I failed to mention that during my short time at Treasure Island there was a most
obnoxious Boatswain's Mate 2/C assigned as Master at Arms there. We were never
allowed to sit down at Treasure Island during duty hours. We had to keep walking
and looking busy. One good way was to carry a piece of paper and try to look like
you were a messenger. Occasionally you forgot and leaned against a bulkhead or
Heaven Forbid, just sat down. The Master of Arms always spotted you as he rode
his bicycle down the halls continually. He immediately took you to a closet and
got you a shovel to carry on your shoulder as he added you to his marching
brigade to march around the halls continually. He was a contemptible person.

Well, imagine our surprise and disgust when the Master of Arms was selected as
the gunnery petty officer for the SS Charles M Hall. There was also a Signalman
Third Class, a Radioman Third Class, A Seaman 2/C radio striker and all the rest
of us were lowly Apprentice Seamen.

The Charles M Hall had a five inch fifty bag gun on the stern, a three inch
fifty antiaircraft gun on the bow and eight 20 MM antiaircraft guns. Our Boatswain
had never seen a five inch fifty or any other bag gun and the gunnery officer
had never seen one and none of the gun crew had ever seen one. The Charles M Hall 
was a brand new Liberty Ship and this was the maiden voyage. The five inch fifty
looked as though it may have come from the USS Arizona. You could stand at the
end of the barrel and raise the barrel up and down a foot and horizontally two
feet without the Pointer or Trainer moving a hand. All we knew was that there 
was a very long rod with a brush on the end and a wash tub laying under the gun.

Later we learned that the projectiles in the magazine had no brass shells attached
to them and that was when we began to suspect that we were supposed to ram the
projectile in and throw in one of the silk bags of powder. After we fired one
round and opened the breech we saw burning remains of the silk bag and decided
we were supposed to put water in the tub and dip the brush in the water before
we rammed in the next projectile. It was on the job training without any one on
the job who had ever done this before.

The ship's cargo holds were finally filled and we thought we were ready to go.
How little we knew. They began to load the decks with trucks, huge boxes, and
even airplanes, all cabled or chained to the deck. They finally announced that
everything was loaded and balanced and we were ready to go, we thought. Then
they loaded a huge crash boat on the forward port deck and we had a definite
list to port, but they said we were ready and we left San Francisco for the
Pacific.

We were assigned watches, four hours on and four hours off and in the four hours
off we cleaned guns, listened to the articles of war, painted, attended survival
at sea lectures, learned the morse code, studied for Gunners Mate, listened to
the ten records we had received with our hand wound record player and even
managed to sleep three and a half hours every night.

The Boatswain's Mate was a pain in the butt, degenerate and evil. He had a set
fee you could pay to get off watches, he had certain people he favored and certain
people he delighted in making miserable.

Our first island was Palmyra and no one had any idea whether it was still in 
American hands or belonged to the Japanese. We approached the island and they 
seemed to ignore us until the Master started blasting away with the ship's horn
and that got their attention and planes started taking off and began buzzing us.
They decided we were American and we decided the same for them. All the cargo
we had for them was the huge crash boat. The Merchant Bosun began making
preparations to unload the boat but an Army Secone Lieutenant arrived on board
and announced he was an engineer and that he would unload the crash boat. We
knew he was in trouble when he rigged one 20 ton boom for the job and the Bosun
tried to tell him but he waved him off. He did manage to get the crash boat
a couple of feet off the deck before the boom broke but he was holding the
wrong rope and lost a finger on his right hand.  The Bosun then rigged the
booms and the crew lifted the boat and got it over the side. The Bosun winked
at the crew member handling the winch and he just let go and the boat splashed
into the water and the  Army did not have to bother removing the crating.

We left Palmyra and on to Pago Pago, Samoa. Palmyra had no harbor and Pago Pago
has what might be the most beautiful harbor in the world. We docked there and
had been instructed not to remove our shoes while we were there as the Samoans
would be aboard and many had elephantisis, which was contagious and the ship
would be scrubbed down when we left. We had the deck cargo for them and the top
level of each hold. The planes were set on the dock and we watched as the
natives took them through trees that we knew they would not go through but
somehow did.

We were also amazed as those in charge unloaded their part of hold one and then
began carefully setting everything in the bottom of hold one on the dock. Then
they unbolted the top of the tank under hold one and began unloading case after
case of beer. Then they rebolted the tank top and put everything back in the
bottom of hold one. They had unloaded beer destined for British Samoa, our
next stop.

There was little we could do ashore except get in the beer line at the Marine
PX and get two warm beers. There was also a Samoan Marine Corps and one of their
jobs was to watch the beer line. The Samoan Marines had on Marine dress uniforms
but did not wear shoes. We thought we would just get in line again and get two more
beers, but immediately a Samoan Marine recognized us and motioned for us to leave 
the line. My buddy, Speedy, was determined he would stay in line and got a little 
nick in the butt from a bayonet.

We walked around and found a public shower in the middle of town. It was nothing 
but four two by fours and a pipe going up one two by four, then to the middle,
with a shower head. One two by four had a nail for the natives to hang their
clothes on while taking a shower in public. Speedy had to stand there and make
comments about their anatomy for awhile, then hung his clothes on the nail and
took a shower. The Samoan Marines broke that up rather quickly.

I met a US Marine there from my home town and he asked me to call his Father
when we got back to the States and tell him he was okay, and I did. I met
another Marine there from New Bern, North Carolina and he asked me to call his
wife when I got home. I did that, also, and she invited me to spend a few
days with her, and I refused. I never fully understood why.

We left Pago Pago and fumigated all the decks and got back to normal and soon arrived
at British Samoa. There was no harbor there but the unloading crew arrived on
board in great spirits and were heard to say they were sure Pago Pago did not
get their beer this time. They were sadly disappointed as all they found in
the forward tank was a note from Pago Pago thanking them for the beer. All the
cargo had to be unloaded on barges and we were allowed to go ashore. We were
told the natives did laundry and most of us took a load, much to our dismay,
as we later learned that they just put the entire load of laundry on rocks and 
beat it with more rocks and I never did get all the blue out of my whites.

We walked around and came to a shallow stream and you could tell by looking it
was only a foot or so deep. I started wading across it and disappeared. I was
told later that it was 65 feet deep, and I cannot swim. Speedy jumped in and 
drug me out before I was fully drowned.

All good things must end and we left British Samoa with a load of copra, with
a million copra bugs that found their way into every bunk on the ship. We
eventually arrived in Tocapilla, Chile to unload the copra and take on a load
of nitrate. There was no port and everything had to be done with barges again.
We learned that you cannot burn nitrate with a blow torch but you can just 
drop a small piece of smoldering hemp rope in the hold and days later it will 
ignite the nitrate and cannot be extinguished with fresh water or sea water.
We had to empty one of our water tanks so they could fill it with stagnant water,
which is all that will put out a nitrate fire. In addition, our merchant crew
had to place the  hatch covers on the hatches, with cracks between them so
that the nitrate could be dumped on the covers and sift through the cracks,
and someone had to be assigned to watch for hemp rope.

Tocapilla was neutral but the police there treated us like kings, saluting us
every time they saw us. Tocapilla was also famous for their great silver
artists and their silver items were really great bargains, but few of us had
any money.

Eventually we departed Tocapilla and headed for the Panama Canal. I had not
shaved since we left San Francisco and had a heavy and bright red beard, totally
untrimmed. The gunnery officer said to shave or stay aboard so I shaved. I had
no hair on my head as it was shaved when we crossed the equator. One of our
shipmates was a rather portly lad and was the first to succumb to the liquor
and Speedy insisted on stealing a fork lift to take him back to the ship. We
all got roaring drunk and somehow concocted a plan to stay there and miss the
ship, which was supposed to sail at 0800 the following day. We ended up sleeping
on what we thought was a pile of lumber and about 1000 hours the next day we
strolled back to the dock to express our sorrow at missing the ship. There were
two problems with our plan. The ship did not leave until afternoon and the pile
of lumber we slept on was creosoted and our whites were more blacks than whites.

We found our gunnery officer was in the hospital and Speedy and I went to the
hospital and at his request kidnapped him and took him back to the ship. He had
sat on a porcelain toilet, it broke, and his butt was ripped open.

When we arrived in Brooklyn the gunnery officer was taken to the hospital, the 
Boatswain's Mate put the signalman in charge and went to the Port Director
and got orders to return to Treasure Island, the Signalman and Radio Operator
arranged for leave and suddenly we had one Seaman 2nd class and a bunch of
Apprentice Seaman alone on the ship.

We had never received any mail from the time we left San Francisco till our 
arrival in Brooklyn, so the Seaman 2/c took charge. He sent one truck to the 
Fleet Post Office for mail and one truck to a liquor store for whiskey. When
the trucks got back we put the mail for the gunnery officer, signalman and
radio operator aside and dumped the mail for the Boatswain in the Bay.

We started drinking and reading mail and got very drunk. A group of officers
and a Chief came aboard for an inspection and found us all drunk. They asked who
was in charge and the Seaman 2/c finally  made it to his feet and said, "I Ruffin
Lazare Molliere, am in charge." Bless his Cajun heart. The inspection team
said they would be back, but never returned and someone finally came from
the Brooklyn Armed Guard  Center and got us.

I had two special friends aboard that ship. One was Grover Cleveland Redding, 
who I went through boot camp with. The other, I will just call Speedy. He was
a full blooded Cherokee Indian. He was forever in trouble and forever dragging
me in it with him. He did some crazy things, such as listening to survival at 
sea talks and then going to every raft and carving all the oars into spears
so we could spear fish if we were sunk. He also took his only pair of shoes
and cut them into a pair of sandals. The gunnery officer had finally confined 
him to his quarters with a guard outside the door. Speedy stripped and coated
himself with a full bottle of hair oil and went through the port hole, while
we were at sea, He ended up on a tiny ledge and yelled and yelled and no one
could hear him and he could not get through the port hole and back inside.
It was a miracle that someone happened to look down and saw him and the Bosun
rigged a rope and went down and got him. When he was on deck, naked, the 
gunnery officer screamed at him to stand at attention. Speedy did just that
and then saluted with the wrong part of his body and smiled broadly.

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