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the Panama Canal, through, and get another load of oil and come back to the South Pacific. It
was, kind of like, a pipe line. I'm sure there was a lot of tankers going to keep everything going
out there.
Mr. Nichols:
Mr. Kenney:
Mr. Nichols:
Mr. Kenney:
Mr. Nichols:
Mr. Kenney:
Mr. Nichols:
Mr. Kenney:
Mr. Nichols:
Mr. Kenney:
And you would pick your black oil up on the east coast and have to come down through the
canal and to go over to the Pacific side?
We'd pick it up in the Caribbean, either Oranjestad , Aruba, or Curacao and then go back
through the Panama. It was twenty-six days from Panama to where we would go in the South
Pacific, roughly, all the time, and twenty-six days back. We would take our storage either on
one side, either on the Atlantic side, or the Pacific side. That would be our supplies. Our milk
and everything for the trip.
Then we would go down to Aruba and we could load in fourteen, fifteen hours.
Then we would go down to Aru We would go back and we wouldn't stop if
we already had our supplies. We would just go through the Panama Canal. Then go to the
South Pacific, unload into those tankers, start back, come back and that's what we did.
Was the black oil use for fuel on the regular ships?
Yeah. It pretty well thickened from the time they pumped into the ship. About ten days before
we'd get to where we were going to unload it, they had heaters that run through the tanks and it
would heat it up so it would flow real easy. Then we'd get to those tankers and we would drop
anchor in a lagoon, or somewhere like that, and they would just come in along side of us and
we would tie up and they would hook the hoses up and we would pump into them and they
would leave.
How fast would these ships go?
The one I was on would go, roughly, probably twelve knots.
That's probably about fifteen miles an hour.
Yeah.
What were living conditions like on the ship?
It was like a hotel really. We were treated very well. The Navy was separated. In other words,
we had our own quarters. We had our own mess hall. Our mess hall was next to the Merchant
Marine mess hall. We had our own mess and our own quarters and had good bunks, nice
mattresses and they furnished us with our linens and bedspread, which was really unusual.
When we went to the mess hall during the meal time, they fed three times a day. When we went
there, a Merchant Marine fellow waited our table. We had a menu. They had, like for
breakfast, they would have ham and bacon and then you could get your eggs like you wanted
them. It was pretty nice, to be honest with you. You ordered what you wanted and he would
bring it to you and you could get toast, or biscuits. Then the next day they would change the
menu a little bit, so you would, maybe, have hotcakes, or something. The same happened at the
noonday and the evening meals. You ordered and the mess hall took care of it.