Christmas Eve

In the 1950s the cargo ships of that era carried a crew of fifty sprinkled among the deck, engine and stewards departments. We had a ship arriving one Christmas Eve for a morning operation and with minimal cargo could be finished by noon which was good as the stevedore labor would be quitting at noon for the long holiday period. But the captain was reluctant to sail as he didn't want to be at sea for Christmas Eve and he announced at mid-morning that - for reason of hospitalization or attrition - he was short one Ordinary Seaman (OS) from his minimum requirement and since the union hall was closed for the holiday he would be unable to sail. There was NO WAY our Opers. Mgr. - Big Mike - wanted that crew in port over Christmas as they would have overflowed the local jails. He reviewed the crew list and saw that the ship had a surplus of Able Bodied Seamen (AB) one of whom we shall call Floyd Williams from Kingston, Jamaica. We happened to have on staff one Harry M. who had been a purser with Moore-McCormack Lines and who had a flair for dialects and could duplicate a British Caribbean accent to a tee. Big Mike "persuaded" Harry to phone the Shipping Commissioner to advise that he, Floyd Williams of Kingston, Jamaica was willing to step down to Ordinary Seaman just for the overnight trip to Baltimore. Miraculously, and perhaps in the Christmas spirit, the Commissioner accepted this verbal advice, amended the coastwise articles (crew list) and Mike advised the Captain he had his O.S. and he sailed on the outgoing tide.
tjs
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