Voyage Two
SS Edwin W. Moore - Page 5
We were always being asked if we were "English?" and we'd say no "American" and then the Italians would be real friendly. One guy said "Americans good" and then said "English. . . " and made a silent gesture pulling his hand across his throat. The Italians didn't like the English and it was mutual. From what I saw, the English soldiers treated the Italian people like shit. They had been fighting each other long before we got into the war and they really hated each other. Me and Pedraza were walking down the road and a truck load of English soldiers came by. They must have thought we were Italians because we weren't in uniform and they started yelling, cursing at us, "You filthy bloody Eye-ties!" and a lot worse.
We went into a bar in Naples and the owner wasn't friendly until he figured out that we were Americans. He said, "you Americans pay for what you want and the British take what they want. " We were in there drinking and the people were very friendly. They would come up and try to talk to us. They were always especially friendly when they heard my Italian name. They never could understand how I couldn't speak Italian. We had been at sea for a while and I wanted a haircut.
One of these Italians said that he had a friend who was a barber. We went to his shop and he cut our hair and shaved us. Just before we left this Army Major came in to get his hair cut. I had a wad of lira and me and Pedraza gave the barber a bunch of the stuff. Well that pissed off this Major. He said to us "Here, you gave him too much. See the price is posted; we give them $.03 for a hair cut. " He really made me mad. Here these people didn't have anything and this Major was taking advantage of the situation and living good in the rear. I told him he could pay what he liked and I'd give the barber what I liked, and if he didn't like it, tough.
Pedraza and I were drunk when we finally decided to go back to the ship. When we got to the docks we saw this skiff. So we took it and started rowing. That's the last I remember. I came to on the Moore cold and soaking wet. There were shot gun shells in the pockets of my peacoat. I don't know how the hell I came by them. The captain had us brought up to him and he was furious. He dressed us up and down and threatened to have us brought up on charges. I thought he was going to have a stroke, he got so angry.
Then he asks me if I am any kin to Tony Traverso. Sure, he was my great uncle. Uncle Tony had a five chair barber shop in Galveston called the "Hollywood". Turns out that Captain Quinn and him had been great friends. Tony was a gambler, bootlegger and a hard drinker. Quinn starts telling me how he thought the world of my uncle and because of this he was going to give me a second chance. So he let me and Pedraza off with a warning and a promise to behave ourselves.
Shortly after that I found out how we got back to the ship. An English LST brought a crew of Italians out for a couple of days running to unload us. One of the Italians was an old man who spoke some English. He said when he was younger he had been a ship's captain. He was kind of foreman of the Italian longshoremen. He said they were in the LST being taken to unload another ship when they saw our skiff founder. He could see that we were drowning but the English didn't want to stop to pick us up. The English thought we were Italians. The old man said that they (the Italians ) raised such hell that the English finally stopped and hauled us in. Then when they discovered we were Americans they got us back to our ship.