DuFau: There was a crack in a seam on the deck of the ship. A couple of men—damage control men—had to go up under storm conditions and weld that seam in the deck. The guys received some type of award for doing it under those conditions. Afterwards, the damage control officer said if we had ignored that seam, the ship could have split right across, because the rocking and pounding of the waves could have caused that ship to split. In fact, the navy did record cases where DEs split in half. Two destroyer escorts were hit by either mines or torpedoes, and they split. They took two half destroyer escorts, towed them to the navy yard in New York, and welded them together to make one. The destroyer escort was a fragile ship. It was an emergency-built ship to help combat submarines.
Lind (report): The USS MASON had been placed in charge of a separate unit of the convoy consisting of all the 14 Y-oilers, 4 ST Tugs, HMS ASTRAVEL and HMS PRETEXT on 17 October and directed to steam at their slowest safe speed as the speed of the main Convoy was now too slow for their safety. . . . At 180934Z the MASON sent an ETA at FALMOUTH at 1800. At 181303Z MASON sent a message to FALMOUTH: “REQUIRE IMMEDIATE ADDITIONAL ESCORT ASSISTANCE FOR ADVANCE SECTION NY119 OFF LIZARD HEAD X SECTION SCATTERED BADLY DUE TO HIGH SEAS”. At 181514 CIC PLYMOUTH ordered HMS ROCHESTER and HMS SALADIN to proceed at best speed to the assistance of the MASON. At 181800 all 20 small craft of this unit were safe in FALMOUTH. No doubt many of these small craft and the lives of the men thereon were saved due to the untiring efforts and good seamanship displayed by Lt. Comdr. Blackford during the two days when the MASON alone shepherded them to safety.
Though the Mason had shepherded her small flock to safety, her own work was not over. No sooner had she delivered the ships to the harbor than she moved out again to rejoin the convoy and offer assistance. The Mason had been in Falmouth harbor less than two hours when the crew turned around and went back.
War Diary (18 October 1944): At 1645, HMS ROCHESTER and SALADIN (sloops) reported for duty and all three vessels put to sea in attempt to round up possible stragglers from main body of convoy which apparently passed Bishop Rock at about 1200 Z. Neither of the sloops was able to make headway against the seas and returned shortly thereafter. This vessel able to make good, four knots while making revolutions for twelve. No noticeable strain to our hull or engines during the part of the operation. LT-653 located at 2016 and given necessary instructions for entering port. Wind velocity decreased to 40–50 knots at midnight.
DuFau: Oh, we knew the English ships wouldn’t come out because Buchanan and I were the signalmen during the exchange between our ships and their ships. First, we spent a half an hour or more exchanging information about who was the superior officer among the escort vessels, as to who would be in charge, commanding the vessels. Now, we had brought the convoy over the whole ocean, and they spent at least half an hour exchanging messages to decide who was in command of the overall convoy, who they had to take orders from! I remember there was one message about their officer, telling what his commission was and what year he received it.
The British ship was telling us what rank their officer held and what year he graduated! There was this exchange going on, and we were saying to ourselves, “Well, what the hell does that have to do with this convoy thing?” Then, by the time we got that squared away, and they accepted that our U.S. ship was in charge, they decided they were returning to harbor because the seas were too rough. We spread the word among the crew, “Do you believe a British navy ship said that the seas are too rough?” And we had brought the convoy over all this distance, and they couldn’t come out and help us do the clean-up job!
It was a hell of an experience. It was shocking to us. But that made us feel real great as sailors—we had accomplished this! After all this history about how great the British navy was, they’d do a thing like that. It’s not damning the whole navy, but these particular two ships made them look real bad. And we were very fussy about making our ship look good. We did everything we could.
Farrell: The water was coming through the deck onto the switchboards. We had to put canvas over the boards to divert the water away from the electricity. The British sent out fuel barges and refueled us. We went out, but the Brits wouldn’t go. The British ships started out, and then they turned around and went back.
DuFau: The calm that was among the crew members in the midst of this conflict was remarkable. We would resort to trying to humor each other, rather than being in fear. But fear was there. Personally, I had reached a stage where I’d say, “Well, there’s nothing we can do.” There was no way to swim to get out of there because the ships couldn’t come near each other, and the nearest line was straight down. So if the end came, we’d just hope that we were at peace with our Maker, that we could survive. We’d joke with each other, back and forth, to cover up the fact that we were all scared to death, every one of us.
Lind (report): The USS MASON in company with HMS ROCHESTER and SALADIN started to return to the assistance of the tugs and barges immediately after delivering the 20 small craft to safety at FALMOUTH. Shortly after they emerged from the channel and began plowing into the 40-foot seas both British Sloops refused to proceed further and returned to anchorage. The plucky USS MASON, although already damaged to the extent of having several welded seams open in her decks and two longitudinal strength members in compartment B-4 adrift together with her radio antennae blown down during her fight against the sea in bringing in the 20 small craft during the day, effected emergency repairs and persisted in continuing to rejoin. CTG directed the C.O. MASON to slow to safe speed, take any safe course, turn back if he considered it advisable, but Captain BLACKFORD insisted on going back to rejoin the convoy. CTG 27.5 considers the performance of the USS MASON, her Commanding Officer, Officers and men outstanding and recommends that this ship be given a letter of commendation to be filed in the record of each officer and man on board that vessel.
From the eighteenth through the twenty-first the Mason stayed at sea, fighting the terrible storm to rescue the tugs, recapture the barges, and assist the other DEs. She was ordered to take shelter in Plymouth harbor as another storm swept through, but she was under way again on the twenty-fourth of October, headed for the French coast to recover salvageable barges. Finally, on the twenty-seventh, the Mason arrived in Plymouth harbor.
Graham: Our Captain Blackford requested that the crew of the ship be given a commendation, a letter of commendation, but the navy didn’t want to hear it. They refused it. We put the letter that Captain Blackford had sent to the Navy Department, making the request, on the bulletin board. Someone removed it for a souvenir, I think. We put it on the bulletin board right outside the radio shack, and someone stole it. But Blackford had requested a letter of commendation. The navy gave medals to the commodore of the convoy instead of giving it to certain ships.
The crew never knew that, in addition to their captain’s request, the commander of the convoy had also recommended that they be honored. The official navy report that reveals this information came to light only during the writing of this book. No letters of commendation were ever issued.
DuFau: The most hurtful experiences for me were not in the United States but in Plymouth, England. At that time it was one of the most bombed cities in England. You could see the front of the building, but behind it was an empty shell, blasted out. We went ashore because we had heard about a Red Cross canteen. The word was out among the sailors that they served Coca-Cola and hot dogs and mustard. We hadn’t had Coca-Cola and hot dogs and mustard since we’d left the States. And I think that about three or four of us were together, found the canteen, and went up the steps, excited about getting hot dogs. This lady told us it wasn’t our canteen, that our canteen was a few blocks down. It was such a slap in the face. All we wanted was hot dogs and Coke, and we ran into this.
So she directed us to a canteen that was operated by a black woman who was a USO lady. It was on the ground floor of a building that had been bombed. They had this canteen, and what it consisted
of was a pool table and, for refreshments, cookies and Kool-Aid, lemon-flavored Kool-Aid. That was what we had for refreshments. And the USO lady apologized to us for offering something like this. She said when she volunteered to be in that duty, she didn’t think she would be in such a position. But her hands were tied; that’s all she had to work with.
Grant: From Plymouth I took a train to London, and I was a little shocked. In London they had a separate USO for blacks. It seemed a bit of a step back. Segregation was understandable in parts of the States, but over there! I asked them, “How could you? How could you? I don’t understand. How could you do this?”
But they said, “The United States is paying us so we have to do what they say.” They were paying them for that facility, so the people said, “OK, if they say we have to segregate you, we have to do it.”
I said, “Why do you have to do it? This is your country. You could tell them to go jump in the lake or something.” They didn’t like that.
Watkins: We had some run-ins in England with some of the other sailors. They didn’t seem to appreciate us, in some way, and I guess we didn’t appreciate them.
They had told the people, “Be careful of those guys; they’ve got tails.” We had one fight in England; it didn’t last long. But some of the white guys resented us. Our sister ship was the Bermingham, and it was all white. They gave us more trouble than anybody else. Some of the officers praised us, and the white enlisted guys didn’t like it at all. But we didn’t let that bother us.
The only ones I remember fighting with were the marines—the white marines! I think it was Plymouth, England. We didn’t have much of a fight. They busted the glasses in the pub, but it didn’t last long.
* S.T. = Army Small Tug, harbor tug
** L.T. = Army Large Tug, seagoing tug
* Army harbor tankers
* Foxer Gear was a noisemaking device towed to confuse torpedoes guided by acoustical devices.
7
Contacts
Convoy duty demanded that each man concentrate on his job, which left little time for personal conflict. But when the Mason reached port after escorting convoy NY-119, submerged tensions surfaced. All of the chief petty officers were white. The chiefs were supposed to instruct the men in their divisions so they could advance in rate and eventually replace the chiefs. Indeed, by the time the Mason was decommissioned, the chief petty officers were black, and men like Lorenzo DuFau and Gordon Buchanan had first-class ratings. But some of the chiefs had a different idea of their place on the ship.
Graham: We were changing tradition. I got the feeling that some of the chiefs just didn’t want to be seen as opening the door to let us in. It was like, “If I can stop them advancing on my watch, no one could blame me.” They just wanted to put up barriers. Anyone who’s lived under prejudice learns to read people. You don’t need words; there’s a thousand ways of knowing. These chiefs were there to help us, but some took advantage. The chief radioman was the worst. The hatred was too deep in him to let him do his navy job. He was the worst kind of southern cracker you can come by, put it that way. He never taught us anything.
DuFau: The captain met with all the chiefs separately. He wanted to discuss any friction on the ship. Now this meeting was confidential, but we found out what was said. There’s no such thing as a secret in the navy. Any two people knowing something, and there’s no more secret. The yeomen were like the secretaries and would type up the report on the meeting. We heard what went on. The chief radioman told the captain that everything would be all right if we were kept in our place. So the captain said, “What do you mean ‘in their place’?” He answered that they didn’t want any of us up around the chief petty officers’ quarters. Now you had to walk through their quarters to get to the forward anchor section. We’d have to go there to chip and paint or to work on the anchor. The chiefs wanted us to go over the deck and climb down through a hatch instead of walking through the quarters. Imagine trying to do that in a rough sea. But they wanted to be isolated, to make their quarters like the captain’s wardroom. Now, this was against navy regs, but they wanted to take advantage of their position. And they were laying out demands to the captain—what he had to do to keep them happy.
Garrison: I came from the South, from an intensely segregated situation. And yet I had no difficulty whatsoever working with white people. Remember, we ate in the same quarters as the white petty officers—except for the chiefs. All of us on the Mason crew were intensely interested in doing our best and being our best. That was our focus. I wish you could see some of the messages we copied during some of the most vicious storms. You can imagine, sitting at a typewriter, and the typewriter’s coming up in your face. And you’re typing it neatly, without making an error. Initialing it at the end. It’s amazing how proficient people can be under these adverse circumstances. But we couldn’t get the credit for what we did unless the chief approved. I remember an investigation of the radio shack was ordered because radiomen were not being advanced as fast as the other ratings were.
Graham: The chief radioman would come into the radio shack, change the frequency, and just walk out—never telling us what he was doing or why. He treated us like we weren’t there. So when we heard about what they were telling the captain, we weren’t surprised.
DuFau: The very next day after the meeting, scuttlebutt had it, “Go hang out on the boat deck. The yeoman is about to read some orders that you want to hear.” The yeoman called the chiefs up to the quarterdeck and read their orders. We were in Brooklyn Navy Yard at that time. The yeoman read the chiefs’ orders; they were being transferred from our ship to the receiving station in New York for future orders. At that time all available chiefs were being shipped to the West Coast, because they wanted them for the landing craft for the invasion of Japan. So it was kind of shaky for a guy to be floating around at that time. But the captain transferred them off the ship the very next day after that meeting. As the chief radioman was leaving that ship, he turned and just spewed out his hatred to the men. He said he didn’t give a damn what happened to us. He hoped when we got out there in that ocean, some submarine would hit us and destroy every one of us. One of the guys yelled back, “We love you, chief.” And we all took it up. We hollered, “We love you. We love you.” That was about the final word for him. He stomped off that ship and just went away.
The deck log notes the departure of the men, and Captain Blackford’s letter to his parents seems to allude to a change for the better—perhaps that the navy’s Bureau of Personnel had agreed to step up the promotion of black chiefs.
Blackford (letter to his parents): USS MASON (DE 529) 18 December 1944: Have just completed a series of conferences with the Bureau of Personnel who are giving us every possible assistance with our problems. Everything is remaining in good shape, but there is difficulty in getting qualified men for certain highly technical billets. In some cases it is all but impossible to train technicians aboard, so the schools are being combed. Morale has been on a gradual upswing for several months now, and I understand we have an excellent reputation for operations. The job is becoming increasingly more pleasurable, as we have acquired quite a group of officers now, including our own disbursing officer and doctor. The officers are really good, . . . by coincidence they are all far above average in intelligence, if not in experience. The Navy has changed a regulation or two and we now carry about 100 cases of beer aboard (for the men to use ashore overseas). We have a big Christmas celebration planned if it isn’t too rough, and I am supposed to preach a sermon! The eventual policy for Negro personnel has been finally decided upon, but I could not discuss it here. In any case we are to get more cooperation than in the past, which is good.
The Mason had just completed exercises in which the crew’s performance had been classified “Very Good.” On both December 10, 1944, and December 13, 1944, the war diary describes target practice and antisubmarine runs in which observers classified results as “Very Good.” An observer for the navy’s personn
el bureau, Charles Dillon, had inspected the crew. As in many instances, however, the navy’s interest differed from the story the Mason’s crew were living. The bureau would judge the crew of the Mason in terms of chain of command: Could black petty officers enforce discipline? Would black enlisted men obey white officers? Judgments seem to have been made arbitrarily; there is little discussion of the actual duties the Mason performed, and yet Morris MacGregor, Jr., reports that the navy concluded that “black petty officers could not enforce discipline” and “black sailors did not respond well when assigned to all black organizations under white officers.”*
Of course, there was tension when white petty officers made insulting demands or treated their men with contempt. The deck log of the Mason records the usual number of captain’s masts and usual punishments for the kind of offenses common to every ship—lateness, oversleeping, absence from duty station, insubordination. James Graham remembers that sometimes a rated man would have to give an order to a nonrated man, who was also a friend. But obedience was expected. “We were all brothers,” Graham recalls, “but if you had to, you put someone on report for not doing his job. You had to, or the ship would be jeopardized.” The deck log has neither too many nor too few offenses. Bill Farrell, the officer in charge of the proceedings, says that the Mason had good discipline; the captain was neither too lenient nor overly strict.
Proudly We Served Page 15