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| Victory Class Merchant Ship |
Close Calls: The Life of Paul Whitman Raney. Part VI
By Patrick Raney
Trieste, a strategic port on the Adriatic, was granted
to Italy at the end of World War I, much to the chagrin of the newly-formed Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which as the successor of the old Hapsburg Monarchy
also claimed it. Jump ahead to May 1945, as World War II wound down in Europe.
Josip Broz, called
Tito, a brash general of Croat-Slovene descent, with Allied assistance had been
fighting a fierce guerrilla war against the Fascists and Nazis in Yugoslovia. His communist Partisan army now in control of the former kingdom, he allied himself to the Soviet
Union. He would break with Stalin in 1947. The Yugoslav Partisan's 8th Dalmation Corps entered Trieste on May 1, 1945, but when the New Zealanders arrived the following
day the port’s German occupiers surrendered themselves and the port to the
Kiwis, who would occupy it through August 1945. While the
New Zealanders were rounding up German prisoners and taking strategic positions
around the city, the communist Partisan army was arresting and executing Slavs it determined
to be Nazi collaborators, German soldiers who fell into their hands, and Italian-speaking citizens it decided were
Fascists. After what became known as the “Forty Days,” the Yugoslav army, under
Allied pressure, withdrew east of the port. Trieste and the surrounding area was later divided into two zones, Zone A occupied by the Americans and British, and Zone B occupied by the Yugoslavs. In 1947 Trieste was declared a free city. It was ceded back to Italy in 1954.
It was into this tense arena Paul arrived in the early summer of 1945 when his
ship, the S.S. Rockland Victory, docked in Trieste to unload supplies to be transported
to Allied armies occupying Austria.
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| S.S. Rockland Victory being refitted in Nov. 1945 to transport livestock to aid Europe |
Distant explosions were heard as Partisan
conflicts still raged in the hills above Trieste. Paul knew it was unsafe, but several of the Rockland Victory’s officers
were granted a few hours of liberty and decided to spend it at a club in the
city.
As Paul
was preparing to leave ship, the skipper called him to the bridge to take care of
some paperwork regarding the ordering of needed supplies for the engine room
and other materiel for repairs and
maintenance. After completing it, he headed
for the bar on the second floor of an old building that had survived Allied bombing. Of course, Allied troops occupying Trieste provided
the liquor, so it was well-attended by multi-national brass.
Gregarious and always ready to enjoy a good story and
a few laughs, Paul table-hopped, all the while looking out for his shipmates
who had earlier left the ship. Failing
to find them, he refreshed his drink and moved to a large open window overlooking
the city and harbor. Sitting on the sill,
he swapped stories with a couple of Kiwi lieutenants who’d fought their way
north through Italy. They laughed at the incredible near misses they’d all had,
including Paul’s swim in the Salerno harbor.
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| New Zealand troops in Trieste, May 1945 |
He invited the New Zealanders to join
him for mess the next day aboard ship.
As they discussed joining him at noon, a tremendous explosion shook the
building. The ceiling slowly collapsed,
sending timbers down from the floor above.
But Paul, sitting on the sill of the open window, was blown out of the
building and landed in a boxwood hedge.
Stunned, he peered up through smoke and
dust as the walls began to buckle. Somehow he regained his feet and ran down the
cobblestone road. He reached the bottom
and turned to watched in horror as the entire building collapsed in a heap of
stone, timber and a large cloud of dust.
Sirens wailed as rescue troops converged
on the area. Panting from the exertion
of his run, Paul watched for a time, decided he was in no condition to help
with the rescue and turned toward the harbor and his ship, some distance away.
It was late and the streets empty of
traffic. He hailed a ride from an old
man sitting atop a two-wheel cart pulled by a tired old horse. A few American dollars bridged the language-barrier and convinced the old man
to provide taxi service. Paul made the
journey back to the ship perched on top its cargo – dead horse carcasses.
Back on ship, he discovered several of
the men who’d gone ahead of him had been killed or severely injured when a
streetcar in which they were riding was demolished. Paul had dodged not just one bullet, but two.
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| War Shipping Administration photo showing early 1944 Victory ship construction at California Shipbuilding Administration with a May 1945 war tonnage production chart. |
The Hilo Tsunami
On April 1, 1946, Paul was first engineer on the SS
Brigham Victory, working toward his chief’s license. The ship was moored in Hilo, Hawaii,
off-loading needed supplies for the island. It began as a normal day until 7 a.m. when the first smaller wave hit and then receded, leaving ships sitting on the harbor bottom. Dock
workers yelled that a tidal wave was coming.
First Mate Edwin Eastman, who commanded the ship because
Captain William Dianus had been hospitalized when they landed in Hilo, acted fast. They’d discharged 240 tons of lumber the
previous day, but the forward hold still held 50 tons of dynamite and ignition
caps. Eastman decided to keep the ship tied to the pier and make it react when the
big waves hit. As the huge tidal wave came in, Paul and his crew stationed below ran
the engines in full reverse to combat the terrible force of water driving the
ship aground.
Mooring lines held. The ocean receded and the Brigham Victory sank
into the mud. The master instantly telegraphed down to run in idle. There is never just one tidal wave, but the strongest and highest had been weathered. Until the crisis ended, Paul and the crew repeated this maneuver as damaging but lesser waves hit the ship.
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| Tsunami breaking over Pier No. 1 in Hilo Harbor, Hawaii. The man indicated by the arrow on the left did not survive. The photograph was taken from the SS Brigham Victory, in the harbor at the time of the event. |
From his hospital
room Capt. Dianus saw the huge wave strike and leapt from his bed, “rarin’ to go,” but a nurse led him back to bed.
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| Wreckage of political party clubhouse, Kamehameha Avenue, Hilo, Hawaii. Every house on the main street facing Hilo Bay was washed across the street and smashed against the buildings on the other side. Houses were overturned, railroads ripped from their roadbeds, coastal highways buried, and beaches washed away. Photograph Credit: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. |
The
human toll on the Hawaiian Islands was 170 deaths, including 97 on Hilo. For their considerable efforts, the chief and
Paul were commended. Their professionalism saved the ship.
A 7.4 earthquake off the coast of Alaska triggered this
disaster. Scientists have recently
theorized that this relatively small quake caused an undersea slide, resulting in a
massive displacement of ocean and that crashed ashore at Hilo.
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| A Victory merchant ship engine room |
More Adventures to come.
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