Down to the Seas
I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way, the whale’s way, where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trek is over.
— John Masefield
I discovered the pictures below while going through boxes of old family photos.
I regret that, other than my family members, I can’t identify anyone else in the images.
It was before my time and, sadly, there’s no one left to ask. According to the notes on the
pictures, those taken on a ship were from the S.S. Del Norte (of the Delta Lines, home base
in New Orleans). All of the men were merchant marines
.
My uncle, G. E. (Eddie) Rouse, and my cousin’s husband, C. A. (Red) Hancock, were
merchant marines. They traveled all over the world and had long and colorful careers.
From the day I was born until I married and had a child of my own, they sent me postcards
from every continent – and just about every country – on the planet. And when my
son was born, they transferred their attention to him.
We can now travel the world virtually, but in the days of my youth, I traveled the
world by way of Uncle Eddie’s and Red’s eagerly anticipated snail mail postcards.
It was a glorious journey.
— Nancy
Red Hancock
Red is to your right, in a white tee shirt, with a hand on the sign
Sign reads: “Seafarers International Union, New Orleans Branch”
Don’t know the identities of any of these men, but the man in the middle, in front,
appears in a few pictures with Uncle Eddie and Red that aren’t work related.
Red is on the right
Red’s in the center
Uncle Eddie is 2nd on your left
Uncle Eddie and Aunt Myrtle are on your left; my cousin, Ruthie, is on the far right.
I don’t know the names of the two people in the middle, but the man was a ship mate.
You’ll notice that Uncle Eddie’s hand is bandaged. He was on a ship carrying supplies
to Europe in WWII when a German submarine torpedoed his ship in the North Atlantic.
He was in the water for some time before being rescued and his hand was badly
hurt, requiring several surgeries. He never regained full use of it. But Uncle Eddie was
part of the Greatest Generation. When he woke up after his first surgery, just days after
being pulled from the Atlantic Ocean, his only question was, “When can I go back to sea?”
Uncle Eddie and Aunt Myrtle, Perrier Street, New Orleans
Red, Ruthie and a very young version of your web host, Camp Plauche, Jefferson Parish