Seaman's Union

Father left Monika in Hamburg and traveled to Bremerhaven by  horse drawn freight wagon to apply for openings on any form of shipping.   He was to discover an entirely new world - one of politics.

Bremerhaven was quite a mess.

First off, he was young, too young for the rank he claimed to hold.  Fear of being arrested and turned over to the Americans for execution held him back from making a pain of himself at the Union.  He needed a job, not arrested, nor dead.

Father would not talk much about his time between leaving Hamburg and shipping out on his first voyage.  He did not have enough money with him, nor could he get funds from his bank in Hamburg.  He like many other would be post-war German sailors, lived on and off of the streets.  Picking up random day labor jobs - for nothing more than food or a blanket if you were lucky.

Apparently, one of the captains took pity on him and hired him as a personal steward boy.  And father was off to sea and on to bigger changes than he had so far encountered in his life!