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 Luckenbach
I was quite surprised when I saw the picture of the Katrina Luckenbach [February 2006 LOG, page 16]
In 1945, I was aboard the J.L. Luckenbach and loading for the South Pacific.
For the benefit of the younger brothers and sisters of today’s merchant marine, here are some of the conditions under which we worked:
- There were nine watchstanders to a room—with one fan.
- The shower was on the stern—with no door.
- The showerhead produced lots of steam and very little water.
- One day out to sea the refrigerator quit. My first thought was: this is going to be a long, hot, hungry trip.
- Another day at sea, a fire broke out in the engine room. The crew had the fire out in 15 minutes, but damage was done. We bobbed around for two days. During this time, however, there was news that the war with Japan would be over soon. The engineers made some temporary repairs and we limped back to New Orleans on one screw (this was a twin-screw ship with 7 hatches).
Upon arriving at the anchorage in New Orleans, a big party was going on in town. You could hear the hollering all the way out to the ship.
But guess what: they did not let us ashore. So the boys found out how to get beer out of the No. 6 hatch—and we had our own party.
I would like to mention that I had my 17th birthday on this ship as well.
The following day or so, the NMU pulled us off the ship and I thought to myself, good.
I walked over to the SIU hall and caught the Waterman ship Antinous.
My last ship was the Gopher State in 1991.
Gene T. Lachappelle
Big Bay, Mich.
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