The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
PAGE 13
Mr. Nichols:
Mr. Kenney:
Mr. Nichols:
Mr. Kenney:
Mr. Nichols:
Mr. Kenney:
Mrs. Kenny:
Mr. Kenney:
Mr. Nichols:
Mr. Kenney:
port when you go out. You tell them, you have some codes and things and you clear the port
and then, when you clear the port, you're on your own, unless you would meet another ship, or
unless an aircraft carrier, not a carrier but, one of those patrol boats that look for submarines,
unless they come over. Sometime they would challenge you and you had codes and you
changed them at 12:00 every day. They would come over and they would ask you who you
were and you'd just send them the code and you would just keep on going.
A lot of times we had gone across the Pacific and never seen another ship. I know there
was ships going back and forth because one load of oil wouldn't do those ships that long. There
was probably, like, a train of them. Probably when we left and got back to sea, another one
probably pulled in the next night. It was like a pipeline across there.
What was your rank when you left the Navy?
I was a signalman second class.
That a two striper?
Two stripes, yeah. I could have gone up for first but , I just, I just didn't want to. I thought I
had good duty on that merchant ship and so I just didn't go up for first class. I would only
make twelve to fourteen dollars more a month, but it would have been a lot different life from
then on, so.
Before we turned the recorder on, you were telling me about your wage scale. Would you like
to tell me again how much you were making?
Oh, well, I went in and, I think, an apprentice seaman got $50.00 and then a first class went to
$56.00. Then when I got out of signal school, I graduated well in my signal school so I went to
third class and it was $78.00 a month.
A week?
(laughs). A month! Then when I went to second class, it was like, ninety something, yeah, and
then first class would have been, just over, a $100.00. We didn't have any pay officers. We
only got paid when we went into a port and the officer would get the money and pay us. Like,
if we were out for five months, you just don't get paid.
You don't need money anyway.
No. There was no place to spend it. We didn't even have, like, a barber, or a ship service, or
anything like that. Anything we had, like, when we go to Panama, and somebody would go
ashore, we'd say, "Hey, will you get me so-and-so?" Or, "I'll get it." or something. You would
just buy little stuff like candy and stuff like that and put it in your locker. So you get paid
whenever they gave it to you. Like you said, there was nothing to spend it on. No. We didn't
have any movies. We had books and things to read. Of course, the signalman, I was
responsible for that, so when I went on that ship I redid all the lights and the stands and the flag
bag and everything and then, took care of them after that. As long as I was on that ship, that's
what I was responsible for and when go into port, they go in and inspect it. You really didn't