S/T Transhatteras/KKPI 1967-1968

Hudson Waterways Corp.

New York, N.Y.

This began my career in the Merchant Marine. Since I had six months of sea time in the U.S. Navy, I was able to go on my first Merchant Ship alone without first going through an apprenticeship. Radio Officers were in great demand with the Viet Nam war underway and the industry was glad to get whoever they could with ships tied up waiting for crew.

My first ship was an old rust bucket T-2 tanker which was built in 1944 and was first named ST Texaco Maryland. My first day in the Merchant Marine started off in my home town train station where my Dad saw me off for New York City where I met the personnel manager of a Steamship company called Hudson Waterways. This was a very exciting day for me being freshly out of the Navy and embarking on a career with many unknowns. I was sent for a quick physical from some quack in lower Manhattan then was presented with a First class air ticket to New Orleans, LA. After a brief layover in New Orleans, I took another flight to Baton Rouge and got a glimpse of my first ship.

Full speed ahead 12.5kts and making smoke!                Me at Pago Pago, American Samoa

                        Bahrain                     India                      Antigua              Japan                Rep. of S. Africa

    3rd Officer Crowley in a good mood!                             Fresh paint covers a lot of sins!

I made two complete round-the-world trips on this ship. Our itinerary included: Baton Rouge, La, Antigua, BWI for fuel, Durban, Republic of South Africa, for fuel then to discharge our cargo of wheat at Mumbai (Bombay), India. My first trip to India we stayed in Bombay for 30 days. Delay was due to poor port conditions in India. When we finally left Bombay we proceeded to Bahrain (In the Persian Gulf) under US Navy charter to load a cargo of Navy Special Fuel Oil. Our cargo was to be delivered as follows after stopping at Singapore for fuel: One half to Pago Pago, American Samoa and the other half to Pearl Harbor, HI what an excitement after reading all those books about Robinson Caruso and Horatio Hornblower. After discharging the fuel at Pearl we proceeded to Los Angeles for orders. We refueled in Los Angeles and proceeded for The US Gulf Coast via The Panama Canal. I made another trip almost identical to this one except we loaded grain in New Orleans and spent 45 days in Bombay this time. We then loaded at  Bahrain again and discharged the oil cargo at Yokosuka, Japan and Okinawa. We then proceeded via Honolulu for fuel., to await orders off Portland, Oregon. We finally got orders after waiting a week to load grain at Vancouver Wash. I had 9 months aboard at this time so I decided I needed some time off. While in India we used to see a lot of older British vessels with British officers and Indian crew. It appears that some of those British officers have fond memories of the old "British India" line and after finding a link to my website on one of those websites that remembers so many fond memories of India and South Asia I would like to share it with you. This page is located at:  

Also many very interesting maritime links can be found at