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maternal grandparents. Next morning I went down to the Customs House, presented my birth certificate, and procured a U.S. passport. Then I went down to the docks and found my uncle's ship, a ten thousand ton freighter built at Hog Island, Pennsylvania, and named the SAGUCHE. I climbed aboard, foundmy uncle, and asked for a job. I was lucky; they were one man short in the engine room. After a few anxious moments about my age, I got the job. Four days later we sailed for Rotterdam, Holland. One had to be a bit rugged to go to sea in those days -coarse food, no air-conditioning, poor quarters, and tough sailors. We had good weather and twenty-one days later we docked in Rotterdam. What a thrill to be in a foreign land in a strange and beautiful city! And the sights - rosy-cheeked girls, wooden shoes, canals, and dykes. I watched the captain of a barge standing at the wheel as his wife and children pulled the barge up the canal. I was preparing to go ashore for the first time, when, as I stepped out of the shower, a Greek sailor stopped, patted me on the buttocks, and told me what a pretty boy I was. Like a flash I spun around, shot a left jab to his head, crossed with a right, and watched as down went the Greek. I never had any more trouble after that. Being five years my senior, my uncle was a lot more interested in girls than history, but I talked him into taking me out to The Hague on the second day in port. That night we visited the "American Bar". Our captain was sitting at a table with two pretty women, and he waved us over to meet his friends. One of the women hugged my neck and kissed my cheek. I tasted Heineken beer that night for the first time, and I am still fond of it.
I really got a break in Rotterdam when one of the oilers jumped ship and I was promoted. A wiper's salary was $47.50 per month plus room and board, but an oiler earned $10.00 per month more, which meant a great deal more to me.
The SAGUCHE was back in New Orleans about the middle of August. I caught the old excursion home after spending a couple of nights with my grandparents. The morning after I arrived home, I told my mother we must go down to the bank and deposit a few dollars I had saved for her. When we walked up to the teller's cage, Mr. Percy Stillwell, one of the vice-presidents, waited upon us. rtook a one hundred dollar bill out of my wallet and asked Mr.
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Stiliwell to deposit it to my mother's account. Mama was speechless with surprise and pride; that much money was not easy to come by in those days. Mr. Stillwell told my mother what a fine boy she had and it was my turn to be proud but embarrassed. My brothers, Cedric and Merrill, had taken good care of my cat rig, so I got in lots of good sailing before cold weather set in.
That fall (1921) I was in the Tenth grade. An eccentric by the name of Fox was principal and one day he accused me of causing trouble in our history class. I denied the accusation which enraged him enough to fetch a two-by-four scantling in the hall and try to lay it on me. Being somewhat stronger than he, I grabbed his arm and wrested the scantling away from him and threw it out of the window. We were still scuffling when Pat Murray, a buddy of mine, hurdled over several rows of desks to help me. He got a half-nelson around the principal's neck and I had to plead with him to turn Fox loose before he passed out. When Pat released him we had to run to the nearest exit, which was in the auditorium. One of the large double doors was open. When I ran through it, I grasped it in order to propel myself - adding to my speed but causing the heavy door to start closing. Pat, a few yards behind me, hit the upper glass of the half-shut door with his right hand with enough force to shatter the glass and open a deep cut at the base of his thumb. I felt so bad about causing the door to swing shut that I had stopped running and was more than half way back when Pat shot through the door. When we reached the schoolyard gate we looked back and saw that Fox had given up the chase. I saw that Pat's hand needed stitching, so we trotted down to old Doc Galloway's office on the beach and Teagarden Road and were lucky to find him in. I put my arm around Pat's shoulder and we both gritted our teeth while Doc stitched his hand. I guess I suffered more than Pat did because I felt that the accident was my fault. Mr. Fox expelled us, but when the fathers in our community learned about the altercation they ran him out of Mississippi City and he never returned. Pat and I were then summoned to appear before the school board. When the board heard our story, they told us to return to school the next morning, which we did.
In June, - 1922, I shipped out of New Orleans on the COLDBROOK, another Hog Island ship, bound for LeHavre and
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