Sea Year - 1968 - The Far East Run

S/S Pioneer Contractor

The transition from the Mormactrade to the Pioneer Contractor was similar to the transition from the African Meteor to the Mormactrade in that I got no time off between ships.  I went from one ship one day to the next ship the following day and was only able to spend one night at home.  I also picked up a new roommate, engine cadet Dick Gaston.

The Pioneer Contractor was a US Lines C4-S-57a assigned to the Far East run.  Built in 1963, she was a big, fast vessel capable of averaging 24 knots.  The deck officers I remember were Capt. Ed Clayton, Chief Mate Erwin Strom, 2nd Mate Andy S. and 3rd Mate Steve Nadeau.  As usual, I was assigned to the 4 to 8 watch with the 2nd Mate.  Capt. Clayton was very strict.  Even though I was an experienced cadet and had been trusted to stand regular watches by myself on my previous vessel, which was very much against regulations, Capt. Clayton treated me like I'd never been on a ship before.  His first instructions to me were that I had to wear my uniform, including my high-pressure hat, at all times when on the navigation bridge, even at 0400 in the middle of the ocean.  I thought then and still think now that this was a stupid rule but I did what I was told.  I've been with many strict captains since but none who tried to run a merchant ship as if it were a naval vessel.  It doesn't work.  Needless to say, Capt. Clayton wasn't well-liked by the crew.

The US Lines docks were located on the Hudson River in midtown Manhattan.  Prior to heading for the Far East, we stopped in North Philadelphia.  From there, it was about a 5 day run to the Panama Canal.  We docked in Cristobal for cargo operations.  It was a weekend so Dick and I were able to go ashore.  The docks were convenient to town; one could walk ashore in 10 minutes.  I had been in Cristobal before when I was on the Meadowbrook and knew there wasn't much to see so we just hung out in a bar, had a few beers and played the jukebox.  The local brew was Cerveza Balboa. 

The Panama Canal connects the Atlantic Ocean (Caribbean Sea) and the Pacific Ocean.  Therefore, common belief is that the canal runs East and West.  It actually runs closer to North and South.  The canal is 51 miles long and consists of 6 pairs of locks, 3 up and 3 down.  Usually ships don't transit the canal immediately on arrival; it is common to anchor and wait to join a convoy.  Uninterrupted canal transit takes about 8 hours.  The 3 locks on the Atlantic ocean side are the Gatun Locks.  These 3 locks are in a row and lift ships up to the level of the Gatun Lake.  After the lake, ships must go through the Gamboa Cut to reach the Pedro Miguel Locks.  There is one pair of locks at Pedro Miguel.  The final two pairs of locks are the Miraflores Locks.  Highly trained Panama Canal pilots guide ships through the canal.  When the US ran the canal, the job of Panama Canal pilot was considered one of the premier jobs in the maritime industry.  To make lock transit, ships are hooked up to "mules" both port and starboard and fore and aft.  "Mules" are locomotives fitted with constant-tension mooring wires that hold ships in place as water is pumped in and out of the lock chambers.  Panama Canal workers board the ships during lock transit to handle the mule wires.

It's around a 10 day trip from Balboa on the Pacific side of the canal to Los Angeles. The ship's bosun, Bob Healey, bought several cases of Cerveza Balboa beer in Panama and threw a party for the crew on the way up to L.A.  I had too much to drink and quickly learned that booze and rough seas don't mix.  I spent the next morning leaning over the rail throwing up.  I never took another drink at sea.  We stopped in Los Angeles only to take bunkers (ship's fuel), then headed for Japan.

Our first port in the Far East was Yokohama, which is just south of Tokyo.  Tokyo Bay is large and there was a lot of shipping traffic there. To cadets, Japan meant only one thing - electronics.  We were only paid $115 a month and I had saved my money from my previous two ships so I was ready to shop.  I bought an Akai M-9 reel-to-reel tape recorder and a Canon F1 SLR camera.  There went two months salary right out the window.  Both the tape recorder and camera were well-worth the money.  I used the tape recorder for almost twenty years before selling it at a garage sale for almost as much as I paid for it.  I still have the camera but who uses film nowadays.

The Chief Engineer on the ship was a part-owner of a local night club in Yokohama so that was where we went after work.  At that time, many Japanese public restrooms were coed.  Such was the case at the club and it took some getting used to.  I found out that drinks were reasonably priced if you didn't wear uniform shoes.  If you did, then the Japanese assumed you were in the military on R & R with a load of cash in your pocket and they would charge more.  Japanese people love their arcade games, pachinko being the most popular.  There were pachinko machines everywhere.

After leaving Yokohama, we proceeded to Naha, Okinawa.  We were there for one day.  Our only foray ashore was to the PX on the US military base.  I noticed quite a few banged up army vehicles on the base, probably damaged in Vietnam and sent to Okinawa for repairs.

After Okinawa, we went to Keelung, Taiwan.  Keelung was the place to buy pirated copies of LP record albums.  They were very cheap in cost and were bright red in color.  I bought a bunch of albums and recorded most on my Akai.  We were also supposed to call at Kaoshung, Taiwan but that port was cancelled.

After leaving Keelung, we sailed to Manila in the Philippines.  Manila is located on the island of Luzon.  Ships pass by Corregidor Island, of WW II infamy, at the entrance to Manila Bay.   We spent 3 days in Manila and docked within walking distance of the city and there was a good bar only a short distance from the docks.  The day we were sailing, I saved the Bosun from missing the ship.  He was up in a bar drinking and not paying attention to the time.  I had seen him there earlier and knew he hadn't made it back to the ship.  I went ashore and literally dragged him back to the ship.  We made it by 10 minutes.

From Manila we went to Hong Kong.  Hong Kong ranks 3rd on my list of most scenic ports.  Prior to the China regaining sovereignty in 1997, Hong Kong consisted of Hong Kong Island and the New Territories.  Kowloon, located just across the harbor from Hong Kong Island, is usually considered an extension of the city. We docked on Hong Kong Island, not far from the Wanchai district, made famous by the 1960 movie The World of Suzie Wong.  The city streets were very crowded, especially in the market place.  I found a music store that would put any of their albums on tape for a reasonable price.  One of the albums I had them tape for me was "Pet Sounds" by the Beach Boys.  In my opinion, it's one of the best albums ever recorded and one that I still listen to today.  We only stayed 2 days in Hong Kong.  The only sightseeing I did was to ride the peak tram to the top of Victoria Peak, the highest point in Hong Kong.  There's a great view of the city from there.  Unfortunately, I remember it being very hazy the day I was there.

Wanchai District

Hong Kong Marketplace

Hong Kong Harbor at sunset 1968

From Hong Kong, we sailed to Pusan, Korea.  The dock was within walking distance of town and there was a seaman's club right at the end of the pier.  Just a few blocks up was Texas Street which was lined with sailor bars. Venturing up Texas Street at night was not a good idea but it seemed perfectly safe in the daytime.  Someone from the ship discovered that the cases of beer at the Anchor Bar were stored just outside the mens room window.  It was easy to reach out and grab a few bottles.  Word of this quickly spread amongst our crew and everyone from the ship drank for free that day.  Americans were very popular in Korea at that time, an apparent holdover from the Korean War effort.  I'm not so sure how popular the Americans would have been had the bar owner discovered our beer pilfering shenanigans.

It was impossible to stay aboard the ship in Pusan when you were off duty.  The off-shore side of the ship was being chipped and painted by hundreds of women laborers.  The din of chipping hammers hitting the ship's side was incredible.  Taking advantage of the cheap labor pool was an inexpensive way to keep the ship looking good.  US Lines ships called at Pusan every voyage.  Each time the ship would dock on a different side of the pier so every trip, one side of the ship was scraped and painted.

The ship was scheduled to go to Inchon, Korea but that was cancelled.  It was back to Japan instead.  Our next port was Kobe.  I had heard of the Japanese love of baseball and got to see it first hand.  At coffee time and lunch time, the longshoremen broke out their baseball mitts and played catch.  I didn't go ashore in Kobe.  Neither did I go ashore in Nagoya.  I did go ashore in Shimizu.  I bought a pair of tabi shoes for my brother Rob.  He had recently earned his black belt in karate and liked the oriental culture.  Tabi shoes have split-toes, kind of mitten-shaped so that the big toe was in a section by itself.  It was hard to find a pair large enough to fit an American.  I bought the largest size I could find which probably equated to an American size 10.

I don't remember in which Japanese port it happened but all of a sudden the 2nd Mate was no longer on the ship.  I was told he had a nervous breakdown and had to be hospitalized.  I was very surprised.  I'd been standing sea watches with Andy for a month and a half and he seemed OK to me.  Looking back, there were clues that something was not right.  Andy was in his mid-40's and constantly talked about his wife and kids and their plans for the future.  I think the family relationship was not what he made it out to be and I suspect she told him she was leaving which put him over the edge.  Also, Andy used to sleep on watch which was a big "no no."  After I had stood watches with him for a while, he came to trust me.  At sea, when we'd arrive on the bridge at 0345 for the morning watch, as soon as he'd taken over the watch from the 3rd Mate, he would curl up on the settee in the chart room and have me wake him at 0530.  The Captain usually came up at 0600.  Now, I feel this was probably a sign of depression.

After Shimizu, we returned to Yokohama.  I hardly got ashore there this time because the Chief Mate, who was now standing Andy's watches, went out the first night and had too much to drink.  He couldn't get up the next day.  I wound up standing his watches which was no big deal since I'd done it regularly on my previous ship. The next day, he gave me $10 for covering for him.  He also allowed me to make overtime.  More correctly, because there was no provision for cadets to be paid overtime, he worked out a deal with Bob Healey, the Bosun, where I would do the work and Bob would put extra hours on his overtime sheet and then pay me.  Of course I got stiffed.  When the voyage was over and I had to leave the ship, the bosun was nowhere to be found with the money.  In later years, that bosun became the union patrolman in Boston, a port that I regularly called at with Texaco.  He would never attend a Texaco ship because he knew I would bring up the money he owed me.

There was another American flag freighter docked nearby and darn if my section-mate Ying Yang McConnell wasn't the cadet there.  It was good to unexpectedly see a friendly face.  We spent the afternoon comparing the tape recorders we had bought, mine a reel-to-reel and his a newfangled invention called a cassette.

Close but no cigar - passing by Honolulu and Diamond Head in 1968

We were supposed to call at Honolulu on the home leg of the voyage but that was cancelled.  We went straight from Yokohama to Panama, a seventeen day voyage.  We again stopped in Cristobal before heading back to the states.  Upon arrival in New York, we docked on Staten Island to clear customs and immigration.  My parents were there to pick me up.  As with my previous ships, I only got one night at home before being assigned to my next ship, the Exford.

In 1975, while sailing for Texaco and attending firefighting school in San Francisco, I saw the Pioneer Contractor again. She was laid up and out of service at a berth near the hotel.  She was "mothballed" to the Ready Reserve Fleet in 1981 and scrapped in 2009.