Editor’s note: Marlen Buttke celebrated his 85th birthday on Dec. 17, 2006, surrounded by friends and family. He shared the following summary of his 10 years of service in the U.S. Merchant Marine, which was sent to the Seafarers LOG by his oldest daughter, Joy Berry.I began my seaman’s training in December of 1942 at Sheepshead Bay, N.Y. and graduated the following May with basic endorsements and a lifeboat ticket.
My first trip was on Bull Line’s Governor John Lind. We went through the Davis Strait to Baffin Island and unloaded the cargo ourselves. Then it was on to Hudson Bay, where we converted the ship to haul grain. Next, we carried wheat to Baltimore. Twelve ships were lost between Greenland and Newfoundland by torpedoes from subs. During the rest of the war, I sailed mostly to England and the Mediterranean. We lost 18 ships off the coast of Italy to planes. My last trip to Europe during the war was to Cherbourg (France). At that time, the U.S. was sending 2,000 bomber flights per day into Germany. The only things coming back were rockets and buzz bombs. Seeing no German planes were returning, we realized the war in Europe was over.
After that, I requested ships that were bound for the Pacific Ocean and helped load cargo onto a Liberty ship headed for Okinawa. After a very eventful trip to Okinawa, due to some “error of judgment,” each of us was rationed to a half-bucket of water per day. In Eniwetok, the unlicensed crew was charged with mutiny. One guy per watch was left aboard ship; the rest were taken to prison. I remained on board. The captain tried to get crews from the Navy and the union to sail the ship, but they wouldn’t send him anyone, so he had to take the crew back from prison.
From Eniwetok, we went to the Caroline Islands where we picked up gunners and operators for the equipment we had on board ship. Escorted by U.S. Navy destroyers, we saw a light come on under our ship. We believe subs were using our ship for cover.
We were in Okinawa 26 days and averaged two or three suicide attacks per day. When we returned to the Caroline Islands, the captain knew supplies were on the way but did not wait for them. We left Okinawa and headed for San Pedro. I signed onto a Waterman ship, the MV Bowline Knot. I was in the crow’s nest the day the war was over. U.S. planes were flying under me, waving up at me. The captain called up to me to get down from the crow’s nest. “The war is over!” We celebrated the rest of the day.
After that, I went to Manila, unloading penicillin that was in a small refrigerator hold. We loaded barbed wire and then went to Nagasaki, but we didn’t need the barbed wire; the Japanese were real friendly. They say 60,000 people were killed there. There was a big hospital made up of 11 buildings, but the patients, nurses, everyone was dead where they stood or lay. I don’t believe the atom bomb should ever be used again.
In 1950 I went around the world on the Steel Age. Then to Korea on the Robin Hood or Robin Grey on Christmas Eve of 1951. We helped evacuate Hungnam (North Korea). In January, on the same trip, we took refugees out of Inchon (South Korea).
I made one more trip to South and East Africa and then retired in the spring of 1952.
Buttke’s daughter, Joy, writes that after leaving the Merchant Marine, he bought a farm in South Dakota within 10 miles of the farm on which he was raised.
He married Mickey and they had five children. Buttke farmed for 15 years. They sold the equipment and livestock but continued to live on the farm. He then went to work for a stone quarry for
18½ years before retiring. But not one to remain idle, Buttke worked part time for the Farm Service Agency as a fieldman for 16 years and retired once again, at age 80.
A couple years ago, Buttke and his wife moved from their farm to the nearby town of Milbank. They have been married 54 years and have 11 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Buttke looks forward to each and every issue of the Seafarers LOG—and to his weekday games of pinochle at the local community center.
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