On the anniversary of the ship’s commissioning the captain held a special mast to congratulate the men and to promote certain members of the crew.
In the period between convoys the Mason continued training exercises. Scuttlebutt said that the ship would be sent to the Pacific. The navy had decided to match the film made for the army by John Ford, The Negro Soldier, with The Negro Sailor. Camera crews came aboard the Mason. The beautifully shot footage of the ship and her men was supplemented by the story of a “typical Negro enlistee.” When James Graham received a video copy of The Negro Sailor, he edited out the theatrical inserts, which are unrealistic and stereotypical. The film also shows that the majority of black men in the U.S. Navy were performing menial tasks.
War Diary (6 April 1945): 0635–underway with POWERS to exercise area. During morning made runs on bottomed submarine near Block Island and during afternoon conducted fighter director exercises. During day and on subsequent days until arrival Norfolk BuAer official Navy photographers made scenes for a forthcoming Navy motion picture titled “The Negro Sailor”. Ship’s officers and personnel gave them every possible assistance and cooperation. 1627–completed exercises and proceeded to moor State Pier, New London, at 1940.
CTG 60.11’s visual dispatch 082150 ordered MASON (senior) to conduct remainder of exercises and report with group less MC COOK, 11 April 1945 at Hampton Roads. 0735–9 April, underway from anchorage to exercise area, 4 miles east Montauk Light. Submarine S-20 delayed near New London due to heavy fog. During morning while waiting for sub photographers were placed aboard POWERS and MASON made runs past POWERS for use in motion picture previously mentioned. At 100 S-20 arrived and ASW runs commenced at 1145 with POWERS and MC COOK. During afternoon creeping attacks were made. At 1500 submarine surfaced; proceeded to moor State Pier, New London at 1712.
Later in April the Mason began what would be her last overseas voyage.
War Diary (14 April 1945): 0445–underway to convoy anchorage Lynnhaven Roads. 0727–picked up mail from Convoy Commodore UGS 86, for delivery to New York section upon rendezvous. At 1146 abeam buoy XS; at 1249 passed mail to EL PASSO and EUGENE, who were escorting New York section of convoy. At 1440, commenced passing mail to each merchant ship of the New York section while the convoy was forming up. This entailed several difficult situations because the merchant vessels were continually changing course and speed during the mail passing, attempting to gain their proper convoy positions. At 2000, MASON ordered to patrol station #5 on starboard flank of convoy, which was formed up by this time, the two sections having merged.
War Diary (29 April 1945): Proceeding in column, course 097, speed 15, with POWERS, O’TOOLE, and EUGENE, from Europa Point to Oran. 0620–Isle d’Alboran light abeam, changed course to 088. At 1321, entered Oran swept channel and ordered ships in company to enter harbor independently to fuel. 1415–moored to fueling jetty and took on Diesel fuel to capacity. 1614–underway to moor at 1708 along jetty at Mers el-Kébir, Algeria.
Craig: When we went into Mers el-Kébir, Algeria, we had to go behind a concrete seawall that the French had built. The wind was blowing offshore with tremendous gusts, and none of the ships could dock. We were not the first one in line among the escorts; we were maybe the second or third. The first captain that went in just didn’t know how to deal with this thing. As he tried to approach the seawall where we were to tie up, the ship kept sailing away. So Blackford says, “Let me go in first. I know how to handle this.” What he did was, instead of having the ship go in sort of parallel to the dock, he headed straight for the dock. Then he got the crewmen to throw over the number one and number two lines. Then he brought the ship to a quick halt and swung it around on the front lines by backing down on the outboard engine. He showed the other ships how to do it. It was such a beautiful thing to see him handle that ship. You had to see it.
Farrell: Bill Blackford loved the navy. I think he was happier when we were at sea than when we were at port. Blackford was an excellent ship handler. He could take that DE and dock it just like you’d park a Chevrolet somewhere. He could almost put it in the space that you’d put a Chevrolet in. Many times we would come in, and if it wasn’t too bad, he would take the ship right up to the dock. The crew would jump onto the dock and handle our own lines. He was excellent for handling the ship.
War Diary (30 April 1945): Moored inside breakwater Mers el-Kébir, North Africa, waiting instructions during layover period between UGS-86 and GUS-88 convoys. Crew on 50% shore liberty basis with some organized recreation parties. The Oran area provides excellent recreational facilities for enlisted men and the shore authorities cooperate with escort vessels to the greatest possible extent.
Farrell: I was the recreation officer. Sometimes at Oran we’d have a baseball game, and we’d take the beer out. We never drank beer on the ship. We’d have a picnic. We’d also tie the ships up together so we could have boxing on the fantail. I would go on the other DEs, the 527, 528, and see if anyone wanted to have a match. It was easy, because our ship had boxers at every weight. I had a lot of Golden Glove champions. We had something on the Mason that I doubt too many DEs had, a ship’s band. The Chicago Defender, the newspaper in Chicago, gave us the instruments. We carried them on the ship.
Garrison: We went on liberty, and that’s where we saw the women with the veils. We were told not to bother them at all. And of course, we didn’t bother them, but we were curious. We wanted to know what was going on. They also had handmade leather goods there, and we bought boots, belts, pocketbooks.
In North Africa it seemed like everybody had money, currency. They had this scrip that was printed in Philadelphia! Even the kids had big bankrolls. So we would sell them cigarettes, Hershey Bars, sheets, any kind of linen. A lot of guys would go ashore with a hundred dollars U.S. and come back with what would be the equivalent of two thousand dollars U.S. in this scrip. Then they would change it into U.S. currency. But they put a stop to that, so that you could never bring back more than you went ashore with.
We had a good time in North Africa.
Buchanan: Mers el-Kébir was where the French used to have their warships. The British had sunk the French fleet there early in the war, when the French surrendered to the Germans. Their masts were still sticking up above water.
They had a little basketball hoop on the docks; well, it was a quay, really. And boy, we used to play basketball there all day long, as much as you could.
We weren’t allowed in the Kasbah, but the army had a base nearby, and I said, “Let’s try the back end. That has got to be open.” So we jumped on an army truck, went up there, and just told the guy, “Stop, let us off.” We jumped off. Mozell White, from Paterson, New Jersey, was . . . I wish I knew where he was, to ask him if he remembers this story.
But we got off, and we went into that little area there. We went and stopped in a couple of bars. We drank cognac. It don’t take you long to get high on cognac. And then finally, as the sun started to drop a little bit, we headed up into the back, into the Kasbah. That place smelled so bad! I don’t think they had a toilet anywhere, just the street.
We were looking for women, you understand. And there were plenty of them. And boy, when they saw us, saw sailors back in their area, man, they came out and made all kinds of bargains. We came out the front way and ran right into the shore patrol. They asked me, “How did you get in there?” I wouldn’t tell them. But they didn’t stop us, because we were looking for a prophylactic station! We had to get there real quick!
Divers: I didn’t see many brothers in North Africa. Then I saw a brother, but he was a Senegalese in the French army. I walked up and spoke to him. He just looked at me.
Watkins: They were speaking French. He probably thought, “What’s he talking about?”
Divers: When I saw he had a different insignia on, I said, “Oh, okay.” In Mers el-Kébir we couldn’t give the people any food—officially. But the people were so hungry they would come and go through our garbage. The skipper decided
we could give them a treat. So we washed the garbage cans out and put all the food in there and set it on the shore. After the first time, the people knew. They were lined up, and they knew what time it was coming and everything. We had at least three cans, and we did it every day. The skipper said, “Well, we’re not supposed to give it to them, but I didn’t say you couldn’t put it out there.” They were starving.
Watkins: That was Blackford.
During the Mason’s return trip to the United States, Germany surrendered. The war with Europe was over.
Graham: Right before the war ended in Europe, and soon after Roosevelt died, Buchanan and I were up on deck. We were on the starboard side looking into the sunset, and I saw that the clouds formed a beautiful vee for victory, with the red-white-and-blue stripes in it. It was a humongous thing there, and I was looking at it. I thought Buchanan had seen it too. So afterwards I said, “Did you see that vee for victory, Skinny?”
“No,” he said.
“It was right over there, Skinny. You were looking at it.”
“No.” And it turned out that I was the only guy that saw it. I asked all the other guys, “Did you see it?” and they said, “No.” It was a formation of clouds and the sunset. But there was the red, white, and blue, and it was a definite vee. It had stripes like the flag. Nobody saw it but me! Anybody I asked about it said, “No,” and for a long time I didn’t even mention it. I mentioned it to Barb and I mentioned it to Buchanan, but we didn’t linger on the subject.
Buchanan: I was still hoping to get a U-boat. I thought one might surrender to us. I was practicing my German so I could go aboard, but our voyage home was quiet.
War Diary (11 May 1945): patrolling as before in station #2. At 1400 conducted steering casualty drill and Captain made weekly material inspection. Prize crew further organized and trained for boarding surrendered German submarines.
Buchanan: I went aboard the Mason as a signalman striker. We had only four signalmen aboard ship, so on our convoys we had four watches between us. I would work every twelve hours, where the rest of the ship was working every eight hours. In the extra time I had gotten to know the ship pretty well. In fact, I even navigated that ship quite a bit. On our last voyage there was one officer who used to go up there and get an extra nap, and I loved the guy, because he’d just leave me in charge! Keeping the point on the convoy, reading the radar, I knew all of that stuff!
DuFau: We could relax a little bit more on the way home. We didn’t know it was our last convoy, but we knew no U-boats were after us, and we could take pleasure in the beauty of the ocean. You like to think about sailors being rough-and-tumble guys, you know, or hard characters. But there was something about the beauty of that ocean, and to see the stars at night and to see the sunset. Some of the roughest guys would stop and admire the beauty that was there. Many of the guys were so filled, inspired. . . . It did something to you to see nature in its raw beauty that way. You would think somebody had painted that picture, to see it all there right before your eyes. It was truly fantastic.
Garrison: The flying fish would come up out of the water and glide, I guess, about ten or fifteen feet. A lot of them would land on deck.
Craig: One of the things I did when I got on board was to make regular paydays every two weeks. Well, this developed into a problem because they got their full pay and then they gambled on board. You know, life on board ship is pretty darn boring. So I went to Blackford and said, “Well, here’s the problem, Captain. They don’t have anywhere to spend the money. The ship store doesn’t carry anything. What they’re doing is gambling with it. What I’d like to do is set up five-dollar paydays while we’re at sea, give everybody five bucks at that point, and then when we come back to the States, give them full pay and whatever they have accumulated in the meantime.” Captain Blackford was reluctant. He thought the men deserved their full pay on time, but he agreed. So we did, and it worked out well.
DuFau: Gambling. Those guys would’ve found a way to gamble.
Garrison: You could gamble for cigarettes.
Graham: Those guys would play with anything, even with beans. Then they’d catch you on payday.
Garrison: Just as you have professional gamblers in civilian life, you had professional gamblers in the navy, and they could clean you out in five minutes.
Graham: They were very, very rich! De Cuir was so quick, he was just taking money home by the seabag full.
DuFau: De Cuir was sleeping on the top sack one night, and he had his dice stuck in his belt. While he was sleeping he pulled the shirt out, and the dice were laying on his stomach. Somebody saw them, and when they woke up De Cuir, his bunk was surrounded by several guys.
Garrison: His victims.
DuFau: They wanted to know, “What goes?” He took the dice and threw them away and said, “Hey, get out of my face!” You know, he threw them overboard. So I asked him, “De Cuir, what was in your mind when you took them dice and threw them away like that?”
He said, “Man, I was so scared. I couldn’t think of nothing else to do. Because if I started to jump up to run, they would have torn me to pieces. To see those big guys standing around me, and I’m laying flat on my back, I couldn’t do nothin’. They would’ve known that they were bad.”
Graham: You could check the dice. All you had to do was put them together and check them.
DuFau: But the guys who used them, they were so smart that they could shoot the doggone things and get them off the scene. If you were watching the money out there, they would switch the dice, and they were good at it.
Graham: Decuir was a city slicker.
DuFau: But he was good at it.
Garrison: He was from New Orleans!
DuFau: No he wasn’t. He wasn’t from my hometown.
Garrison: Then from where?
DuFau: Baton Rouge.
There was another character on the ship who was well known to all and about whom there were very mixed emotions. This was Horace, the dog who sailed with them on their convoy duties and almost did not make it home.
Farrell: When we were in Boston we got a call from some woman who had a dog. The dog’s name was Horace. It was her son’s dog, and he apparently got killed in the war. The dog liked men, and she thought the dog would be happier with a bunch of men on the ship. Well, I thought it was a pretty nutty idea myself, because a ship like the Mason is no place to have a dog. It’s hard enough for a human being. But Blackford says, “Oh, yeah, I think we ought to take the dog.” I got the job of going over and picking up the dog. My wife went with me. This tearful woman delivered the dog to us with a paper sack that contained his favorite food and his bed and a couple of other things. He was going to sea with us.
So I got him in the cab and boy, we hadn’t gotten around the block, and I was sorry I had that damn dog. He was all over the cab, and drooling. He was a bulldog, so he was drooling all over me and everything else. I got the damn dog on the ship anyway, and we set sail. The dog hated the sea. He would bark at the waves, among other things. If a guy was walking along, he’d snap at him. The guys would be trying to wash down the decks with a fire hose, and he would stand there barkin’ and yakkin’. He hated every minute he was on the ship. One guy had to clean up after him; it was pretty messy.
Well, there was one guy, and I don’t know who he was (but I wouldn’t tell you anyway). He was a bos’n’s mate. He really hated this dog more than anything else, and it was his job to keep the decks clean up there. So he was up there hosing down the decks, and here’s the dog, yakkin’ and yakkin’ and yakkin’. It was all this guy could take. Horace was wearing a collar. So he reached down, got the dog by the collar, and as if he were throwing a hammer, he swung around about twice, and over the side went Horace—out in the middle of the Atlantic. Here’s this little dog out in the middle of the ocean!
The word finally got out to the bridge that Horace was overboard. We weren’t with any other ships or on convoy duty. So Blackford turned this ship around. You know, you
don’t turn it around in fifty feet when you’re going fifteen knots. It takes a long while to make that circle and all. By the time the captain heard about it, and by the time they stopped the ship and got her turned around, we had to be a couple of miles from him.
The whole crew was called out to line the rail. We went back looking for the dog. Son of a gun if we didn’t find him. It was hard to get alongside; it was rough. So we came alongside the dog, and here’s this little devil swimming toward New York. One of the guys said he was going to go in and get the dog. They tied a line around him, and he jumped overboard. I’m glad a submarine wasn’t out there then. They would have really laughed at us. But we had sound gear then; we knew who was around. He jumped overboard, swam out, and got the dog. Then we pulled the guy back to the ship. But the dog was mad, bitin’ the guy. He was bitin’ the guy all the time they were pullin’ him back up on to the ship. Then we turned the ship back toward New York and went on our way.
Buchanan: The time the dog went overboard, I was up on the bridge, and I ran down and changed clothes to get in my swimsuit so I could get over the side. But I was too late. There were about four or five other guys that were faster than me. See, whenever anyone had to go into the water and risk his life (though I never thought it was a risk), there was a kind of ritual that went on right after. You’d come out of that cold water, and the guys that were waiting because they didn’t get in the water ahead of you would follow you down into the sick bay. The sick bay was nothing more than a little closet with a Dutch door—and a doctor. Doc Collins was the doctor aboard ship. He was a pharmacist’s mate. He’d have that door open, and he’d get out this bottle of whiskey, because the guy that went over the side was going to get him a shot. And we’d stand in the passageway, and all of us would look at him and drool. He’d just look back at us and have his drink! I never got one of those drinks my whole time in the navy! I was too slow!
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