These photos were sent to the Seafarers LOG by Andrew Messana of Framingham, Mass.The picture at top right was taken aboard the SS John Gallup, a Smith & Johnson Steamship vessel, in December 1947. The voyage was from New York to Lisbon, Portugal with a load of grain. In a note accompanying the photo, Messana, who sailed aboard the vessel as an FOWT, noted that the ship and its crew had just spent 18 days in Lisbon and that it was “one of the best crews I ever sailed with.” The John Gallup paid off that voyage in New York in January 1948 and then laid up.
The second photo shows mariners from the SS Steel Advocate, an Isthmian Steamship Co. vessel, in March 1948. This was a 4½-month trip from New York to the Far East, the ship’s first trip under an SIU contract. While in Bombay, India (see Bombay’s most famous monument, the Gateway of India, in the background), the crew rented bicycles (complete with monkeys) for the day. It, too, was a good trip with a great crew, according to Messana, who continued to sail as an FOWT on that vessel. The Steel Advocate paid off in Philadelphia in June 1948.
Brother Messana was a member of the SIU from 1946 to 1962.
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