In some ways, retiree Nicolas Nomikos recalls, it looked like a bright spring day aboard the SIU-crewed Liberty Ship Thomas G. Masaryk. Problem was, the illumination didn’t come from the sun.Nomikos and the Masaryk were part of a 50-ship convoy heading toward Halifax, Nova Scotia at night on April 16, 1944 when a German submarine torpedoed his vessel — along with about 15 others. “Our cargo included 10 to 12 planes, gasoline, ammunition and depth charges,” recalled Nomikos, who last month celebrated his 90th birthday. “The explosion and the fire were so big, it made the sky look like it was daytime—a sunny day.”
Unable to access the ship’s lifeboat, 20 or so crew members from the Masaryk took the life raft and stayed on it for a few hours, until around midnight. “That’s when we found [an empty] lifeboat from another ship which had also been torpedoed,” said Nomikos. “We transferred to the lifeboat, which provided a lot more space. The next morning, the British Coast Guard picked us up and took us to Tobruk, Libya on the Mediterranean Sea. We stayed there about six days (waiting for transportation) and then were transported to Alexandria, Egypt. My return trip to the United States was aboard an NMU ship.”
Like so many of his fellow Seafarers who escaped death during World War II, Nomikos didn’t hesitate to return to sea. He continued sailing as a steward and chief cook, earning the Atlantic, Pacific and Mediterranean Middle East War Zone Bars along with the Merchant Marine Combat Bar, among other citations.
“I wanted to serve my country,” he stated.
Nomikos joined the SIU in Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1943 and still lives there. He sailed until 1968.
Reflecting on his career at sea, he said, “It’s a good life. Without the SIU, it would have been impossible to make it. The SIU is the best union. It has the best benefits for members, and today the benefits cover families, too. There’s no other union like it.”
A native of Greece, Nomikos recently sent some of his war-era paperwork to the Paul Hall Memorial Library in Piney Point, Md. “so the new SIU brothers can remember the old-timers.”
Meanwhile, he offered some advice to the membership: “Support SPAD (the union’s voluntary political action fund) and support the union. SPAD is what it takes to help us get maritime legislation passed. This is a way of life—you got to help one another.”
These days, Nomikos is “blessed with good health. I do my own cooking. No matter the weather, I walk 15 to 20 blocks every day.”
He added that since his retirement, the SIU never has missed sending him a check. He also enjoys reading the Seafarers LOG. “The first thing I look at is who retired and who died,” Nomikos said.
He concluded, “From 1943 to 2002, the SIU has come a long, long way.”
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