The Merchant Marine WWII

The often neglected branch of the armed forces is the Coast Guard. Formally established in 1915, the service can trace its origins to 1790. During wartime, the men and women of the Coast Guard have served under the Navy; now it is part of the Department of Homeland Security. The men who served with the Merchant Marine during World War II, hauling precious cargo around the world, pulled the most dangerous duty during that war. But veterans’ status and benefits were denied the Mariners until 1988.

The casualty rates during World War II were dramatically higher for the men who served on Merchant Marine ships than in any formal branch of the military. Working sometimes without escort and with only modest fire power aboard, the ships of the Merchant Marine sailed through mine fields and dodged submarines and bombers to deliver invaluable cargo everywhere from Arctic Russia to the Persian Gulf. For over 60 years, these brave men were denied formal military recognition.

“I remember that I had gotten my first wristwatch when I graduated from high school. Both my wristwatch and my original seaman’s certificate and other papers went down with the SS Steel Worker on June the 3rd, 1942. (Audio Interview, 11:51)William Chambers was en route to Hawaii on a cargo ship on December 7, 1941, when his captain announced news of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Chambers had been in effect training for war for two years. At 18, he entered the Pennsylvania State Nautical School in October 1939, shortly after WWII broke out in Europe, and the school had its students learn the ropes on different vessels of the U.S. Navy. During the war, Chambers made many dangerous voyages, none worse than a 1942 trip to the Soviet Union on which he lost three ships to torpedoes or mines. At war’s end, he was still at sea, carrying supplies for the invasion of Japan which were never needed.

“We looked back and on the engine room was this round indentation, which had been the head of a torpedo that had hit the engine room and it hadn’t exploded. Now, if it had, with all our gasoline it would have just ‘fwwip’ like that, there would have been nothing left.”

James Alvin Jolly James Jolly in uniformWar: World War, 1939-1945 Branch: Merchant Marine Unit: MT Edmond J. Moran (Tugboat) Service Location: Gallups Island, Massachusetts; Boston Harbor, Massachusetts; Alaska Rank: Ensign James Jolly had completed one year at the junior college of the College of the Pacific in Stockton, California, when he was selected for a United States Maritime Service program on Gallop’s Island in Boston Harbor, where he started training in September 1940. When Pearl Harbor was attacked in December 1941, Mr. Jolly’s graduation was expedited by three months. His first assignment was as a Radio Officer aboard the tugboat Edmund J. Moran. Mr. Jolly was aboard the tug when it was sent to be part of the invasion of Kiska in the Aleutian Islands, where he earned the Merchant Marine Combat bar. While at sea, Mr. Jolly had numerous close encounters with submarines, including once being hit, while on a tugboat carrying drums of aviation fuel, by a torpedo that turned out to be a dud.

To man the increasing merchant fleet and to ensure the Merchant Marine service properly operated during wartime, ordinary seaman could advance into established ratings and wage schedules as deemed appropriate.   Officers attended the U.S. Merchant Marine Cadet Corps, which was under direction of the Coast Guard and War Shipping Administration.  Training lasted about nine months and at sea for more than a year.   U.S. Naval Armed Guards also served onboard the merchant ships.  Though the Navy did not build any of the ships, they were responsible for protection, even if the ships did not steam in a convoy.      

HERE IS A LINK TO HOURS OF STORIES FOR THOSE INTERESTED>