Della's Recollections

Page 5

I was really worried about Danny when he left that ship in New Orleans and came home. We were afraid that the Coast Guard would show up any day and arrest him. You know everybody acted like they (merchant seamen) were civilians and could do anything that they liked, but the military did arrest them and put them in prison. They were subject to the Navy just like the Coast Guard was during the war.

We were lucky that Danny's father knew this Coast Guard Commander. He was a Galvestonian and they had known each other since they were children. Danny's Dad went to see his friend right away who got everything transferred to Galveston where he could control the process.

I was really relieved when that commander worked everything out for Danny.

After our son wrote off for all Danny's records we saw how the Coast Guard Commander explained away Danny's leaving the ship by saying it was his first voyage and he was sick with
venereal disease. None of that was true of course, Danny had already been to sea on several ships. But until more than fifty years later we never knew what had been written into the record.

I have really teased Danny unmercifully about it because he always has bragged about sailing around the world and all the time he spent in bars and taverns selling beer and how he never got a sexual disease. Now I kid him that officially he did and it will always be on his record.

Continue on to the next voyage in the story - click here