Talesof our Men Who Went to Sea
Arthur Whittaker No Ordinary Seaman
From a web site developedby
Davis Whittaker, Jr
In 1934, a 21-year-old Caymanian, ArthurWhittaker, signed on as Ordinary Seaman aboard the steamer R.Lenahan at Chesapeake Bay, Virginia. Thus began a long and colourfulcareer with the U.S. Merchant Marines spanning 31 years.
Merchant Seaman, ArthurWhittaker in the engine room of one of the ships on which he sailed
Mr. Whittaker soon became Quartermasterand Able Seaman on board the ships Eastern Shore and Dorothy Bradford.
Finally in 1939, after a few years onboardas Quartermaster, he sailed as a Fireman in the excursion steamerS.S. Potomac, and continued with her until the summer of 1940.
Standard Oil Co., a U.S. Company, then hiredMr. Whittaker. He became a Fireman aboard the tanker S.S. Geo.H. Jones. The S.S. Jones was an old ship built in 1919 in Chester,Pennsylvania and on his second voyage with her he moved up inrank to Oiler. By 1941, he had become the ship's Machinist andhe remained so until the ship was turned over to the British duringthe late summer of 1941.
Less than a year later the S.S. Geo. H.Jones was torpedoed and sunk.
On 10 November of 1941, he was hired asMachinist aboard the tanker M.V. Esso Bolivar a Panamian ship.While on a voyage from Aruba, a small island in the Caribbeanto Bayonne, NJ in December of 1941, he heard radio rumors thatwar was imminent.
On Monday, 8 December 1941, the Japaneseattacked Pearl Harbor. The next day the Panamanian flag was removedand no longer flown. At Bayonne the ship was painted gray. Heonly made one more voyage on the Esso Bolivar.
During this voyage his recovered diariesstate that on 20 February 1942, he signed back on Esso Bolivaras Third Assistant Engineer, an officer designation.
The ship left its New Jersey port on Saturday,21 February bound for Aruba. Because it was the early years ofthe war, the Esso Bolivar sailed alone, without a convoy to protecther.
At about 2:20 a.m. on Sunday, 8 March, Mr.Whittaker's diary notes that his ship was being shelled and hadbeen torpedoed by a German submarine. They were approximately30 miles southeast of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, when the captain turnedthe ship toward the U.S. Naval Station there in an attempt toget closer for support. He also radioed an SOS.
Mr. Whittaker's diary tells how he helpeda shipmate who was seriously wounded with a shattered leg. Theseaman was bleeding badly, and died while a tourniquet was beingapplied to his leg.
Around 3:10 a.m., according to Mr. Whittaker'sdiary, the ship was ordered abandoned. He had been wounded byshellfire and felt the sting of salt water in his wounds as hefloated in the sea awaiting help. The USS Endurance picked himup after several hours adrift.
The survivors were taken to Guantanamo Bayin Cuba for temporary repairs. They were treated for their woundsin the infirmary and allowed to sleep.
After beams were welded across the holeleft by the torpedo they left for Mobile, Alabama so the majorrepair work could be done. Once there, Mr. Whittaker's brief diaryends.
While at Mobile, Mr. Whittaker was hiredby Mr. William Freeman of U. S. Salvage as a marine surveyor.He left the ship on 21 April, 1942 and he worked with U. S. Salvageon the Gulf coast for most of the rest of the war.
Sometime around the end of 1944, he quitU. S. Salvage and went back to sea again.
His next tour of duty was on the S.S. Bulkerothat was built in 1944 by Welding Shipyards, Inc., in Norfolk,Virginia. The company was National Bulk Carriers.
Mr. Whittaker signed on as Third AssistantEngineer on 10 January, 1945 and remained aboard her until 5 April,1946.
By August 1945 he was sailing as ActingSecond Assistant Engineer, and remained in that capacity untilhe left the ship.
Following the war and his service on Bulkero,he took a little bit of time off to spend on land. He worked forhis father-in-law-to-be in Virginia as a land surveyor.
By April of 1947 he was ready to go backto sea again. He again signed onto a National Bulk Carriers shipas Second Assistant Engineer, Pan Massachusetts, another shipof about the same size as Bulkero. He was only aboard her forabout a month.
The ship was in Texas City, Texas on 18May, 1947 preparing to depart with a cargo of aviation gasolinewhen it caught fire. The fuel burned so fiercely that he and severalothers were forced to jump overboard and swim under burning fuelto reach safety.
His next ship was the S.S. Amtank, and hesailed as Second Assistant from 14 June 1947 to July 7 1947. Thenhe moved on to the S.S. Little Big Horn and then to a sister ofBulkero, the S.S. Bulklube for about 3 months. He sailed for thenext several years, working his way up from Second Assistant toChief Engineer by 1950.
In 1950 he got his Chief Engineer's license,and sailed on it for the first time as Chief in S.S. Kaposialyuntil 1947.
By 1963, Mr. Whittaker was a shipboard engineer. Eventually, hehired onto his last ship, the American Mariner. He sailed on heras Third Assistant Engineer, looking for a change from the lifeaboard the National Bulk Carriers' tankers.
While aboard her, he had a seizure, identifiedas ventricular tachycardia, very rapid beating of the heart andhe quit going to sea.
He settled down in Virginia on his wife'sfarm and took up the profession of land surveying.
Mr. Whittaker surveyed land until afterhe turned 80 in 1993. He was still active and able to get aroundin the Virginia woods, but decided to retire when he had his secondhip replacement surgery.
In January of 1994, the family house inVirginia burned down, and with it went most of his old papersand old shipboard and seagoing photographs. Only one leather briefcasewas rescued.
In it were his diaries from 1930 to 1942that chronicled a fascinating time in history.
Mr. Whittaker died in June of 1997 at theage of 84 leaving behind a richly journeyed and stimulating lifestory.
Writers Note:
If you think you may have known or served with Arthur Whittaker,please feel free to contact me. I am looking for any informationon his seagoing career I can find. I am specifically interestedin contacting the following Old Salts he sailed with: Harvey Hansonand Wally Schilling, both of whom were engineers he worked withat National Bulk Carriers in the 1950's and 1960's.
For comments and information, please contact me here at dwhitt@prism.netin Newport, RI.
Arthur Whittaker, Merchant Seaman's website:
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Campus/3415/merchant.html