Ports o' Call

Wouldn't you just know it?  I managed to loose father's highly fictionalize tome on his life.  Which is unfortunate because his sea voyages were by and large accurate!  Now I am stuck having to do this without his logs or pictures!

So, father was not able to get on a North Sea or Baltic based freighter, but instead made several voyages around the Atlantic Ocean for several years.  Havana, Cuba and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil were all ports they put into regularly.  Vera Cruz, Mexico was one of his favorites.  Apparently, the ship ran fruits and vegetables into Bremerhaven for distribution throughout Germany.

In his log he told about how the women of Veracuz had to walk one direction around the city square, while the men walked the other way.  I doubt this is still true, so much of tradition has been destroyed by modern western 'culture'.  In Havana he was fascinated by watching the 'devil fish' - rays covering the bottom of the harbor.  In Rio, well, it is Rio after all and lived up to its reputation of being a moral abyss.  However, he did hold the distinction of destroying the dock by not ordering the ropes cast off before putting the metal to the pedal, so to speak.

And, what became of Monika?  No idea, absolute silence from him about this period and from Uncle Fritz and Aunt Irma as well.  Mum was the word!  However, I believe that Monika's daughter was born in 1954.  So, obviously she was still in the scene and playing house - I imagine with my uncle and aunt were very involved in her life.  I also know that nothing was ever told to father's family about Monika - more than likely due to her being Jewish and I also know his family never heard a whisper about his conversion.  But, in his later writings he mentioned her by code name quite often and was very much on his mind during his later years.

And when in Bremerhaven, father was busy.  He started as a steward to the captain and each time in Bremerhaven, worked on regaining his status as a Captain through the Seaman's Union.  By 1951 he accomplished his task - a Captain's rating and time to ship out on an around the world cruise - the first of many he hoped.  But, the voyage was destined to become an international incident, which ended not only with him becoming extremely wealthy in post-war terms (for a very short period of time), but also a prisoner of the US Government.

What he feared most was exactly what was about to happen.....  And I will save that tale for next time.