Brother Errant On the High Seas

What I had planned as a leisurely journey to New Orleans on December 1st was rudely interrupted on Sunday morning November 28 by a telephone call from my TravLtips agent at 11 AM: “You are to board the Thompson Lykes on Dec. 1st at 1:30 PM.” That was a command and I had to scramble to pack and above all to change my TWA ticket. Their agents, after some heated discussion, told me all flights were filled and my one choice was “Fly out by red-eye tonight.” It was take it or leave it and I took it. The plane was quite empty and I stretched out over four seats for a bit of leisure, the first in twelve hours.

As usual I stayed at one of our own schools, De la Salle High School, a perfect place. It is on St. Charles Avenue with its fine residences, its oak trees, its famous street car and hence easy access to the French Quarter. My roommate for this cruise, Bro. Charles “Charlie” Reutemann, fsc arrived from New York in the afternoon. Charlie and I lived together at De La Salle College in Washington D.C., while both of us were working toward Ph.Ds. from 1946 to 1949. He became a professor of philosophy at Manhattan College; later the director of the Sangre Retreat House near Santa Fe, NM, where I was his assistant for one year 1967-68; and finally he returned to Manhattan College as professor and Director of a School of Spirituality.

On December 1st 1987 in the port of New Orleans Charlie and I boarded the “Thompson Lykes,” a bulk freighter, at the Nashville Avenue Wharf at 2 PM. It was Charlie’s first and my second freighter voyage. As we went up the gangplank, other passengers as well as crew members were coming aboard. Some of the crew were bringing on board rather heavy boxes, but I paid little attention to it at that time. Later I observed this was a common occurrence at every port we docked. At any time of the day or night when I met the room steward he was always three sheets to the wind. So the packages brought aboard were alcoholic beverages, which at that time w1ere strictly forbidden by the code of the maritime union of seamen. I hoped that there were enough teetotalers among the crew and officers to get us safely there and back. And providentially there were.

We were shown our Room U-2, very Spartan indeed, quite large, but not uncomfortable. The common areas, a lounge and a dining room, are quite small. Then came my second shock in two days: the Thompson Lykes had docked not an hour before we had boarded and had just begun unloading its cargo. Tomorrow Dec. 2nd the loading of containers for our voyage would take all day. With this extra day for visiting New Orleans, Charlie and I went to Felix’s on Iberville Avenue. There we stood at the bar with a beer and the oyster chuckers were right in front of us chucking our dozen fresh oysters as fast as we could swallow them. At the National Park office in the French Quarter we chanced upon a walking tour “Women in the History of New Orleans.” We “chauvinsts” twitted the guide re “these outrageous women” and she us. Later back at the ship, there was more of this with our fellow women passengers, Lydia and Lillian during the cocktail hour and after supper while we were playing a couple of rubbers of bridge with them. Since no one, except for Charlie and me, were interested in playing cards, we played very little for the rest of the voyage. Each one of us had our own interesting projects.

As we slipped out of the harbor and into the main channel of the Mississippi River, I was at the rail, talking to the first mate. On the opposite bank were lined up three or four freighters all painted in navy grey. The mate remarked that those were once freighters of the Lykes Line, which was one of the largest freight carriers during and after World War II. I asked him why these ships were now in the Navy. He said that the Lykes Line had borrowed heavily from the government and were paying back the loans by turning these freighters over to the U.S. Navy. He asked me if I had seen the wharf littered with mechanical parts. Yes, I had and wondered at it. That was from a Lykes ship which had recently been stripped of its gear and then was to be turned over to the government, the seventh ship this year. He also stated that the “Thompson Lykes” was one of the last freighters in the company and soon there would be none: “Freighters owned by American companies and American manned freighters will very shortly be a thing of the past.” That clearly spells financial trouble for Lykes.

At last we are in the Caribbean with sunny and calm seas. The nights are clear and walking on the bridge in the light of the moon is wondrous. This weather is getting warmer by the hour – shorts are in order. It is incredibly restful; deep blue sea, scattered clouds in a light blue sky.

The seasoned ones, all nine of us, were surprised at the large space inside and out afforded the passengers. We have the whole deck to walk around and a covered lanai on the cabin deck near the stern. The hot and cold air in the cabins was a problem, but now that the steward has arrived, no problems (?). Picou from New Orleans is the cabin steward and Ramona waits on tables. She is from Spain, speaks broken English, and loves to give out the ship’s secrets, for example sometimes this voyage takes 50 to 70 days; don’t buy a cap or T-shirt from the slop-chest because the Captain gives each passenger one at the end of the voyage; etc. A warning finger on her lips “Don’t tell anyone or I’ll get in trouble” puts the period on each tidbit.

When we were in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, a sudden silence prevailed. I went on deck and saw high above on the mast a black flag: the ship was dead in the water with engine problems and no other ship in sight. The next day it happened again; and again it was fixed in short order. Later, on a tour of the ship the engineer demonstrated what had happened to the engine and how he repaired it. There was an immense storeroom in the hold, which to me held a mass of rusty junk, but to the engineer a godsend for it held all sorts of spare parts.

On the third day at sea the Captain and his Officers threw a welcome aboard party for the passengers. There was quite a lavish choice of liquor. At 3 PM we began with a champagne toast and soon descended to Scotch, Bourbon, and Vodka. There are some with marvelous capacities in this group; and the last ones to survive, the Captain, Charlie, Ruth, and I cleaned up the bottoms of all the bottles available. I felt it, but it was a great remedy for a cold I had caught earlier! During dinner there was some fine wine and after dinner the Captain invited us to his quarters for a night-cap.

The most interesting part of the evening was Charlie and I met all the other nine passengers, learned a bit of their backgrounds and why each one was aboard. There are three couples all seasoned “freighter travelers,” three ladies, two pushing 80, and we two:

Ruth from Kansas City in her high 70s, formerly a physical therapist and counselor, an AB in dance, MA in biology, minored in mathematics, an excellent bridge player. She counts everything and generally guesses correctly where every card is. She smashed her ankle and spent 7 months in a wheelchair, but now she gets around quite well. To help her I carry things for her up one flight to her room. She has made five freighter trips.

Lillian is 79, very English from near Victoria BC, did not play bridge too well last night, but we shall see. She has made several freighter trips. She is knitting baby clothes for her coming first granddaughter.

Lydia is in her 60s, from just north of New Orleans, was a legal assistant, and spends her time learning the piano on an electronic keyboard.

Louis and Dottie are from Hattiesburg MS. Louis is a retired Professor of Business Administration and Economics from Southern Mississippi University. He is very quiet spoken.

Chuck and Theresa: after their spouses died, they met five years ago on a freighter and married and live in San Diego. Previously she lived all her life in Memphis. Chuck is quiet and writing a novel, but Theresa does talk.

Charles and Dottie are from Marin County. Dottie has a narrow esophagus like my sister-in-law Bernadine (Carl’s wife). Coming to the ship she misplaced her pills in the taxi and 24 hours later they were returned; but she spent that intervening time quite miserably. Charles’s family has big land interests in California. He was in the Navy in World War II, very talkative and full of down to earth war stories.

Dec. 6th was very humid and there were downpours of intermittent squalls. Most of the day was spent inside. I am studying Spanish for an hour each day. When we docked at Cartagena, Colombia at 12:30 AM the sky had cleared, revealing a truly magnificent star filled sky with a moon lighting the night.

The next morning the Lykes Line provided a private city mini-bus for the passengers and took them on a tour of the city. On the highest hill is the Augustinian Monastery of La Popa with a magnificent view of this truly beautiful city of islands, spits, la-goons, and lakes. This is a stunning city with massive, massive fortifications! They needed them as this city was the collecting point for the bullion fleets which were returning to Spain from the late 1500s on. Such, a worthy prize for French and English privateers! Sir Francis Drake took and...