Father Meets My Mother

It is now fall.  The Portland Shipyard has been on sympathetic strike for the mutinous sailors aboard the SS Riviera for three months.  Everything is at a standstill save for the lawyers whom were busy in the background trying to break the strike and find some way to get control of the ship back from the crew.

My mother, then thirteen (13!) lived on the river in a houseboat built by my grandmother and several of her friends.  Back then, there were many houseboats in the backwater areas of the Willamette River and over on the Columbia River as well.

It was a Saturday afternoon when a Coast Guard cutter came up the Willamette River, to warn river traffic of an approaching ship and to get out of the way.  Apparently, this was standard procedure.  Also on the river, that day, was my mother and her two brothers whom had build a raft and were trying to pole their way across the river.  The raft had no chance against the hull of the cutter.

Father and several of the crew had been watching idly the progress of the raft and its impact with the cutter.  It was obvious that the kids were going to drown, so several of the crew, including my father, dove into the river to rescue them.  The kid my father reached first was to be my mother and he hauled her to shore.

Of course, the police had been on the docks and witnessed the accident, as were the press.  It took the police a little while to make it from Swan Island to where the houseboats where below the bluffs.  It took less time for the press to get the story to the Oregonian newspaper.

On the one hand, the police finally had the break they so desperately wanted - the ability to arrest the officer responsible for the stand off at the shipyards.  On the other hand, the press not only was able to sing the praises of the brave Germans whom risked their lives in the rescue of three teenagers from drowning, but also the unfair treatment of the rescuers by the police.  Anything for a story, eh?

In the end, twenty-four Germans surrendered to the police, the British crew remained on-board, the ship was allowed to empty its cargo, the captain was allowed access to his room where the crew files were to disappear (hence no murder charges could be brought against him), the required insurance inspection could occur and the lawyers were now into overtime!

Interestingly, the press went into overtime as well.  They were not going to allow this story to be hushed up or just disappear.  In fact, the Oregonian was probably the strongest reason for what was to occur did.

Seizing Control

The ship was docked at Swan Island, on the Willamette River, in Portland, Oregon.  The Captain went ashore with the ship's papers and to arrange for the cargo unload - so that the required inspection could take place.  The time to act against the Captain was now or never to the thinking of the crew and the gangplank was withdrawn from shore.

The Captain was outraged, no ship had been taken from a captain in modern history, and he called the police. The local longshoremen, of course, became interested in the police arrival and so came along to the dockside where the ship sat.  Father made the formal charges against the Captain and negotiations began.  Unfortunately, the police stance was drop the gangplank and father's demand was the arrest of the Captain.  And so, a standoff which would last for months began.

Now the story becomes convoluted as, the Longshoreman's Union became involved.  Since, this was a ship and the Seaman's Union seamen aboard were involved in a "strike"  - the longshoremen blockaded the Portland facilities in sympathy.  Now to join with them were the truckers and like dominoes eventually everyone was on strike in Portland.

The police were far from sympathetic with the entire situation, the Immigration and Naturalization Service became involved in demanding the release of the ship and the arrest of the "mutineers".  The Oregonian newspaper, was the only real voice those on the ship had - and its paper ran numerous stories concerning the voyage and particulars.

However, the stand off was to change, as a human interest story was to grip the nation and father would meet my mother because of it ...

Sailing Into History

The SS Riviera returned back to India and father rejoined the crew, albeit with a very different face than what he had started the voyage with!  And he found that life aboard ship had once again become of an explosive nature.  You have to remember that he was third officer and the welfare of the crew was his duty.

The Captain, for some reason, had become dictatorial.  Food rations had been cut.  Salaries were cut.  It was as if the Captain actually wanted a mutiny on his hands.  The crew became belligerent and somewhere between India and the US, the Captain killed one of the German crew.

Probably the only thing which saved the situation, was the Indian Government filed a complaint concerning the physical condition of the vessel and the insurers of the ship ordered the Captain to report to the nearest shipyard for inspection.  This was based upon father's random conversations with others during his recovery in India.

So, the Captain was forced to put into Portland, Oregon.

What was to follow was to become a part of Maritime history and US organized labor history, with lawsuits going all of the way to the US Supreme Court and a bit of an uproar back in Germany as well.

As for father - it was to be his capture by the US Government - he had so long dreaded and managed to dodge for eight years.

India

The SS Riviera, rounded the Horn of Africa and sailed into the Indian Ocean.  According to father those few miles the ship traversed around the Horn were quite exciting.  Plenty of rough water and he said a great many questioned the old ship's ability to stay afloat!

Unlike the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean was much calmer and time could be spent working on repairing some of the worse of the deck rust.  Apparently, they carried extra steel plates for such purposes and using hammers, banged out rust until metal could be found and then welded replacements in.  Then, of course, all of those repairs needed to be painted.  Everyone was kept quite busy!

Life aboard the ship was boring, card games flourished as did the friction between the British sailors and the Germans.  By the time the ship made port in India the situation had become explosive.  The ship made port at night, so ship's leave was to begin the following morning.  Some of the of the British sailors took this opportunity to plan an attack on the most hated German and severely change his outlook on life - if not actually kill him.

They waited until he approached and then fell on him violently.  Accordingly, they were horrified to discover that it was my father in the dark and not the seaman they sought to kill.  Not that their guilt and apologies could change that the fact that father had taken multiple blows from a sap to the face.

The British sailors surrendered themselves to the captain, whom in turn, turned them over to the Indian police.  Father had to be rushed to a hospital for what was to become a six month ordeal of facial reconstruction.  And the ship left him in India as it went on its way around the Pacific delivering goods.

Back in India, father had time to think and wrote several letters to his mother.  In return, he found out about having a new brother and sister, even sending the sister a basket of seashells from India for her seventh birthday.  But, this was the last she was ever to hear from him.  Interestingly, she still has to this day that basket of shells, kept on her dresser to remind her of the brother she never knew.

By now father was healing well, however, a large blood clot sat behind his sinuses and there was nothing the doctors of that day could do about this.  A British surgeon commented to father that if he could go deep enough underwater, that the clot might be crushed and come out naturally.  So, father tried it.  There was a steel netted swim area, due to the local shark population, near by and perfect for what father needed.

It worked very well.  Father said there was this 'thunk' inside his head and then blood everywhere.  Also, there was in the same instance, a tiger shark trying to chew his way through the steel net to get at him!  His description of what followed may have been the only time he ever walked on water, as he fled back to shore!

For this entire incident, father was compensated several tens of thousands of Marks in fines to the British sailors, from the Seaman's Union and from the shipping company, all added to his bank account back home.  The British sailors were sent back to England in chains - for they had attacked an officer.  And father was to continue to recover until the SS Riviera returned from the US with a load of wheat.  With not much to do, father spent a great deal of time swimming (behind the nets!) and talking with those around the harbor.

His conversations were to land everyone in hot water, as you will learn.

The SS Riviera

Having regained his rank of Captain, father's first trip out was on the SS Riviera.  Although father held the rank of Captain, he did not hold the position of ship's captain.  Instead he was third officer - that would be the one responsible for the crew.  The Captain and Second Officer were both British.

The crew was composed of ex-British soldiers and sailors, with a few German's thrown in as well.  This detail will be come import later on - as there was more than just a little hostility between the two nationalities on board - at all levels.

SS Riviera 1946

Father had little good to say concerning the Riviera.  Apparently it was quite an old US built Liberty Ship from the war, with a tremendous rust problem - which will crop up in this disastrous voyage later.  A great deal of the crew's shipboard life revolved around painting over rust and securing plywood over holes in the deck.  Yeah, not your safest ocean going trip it would seem!  Ownership also was not quite what it seemed.  Supposedly, it had a Liberian registry and therefore wages were quite low and conditions poor, in truth it was really Panamanian and conditions were to be compared to an ocean going sweatshop - by the US inspectors!  But, none of this is important now, but will be later in this story.

In Rio de Janeiro, father was allowed the thrill of taking the ship out of port.  Unfortunately, he forgot to order 'cast off' - so tore the dock off of the shore and pulled it a quarter mile out into the bay!  He was terribly embarrassed but the captain thought it was one of the funnier things he had ever seen!  I guess officially, the responsibility belonged to the highly liquored Brazilian pilot.  So, his fault officially.  But, father was a perfectionist and was still beating himself up decades later over this goof.

The voyage continued around the horn and onto India, the beginning of the end for father's naval career.