn't last long and I headed back to Montrose and the Union Hall in Mobile. They sent me out on a small freighter that was making the rounds in the Gulf and Caribbean, the Chippewa.

PAN CRESCENT ...there's always a first time...

CHIPPAWA ...another pleasant tour of the Carribbean, one could get used to this...