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Letters to the Editor

May 2004

(Editor’s note: The Seafarers LOG reserves the right to edit letters for grammar as well as space provisions without changing the writer’s intent. The LOG welcomes letters from members, pensioners, their families and shipmates and will publish them on a timely basis.) Remembering the Old Days at Sea At the February and March meetings of the Merchant Marine Vets, Desert Mariners, we received copies of the Seafarers LOG, and I was very glad to see them as it brought back memories. I was a member of the Sailors’ Union of the Pacific (SUP) in World War II and for several years after the war ended. I had worked as an electrician ashore, so I applied for and received an electrician’s endorsement to my OS papers. There was inter-district shipping between the SUP and SIU then, and I sailed on several ships owned by Bull Lines, Waterman Steamship Corporation and Isthmian Company. My discharges were lost several years ago, and I can’t remember them all. I was surprised to see that women are now crew members, and that the SIU headquarters is no longer located in New York City...and the recent affiliation with the NMU. AFL and CIO unions were enemies when I was sailing. After I married, I left the sea, but I miss it. I am now a few months from 80 years, and retired from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. I guess it’s too late for me to go back to sea. Howard Forman Cave Creek, Ariz. Help Needed Locating Lost Family My name is Kathleen Lawrence, and 27 years ago, my mother gave birth to me. I have not seen her since. I am actively searching for my lost family. I know that I was born in September 1976, and at that time, my mother’s brother (my uncle) was 18 years old and had completed the trainee program at the Seafarers Harry Lundeberg School of Seamanship. I am writing to see if one of his classmates would remember a friend with a pregnant sister. The sister (my mother) would have had a 3-year-old son with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was not married, and her son was in and out of the hospital, diagnosed as a hydrocephalic. The sister may have been a trained beautician and waitress. I believe that at that time, to have a friend with a nephew that is really ill, a sister with a sick son and another baby on the way would have been something to remember. From the information I have, my uncle’s mother (my grandmother) was a civil service secretary. I also know that my uncle’s father (my grandfather) died at the age of 65 from a stroke and heart attack. This information is a bit confusing, but it may be possible that my uncle will read this and will contact me. I am a happily married mother of three children and wish to embrace my birth family with love and appreciation. I am hoping that someone may even have a remote memory of who my uncle may be and lead me in the right direction. Does anyone still keep in contact with him? When and where was the last place he was known to live? I would be happy and most grateful to talk to anyone with even the smallest piece of information and anyone who graduated in the class of 1975-1976. Kathleen M. Lawrence (301) 884-0314 (daytime) (301) 884-3647 (evenings) e-mail: klawrence@cbs-legal.com