The Wilmington morning star., 1943-08-09
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER

NEW YORK. - When I was out west last
spring l promised to cite some specific in
stances of drunkenness, shirking, insubordina-
ton and other misconduct by civilian sailors
of the Merchant Marine, serving on board the
same ships with young enlisted sailors and
commissioned officers of the armed guard, or
gun crews of the Navy and at much higher
rates of pay. by way of refuting the propaganda
of the Communists who have enjoyed the favor
Shipping Administration, and who would have
you believe such things could not be. Well,
after I got back, I had lot of accumulated
correspondence to read and answer and docu-
ments to study and considerable leg work laid
for me, so I have just got around to it.
Not to disappoint you here is case No. l,
that of an oiler whose ship was in a foreign
port dlscharging cargo and under orders to be
ready to sail in few hours. Therefore there
was no liberty and therefore the oiler told the
captain he would go ashore and come back any
Goddam time he felt like it, and the captain
could log him if he wanted to- because it would
all be cancelled by the shipping administration
when he got back He also harangued the rest
of the crew not to worry about logging because
all charges would be wiped out. So the skip
per did log him and he was duly tried on a
charge of misconduct and using profane
language to the master and chief engineer.
And, sure enough, the complaint was dis
missed
Case No. 2 is a messnan who went ashore
without permission in the first port on a voy-
age, got drunk and was absent three days A
few days after the ship sailed he developed
venereal disease and was off watch for eight
days. At the net port again he went ashore
without permission and returned drunk and the
same thing happened twice more in the next
port. He was put in hospital there but left
without being discharged and the ship finally
sailed without him and he was logged
deserter.
Case No. 3, is another messman He as
saulted the chief officer with knife, was ar
rested and got six months in Jail in a foreign
port. The master reported that he was indif
ferent to discipline, and drunk and absent
over leave.
Case No. d. This man, an ordinary seaman,
is quite case. He was charged with being
absent from his ship without permission four
days in one port and then four days in the
next and then stealing a length of new two
inch MANILA rope used to tow the fog buoy in
convoy and trying to sneak ashore. He also
was charged with stealing the ships telescope,
which was found in his bunk after he was seen
taking it from the chart ROOM The captain
also SAID nduVe OlllCldl Ill d 1o1C1Sll pull
pointed out No. as the member of the crew
whom he had seen lowering sacks of lend-lease
sugar over the side into a thieves canoe at
night, that he was seen lurking near the chart
room about the time a sextant was stolen, that
he was drunk on board and that he was a dis
grace to the merchant service. Mr.. was
dismissed from the service under circumstan-
ces which would have sent an enlisted blue
jacket to Portsmouth for about Is years.
No. 5 is an able seaman who got into fight
with another member of the crew and tried to
| seize a pistol from a member of the armed
guard. A few weeks later on the same cruise
he got drunk on board and was unable to
stand his watch. He was set on the beach
for six months.
No. b is an ordinary who advised the armed
guard bluejackets to go to the boats instead of
firing if they were attacked, and said he would
! rather live under the NaZis than wear the uni
form of the United States Army, and that his
only reason for going to sea was to duck the
draft. The ensign in command of the gun
| ners also reported these patriotic observations
| No. is the case of three extremely class
| low the gun platform while the kids of the
armed guard and the kid ensign were training
their gun on a ship which was acting suspi-
ciously, and mimicked the orders and ranges
and made fun of the gun crew. The ensign
also reported that they had on previous oc-
caslon made disparagino remarks about the
olueJackets and their officers
lhese OF course are verified cases all on
tered IN the records but they are routine r.+Ian